There exists a popular Muslim practice of calling upon the name of the Prophet Muhammad, the Shi‘i Imams, and the Sufi Saints (awliya’ Allah) for help, assistance and the fulfilment of needs. These supplications (du‘a’) include statements like: Ya Muhammad, Ya Rasul Allah Madad, Adrikni Ya Rasul Allah, Ya ‘Ali Madad, Ya ‘Abd al-Qadir Gilani, Ya Imam al-Zaman, etc. In Sunni literature, this practice is called istighatha (seeking aid), which one could translate as “intercessory prayer”. For example:
However, Salafis consider istighatha to be a form of shirk (joining partners with God). Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb (1703–1792), the founder of the Wahhabi-Salafi movement and Ibn Bāz (1912–1999), the former Salafi Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia have written: “Calling upon the dead, asking for their help, or offering them gifts or sacrifices are all forms of shirk. Setting up intermediaries (wasāʾiṭ) between oneself and God, making supplication to them, or asking their intercession with God is unbelief (kufr) by the consensus of the community.”[3] The consequence of this patently Wahhabi theological position and legal ruling is that any Muslim who calls upon a created being for help, aid, or blessing—such as saying Yā ʿAlī madad, Yā Rasūl Allāh adriknī, or Yā ʿAbd al-Qādir madad—is committing idolatry (shirk) and is outside the fold of Islam.[4]
The Wahhabi-Salafi position has become popular today among lay Muslims who have often unknowingly imbibed Wahhabi theology in their religious education. The modern popularity of what used to be a strictly Wahhabi position is most ironic because the historical majority of Muslims, both Sunni and Shiʿi, permit or encourage the practice of seeking God’s blessings through the spiritual mediation of the Prophet Muhammad, the ahl al-bayt, and the Saints or Friends of God (awliyāʾ Allāh). This devotional Muslim practice, in the views of most Muslims across time and space, can never constitute shirk because the Prophets, Imams, and Saints are being invoked as dependent and created spiritual intermediaries who channel or distribute God’s blessings as opposed to being worshiped as independent necessary agents. If such a practice was tantamount to idolatry and unbelief, this would entail that the mass of Muslims across time and space have been committing major shirk.
Nevertheless, on social media there continues to be raging debate between various Muslim influencers from various shades of Salafism and Sunnism on the status of istighatha.
As part of an ongoing research project, I and my research assistant Abdullah Ansar of Carleton College are compiling a list of Sunni legal and theological opinions on the permissibility of istighatha from Sunni ‘ulama’. Many of the Sunni references cited below were first published on “Twitter/X” amidst an ongoing debate between modern-day Salafis and traditional Sunni Muslims. We wish to acknowledge two Sunni Twitter/X handles for first bringing our attention to some of these sources: “@d1mashqi” and “@ibnekhan01”. All translations are by us, unless specified. We welcome others to use the citations below as long as they acknowledge this list as their source, which we continue to update over time.
Sunni Scholars Permitting Istighātha (Intercessory Prayer)
Prepared by Dr. Khalil Andani (Augustana College) and Abdullah Ansar (Carleton College)
Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal [164-241/780-885] is reported to have said: “O Slaves of Allah, guide me to the path!”
ʿAbd Allāh Ibn Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal, Masāʾil al-Imām Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal, ed. Zuhaīr Shāwīsh (Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1981), 245.
Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn Ḥusayn al-Bayhaqī [384-458/994-1066] reports a tradition about a man in Medina who used to say:
“O the grave of the Prophet and his two Companions!
O the one we ask for help, if you knew!”
Abū Bakr Aḥmad Ibn Ḥusayn al-Bayhaqī, al-Jāmiʿ li Shuʿab al-Īmān, ed. Mukhtār Aḥmad, 14 vols. (Riyāḍ: Maktabat al-Rushd, 2003), 6:60, no. 3879.
Abū al-Faraj ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Ibn ʿAlī al-Jawzī [510-597/1116 -1201] narrates that Abū Bakr al-Muqrī said: “O Prophet! Hunger! Hunger!”
Abū al-Faraj ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Jawzī. al-Wafā bi-Aḥwāl al-Muṣṭafā, ed. Muḥammad Zuhayrī, 2 vols. (Riyāḍ: al-Mu’asassa al-Saʿīdiyya bi l-Riyāḍ, n.d.), 2:559.
Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī [544–606/1149–1209] mentions that there are respects in which the dead are stronger than those who are alive and can benefit them:
“Indeed, those souls which have separated from their bodies are stronger than those souls still connected to their bodies in several respects… When a person goes to the grave of a human being who is strong in his soul and perfect in substance and strong in influence, and he/they remain there for a time, his soul is influenced from that earth and the soul of the visitors obtain a connection to that earth.”
Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, al-Maṭālib al-ʿĀliya, ed. Aḥmad Ḥijāzī, 9 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, 1987). 7:276.
Ibn Qudāma al-Maqdisī [541-620/1147-1223] permits istighātha through the Prophet and the Friends of God.
“They [the Saints] are a sanctuary for the people when matters become difficult for them. Thus, the kings and those of lesser status seek to visit them and seek blessings through their prayers and seek their intercession with God.”
Abū Muḥammad ibn Qudāmah al-Maqdisī. Taḥrīm al-naẓar fī kutub al-kalām, edited by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Muḥammad Saʿīd Dimashqiyya (Riyāḍ: Dār ʿAlām al-Kutub, 1990), 40.
He recommended that people address the Prophet at his grave as follows: “I have come to you [the Prophet] seeking forgiveness for my sins, and seeking your intercession near my Lord. So I ask you, O my Lord, that you deem my forgiveness necessary, as you did during his [the Prophet’s life].”
Abū Muḥammad Ibn Qudāmah, Al-Mughnī (Bayt al-Afkār al-Dawliyya, 2004), 795, tr. Cameron Zargar, in “Origins of Wahhabism from Hanbali fiqh,” in Journal of Islamic and Near Eastern Law 16.1 (2017), 81.
Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Mūsa ibn al-Nuʿmān al-Muzālī [607–683/1210–1284] wrote a complete work on istighātha through the Prophet. In this work he mentions numerous Qur’ānic verses and prophetic reports to support istighātha.
al-Muzālī, Muḥammad ibn Mūsā ibn al-Nuʿmān. Miṣbāḥ al-Ẓalām, ed. Ḥusayn Muḥammad ʿAlī, (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyah, 2004.
Najm al-Dīn Abū Rabīʿ al-Ṭūfī [657–716/1259–1316] noted that al-Muzālī’s work was famous in Egypt and gained widespread scholarly agreement (al-ijmāʿ) and the permissibility of istighātha was also accepted through scholarly agreement.
Najm al-Dīn Abū Rabīʿ al-Ṭūfī, al-Ishārāt al-Ilāhiyya, ed. Abū ʿĀṣim Ḥasan, 3 vols. (Cairo: al-Fārūq al-Ḥadītha, 2002), 3:91.
Ibn al-Ḥajj al-ʿAbdarī [656–736/1258–1336] argues that istighātha is permissible and that there is no problem in asking the Prophet for help since the Prophet is the Pole of Perfection:
“Whoever seeks mediation (tawassala) through him, does istigātha through him or seeks his needs from him, he will not perish and he will not be disappointed.”
Ibn al-Ḥajj al-ʿAbdarī, al-Madkhal (Cairo: Maktab al-Dār al-Turāth, n.d.), 1:257.
Shams al-Dīn al-Dhahabī [673–748/1274–1348] reports the same anecdote about Abū Bakr al-Muqrī saying: “O Prophet! Hunger! Hunger!”
Shams al-Dīn al-Dhahabī, Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ. ed. Shuʿayb al-Arnaut, 30 vols. (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risāla, 2011), 16:401.
Taqī al-Dīn al-Subkī [683–756/1284–1355] argued that no scholar before Ibn Taymiyya argued for the impermissibility of istighātha. He defended istigātha through the Prophet:
“Know that intermediation (tawassul), seeking assistance (istigātha), and intercession through the Prophet unto his Lord, may He be praised and exalted, is permitted and praiseworthy. Their being permitted and praiseworthy is a matter well-known to every religious person, reputed among the actions of the Prophets and Messengers and the lives of the righteous ancestors, as well as the scholars and laymen among the Muslims. Nobody among the people of religions denied it nor did they hear about it in any time period until Ibn Taymiyya came along and spoke about it by casting doubt upon the weak and he invocated something which has no precedent in history.”
“Thus, God is one whose help is sought (al-mustagāth) and help sought from Him is by way of creation and existentiation and the Prophet is one whose help is sought and help sought from him is by way of non-causal mediation (tasabbub) and acquisition (kasb).”
Taqī al-Dīn al-Subkī, al-Shifā’ al-Saqām fī ziyāra khayr al-anam, ed. al-Sayyd Muḥammad Riḍā al-Ḥusaynī al-Jalālī, 4th ed. (1998), 293-315.
Shāh Bahāʾ al-Dīn Naqshband Bukhārī [d. 791/1389] recited the following poem:
“O Lion of Allāh, Amīr Ĥaydar, [grant me] triumph!
O Conqueror of the Fort at Khaybar, [grant me] triumph!”
The doors of hope have closed upon me,
O Master of Dhu al-Fiqar and Qanbar, [grant me] triumph!”
Muḥammad Ṣadiq Qasūrī, Ruʿbāyāt-i Naqshband, (Lahore: al-Madinah Publications, 1997), 29.
Saʿd al-Dīn Masʿūd Ibn ʿUmar al-Taftāzānī [722–792 /1322–1390] mentions that those who are dead have certain capacities that they did not possess when they were alive. Based on this, Istighātha from good departed souls is permissible.
“What is apparent from the principles of Islam (qawāʿid al-Islām) is that the renewed perception of particulars exists for the after separation (from the body) and the awareness of some of the particulars of the states of the living. This especially pertains to those between whom and the dead there was a familiarity in the world. For this reason, one benefits from visitation to the graves and seeking help of the virtuous souls among the deceased with respect to the passing of information and the warding off of adversities. There is a relationship between the departed soul and the body and the soil in which it is buried. When the living person visits that soil and directs his soul to meeting the soul of the deceased, there obtains a meeting and a relation between the two souls.”
Saʿd al-Dīn al-Taftazānī, Sharḥ al-Maqāṣid, 5 vols. (Qum: al-Sharīf al-Raḍī, 1989), III, 338.
Abū Ḥafs Sirāj al-Dīn al-Bulqīnī [724–805/1324–1403] cites a tradition of the Prophet where a companion asks the Prophet for his neighborhood in paradise, and using this tradition, he defends a poem that includes similar istighātha.
Abū Ḥafs Sirāj al-Bulqīnī, al-Tajarrud wa al-Ihtimām bi-Jamʿ Fatāwa Shaykh al-Islām, ed. Ḥamza Muḥammad, (Arūqah, n.d.), 3:217.
Abū Bakr al-Marāghī [727-816 /1327-1413] permits both tawassul and istighātha through the Prophet in all states of his existence:
“Tawassul, istighātha, and intercession through the Prophet, God’s peace and blessings be upon him, occurs in every situation before his creation, during his life, after his death in the era of the barzakh, after the rising [from the graves], and the open space of Resurrection.”
Abū Bakr al-Marāghī, Taḥqīq al-Nuṣrah, ed. Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Jawwād (Cairo: Dār al-Maktab al-Miṣriyya, 1955), 113.
Taqī al-Dīn al-Ḥuṣnī [752–829/1351–1426] mentions that seeking help from the Prophet is permissible. He also cites multiple anecdotes where people sought help from the Prophet and the Prophet replied to their prayers.
Taqī al-Dīn al-Ḥuṣnī. Dafʿ Shubh Man Shubbaha wa Tamarrada (Cairo: al-Maktabat al-Azhariyyah li-Turāth, n.d.), 133.
Shihāb al-Dīn Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī [773–852/1372–1449], in his poetic compilation, asks the Prophet directly for help and the command to enter paradise.
Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, Dīwān Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, ed. Firdaws ʿAlī Ḥusayn, Cairo: Dār al-Faḍīla, 2000), 124.
Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī [849– 911/1445–1505] reports that he asked the Prophet for help against a tyrannical ruler who seized the land of people. His prayer was answered and the ruler was ‘killed by God’. He also recommended saying “Yā ʿAbd al-Qādir ten times and then to seek your need.”
Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, Kitāb Ḥusn al-Muḥāḍara, 2 vols. (Cairo: Dār Iḥyā’ l-Kutub al-ʿArabiyya, 1967-68), 2:15, 2:234.
Shihāb al-Dīn al-Qasṭallānī [851-923/1448-1517] deems asking the Prophet for help necessary when visiting the grave of the Prophet. He says:
“There is no difference between the expressions istighātha, tawassul, tashaffuʿ or tawajjuh because they are all aspects of the same thing.”
Shihāb al-Dīn al-Qasṭallānī, al-Muwāhib al-Ladunniyya, ed. Ṣāliḥ Aḥmad al-Shāmī, 4 vols. (Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 2004), 4:593.
Shihāb al-Dīn al-Ramlī [d. 957/1550] gives a ruling that istigātha through the Prophets and Friends of God is permissible;
“Seeking help (al-istighātha) through the Prophets, Messengers, Saints, scholars, and the righteous is permissible because the Messengers, Saints, and the righteous grant help after their deaths because the miracles of the Prophets and the supernatural gifts of the Saints are not cut off with their death.”
Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad al-Ramlī, Fatāwā al-Ramlī. 4 vols. (Beirut: al-Maktaba al-Islāmiyya, n.d.), Vol. 4, 362.
Shihāb al-Dīn Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad Ḥajar al-Haytamī [909-974/1503-1566] argues that there is no difference between tawassul and istighātha through the Prophet and that both are acceptable to the Muslims.
“There is no difference between the mention of intermediation (tawassul), seeking assistance (istighātha), intercession, and attention (tawajjuh) through him [the Prophet] and other Prophets and likewise for the Saints… Istigātha is to seek help and the seeker of help (al-mustagīth) seeks from one whose help is sought (al-mustagāth) to obtain for him from other than him, even if he is higher than him. Thus, attention and istigātha through him [the Prophet] and through others has no meaning other than this in acceptance of the Muslims.”
Ibn Hajar al-Makkī al-Haytamī, Kitāb al-Jawhar al-Munaẓẓam fī ziyārat al-qabr al-sharīf al-nabawī al-mukarram (Cairo: Makbata Madbūlī, 2000), 111.
Shaykh ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq Muḥaddith al-Dihlawī [958-1052/1551-1642] records in Akhbār al-Akhyār from Shaykh Bahāʾ Dīn Ibn Ibrāhīm ʿAṭāullāh al-Anṣārī al-Shaṭṭārī [d. 921/1516] that he writes in his work al-Risāla al-Shaṭṭāriyyah:
“The remembrance (dhikr) for the unveiling of the Spirit - O Muḥammad and O Aḥmad - have two ways. The first one is to recite O Aḥmad on the right side, O Muḥammad on the left side, and to imagine O Muṣṭafa in the heart. The second way is to recite O Aḥmad, O Muḥammad, O ʿAlī, O Ḥassan, O Ḥusayn, and O Fātima in six directions. After this, all spirits would be unveiled.”
Shaykh ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq Muḥaddith al-Dihlawī, Akhbār al-Akhyār (Lahore: Akbar Booksellers, 2004), 415.
Shāh Waliyullāh [1114-1176/1703-1762] mentions in Intibāh fī Salāsil Awliyā Allāh that the spiritual masters in his chain would recommend reading Jawāhir-i Khamsa, a Persian work on Sufi meditation practices. A part of Jawāhir includes Nādi ʿAlī which reads:
“Call ʿAlī, call ʿAlī who is the locus of manifestation of wonders. You will find him an effective supporter for you in all calamities. All worries and sorrows will soon disappear by your greatness O God, by your Prophethood O Muhammad, and by your walāya O ʿAlī! O ʿAlī! O ʿAlī!”
Shāh Waliyullāh, “Intibāh fī Salāsil Awliyā Allāh”, in Rasail-i Shāh Waliyullāh Dihlawī (Tasawwuf Foundation, 1999), 1:239.
Ibn ʿĀbidīn [1198-1252/1784-1836] recited a prayer asking for the Prophet’s help (“Help me O Messenger of God” (adriknī Yā Rasūl Allāh) and reported stories of Muslim scholars of seeking the Prophet’s help and blessing hundreds of times to obtain the resolution of their difficulties.
Muḥammad Amīn b. ʿUmar b. ʿĀbidīn (Ibn ʿĀbidīn), Thabat Ibn ʿĀbidīn al-musammá ʿUqūd al-la’ālī fī al-asānīd al-ʿawālī (Dār al-Bashā’ir al-Islāmiyyah lil-Ṭibāʿa wa-al-Nashr wa-al-Tawzīʿ, 2010), 484.
Aḥmad Riḍā Khān [1272-1340/1856-1921] writes in Umūr-i ʿIshrīn Dar ʿAqāid-i Sunniyīn:
“To seek help and aid from the Prophets and Friends (of God), to call upon them or make them a medium at the time of need saying: O Prophet, ‘O ʿAlī, O Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī and to believe them to be a means of attaining blessings from Allāh is definitely correct and permissible.”
Aḥmad Riḍā Khān, Parameter of Salvation: Umūr-i ʿIshrīn Dar Imtiyāz-i ʿAqāʾid-i Sunniyyīn, 3rd Edition (Ridawi Translations Project, 2017), 12.
Qāḍī Yūsuf al-Nabhānī [1265-1350/1849-1932] argues for the legitimacy and permissibility of istigātha throughout his Shawāhid al-Haqq. He himself recited the prayer “help me O Messenger of God (adriknī yā Rasūl Allāh)” over a thousand times to solve his difficulty:
“I sought assistance (istaghathtu) through the Prophet (bi l-nabī) from God to relieve me of that difficulty the occurrence of this affair is only through the blessing (baraka) of the Prophet, seeking assistance (istighātha) from God through him, and invoking blessings upon him.”
The sixth chapter of this work is titled “On the transmission of narrations and reports received from the scholars and the righteous about the benefits that obtain for them from seeking the help (al-istighātha) through the Master of the Messengers.”
Yūsuf al-Nabhānī, Shawāhid al-Haqq, ed. ʿAbd al-Wārith Muḥammad ʿAlī (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, 2007), 248.
[1] “God in Islam,” in Wikipedia.
[2] Asad, Muhammad, The road to Mecca, London: The Book Company, 2014, 239.
[3] Rippin, Andrew, “Islam and the politics of violence,” in David J. Hawkin (ed.), Twenty-first century confronts its Gods, Albany: SUNY Press, 2004, 134–135.
[4] Bunzel, Cole M., Wahhābism: The history of a militant Islamic movement, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2023, 44–45, 120–122, 128–130.
Only seekh help from Allah alone period!!!
If it is not in Quran then not in Islam.
Lol 😂 you write this big story and Quran destroyed by saying
Surah Al-Imran (3:173)
“Hasbunallahu wa ni’mal wakeel.”
Translation: “Sufficient for us is Allah,
Please take the Islam out of your Article..
You have written article on Sunni and Shia Religion but not Islam.
Islam is Quran period
The ultimate intellectual insult is demanding that a rational believer bypass a thousand years of brilliant, unified Islamic scholarship just to follow an 18th-century tribal ideologue. We are told to cast aside intellectual giants like Imam Al-Shafi’i, Imam Al-Nawawi, and Imam Al-Ghazali—men who spent their lives building a vast, sophisticated tradition of jurisprudence and spiritual depth—in favor of a man whose primary claim was that true Islam had vanished until he revived it.
A cursory look at history reveals that the foundations of Wahhabism were laid not in scholarly debate, but in unprecedented bloodshed and the systematic excommunication (Takfir) of the mainstream Muslim world. Modern Salafism inherits this exact Takfiri DNA, yet operates in deep hypocrisy: they eagerly brand the global Ummah as practitioners of major polytheism (Shirk), yet lack the theological courage to follow their own doctrine to its logical conclusion and openly declare them disbelievers (Kafir).
The ultimate historical irony remains inescapable: by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab’s own uncompromising standards of chain-Takfir, even his intellectual idol, Ibn Taymiyyah, would be cast out of the fold of Islam for refusing to weaponize excommunication against the masses. Modern Salafism is a theology that logically eats its own tail.
So, let the line be drawn. If the billions of Muslims who preceded us—including the blessed Sahaba, the luminous Tabi'un, the universally respected Imams of the Madhabs, the masters of Hadith and Aqeedah, and the countless Awliya like Sheikh Abdul Qadir al-Jilani—are considered polytheists and disbelievers in your estimation, then close their ledger and count me among them. I would rather stand in eternity with the vast, unbroken ocean of Islamic history than sit in the suffocating fortress of a modern sect.