Blessings and Traces of the Pious Predecessors
An obsession with the traces and blessings of the pious predecessors sometimes leads a person to shirk (associating partners with Allah). That is why the Islamic Sharia has instructed disregard towards them. Before this statement, some things are presented as an introduction, which are extremely necessary to know. It is remembered that the root of “Tibarak” (blessing) is “B-R-K,” and from this comes “Barakah” (blessing).
Blessing:
It means to ask for abundant goodness and reward. Imam Raghib states:
“Blessing in something means the establishment of good from Allah Almighty in it.”
In reality, Allah Almighty is the source of blessing, and He alone is the One who grants blessing.
The command of Allah Almighty is:
((تَبٰرَكَ الَّذِیْ بِیَدِهِ الْمُلْكُ٘))
“He is the One full of countless blessings, in whose hand is the dominion (of the entire universe).”
And something can be blessed only if Allah Almighty blesses it, as the Holy Quran states:
(وَ هٰذَا كِتٰبٌ اَنْزَلْنٰهُ مُبٰرَكٌ)
“And this is the Book which We have revealed, a blessed one.”
And the Prophets, peace be upon them, are also blessed. For example, the statement of Jesus (peace be upon him) is in the Holy Quran:
((وَّ جَعَلَنِیْ مُبٰرَكًا))
“And He has made me blessed.”
And some places are also blessed. The command of Allah Almighty is:
(وَبَرَكنَا فِيهَا)
“And We placed blessings therein (in the region of Sham).”
What is the basis of blessing?
What is the basis of blessing? In this matter, it is extremely necessary to know at least three things:
➊ Certainly, the source of blessing is Allah Almighty, therefore asking for blessing from anyone else is shirk (associating partners with Allah). It is narrated from Sayyidina Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) that when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ would stand for prayer, he used to recite this supplication (as an opening):
((وَجْهَتُ وَجْهِيَ لِلَّذِى فَطَرَ السَّمواتِ وَالْأَرْضَ حَنِيفًا وَمَا أَنَا مِنَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ، إِنَّ صَلَاتِي وَنُسُكِي وَمَحْيَايَ وَمَمَاتِي لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ. لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ وَبِذَلِكَ أُمِرْتُ وَأَنَا أَوَّلُ الْمُسْلِمِينَ. اللَّهُمَّ أَنتَ الْمَلِكُ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا أَنتَ أنتَ رَبِّي وَأَنَا عَبْدُكَ. ظَلَمْتُ نَفْسِي وَاعْتَرَفُتُ بِذَنْبِي فَاغْفِرْ لِي ذُنُوبِي جَمِيعًا، إِنَّهُ لَا يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ إِلَّا أَنتَ. وَاهْدِنِي لِأَحْسَنِ الْأَخْلَاقِ ، لَا يَهْدِي لِأَحْسَنِهَا إِلَّا أَنْتَ، وَاصْرِفْ عَنِي سَيِّئَهَا ، لَا يَصْرِفُ عَنِّي سَيِّئَهَا إِلَّا أَنتَ. لَيِّيكَ وَسَعْدَيْكَ وَالْخَيْرُ كُلُّهُ فِي يَدَيْكَ، وَالشَّرُّلَيسَ إِلَيْكَ، أَنَا بِكَ وَإِلَيْكَ، تَبَارَكْتَ وَتَعَالَيْتَ، أَسْتَغْفِرُكَ وَأتُوبُ إِلَيْكَ .))
“I have turned my face towards the Being who created the entire heavens and earth, while I have turned away from everyone except Allah, and I am not among the polytheists. Indeed, my prayer, my sacrifice, my living, and my dying are all for Allah, the Lord of all the worlds, and He has no partner. I have been commanded to do this, and I am obedient. O Allah! You are the King, the true God, You are my Lord, and I am Your servant. I have wronged myself, I admit my mistakes, so forgive all my sins. Who besides You can forgive sins? Grant me the ability to have good character, for this guidance and ability can only come from You. Protect me from bad habits, and You alone can remove these harmful traits. O Allah! I am present, I am present.”
All goodness and blessings are entirely in Your hands, and evil is not from You. I live by Your support alone and (after death) I return only to You. You are blessed and exalted; I seek Your forgiveness and turn to You.
➋ The Shariah permits blessings to be obtained from certain things, matters, and actions and considers them blessed, but they are causes and means of blessing, not the source of blessing itself; that is, they do not grant blessing by themselves. For example, the use of medicine or ruqyah for healing are causes of healing, not the healers themselves. The true Healer is Allah Almighty, as is mentioned in
in a hadith of Sayyidina Anas رضي الله عنه. He once said:
“Shall I not recite to you the ruqyah taught by the Messenger of Allah ﷺ?” The Companions رضي الله عنهم said: “Why not?” So Sayyidina Anas رضي الله عنه recited the ruqyah in the following words:
(( اللَّهُمَّ رَبَّ النَّاسِ ، مُذْهِبَ الْبَأْسِ ، إِشْفِ أَنتَ الشَّافِي لَا شَافِيَ إِلَّا أَنتَ شِفَاءٌ لَّا يُغَادِرُ سَقَمًا.))
“O Allah! Lord of the people! Healer of diseases! Grant healing. You are the Healer; there is no healer except You. Grant a healing that leaves no disease behind.”
And similarly, in Sahih Bukhari (38/10 with Fath), it is mentioned that “Khanbī” (black seed) is from you, and its water is a cure for the eye, meaning it is a cause of healing.
Furthermore, the Prophet ﷺ said:
“Black seed is a cure for every disease except death.”
And as Lady Aisha رضي الله عنها said about Lady Juwayriyah رضي الله عنها:
“I do not know any woman who was more beneficial and blessed for her people than her (Juwayriyah).”
That is, they proved to be a cause of blessing, not the ones who give blessings. That is, the source of blessing. The detail of this story is that when the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) learned that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had married her, they freed all the prisoners from their tribe, Banu Mustaliq, who were with them. Because these people had now become relatives of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ through marriage. Thus, one hundred prisoners were released, and this was a great blessing from Allah Almighty. And the cause of this was Lady Juwayriyah (may Allah be pleased with her). And similarly, the command regarding such blessed things is that they cause goodness, growth, increase, and augmentation. So, the One who places blessings in all of them is Allah Almighty.
➌ The proof for obtaining blessings is from the Book and Sunnah. As a miracle, when water came out from the fingers of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, he said:
Take the blessed water, and the blessing is from Allah.
The Shariah ruling on obtaining blessings:
Whoever seeks blessings from graves like a worshiper, or from a tree, stone, piece of land, cave, well, or grave, then this is forbidden and he will be a polytheist. Because among the acts of ignorance was that they used to seek blessings from trees, stones, graves, and certain pieces of land, and then they would exaggerate in this.
One Objection and Its Resolution:
Objection:
Some people, out of ignorance, say that “If kissing the Black Stone and touching the Yemeni Corner are causes of blessing, then why can’t blessings be sought from graves and trees?”
Resolution:
Kissing the “Black Stone” and touching the “Yemeni Corner” is actually an act of worship and reverence to Allah Almighty, and it has been legislated in Shariah. Thus, Sayyiduna Umar Farooq (RA) kissed the Black Stone and addressed it saying:
((إِنِّي أَعْلَمُ أَنَّكَ حَجَرٌ لَا تَضُرُّ وَلَا تَنْفَعُ وَلَوْلَا أَنِّي رَأَيْتُ النَّبِيَّ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ يُقَبِّلُكَ مَا قَبَّلْتُكَ))
Certainly, I know well that you are a stone, neither can you cause harm nor benefit, if I had not seen the Messenger of Allah ﷺ kissing you, I would never have kissed you.”
Seeking Blessings through the Traces of the Saints:
Seeking blessings from the traces of the pious predecessors, such as drinking their saliva (remaining traces), touching them and their clothes for blessings, and applying their sweat, etc., is all impermissible and wrong for several reasons:
The elders and saints cannot even come close to the Prophet ﷺ in virtue and blessings, let alone be equal to the Prophet ﷺ.
Even if the elders possess piety and righteousness, it is not permissible to seek blessings from them due to lack of proof, because piety and righteousness are matters of the heart and are unseen affairs; this is not possible unless Allah Almighty and His Messenger ﷺ inform us. Accordingly, there is evidence regarding the piety of the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them):
The command of Allah Almighty is:
((وَ لٰكِنَّ اللّٰهَ حَبَّبَ اِلَیْكُمُ الْاِیْمَانَ وَ زَیَّنَهٗ فِیْ قُلُوْبِكُمْ وَ كَرَّهَ اِلَیْكُمُ الْكُفْرَ وَ الْفُسُوْقَ وَ الْعِصْیَانَؕ-اُولٰٓىٕكَ هُمُ الرّٰشِدُوْنَ))
“And indeed, Allah has made faith beloved to you and has beautified it in your hearts, and has made disbelief, sin, and disobedience hateful to you. Those are the ones on the right path.”
Moreover, many Quranic verses and Prophetic ahadith ﷺ indicate the faith and steadfastness of the Companionsؓ:
For the rest of the people, we can only assume that they are righteous and hope for Allah’s mercy for them.
If we assume someone to be pious and God-fearing, but we are certainly unaware of their bad end, and the deeds are dependent on the end:
(( إِنَّمَا الْأَعْمَالُ بِالْخَوَاتیم . ))
“Indeed, the reward and punishment of deeds are related to the end.”
Therefore, they are not eligible to receive blessings from the sign (remnants).
Seeking blessings from anyone other than the Prophet ﷺ will lead to self-deception and arrogance, and it will be more harmful than excessive praise in front of him.
The Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) did not seek blessings from anyone other than the Prophet ﷺ, neither during his lifetime nor after. If seeking blessings from others was a virtue, they would have done so before us. Then why did they not seek blessings from Sayyiduna Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali (may Allah be pleased with them), about whom the Prophet ﷺ gave glad tidings of Paradise in this world? Similarly, the Tabi‘in (followers of the Companions) also did not seek blessings from anyone else. Then why did the later Tabi‘in not seek blessings from those pious and God-fearing elders of religion? Especially from Sa‘id ibn al-Musayyib, Ali ibn al-Husayn, Uways al-Qarani, and Khawaja Hasan Basri (may Allah have mercy on them). Thus, it is clear that seeking blessings is exclusive to the Prophet ﷺ.
Cutting off the Main Root of Shirk:
Since seeking blessings from the relics of the ancestors and their veneration is a means of shirk, Sayyiduna Umar (RA) cut off the main root of shirk on several occasions. Observe this masterpiece of his character. Sayyiduna Nafi (RA) narrates:
((كَانَ النَّاسُ يَأْتُونَ الشَّجَرَةَ الَّتِي يُقَالُ لَهَا شَجَرَةَ الرّضْوَانِ فيُصَلُّونَ عِندَهَا ، فَبَلَغَ ذَلِكَ عُمَرَ ابْن الْخَطَّابِ فَأَوْعَدَهُمْ فِيهَا وَأَمَرَبهَا فَقُطِعَتُ . ))
“People used to come and pray near شجرة الرضوان (that is, near the tree under which the Prophet ﷺ took the pledge of Ridwan from the companions during the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah). When Sayyiduna Umar (RA) heard about this, he scolded the people and ordered that the tree be cut down, so it was cut down.”
Hafiz Ibn Hajar (RA) states that “The wisdom behind cutting down this tree was so that people could be protected from fitnah, where in its veneration they might excessively regard it as the owner of benefit and harm.”
