Prostration to Other than Allah: Scholarly Consensus and Sharʿi Ruling
Source: Fatāwā Amunpuri by Shaykh Ghulam Mustafa Zaheer Amunpuri
❖ Question
What is the ruling on prostrating (sujūd) to other than Allah?
❖ Answer
Al-ḥamdu lillāh, waṣ-ṣalātu wa-salāmu ʿalā Rasūlillāh, ʿAmma Baʿd!
Prostrating to anyone besides Allah is shirk and is unanimously harām.
Allah ﷻ says:
﴿لَا تَسْجُدُوا لِلشَّمْسِ وَلَا لِلْقَمَرِ وَاسْجُدُوا لِلَّهِ الَّذِي خَلَقَهُنَّ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ إِيَّاهُ تَعْبُدُونَ﴾
[Do not prostrate to the sun or the moon; rather prostrate to Allah who created them, if it is Him you worship]
(Al-Fuṣṣilat: 37)
❖ Scholarly Consensus and Statements
✔ Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr (463 AH):
“It is prohibited to prostrate on the graves of the Prophets. This means that prostration to anyone other than Allah is not permissible.”
(Al-Tamhīd 6/383)
✔ Al-Sarakhsī al-Ḥanafī (483 AH):
“We declare disbelief for every action that Muslims unanimously agree can only come from a disbeliever — such as prostrating to an idol, the sun, the moon, the cross, or fire — even if the person outwardly professes Islam.”
(Al-Mabsūṭ 24/130)
✔ Al-Rāzī (606 AH):
“All Prophets agreed that worshipping other than Allah is disbelief, whether one believes that being to be the Lord of the world or merely considers its worship a means of nearness to Allah, because worship is the ultimate form of veneration, and that belongs only to the One who grants the ultimate blessings.”
(Al-Tafsīr al-Kabīr 26/421)
✔ Al-Nawawī (676 AH):
“The practice of many ignorant people prostrating before their shaykhs is absolutely harām, whether facing the qiblah or not, and whether intending prostration to Allah or not. In some cases, this prostration reaches kufr or comes close to it.”
(Al-Majmūʿ 4/69)
✔ Ibn Taymiyyah (728 AH):
“Some of their followers prostrate to the sun, moon, and stars, call upon them as Allah is called upon, fast and sacrifice for them, and seek their nearness. Then they claim: ‘This is not shirk.’ Yet it is among the most obvious forms of shirk, as known necessarily in Islam.”
(Darʾ Taʿāruḍ al-ʿAql wa al-Naql 1/227)
✔ Ibn ʿAbd al-Hādī (744 AH):
“If someone goes to a deceased person’s bier and calls upon him instead of Allah or seeks his aid, this is shirk and harām by the consensus of Muslims.”
(Al-Ṣārim al-Munkī 436)
✔ Mullā ʿAlī al-Qārī (1014 AH):
“Prostration is not permissible for anyone other than Allah.”
(Mirqāt al-Mafātīḥ 5/2125)
✔ Ṣanʿ Allāh al-Ḥanafī (1120 AH):
“Groups among Muslims claim that awliyāʾ have powers during life and after death, that they can be called upon in hardship, and their graves visited for needs. They call this karāmāt. This is extremism and leads to eternal destruction, for it reeks of shirk and contradicts the Qur’an and the consensus of the Ummah.”
(Sayf Allāh ʿalā man Kadhaba ʿalā Awliyāʾ Allāh pp. 15–16)
❖ Conclusion
- Prostration to other than Allah is shirk and harām by unanimous consensus of scholars.
- Doing so for respect, intercession, or nearness is kufr.
- The Ummah’s scholars across generations — from the early to the later — have declared it an act of disbelief.
هذا ما عندي والله أعلم بالصواب
