Chapter Six: Salafi Bidah in respecting the signs of Allah ( شَعَائِرَ اللَّهِ)

Allah says in Quran:

[Yusufali 22:32] Such (is his state): and whoever holds in honour the symbols of Allah, (in the sacrifice of animals), such (honour) should come truly from piety of heart.

Despite this clear guidance of respecting the signs of Allah, Salafies deem it to be against their self-invented “Tawheed”. Due to their “Literal Approach”, they are unable to differentiate between “Worshipping” and “Respecting” the signs of Allah. They issue fatwas of “Shirk” for respecting the signs of Allah by comparing it to the actions of Mushrikeen, who also showed respect to their idols.

Salafies have innovated in the “Sharia of Islam” and “Prohibited a lot of actions of respecting the Sha’air Allah (although they were kept Halal by Allah), and we are lashed by Saudies for showing our respect to Sha’air Allah. Insha-Allah, we will see this later in this chapter.

Let us first see some of the ways of paying respect to the signs of Allah.

• Respect for sacred Months and animals who are named for sacrifice for Allah during Hajj.
  يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ لاَ تُحِلُّواْ شَعَآئِرَ اللّهِ وَلاَ الشَّهْرَ الْحَرَامَ وَلاَ الْهَدْيَ وَلاَ الْقَلآئِدَ وَلا آمِّينَ الْبَيْتَ الْحَرَامَ يَبْتَغُونَ فَضْلاً مِّن رَّبِّهِمْ وَرِضْوَانًا

  [Yusufali 5:2] O ye who believe! Violate not the sanctity of the symbols of Allah, nor of the sacred month, nor of the animals brought for sacrifice, nor the garlands that mark out such animals, nor the people resorting to the sacred house, seeking of the bounty and good pleasure of their Lord.

  The respect of sacred months is not to fight during these months. And respect for the animals, who are brought for sacrifice during Hajj is this that they are not ridden and they are given with good food and water.
  Just remember the respect for the she-camel of Salih (as).

  وَإِلَى ثَمُودَ أَخَاهُمْ صَالِحًا قَالَ يَا قَوْمِ اعْبُدُواْ اللّهَ مَا لَكُم مِّنْ إِلَـهٍ غَيْرُهُ قَدْ جَاءتْكُم بَيِّنَةٌ مِّن رَّبِّكُمْ هَـذِهِ نَاقَةُ اللّهِ لَكُمْ آيَةً فَذَرُوهَا تَأْكُلْ فِي أَرْضِ اللّهِ وَلاَ تَمَسُّوهَا بِسُوَءٍ فَيَأْخُذَكُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ

  [Yusufali 7:73] To the Thamud people (We sent) Salih, one of their own brethren: He said: “O my people! worship Allah: ye have no other god but Him. Now hath come unto you a clear (Sign) from your Lord! This she-camel of Allah is a Sign unto you : So leave her to graze in Allah’s earth, and let her come to no harm, or ye shall be seized with a grievous punishment.

  All this is respect of signs of Allah, not the worship of them.

• Taking the shoes off in order to show the respect, as Musa (as) was asked by Allah when he wanted to enter the sacred valley of Tuwa.
  إِنِّي أَنَا رَبُّكَ فَاخْلَعْ نَعْلَيْكَ إِنَّكَ بِالْوَادِ الْمُقَدَّسِ طُوًى

  [Pickthal 20:12] Lo! I, even I, am thy Lord, So take off thy shoes, for lo! thou art in the holy valley of Tuwa.

• Offering Salah at the places of Barakah, like we are ordered to pray at “Maqam of Ibrahim”.
  فِيهِ آيَاتٌ بَيِّـنَاتٌ مَّقَامُ إِبْرَاهِيمَ وَمَن دَخَلَهُ كَانَ آمِنًا وَلِلّهِ عَلَى النَّاسِ حِجُّ الْبَيْتِ مَنِ اسْتَطَاعَ إِلَيْهِ سَبِيلاً

  [Pickthal 3:97] Wherein are plain memorials (of Allah’s guidance); the place where Abraham stood up to pray ; and whosoever entereth it is safe. And pilgrimage to the House is a duty unto Allah for mankind

• Doing Tawaaf يَطَّوَّفَ of signs of Allah as in case of Safa and Marwa
  إِنَّ الصَّفَا وَالْمَرْوَةَ مِن شَعَآئِرِ اللّهِ فَمَنْ حَجَّ الْبَيْتَ أَوِ اعْتَمَرَ فَلاَ جُنَاحَ عَلَيْهِ أَن يَطَّوَّفَ بِهِمَا وَمَن تَطَوَّعَ خَيْرًا فَإِنَّ اللّهَ شَاكِرٌ عَلِيمٌ

  [Yusufali 2:158] Behold! Safa and Marwa are among the Symbols of Allah. So if those who visit the House in the Season or at other times, should compass them round, it is no sin in them . And if any one obeyeth his own impulse to good,- be sure that Allah is He Who recogniseth and knoweth.

• Kissing the things which have Barakah in them. For example, we kiss Hajar-e-Aswad, while it has Barakah in it, people kiss the wall of Ka’aba, Sahaba Karam used to kiss the hands of Rasool Allah (saw) etc.

Sahaba Karam showed respect to each and every Tabarruk of Rasool Allah (saw) in many many different ways. E.g. competing for ablution water of Rasool Allah (saw), passing hairs of Rasool Allah (saw) into water and then drinking it.

Note: Please see chapter 3, which is full of such new acts of respects by Sahaba Karam.

Sajdah of Tazeem (Prostration of Reverence)

Sajdah Tazeemi has been one of the most virtuous act with great rewards in Islamic history. For example sun, moon and stars prostrated Yusuf (as).

[Yusufali 12:4] Behold! Joseph said to his father: “O my father! I did see eleven stars and the sun and the moon: I saw them prostrate themselves to me!”

Similarly, Quran says that Yaqoob (as) and his sons prostrated before Yusuf (as).

[Yusufali 12:100] And he raised his parents high on the throne (of dignity), and they fell down in prostration, (all) before him. He said: “O my father! this is the fulfilment of my vision of old!

And also when angels prostrated before Adam(as).

[Yusufali 2:34] And behold, We said to the angels: “Bow down to Adam” and they bowed down. Not so Iblis: he refused and was haughty: He was of those who reject Faith.

Although Sajdah of Tazeem is a very virtuous act in itself, and whole Ummah is unanimous it was practiced in all Sharias of previous Prophets (even Salafies don’t have courage to deny it while it is so strongly established from Quran). Nevertheless, there is difference of Opinion among Ulama of it’s being allowed in Sharia of Prophet Muhammad (saw) i.e.:

• There is an opinion that it became prohibited in Sharia of Muhammad (saw).
• Another opinion is that, it’s permission is established from Quran while nothing revealed in Quran to prohibit it. Although there are few Ahadith which prohibit it, but their is no Tawattur in them (By tawatur it is meant the multiplicity of the sources of a certain report that leads to certitude in the listener that the report is indeed true). Therefore they base their opinion upon Quran.

Despite this difference of Opinion, they are Unanimous on the following facts:

• “Sajdah of T’azeem” doesn’t constitute “Worship”, but this all is dependant on Intention (Niyyah) with which Prostration is performed.
• Even those, who consider it to be prohibited in Sharia of Muhammad (saw), they deem it limited to being Haram, and in no way equal to Shirk and “Making Partners to Allah”.
• Secondly, they cosider this limitation only for Human Beings.i.e. each and every other creature of the universe is doing “Sajdah of Tazeem” to Rasool Allah (saw), except the human beings. Just remember when the priest “Buhaira” told that he was watching all the signs of Prophethood in Muhammad (saw), as all the trees and stones were prostrating him.

Not only Sajdah of Tazeem, but they have declared a lot of other things to be Haram and Shirk too, which have not been made Haram by Allah. For example, following things are also shirk and bidah for Salafies.

• Touching and Kissing the walls of Masjid-e-Haram or Masjid-e-Nabi is Shirk and Bidah.
• Showing any kind of respect to “Rawdah” of Rasool Allah (saw) is Shirk and Bidha.
• Showing respect to water of Zamzam and drinking it with “Niyyah” that it will benefit us is Shirk for them.
• Showing respect to places and graveyards which were visited by Rasool Allah (saw) is “Shirk” and “Bidah” for them.
• They demolished a lot of things like grave of Hadhrat Hawa (Eve) in Jeddah, house of Rasool Allah (saw) in Median (where he stayed after migrating from Mecca), the grave of Prophet Elisha in AlAwjam, the graves of martyrs of Uhad, the house of Mawla Ali (as) where Hasan and Hussain (as) were born and a lot of other sacred places.

And all this destruction is done while people used to visit these sacred places and used to pay respect to these “Sha’air Allah”.

But look how Sahaba Karam paid respect to such places:

Narrated Abu Burda: When I came to Medina. I met Abdullah bin Salam. He said, “Will you come to me so that I may serve you with sawiq (i.e. powdered barley) and dates, and let you enter a (blessed) house in which the Prophet entered?
Sahih Bukhari, Volume 5, Book 58, Number 159

Unfortunately, Salafies are unable to understand such things and for them all is “Shirk” , “Bidah” and “Haram”. And these Saudi Salafies have already did a lot of destruction to such sacred places.

Showing Respect (T’azeem) by Going Around (Tawaf طواف) of shrine of Rasool Allah (saw)

If you ask this to a Salafi, then immediately you will get the fatwa of Shirk and they claim that Tawaf can only be done to Holy Kaba . But this is according to self made Tauheed of Salafies, and it has nothing to do with Islamic Sharia.

Indeed Allah (swt) has not prohibited it, but Allah (swt) himself encouraged people not only to do the Tawaf طواف of Holy K’aba, but also of Safa and Marwa.

Allah (swt) says in Quran:

[Yusufali 2:158] Behold! Safa and Marwa are among the Symbols of Allah. So if those who visit the House in the Season or at other times, should compass them round (طواف) , it is no sin in them . And if any one obeyeth his own impulse to good,- be sure that Allah is He Who recogniseth and knoweth.

Now it’s turn of Salafies to issue fatwa of shirk upon Allah and Quran (Naudobillah). Remember, all actions of showing T’azeem to Sh’air Allah are allowed in Islamic Sharia, except prostratition.

May Allah hasten the Zahoor of Imam-e-Zamana (as) and safe us from the “Shar” of this “Fitna”. Amin.