NINTH : A contention of the idolaters is also indicated through their attachment to some controversial Prophetic traditions. They assume that these traditions provide evidence for legitimacy of their wrong-doings. They quote one Hadith from the book of Tirmidhi, (89) narrated by Uthman ibn Hanif. He related that a blind man came to the Prophet and asked him to pray Allah to cure him The Prophet told him, "If you wish, I will pray for you, but if you have patience, that will be better for you." The blind man insisted that the Prophet pray for him, so the Prophet asked him to make ablution properly and to say the following prayer : "O, Allah, I invoke You through Your Apostle, Muhammad, the Apostle of mercy, whom I approached to pray to my Guardian-Lord to fulfill my need. O, Allah, accept his mediation for me."

According to the book of Tirmidhi, this Hadith is good and correct, but we do not know of its narration except through Abu Jafar who is other than AI-Khatmi. However, even if the Hadith is correct, it is not a point of argument in this discussion because the blind man requested the Prophet to pray for him. He then invoked Allah with his own prayer in the presence of the Prophet, which is permissible. One is allowed to request a living person to pray for him.

There is no indication of invoking the dead or others for mediation, which we stress at this point is forbidden. In the case of the blind man, he was asked by the Prophet to pray Allah to accept the prophet's intercession for him in praying

Allah for a cure. Therefore, this Hadith does not prove permissibility of mediation or invoking the dead or other saints, which is the focus of this discussion. They (the idolaters) also make inference from a false and fabricated Hadith which says, "The prophet (peace be upon him) said, 'Seek access to Allah with my rank, because my rank with Allah is highly exalted" This Hadith is fabricated and is a lie against the prophet (peace be upon him) as confirmed by Ibn Taimiyah (Allah's mercy be on him). (90)

TENTH The claimers of such permission of intercession also depend on tales and dreams. They say that so-and-so, for instance, came to the shrine of so-and-so and saw something in a dream. One of their famous dreams is that Atabi said, "I was sitting by the grave of the Prophet when a Bedoum came and said Peace of Allah be on you, O Apostle of Allah. Then he added, Allah has said in the Holy Quran, "If they had only, when they were unjust to themselves, come unto you and asked Allah's forgiveness for them, they would have found Allah indeed Oft-returning, Most Merciful." (91) I have therefore come to you to request your mediation with my Guardian-Lord for granting me forgiveness. Then he read his composition as follows

Atabi continued to tell us about what happened after the bedoum had gone back. He said, "I fell asleep and saw the Prophet (peace be upon him) in my dream saying to me, "O Atabi, follow the Bedouin and convey to him the good news that Allah has granted him forgiveness."

In the first place, tales and dreams do not stand as evidence for matters pertaining to ideology commands and decrees of Allah require authoritative evidence from divine sources. Secondly, the meaning of the above verse from the Holy Quran concerns one who came to the Holy Prophet during his life time and not after his death. It is evident here that no one of the companions of the Prophet or the true followers in later generations ever came to the Prophet's grave to request his mediation for forgiveness. If such visits to the Prophet's grave had been permissible, then the companions of the Prophet would have indeed done so due to their diligence in following his commands.