Criticism of Rashid Reza's viewpoint on appealing to Saints

Document Type : علمی - ترویجی

Author
فارغ‌التحصیل مؤسسه دار الإعلام لمدرسة اهل البیت  و دکتری تاریخ، سیره و تمدن اسلامی، جامعة المصطفی  العالمیه.
Abstract
Appealing to the righteous and saint guys is one of the deep-rooted issues of belief in Islamic culture, but Ibn Taymiyyah and his followers have doubted on it. Rashid Reza is one of those who criticized this issue, considering the mediation between man and the creator in any way to be contrary to monotheism. Therefore, he rejected appealing to saints many times in his famous book, Tafsir al-Manar. In order to prove his point of view, he mentioned the following: Supplication and appealing to the saints is against to purity in worshiping, monotheism and so on. The present essay with a critical method and relying on verses and traditions has criticized the content of Rashid Reza's arguments. The result is that, contrary to his idea, mediation does not conflict with purity in worshiping; because the intercession to the righteous is not their worshiping at all; because worship is submission to the one whom the worshiper considers to be God. The Holy Qur'an in several verses proves the occult dominion of special people. So, if we reject the supernatural power of Saints, we must also reject these Quranic verses as well.
 
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