A Comparative Study of the Views of Wahhabism and the Mālikī School on Seeking Intercession (Istishfāʿ) from the Deceased

The issue of seeking intercession (istishfāʿ) from the deceased constitutes one of the most significant and contested subjects in discussions of Tawḥīd al-ʿIbādah (the Oneness of Worship) and the theological status of God's righteous servants in Islamic thought. The Wahhabi movement maintains that seeking the intercession of the dead is an act of shirk in worship, regarding it as fundamentally incompatible with the principles of Tawḥīd. Citing the apparent meanings of certain Qur'anic verses and Prophetic traditions, Wahhabi scholars classify this belief as major shirk (al-shirk al-akbar), one that expels a person from the fold of Islam. Furthermore, they seek to legitimize this position by claiming that it is shared by the other Islamic schools of law.
Adopting a critical and analytical approach, the present study reexamines this claim through a close analysis of the authoritative works of leading Mālikī jurists and scholars. It demonstrates that not only does Mālikī jurisprudence reject the Wahhabi interpretation, but that the legal opinions and scholarly practice of eminent Mālikī authorities, including Mālik ibn Anas (d. 179 AH), Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ (d. 544 AH), Ibn al-Ḥājj (d. 737 AH), and Shihāb al-Dīn al-Zurqānī (d. 1122 AH), provide clear evidence for the legitimacy, and indeed the recommendability (istiḥbāb), of seeking intercession through the deceased and invoking them as a means of tawassul. By examining the principal sources of the Mālikī school, this study further establishes that istishfāʿ from the deceased has long formed part of Mālikī juristic doctrine and has been explicitly addressed and endorsed in the school's classical legal literature.