What is the ruling on the statement that visiting the graves of the awliya (close friends of Allah) and the righteous for the sake of drawing near to Allah or seeking blessing is not shirk (associating partners with Allah)?
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Question:
Some Sufi preachers in their country say that they visit graves to draw near to Allah or for the sake of seeking blessing, and they visit the awliya and the righteous. They tell people, "This is not shirk; rather, they are the awliya of Allah." What is the ruling on this?
Answer:
Who are these people who interpret shirk according to their own desires? Shirk is worshipping other than Allah, or directing any type of worship to other than Allah; that is shirk. They direct this to whatever they want, but that is not within their power. They are changing the facts of the Shari'ah. Yes.
Some Sufi preachers in their country say that they visit graves to draw near to Allah or for the sake of seeking blessing, and they visit the awliya and the righteous. They tell people, "This is not shirk; rather, they are the awliya of Allah." What is the ruling on this?
Answer:
Who are these people who interpret shirk according to their own desires? Shirk is worshipping other than Allah, or directing any type of worship to other than Allah; that is shirk. They direct this to whatever they want, but that is not within their power. They are changing the facts of the Shari'ah. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، ما حكم القول بأن زيارة قبور الأولياء والصالحين للتقرب إلى الله أو من باب البركة ليست شركا؟ — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.