What is our obligation toward the righteous and the awliya (close friends of Allah)?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, is it not our obligation toward the righteous and the awliya to honor them, elevate their status, and praise them?
The Shaykh:
This is part of their right, but we do not exaggerate in their regard. We do not honor them with excessive honor such that we elevate them to the station of supplication and calling for aid to them. No, this is not their right nor their status. This is exaggeration. So we love them without exaggeration, and we respect them without exaggeration. Yes, we follow their example, and we send mercy upon them without exaggeration. Yes.
The questioner:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success.
The Shaykh:
We do not forbid respecting the righteous and loving them; rather, we command it. But we forbid exaggerating in their regard, supplicating to them other than Allah, and calling for aid to them.
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, is it not our obligation toward the righteous and the awliya to honor them, elevate their status, and praise them?
The Shaykh:
This is part of their right, but we do not exaggerate in their regard. We do not honor them with excessive honor such that we elevate them to the station of supplication and calling for aid to them. No, this is not their right nor their status. This is exaggeration. So we love them without exaggeration, and we respect them without exaggeration. Yes, we follow their example, and we send mercy upon them without exaggeration. Yes.
The questioner:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success.
The Shaykh:
We do not forbid respecting the righteous and loving them; rather, we command it. But we forbid exaggerating in their regard, supplicating to them other than Allah, and calling for aid to them.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، ما واجبنا تجاه الصالحين والأولياء؟ للشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.