The Shaykh’s mention of the doubt of those who seek nearness to Allah through the persons of the prophets, their status, and the status of the righteous.

The Shaykh : If we want to guide people to this prescribed seeking of nearness and to call them away from this impermissible seeking of nearness, they rush to say—and here is the wonder of wonders—they say, "My brother, if you have a need with a king, an emir, or a minister, can you address him face to face, or must you have an intermediary between you and him?" I say, ignoring the point, that this intermediary is necessary. The poor man, in his ignorance, negligence, and foolishness, thinks that the argument has been established against us. When we turn back to say to him, "My brother, I am asking you now: if you have two emirs or two ministers, or any of these great heads who are ... between them and the people, if ... an emir is such that the general public or an individual from the people cannot speak to him face to face, as the Companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did with the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), and as the people in the time of 'Umar ibn al-Khattab also addressed him face to face, until some contemporary person mistakenly said that he was the first democrat in Islam—a foreign expression and an incorrect application to a Muslim—the important thing is, look, is this emir whom you address directly without an intermediary better for you, or is that emir of yours?" The poor man cannot but tell the truth of the matter. He says, "This is the emir we speak to ... without an intermediary, without a barrier; he is better for us."
So we return and say to this poor man: You are not satisfied to liken Allah to the just emir whom the subjects and every individual among them speak to without an intermediary. You refuse to liken Allah to this just emir, and even if you did liken Him to him, you would have committed disbelief. Yet you refuse to liken Him to the just emir and resort to likening Him to the tyrannical emir.
If such a likeness is associated with seeking nearness, there is no doubt that it is shirk (associating partners with Allah). And now in the Islamic world ... written in books, some of which are called "Dala'il al-Khayrat" and some "Afdal al-Dala'il" and similar to that from the many names, there is seeking of nearness to Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) through Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). What type of seeking of nearness do they mean? The seeking of nearness that Imam al-Shawkani and his like stopped at, where the text came, my brother, like this, so we draw near to Allah through ...? Or do they mean this seeking of nearness that we always and forever hear from them ... that one speaks to the emir only through an intermediary, so the Lord of the worlds, especially since they sometimes include in that the false expression: "We are people of sins and disobedience, and we cannot speak to Allah except through a righteous man." We say to them at that time: Where are you from the saying of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) The scholars of tafsir (Qur'anic exegesis) mentioned in the reason for the revelation of this verse that a Bedouin came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and said, "O Messenger of Allah, is our Lord near so that we speak to Him in confidence, or far so that we call out to Him?" So the answer came, to the end of the verse.
And this nearness was also mentioned in the hadith of Abu Musa al-Ash'ari, which al-Bukhari and Muslim narrated in their Sahihs, that the Companions were with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) on a journey, and when they ascended a high place, they would glorify Allah, and when they descended into a valley, they would praise Allah and raise their voices with that. So the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said, Have mercy on yourselves . So is one of His servants who is at this nearness in need of the mediation of an intermediary? Far be it from Allah. So in brief, we say that seeking of nearness is of two types: a type about which there is disagreement, and the correct view is that it is not prescribed because it is contrary to the Sunnah; and a type which is shirk itself, which is associated with the justification of its permissibility by analogizing the Creator to the created being ... and I wish it were an analogy to the righteous created being, for all of it is disbelief, because Allah says ... and the established prayer, give Muhammad the intercession and the excellence.