The Shaykh mentions a discussion that took place between him and a Shaykh from the Sufis who permit calling for aid from other than Allah

The Shaykh : And so, when I answered some of the Shaykhs regarding some of the imams of the mosques in this specific issue, and he stated explicitly that there is no objection to a person calling out to Shaykh Abdul Qadir from here in Syria, that there is no objection to this calling out, and then why this calling out? Does he hear? He answered that he hears. And this hearing that he attributed to this wali (close friend of Allah) is not for the Master of the Prophets, Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). That is because the Messenger (peace be upon him) informed in the authentic hadith when he said in his conclusion: , and in a narration: . They said: How is that when you have died? He said: . So the Messenger (peace be upon him) said: The prayer is presented to me or reaches me. He did not say I hear it. And this prayer is a supplication to Allah (Mighty and Majestic), a humble plea to Allah to send blessings upon the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) and to increase him in connection and status and elevation with Him. So the Messenger (peace be upon him) indicates in this hadith that he does not hear it, but rather it reaches him. And the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) confirmed that in the other hadith by saying: . So this is an explicit text as well; because the prayers of the worshippers upon him, the Messenger does not hear them, but rather they reach him. I wonder, does the Messenger (peace be upon him) hear the requests directed to him, which are requests that are not in accordance with the Shari'ah, by calling for aid from him and invoking him, as they say in some of their poems: "O Abu al-Zuhra, aid me, my soul is a ransom for you." Do you think the Messenger of Allah hears this, but does not hear our saying "O Allah, send blessings upon Muhammad"? This prayer reaches him indirectly. As for the calling for aid from him other than Allah (Mighty and Majestic), does he hear it? This is the speech of one who invalidates what is said. If the Messenger (peace be upon him) does not hear, then even the sending of blessings upon him, let alone calling for aid from him, which is not permissible, how do those righteous dead hear the calls for aid of those who call for aid from them other than Allah (Mighty and Majestic)? I said to the Shaykh this and more, and he insisted and was stubborn. I said: What is the benefit of this calling for aid? Suppose he hears, and you say that he does not harm or benefit, so why do they call out to them? If they believe in the depths of their hearts that they do not harm or benefit, I believe that the sane person is created with the disposition not to call for aid from one who does not aid. The clearest example of that is if a sane person says to this wall next to him: "O wall, aid me." Does a fool in the world do this? Of course not, because he believes that this wall is truly deaf, in reality, it does not harm or benefit. Do you see, is there not a difference between calling for aid from a wall, which no fool in the world does, no matter how deep his foolishness, and calling for aid from a wali (close friend of Allah) or a prophet and a righteous dead person? There is no doubt that there is a difference in the hearts of those who call for aid from the prophets and the righteous and those who do not call for aid from walls and stones and the like. What is this difference? It is that it has settled in their souls that there is a secret that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) placed in these awliya (close friends of Allah) and the righteous, so that when they are called out to other than Allah (Mighty and Majestic), the purpose of this calling is achieved. Some of them permit this secret and state it explicitly. There are books that state explicitly and say: They claimed and fabricated against Shaykh Abdul Qadir al-Jilani (may Allah have mercy on him) that he said: "If you have a need to Allah, turn to me wherever you are." Then they describe a system we follow, and praise be to Allah, as if they are saying: Walk seven steps toward the direction of Shaykh Abdul Qadir.
The student : ... .

The Shaykh: Yes.
The student : ... .

The Shaykh : It is an authentic narration. And after a step, walk toward him, and I do not know, and the conclusion, and call out to him and ask for the need you want, and it will be fulfilled for you. Such things are scattered in the bellies of books, as it is said, and they have entered the innermost parts of their hearts and taken their place and settled in them. So they became, when they call out to him other than Allah, not believing that they are calling out to one who does not hear, does not harm, and does not benefit. No matter what they tell us that he does not harm or benefit, if they were so, they would not have called out to him other than Allah (Mighty and Majestic), like the example we gave earlier regarding the wall. Nevertheless, I said to that Shaykh, and I thought I would put a stone in his mouth, I said: If these people believe that those they call out to other than Allah (Mighty and Majestic) do not benefit or harm, as is the actual reality of the case, do you think it is permissible, O honorable Shaykh, for the one calling for aid from these dead people to say to so-and-so: "O Abdul Qadir, O you who do not harm or benefit, aid me." Is this permissible? He said: It is permissible. This is what confounds a person. How does one argue with these people? If you believe he does not harm or benefit, how do you call for aid from him? This is major shirk (associating partners with Allah), and if a person falls into it, the testimony that there is no god but Allah does not benefit him absolutely. So the first type of shirk that the Messenger (peace be upon him) ordered us to avoid, the first thing he ordered us in this authentic hadith, is shirk of lordship. And I said that this is a lesser danger, because most nations do not fall into it except by the will of Allah. But the second and third shirk is what every Muslim must be cautious of, because most people do not know the following details.