The Doubt Regarding the Worship of Graves

Q: And as for the questioner’s statement: “Those people said, ‘We do not worship them except to bring us closer [to Allah],’” they admitted to worship, but these later people do not say that they worship them; rather, they say that they seek blessing from them?

A: The answer is to say: The criterion is the reality and the meaning, not the difference in words. So if they say, “We do not worship them, we only seek blessing from them,” that does not benefit them as long as they do the actions of the polytheists before them, even if they do not call it worship, but rather call it seeking nearness to Allah through a means or seeking blessing. Clinging to other than Allah, calling upon the dead, the prophets, and the righteous, slaughtering for them, or prostrating to them, or calling for aid from them—all of that is worship, even if they call it service or call it something else, because the criterion is the reality, not the names, as mentioned previously.
Of this nature is the statement of the group who went out with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to Hunayn. When they saw the polytheists hanging their weapons on a tree, they said: “O Messenger of Allah, make for us a Dhat Anwat [a sacred tree] as they have a Dhat Anwat.” The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . He made their statement equivalent to that of the Children of Israel, even though these people said, “Make for us a Dhat Anwat.” He made their saying like the saying of the Children of Israel; because the criterion is the meaning and the realities, not the words.