The ruling on leading the prayer for one who seeks nearness to Allah through the dead
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Q360: The questioner says: If there is a person who believes in or acknowledges seeking nearness to Allah through the righteous, is the prayer valid behind him?
A360: It is a condition for the imam to be a Muslim who is upright in his religion, morals, and conduct, and to be a good example in adhering to the Sunnah, avoiding religious innovation, and abandoning shirk (associating partners with Allah) and its means. Therefore, one who adopts seeking nearness to Allah through the righteous, or the awliya (close friends of Allah), or the dead, based on what the worshippers of graves today have become accustomed to, and who uses this or considers it permissible, the prayer is not valid behind him; because his creed is flawed. If he seeks nearness to Allah through the righteous in the sense that he asks them
for his needs and the relief of his distress, and calls out to them by their names and seeks their aid, then he is one who commits major shirk (associating partners with Allah) that expels him from the religion, and he is not a Muslim, let alone be taken as an imam for a mosque. It is obligatory for the Muslims to be aware of this, and not to place before their religion and their prayers anyone but one whose creed is sound, whose conduct is upright according to the Book and the Sunnah, and who avoids innovations and open sinfulness. Even the open sinner’s leading of the prayer is not valid according to many scholars, if his sinfulness is practical. How much more so for the open sinner or innovator who has a flaw in his creed? This is more severe, especially if he is among those we mentioned earlier, those who seek nearness to Allah through the dead and ask them for their needs; this is major shirk, and there is no prayer behind him until he repents to Allah and returns to the fold of tawhid (the oneness of Allah) and the sincerity of worship to Allah (Mighty and Majestic). We ask Allah to save the Muslims by their knowledge of their religion, and to grant them adherence to the Sunnah of their Prophet, and the abandonment of what contradicts it in the form of innovations, superstitions, and newly invented matters, which they thought were part of the religion and believed to be part of the religion, while they are far, far removed from the religion.
A360: It is a condition for the imam to be a Muslim who is upright in his religion, morals, and conduct, and to be a good example in adhering to the Sunnah, avoiding religious innovation, and abandoning shirk (associating partners with Allah) and its means. Therefore, one who adopts seeking nearness to Allah through the righteous, or the awliya (close friends of Allah), or the dead, based on what the worshippers of graves today have become accustomed to, and who uses this or considers it permissible, the prayer is not valid behind him; because his creed is flawed. If he seeks nearness to Allah through the righteous in the sense that he asks them
for his needs and the relief of his distress, and calls out to them by their names and seeks their aid, then he is one who commits major shirk (associating partners with Allah) that expels him from the religion, and he is not a Muslim, let alone be taken as an imam for a mosque. It is obligatory for the Muslims to be aware of this, and not to place before their religion and their prayers anyone but one whose creed is sound, whose conduct is upright according to the Book and the Sunnah, and who avoids innovations and open sinfulness. Even the open sinner’s leading of the prayer is not valid according to many scholars, if his sinfulness is practical. How much more so for the open sinner or innovator who has a flaw in his creed? This is more severe, especially if he is among those we mentioned earlier, those who seek nearness to Allah through the dead and ask them for their needs; this is major shirk, and there is no prayer behind him until he repents to Allah and returns to the fold of tawhid (the oneness of Allah) and the sincerity of worship to Allah (Mighty and Majestic). We ask Allah to save the Muslims by their knowledge of their religion, and to grant them adherence to the Sunnah of their Prophet, and the abandonment of what contradicts it in the form of innovations, superstitions, and newly invented matters, which they thought were part of the religion and believed to be part of the religion, while they are far, far removed from the religion.
Source
www.alifta.gov.sa
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.