Erasing the Accusation of Shirk

035.022 Nor are the living equal with the dead. Lo! Allah maketh whom He
will to hear. Thou canst not reach those who are in the graves.
035.023 Thou art but a warner.
These verses prove that the dead cannot hear in their graves. So when you go
to the graves of the Prophets and the pious, how can you go with the
intention that they will hear you? How can you claim this when Allah
Azawajal has clearly informed us that those who are in the graves cannot
hear? Do you understand what cannot means!?
Qadhi: Brother Ali I have told you before that this verse you have presented
does not go against what I am saying. I understand and believe that it is
Allah who grants the deceased the power to hear, and that they will only
hear if Allah Most High wills, but this does not prove that the deceased
cannot hear in their graves. We have already discussed this topic and I have
provided you with all the necessary verses to prove that the deceased can
hear in the grave. The answer to your own question is within the verse you
presented: in the verses you recited, Allah Azawajal is addressing Rasulullah
(may Allah bless him and grant him peace) and Allah Azawajal is telling
him that he cannot make the people of the grave hear: only Allah has the
ability to do this. This is what we believe. We do not believe that it is in our
power to enable the Prophet’s and pious to hear, only Allah creates this
ability as Allah Ta’la says in the Qur’an:
035.022 Lo! Allah maketh whom He will to hear.
Even the living cannot hear without Allah’s will!
008.021 Be not as those who say, we hear, and they hear not.
008.022 Lo! the worst of beasts in Allah's sight are the deaf, the dumb, who
have no sense.
008.023 Had Allah known of any good in them He would have made them
hear, but had He made them hear they would have turned away, averse.
In these verses Allah Azawajal has called those who do not believe in His
message as ‘deaf,’ though if Allah Azawajal chooses to do so he can make
them hear and therefore they will believe and have faith in His message. So
we understand from this that the disbelievers are ‘deaf,’ but if Allah wills He
can make them ‘hear.’ These verses are talking of the living, so obviously if
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