Ali Ibn Abi Talib - Volume 1 of 2

420 The oath of allegiance to 'Ali, his characteristics & his way oflife
it, for which you travel like hajj; and do not imitate the Jews and
Christians, for they do that, and it has led them to exaggeration and
going to extremes in praising the deceased, to the extent that they
made the Messiah (peace be upon him) a god. The Prophet 1%)
wamed his Companions against that, saying: "Do not praise me as
the Christians praised the son of Maryam, for I am only His slave.
Say: The slave of Allah and His ~essen~er."~~~
If this is prohibited for the grave of the Prophet (gJ- the
noblest of creation before Allah (g), the leader of the first and the
last, the best of all creation, the one whose intercession is most hoped
for before Allah (&) on the Day of Judgement - then what about
the graves of those who are of lesser status, such as the 'saints' and
the righteous? Taking their graves as places of regular gathering is a
violation of this prohibition. It is like going against the Prophet's
command, which Allah (B) warned about in this verse: (And let
those who oppose the Messenger's [Muhammad] commandment
[i.e., his Sunnah - legal ways, orders, acts of worship, statement,
etc.] [among the sects] beware lest some Fimah [disbelief, trials,
afflictions, earthquakes, killing, overpowered by a tyrant, etc.] befall
them or a painful torment be inflicted on them.) (Qur'an 24: 63)
This is the way of the best of generations. The one who goes
against them, thinking that he is doing acts of worship and drawing
close to Allah (B), is doing one of two things: either he is
introducing innovation wrongfully, or he is claiming that he has
surpassed them in virtue and knowledge. Imam M2lik (may Allah
have mercy on him) used to say: "Whoever introduces anything to
this Ummah that its early generations did not do is claiming that the
Messenger of AUah (g) betrayed the religion, because Allah (&)
says: (This day, I have perfected your religion for YOU.) (Qur'an 5: 3)
So whatever was not part of the religion of Islam then cannot he part
of the religion of Islam today."354 He also used to say: "And the