If humanity takes precautions to protect its faith from the frivolity of inclination, and reflects on what has reached us from our forefathers, and if we then examine the results that come from following the Book of the Provider of worlds, which falsehood can not affect either from before or behind, our boat will land on the shore of safety.
The aberrant purposes of the irreligious and the atheists made them seize any opportunity to fulfill their desires by interpolating, telling lies and trumping up sayings and biographies so as to calumniate people of Islam and impugn their purity. Those false tales became old in the course of time, to the point where people took their direction only from such people: the ones who were workers of magic, miracles, and augury and who are mentioned in stories, and especially stories attributed to pious people who are free from such things. People then aligned themselves with these people, thinking that they had power and might.
Thereby, their spirits drew distant from God and stopped feeling awe for Him, and so they fell into polytheism and were distanced from Al’lah because of their excesses of faith and their exceeding of the bounds that are decreed for people by God in His Holy Book.
The Almighty God enjoined Adam’s sons to bind themselves to their messengers and to enter into God’s grace by means of their company, in order that each of those noble messengers should become a shining lamp and a light for the hearts of those people whose spirits are bound up with them. By means of this, they would reach knowledge of God; and through the light from the Almighty coming into these messengers’ spirits, those who enter with them into God’s grace can witness Godly perfection and bright lights.
This clarifies for us the Almighty’s saying: “You who believe, see by God’s light and believe in His messenger. He will grant you two portions of His compassion, and make a light for you by which you can go, and will forgive you: Al’lah is Forgiving and Merciful.”
The Holy Qur'an,
Fortress 57, Al-Hadid (Iron), verse 28
Also, it clarifies His saying: “Al’lah and his angels stay in communication with the prophet. You, who believe, communicate with Al’lah through him and fully surrender.”
The Holy Qur'an,
Fortress 33, Al-Ahzab (The Combined Clans), verse 56
So, communication – through the prophet – is really a link and a connection with that pure and noble spirit, the spirit of the messenger (cpth), which is always present in God’s presence. If the spirit of any person is bound to him, the messenger (cpth) will uplift such a spirit to God’s presence, where the messenger’s spirit (cpth) will be like a shining lamp for the spirit that is connected with it, and will be a light for the heart of he or she who communicates himself or herself with God through his companionship.
This is what the believers depended on when entering into the grace of their Provider by keeping the company of good people close to God, who had spirits that were qualified to be lights, and were the means to lead them to the shining lamp, the messenger (cpth). God says: “Those who pray, they seek the means, the closest one, to approach (God). They crave His mercy and fear His punishment; for your Provider’s punishment is to be avoided indeed.”
The Holy Qur'an,
Fortress 17, Al-Isra' (The Night Journey), verse 57
And He says: “…and they turned towards none except God, His messenger and the believers that attained entrance into Him…”
The Holy Qur'an,
Fortress 9, At-Tawba (Repentance), verse 16
Those are the ones who really invoke their Provider. They seek to approach Him by means of the messenger (cpth). They bind themselves to him in order to become near to God. If the messenger (cpth) is not present, they should connect themselves to the nearest good believer. So, they seek the means to approach God through the one that is closest to Him.
Thus, the best reciter of the Qur’an, of the most knowledgeable or discerning person is selected to be a leader through whom people enter into God’s grace, and that is how intercession works and the means for this to occur.
There is no god except Al’lah, so each guide or messenger is only a teacher. The example of the guide in this respect is like that of a boat. It carries those who want to travel, moving them from the seashore to the great ship. The task of the boat is limited to carrying passengers from the seashore to the ship, and nothing more. As for the ship, it moves in the depths of seas that are the seas of knowing and of witnessing Godly perfection. There is only one ship, but the boats which carry people to it are many.
When the guide dies, his function is completed, and so this function moves to another living person who follows them.
God says: “In homes which Al’lah has sanctioned to be lofty for the remembrance of His Name, morning and evening, there are men whom neither trade nor profit can divert from remembering God…”
The Holy Qur'an,
Fortress 24, An-Nur (Light), verse 36-37
The Almighty has ordered all believers to be held and bound to this noble apostle and never separated from him. This meaning is proved to be true by God’s command in the clear verse: “Cling one and all to the rope of Al’lah and never separate…”
The Holy Qur'an,
Fortress 3, Al 'Imran (The Family of 'Imran), verse 103
Never separate from the messenger (cpth), because the rope is but the messenger (cpth) of whom God says: “We sent you but to be a mercy for the whole world.”
The Holy Qur'an,
Fortress 21, Al-Anbiya' (The Prophets), verse 107
The Almighty has not sent the messenger (cpth) for only one nation, because the messenger is a mercy for the whole world. He is a guide for and a saver of all mankind. God says: “It is He that has sent forth into those who directed themselves toward the messenger an apostle of their own that recites to them His revelations, purifies them and makes them understand the Book and the wisdom, though they have been in gross error before, together with others like them who have not yet been enlightened like they have…”: i.e. those that have taken the messenger (cpth) as a leader for him to lead them into God’s presence are also believers, just as much as the first group mentioned at the beginning of the verse.
The Holy Qur'an,
Fortress 62, Al-Jumu'a (The Congregation of Friday), verse 2-3
The phrase: “…who have not yet been enlightened like they have…” concerns time. That is, they will come in times after their time, and they will believe in God and adopt the same course that is within God’s Book. So, the messenger (cpth) will also recite God’s revelations to them during their communication with Him, purify them, and make them understand the Book, the Qur’an, and its wisdom.
These are the believers whose spirits acquire confidence by virtue of their good deeds, their righteousness, and their obedience to their Provider.
So, they enter into Al’lah’s presence with His messenger (cpth) by His leave, where they attain purity.
The Almighty is referring to this when He says: “Oh prophet! We have sent you forth to be a witness, a bearer of good news, a warner, calling (people) to enter into Al’lah’s presence by His leave, and as a shining lamp.”
The Holy Qur'an,
Fortress 33, Al-Ahzab (The Combined Clans), verse 45-46
By means of that lamp, the communicant believer can see the Godly perfection through his illuminated heart, and can see the wisdom behind His commands and the benefits that they contain.
As regards following the guidance of the leaders who follow the messenger (cpth), this is indicated by the noble verse when God says: “Let there become of you a nation that speaks for righteousness, enjoins justice, and forbids evil. Such men are those who have prepared themselves to do good.”
The Holy Qur'an,
Fortress 3, Al 'Imran (The Family of 'Imran), verse 104
After the messenger (cpth), these people call you to adopt the path of righteousness, so if you follow their guidance (which is taken from the messenger and derived only from God’s Book), confidence in God’s satisfaction with you will arise in your spirit. At this point, you will approach Al’lah, the Almighty, and perfection will be imprinted on your spirit due to your nearness to Him.
A person enters into God’s grace by means of the pure and clean spirit of the messenger (cpth) and through the company of a believing person. You bind your spirit to theirs in order to enter with them.
Yet if people were to confine their direction to the apostle, the saint, or the good leader, and turned only towards them, without directing themselves towards God through their company, then that would be nothing other than polytheism, and just like idolatry.
There are those who did not agree to join themselves with the messenger (cpth) and the other followers of God’s messengers as a means to enter God’s grace, and there are those who are excessive in their religion and who thus end up directing their worship towards idols of creatures rather than the Creator (thus falling into polytheism). In order to take a moderate stand in between these two groups, we say: neither were the former right in their denial of the role of the messenger (cpth), and nor were the latter right in their polytheism and turning from God.
The Almighty has referred to this in the Holy Qur’an when He says: “Those who pray seek the means, the closest one, to approach their Provider. They crave His mercy and fear His punishment; for your Provider’s punishment is avoided indeed.”
The Holy Qur'an,
Fortress 17, Al-Isra' (The Night Journey), verse 57
Thus, both of the two aforementioned groups – whether they are those who have been guilty of exaggeration or of negligence – have deviated to the right and left of the straight path, the path of those whom God favors.
The right position is that the believer should enter into God’s grace through companionship with the closest person to Him, taken only from among the living people who are upright and who adhere to the commands of God as mentioned in His Holy Book. In this way, the believer will see God’s light and perfection and His justice, as they will witness with the eye of their own heart that Al’lah alone directs the entire universe by His command alone. Thus they will know, then, in certainty and in truth, that there is no god except Al’lah.