Victory Lies in Tawheed
Ibn Taymiyyah said, 'They do it (i.e., call upon
the dead) at many occasions as a habit and self-imposed hardship until when an
enemy outside of the Muslim Sharee'ah approached Damascus - they went out
invoking the dead near the graves, whom they anticipated to dispel their
hardships and some of the poets said, 'O you, who fear the Tartars, seek refuge
with the grave of Abu Umar.' Or he said, 'Seek refuge with the grave of Abu
Umar, he will relieve you from harms.' I told them, 'These whom you invoke for
help, even if they were with you in fighting, they would be defeated, just like
those who were defeated in the battle of Uhud for, it had been decreed that the
army would loose because of the reasons that lead to the defeat and due to the
Wisdom of Allah in it. Therefore, the people of religion and understanding did
not fight at that time because it was not a legal fighting legislated by Allah
and His Messenger.
And when there results evil and corruption and the absence of the desired type
of victory from the fighting, then there is neither any reward of the world nor
of the Hereafter for the one who knows this. (However) Many of those who deemed
that this was a legislated fighting will be rewarded for their intention.
It was after this that we began ordering the people with sincerity of the
Religion for Allah and invoking Him alone and not invoking a near Angel or a
Prophet that was sent. Allah said on the Day of Badr, 'When you sought aid from
your Lord and He responded to you.' And Allah's Messenger (sallallahu
alaihe wa-sallam) used to say on the
Day of Badr, 'O Eternal (Hayy), O Maintainer (Qayyoom), there is none worthy of
worship except You, I invoke you by your Mercy' and in another words, '…rectify
my affair, all of it, and do not leave me to depend upon myself for even the
blinking of an eye, and nor to depend upon anyone from your creation.'
So, when the people's affairs were corrected and they were truthful in their
seeking victory over the enemy from their Lord, then the Tartars were never
defeated in such a matter before that. So when the Tawheed of Allah and
obedience to His Messenger is established, Allah gives victory to His Messenger
and the believers in the worldly life and on the Day when the witnesses wills
stand (i.e. the Day of Judgment)…' [Ar-Rad ala al-Bakri]
