Asking “Ya Shaykh Madad!”
– Istighatha/Isti`ana
Al-Madad = "Help!"

This Madad was asked by Musa (AS) from his countryman with the word istaghaatha “he asked for help” (28:15)
and by Dhul-Qarnayan using the term "help me" in Surat al-Kahf (a`eenuni) (18:95) which is the same root as "we
turn for help" (nasta`een) in the Fatiha.

Following are proofs from the Sunna for calling out to an invisible helper in a situation of need:

1. Al-Bukhari narrates in his Sahih that our mother Hajar, when she was running in search of water between Safa
and Marwa, heard a voice and called out: "O you whose voice you have made me hear! If there is a ghawth
(help/helper) with you (then help me)!" and an angel appeared at the spot of the spring of Zamzam.

2. Abu Ya`la, Ibn al-Sunni, and al-Tabarani in al-Mu`jam al-Kabir narrated that the Prophet (saws) said: "If one of
you loses something or seeks help or a helper (ghawth), and he is in a land where there is no one to befriend, let
him say: "O servants of Allah, help me! (ya `ibad Allah, aghithuni), for verily Allah has servants whom one does not
see."  Al-Haythami said in Majma` al-Zawa'id (10:132): "The men in its chain of transmission have been declared
reliable despite weakness in one of them."

Another wording:

3. Al-Bayhaqi narrates on the authority of Ibn `Abbas in "Kitab al-Aadaab" (p. 436) and with a second chain
mawquf from Ibn `Abbas in "Shu`ab al-Iman" (1:445-446=1:183 #167; 6:128 #7697) and a third from Ibn Mas`ud in
"Hayat al-Anbiya' ba`da Wafatihim" p. 44: "Allah has angels on the earth - other than the [two] record-keepers -
who keep a record [even] of the leaves that fall on the ground. Therefore, if one of you is crippled in a deserted
land where no-one is in sight, let him cry out: a'înû 'ibâd Allâh rahimakum Allâh, 'Help, O servants of Allah, may
Allah have mercy on you!'  Verily he shall be helped, if God wills."  Ibn Hajar said its chain is fair (isnaduhu hasan)
in "al-amali".

Narrated by al-Tabarani in al-Kabir with a fair chain (according to Ibn Hajar in al-Amali) of sound narrators
according to al-Haythami (10:132), al-Bazzar (#3128) - as cited by al-Shawkani in Tuhfa al-Dhakirin (p. 219=p.
155-156) -, and Ibn Abi Shayba (7:103).

4. Ibn Abi Shayba relates in his "Musannaf" (7:103) from Aban ibn Salih that the Prophet (saws) said: "If one of
you loses his animal or his camel in a deserted land where there is no-one in sight, let him say: "O servants of
Allah, help me! (yâ 'ibâd Allâh a'înûnî), for verily he will be helped."

Al-Zahawi said in al-Fajr al-Sadiq, a book he wrote in refutation of Wahhabism:

<<It is not said that all that is meant by the "servants of Allah" in the hadiths cited above are only angels, or
Muslims among the jinn, or men of the realm of the invisible: for all of these are living. Hence, the hadith would not
give evidence for asking aid from the dead, but this is not the case.  We mention this because there is nothing
explicit in the hadith whereby what is meant by "servants of  Allah" are the categories we mentioned above and
nothing else. Yet even if we were to concede this, the hadith would still be a proof against the Wahhabis from
another standpoint, and that is the calling on someone invisible. The Wahhabis no more allow it than the calling on
the dead.>>

Al-Shawkani also allows the calling on someone invisible: "In the hadith (of a`inu) there is evidence that it is
permissible to ask help from those one does not see among the servants of God, whether angels or good jinn,
and there is nothing wrong in doing it, just as it is permissible for someone to seek the help of human beings if his
mount becomes unmanageable or runs loose." Tuhfat al-Dhakirin p. 155-156.

5. Ahmad relates in his Musnad (4:217) that at the time of the greatest fitna of the Dajjal, when the Muslims will be
at their weakest point, and just before `Isa ibn Maryam descends at the time of salat al-fajr, people will hear a
caller calling out three times: "O people, al-ghawth (the helper) has come to you!"

6. Ibn Kathir in his history, al-Bidaya wal- Nihaya [7:91, Year 18] narrates that `Umar (ra) sought help and relief
from drought and famine in Madina by writing to `Amr ibn al-As and Abu Musa al-Ash`ari in Egypt and Basra
respectively, each with the words, "Yaa ghawthaah li Ummati Muhammad! = Help! Help! for the Community of
Muhammad!" If this is not istighaatha and isti`aana then there is no istighaatha and isti`aana.

Al-Zahawi said in al-Fajr al-Sadiq:

<<Al-Subki, al-Qastallani in al-Mawahib al-laduniyya, al- Samhudi in Tarikh al-Madina, and al-Haythami in al-
Jawhar al- munazzam said that seeking help with the Prophet and other prophets and pious persons, is only a
means of imploring Allah for the sake of their dignity and honor (bi jahihim). The one doing the asking seeks from
the One asked that He assign him aid (ghawth) on behalf of the one higher than him. For the one being asked in
reality is Allah. The Prophet is but the intermediary means (wasita) between the one asking for help and the One
asked in reality. Hence, the help is strictly from Him in its creation (khalqan) and being (ijadan), while the help from
the Prophet is strictly in respect to secondary causation (tasabbuban) and acquisition from Allah (kasban).....

<<As for the invocations of common Muslim people in Arabic like: "O `Abd al-Qadir Gilani look at me (Ya `Abd al-
Qadir adrikni)!" and "O Ahmad al-Badawi give us support (Ya Badawi madad)!" they belong to the figurative
language of the mind just as the application of someone who would say to his food: "Satisfy me!" or to his water:
"Quench my thirst!" or to his medicine: "Heal me!"  The food does not satisfy, nor does the water quench the thirst,
nor the medicine heal.  But the One who is the real Satisfier of our hunger, the Quencher of our thirst and the
Healer of our ills is Allah alone.  The food, the water, the medicine are only the proximate or secondary causes
which custom has established on the surface of things by our mind's regular association of them with certain
concomitant events.>>

Shaykh Khayr al-Din Ramli in his Fatawa Khayriyya (p. 180-181) was asked about "those who say: O Shaykh `Abd
al-Qadir! O Shaykh Ahmad! O Rifa`i! [Give us] something for the sake of Allah (shay'un lillah) O `Abd al-Qadir!
and such, at which time they become greatly entranced and experience states that make them jump up and down
etc. He answered - Allah have mercy on him: 'Know first of all that among the famous rules that are firmly put to
use in the books of the Imams is the rule that matters are judged according to their ends... as taken from the
hadith of the Two Shaykhs al-Bukhari and Muslim: Actions are only according to intentions.... and none denies the
reality of the Sufis except every ignorant, foolish soul.'"

And Allah knows best.


Additional Relevant Narrations
By Raffiq Ahmed
1. Al-Bukhari's narration of the Prophet - Allah bless and greet him - from `Abdullâh Ibn `Umar - Allah be well-
pleased with him -:

"Truly the sun shall draw so near on the Day of Resurrection that  sweat shall reach to the mid-ear, whereupon
(ISTIGHÂTHÛ bi âdam  thumma bi mûsâ thumma bi muHammadin Sallallâhu `alayhi wa sallama)  they shall ASK
HELP from Adam - upon him peace -, then from Musa -  upon him peace - , then from Muhammad - Allah bless
and greet him -  who will intercede (fa yashfa`u)... and that day Allah shall  raise him to an Exalted Station, so that
all those who are  standing [including the unbelievers] shall glorify him (yahmaduhu  ahlul-jam`i kulluhum)." [Sahîh
al-Bukhârî (Qadîm Kutub Khâna, Karachi, 1381H), 1:199 (Cf.  Prof. Tahir-ul-Qadri, `Aqida-e-tawassul, p. )]

Obviously, they are not going to be forgetting Allah on that day.  The people seeking help by these Prophets is
the same as using  them as a means (wasîla) to Allah and the Hadith continues that  the intercession of the
Prophet Muhammad Sallallâhu `alayhi wa  sallam will be accepted. Will those who are against that in this life, be in
favour of it in the next? It is for this reason, that  Ala Hazrat (ra) states: "âj madad mâng un se, âj panâ le un se,
qal na mânenge qayâmat" "Take his madad today, take his pana, it might not be accepted in  qayamat."

2. The following quote is from Shaikh `Ali Mahfuz who died in 1361  (1942 A.D.) and was one of the great `ulama'
of Jami' al-Azhar  (Egypt), who praises Ibn Taymiyya and Muhammad `Abduh very much in  his book Al-ibda'.
Nevertheless, he says in there: "It is not right to say that the great awliya' (rahimahum-Allahu  ta'ala) dispose
worldly affairs after death, such as curing the  ill, rescuing those who are about to be drowned, helping those who  
are against the enemy and having lost things found. It is wrong to  say that, because the awliya are very great,
Allahu ta'ala has  left these tasks to them or they do what they wish or that one who  clings to them will not go
wrong. But whether they are alive or  dead, Allahu ta'ala blesses, among His awliya', the ones whom He  wills, and,
through their karamat, He cures the ill, rescues those  who are about to be drowned, helps those who are fighting
an enemy  and recovers lost things. This is logical. Also Qur'an al-karim  reveals these facts." [Shaikh 'Ali Mahfuz,
Al-ibda', p. 213, Cairo, 1375 (1956 A.D.);  `Abdullah ad-Dasuqi and Yusuf ad-Dajwi, professors at Jami` al- Azhar,
wrote eulogies praising the book at the end of Al-ibda'.  (Cf. The Sunni Path)]

3. Lastly, the Hadith ash-Sharif written in Sahihayn, the two  genuine Hadith books, one by al-Bukhari and the
other by Muslim  states that the Holy Prophet (Sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam)  visited the graves of the martyrs of
Uhud exactly ONE YEAR after  they died. A minbar was BUILT in the graveyard for him to deliver  a sermon. 'Uqba
ibn Amir (radi-Allahu `anh), the relater of the Hadith ash- Sharif, said, 'Rasulullah (sall-Allahu Ta`ala `alaihi wa
sallam),  ascended the minbar. It was the last time I saw him on the minbar.  He declared: "I do not fear whether
you will become polytheists  after I die. I fear that you, because of worldly interests, will  kill one another and thus
be destroyed like ancient tribes." '

The profound scholar Shaykh Sulayman ibn `Abd al-Wahhâb an-Najdî  (rahimah-Allahu ta'ala), the author of "as-
sawâ'iq al-ilâhiyya"  comments on this Hadîth as follows in refutation of his younger  brother and the rebellious
movement started by him in partnership  with the British and al-Sa`ûd family: "Rasulullah (sall-Allahu ta'ala 'alaihi
wa sallam) foretold all  that would happen to his umma till the Resurrection. This sahih  hadith states that his
umma will never worship idols, that he was  assured of it. This hadith ash-Sharif demolishes Wahhabism by the  
roots, for the Wahhabite book claims that the Ummat al- Muhammadiyya worship idols, that Muslim countries are
full of  idols, that tombs are idol-houses. It says that one also becomes a  disbeliever by not believing that he who
expects help or  intercession at shrines is a disbeliever. However, Muslims have  visited graves and asked the
mediation and intercession of awliya'  for centuries. No Islamic scholars have called such Muslims  polytheists; they
regarded them as Muslims." [Sulaiman ibn `Abd al-Wahhab an-Najdi, As-sawa'iq al-ilahiyya fir- raddi `alal-
Wahhabiyya (Nukhbat al-Akbar press, Baghdad, 1306  A.H), p. 44 (Cf. Advice for the Muslim, Cp. 5)]