“It is You we worship and You we ask for help.” (Surah Al-Fatiha). “All help is from Allah alone.” (Surah Aal Imran). This is the foundational belief of Ahlus Sunnah. Commonly, when a believer expects or seeks material and non-material help from creation, it does not conflict with the aforementioned creed. The exegesis of these verses, as can be understood from Imam Maturidi’s Ta’wilat Ahl al-Sunnah, is that ultimately all material and non-material benefits are obtained from Allah, and everything else is merely a means.
المؤمن لا يطمعُ في الحقيقة بأحدٍ غير اللَّه، ولا يرفع إليه الحوائج، ولَا يخاف إلا من الوجه الذي يخشى أن اللَّه جعله سببًا لوصول بلاءٍ من بلاياه إليه على يديه؛ فعلى ذلك يخافُه، أو يرجو أن يكون اللَّه تعالى جعلَ سببَ ما دفعه إليه على يديه، فبذلك يرجو ويطمع، (تأويلات أهل السنة)
(The believer, in reality, does not aspire to anyone other than Allah, nor does he raise his needs to them, nor does he fear except from the aspect he apprehends Allah has made a cause for one of His trials to reach him through them; thus, he fears it. Or he hopes that Allah, the Exalted, has made the cause of what He has bestowed upon him to be through them, so for that, he hopes and aspires.)
(Ta’wilat Ahl al-Sunnah)
وَٱللَّهُ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَیۡءࣲ قَدِیرٌ﴾ [البقرة ٢٨٤]﴿
(And Allah is over all things competent.) [Al-Baqarah 284]
The Holy Quran says Allah is capable of all things.
Material and non-material matters are all equal to Him. No material or non-material phenomenon occurs here without His will. Everything in the universe submits to Allah's supreme power (Sharh al-Aqa'id).
(ولا يخرج عن علمه وقدرته شيء) فهو بكل شيء عليم وعلى كل شيء قدير(شرح العقائد)
(And nothing is outside His knowledge and His power) so He is All-Knowing of everything and All-Powerful over everything. (Sharh al-Aqa'id)
This is the belief of Ahlus Sunnah. Righteous individuals who have reached the highest level of Tawakkul (reliance on Allah), asking everything from Allah alone and not engaging with means in any way, can be seen in the Islamic world. Imam Ahmad narrates from Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him): Seeing her husband returning home in despair, without any means to feed his wife and children, the wife placed a container under the millstone to collect flour and lit the oven. She prayed, "O Allah, provide us with food." After the dua, when she looked at the container, she found it full of dough for pathiri (a type of flatbread) and the oven full of chapati. When her husband returned, he asked, "Did you receive anything?" His wife replied, "We received from our Lord." When this incident was narrated to the Prophet ﷺ, he said that if the container had not been lifted, it would have continued to fill with food until the Day of Resurrection.
وَعَنْهُ، قَالَ: «دَخَلَ رَجُلٌ عَلَى أَهْلِهِ، فَلَمَّا رَأَى مَا بِهِمْ مِنَ الْحَاجَةِ خَرَجَ إِلَى الْبَرِيَّةِ، فَلَمَّا رَأَتِ امْرَأَتُهُ قَامَتْ إِلَى الرَّحَى فَوَضَعَتْهَا، وَإِلَى التَّنُّورِ، فَسَجَرَتْهُ ثُمَّ قَالَتْ: اللَّهُمَّ ارْزُقْنَا، فَنَظَرَتْ فَإِذَا الْجَفْنَةُ قَدِ امْتَلَأَتْ. قَالَ: وَذَهَبَتْ إِلَى التَّنُّورِ، فَوَجَدَتْهُ مُمْتَلِئًا. قَالَ: فَرَجَعَ الزَّوْجُ، قَالَ: أَصَبْتُمْ بَعْدِي شَيْئًا؟ قَالَتِ امْرَأَتُهُ: نَعَمْ، مِنْ رَبِّنَا، وَقَامَ إِلَى الرَّحَى، فَذُكِرَ ذَلِكَ لِلنَّبِيِّ ﷺ، فَقَالَ: «أَمَا إِنَّهُ لَوْ لَمْ يَرْفَعْهَا لَمْ تَزَلْ تَدُورُ إِلَى يَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ»». رَوَاهُ أَحْمَدُ.
(And from him, he said: "A man entered upon his family, and when he saw their need, he went out to the wilderness. When his wife saw [this], she went to the millstone and set it up, and to the oven and lit it. Then she said: 'O Allah, provide for us.' She looked, and behold, the bowl was full. He said: And she went to the oven and found it full. He said: The husband returned and said: 'Did you get anything after I left?' His wife said: 'Yes, from our Lord.' He went to the millstone. This was mentioned to the Prophet (ﷺ), and he said: 'Indeed, if she had not lifted it, it would have kept turning until the Day of Resurrection.'" Narrated by Ahmad.)
Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) introduces the high station of Tawakkul where a problem of lacking material food was presented before Allah, and pathiri and flour were obtained directly from Allah. Thus, there is a group in Islamic history that reached the high station of Tawakkul, entrusting everything to Allah, and another group that fulfilled their needs by engaging with means. The understanding of all of them is that all material and non-material things are subject to Allah's power, and everything else is merely a means. The stance of Ahlus Sunnah is that all material and non-material things can be asked directly from Allah, and also from creation with the understanding that they are means. But the modern innovatory view is that Allah has no power in material matters, and that material ability belongs to creation.
Allah's Power: Wahhabism, Shi'ism, Mu'tazilism Stances
"Can you ask Allah for ten rupees?!" "Whoever asks thus is a Kafir (disbeliever)." These are words Faisal Mawlawi confidently stood up and said while responding to a Sunni worker's question at a Kadampazhippuram Wisdom Mujahid face-to-face meeting. He quoted a prominent Imam's statement:
“.من شبه الله بخلقه فقد كفر”.
(Whoever likens Allah to His creation has disbelieved.)
"The ability for material help is exclusive to creation. Therefore, Allah cannot give ten rupees. Accordingly, one who asks Allah for ten rupees has likened Allah to creation. Thus, one who requests material help from Allah is outside the fold of religion." (This is the essence of what he said).
Look how dangerous this argument is! Through their self-concocted argument "Non-material aid should be sought only from Allah," which they devised to brand the Imams and the Muslim Ummah as polytheists for performing Istighatha (seeking help from other than Allah), they end up questioning Allah's Qudrah (Power). In the Hadith of Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him) quoted above, we were introduced to a woman who reached a high station of Tawakkul, asking Allah for the material need of food. Isn't ten rupees similar? For those who comprehend the clear Quranic statement "And Allah is over all things competent" (والله على كل شيء قدير), this is not an issue. Therefore, seeking material and non-material aid directly from Allah, and seeking it from creation with the understanding that they are means, is indeed Tawhid (monotheism) and part of Islam.
The Wahhabi argument that Allah cannot intervene in material matters resonates with some other factions that have deviated from Ahlus Sunnah.
Mu'tazilites
Sharh al-Aqa'id, which explains the beliefs of Ahlus Sunnah, states:
ولا يخرج عن علمه وقدرته شيء) فهو بكل شيء عليم وعلى كل شيء قدير
(And nothing is outside His knowledge and His power) so He is All-Knowing of everything and All-Powerful over everything.
والبلخي على أنه لا يقدر على مثل مقدور العبد وعامة المعتزلة أنه لا يقدر على نفس مقدور العبد
(Al-Balkhi [maintained] that He is not capable of [doing] something similar to what a servant is capable of, and the majority of the Mu'tazilites [maintained] that He is not capable of [doing] the exact same thing a servant is capable of.)
The argument of Al-Balkhi, a Mu'tazili scholar, is that Allah cannot engage in [actions] similar to human capabilities. Another group of Mu'tazili scholars says that Allah is not capable of intervening in the actions a servant is currently performing.
Shi'a
One group of Shi'a argues that Allah cannot exert dominance over the capabilities of creation. This is one of the major differences between Ahlus Sunnah and the Shi'a.
الرابع منها أن الله تعالى قادر على كل شيء ، خالف الشيخ أبو جعفر الطوسي والشريف المرتضى وجمع كثير من الإمامية في ذلك ، فإنهم قالوا : إن الله لا يقدر على : عين مقدور العبد ، ويكذبهم قوله تعالى ( وَاللهُ عَلَى كل شيء قدير ) وهو كاف لتكذيبهم .
(مختصر التحفة الاثني عشرية )
(The fourth among them is that Allah, the Exalted, is capable of all things. Sheikh Abu Ja'far al-Tusi, Sharif al-Murtada, and a large group of the Imamiyyah disagreed with this, for they said: Indeed, Allah is not capable of the exact [same] thing a servant is capable of. His statement, the Exalted, (وَاللهُ عَلَى كل شيء قدير) 'And Allah is over all things competent,' refutes them, and it is sufficient for their refutation.)
(Mukhtasar al-Tuhfah al-Ithna 'Ashariyyah)
In short, it can be said that the modern Wahhabi argument—that non-material powers belong to Allah and material powers belong to creation—is another version of the erroneous arguments of past deviated sects. What the Wahhabis are currently propagating is a creed contrary to the clear statements of the Holy Quran and the stance of Ahlus Sunnah, an error that occurred when they set out to brand traditional Ulama (scholars) as polytheists. We can only hope that they will come to their senses at some point through the ages.
