A Study of Idolatry Polytheism in Intercession

The first accusation leveled against Muslims who have not accepted Wahabism is deification of something or someone other than Allah. They have taken recourse to different reasons which can be summed up into two explanations. First, they have made use of analogy (qiyas) in a way such that polytheists are the main group as compared to Muslims who are viewed as a secondary group. They extend to Muslims the rules which apply to polytheists. Second, they use du'a and its relationship with worship. These two explanations also apply to intercession and shirk of the polytheists are said to be because of worshipping their deities from whom they seek intercession. Since seeking intercession is a kind of request or du'a, it is therefore considered to be an act of worship and it is counted as deification of someone other than God. But these two explanations are faced with multiple problems because Muslims' behaviors are different from those of polytheists in three ways. The request made from an idol or to consider the intercessor (intermediary) as an independent cause and to worship him as a deity are the main differences of idolatrous and non-idolatrous practices. The second is also contradicted by the very fact that people turn to one another for help in their lives and also some companions sought help from the dead. In fact, seeking intercession is not counted as deification of the intercessor because he who seeks intercession does not intend to consider the intercessor as his deity.