When the phases of man are told in the holy Quran, the phase in the mothers uterus is also included. (1) A baby in the mothers uterus, especially when it is given life, he/she steps into the area of existence, in other words, into the humanity.
In some hadiths, the phase of the mothers uterus is attracted attention and the following is stated:
All of your creation happens in your mothers uterus in forty days. And it becomes a clot of blood in another forty days and becomes a piece of flesh in another forty days. Then, an angel is sent and the soul is blown..(2)
As it is mentioned in the hadiths, when the soul is given to the child, he reaches a certain level of humanity.
So, we should understand that when the child is born alive and dies after that, in Paradise he will reach his parents as a child and have the affection of their parenthood. Worldly treatment of it is not different from the treatment of an adult.
The great Hanafi scholar Kasani reports from Imam Yusuf, A baby who is born dead is washed and named. However, funeral prayer is not performed(3)
The Prophet Mumammed explains the wisdom of naming children as follows: You will be called by your names and your fathers names, so have good names(4)
1. Surah Hajj, 5
2.Bukhari, Badu`lHalk: 6
3.Badayiu`s-Sanayi, 1:302
4.Abu Dawud,Adab:70
Reference: Mehmed Paksu Çağın Getirdiği Sorular
FAQ in the category of Shafaat-Intercession
ANSWER 1 & 2
Seeking assistance is something and wasila (tawassul) is something else. Seeking assistance means asking for help. Wasila (tawassul) is a means to the end.
It is not permissible to ask for help from non-living things or a creature without intelligence even if it has a lot of service like the sun or the moon, even if it is holy like the Kaaba and the Black Stone (Hajar al-Aswad).
As for asking for help from people with intelligence, if the person is not a believer and a person with good deeds, it is not permissible to ask for help from him whether he is present or not. However, if he is a person with good deeds it is permissible to ask for help from him in order to ask intercession (shafa’ah), whether in his presence or near his grave.
Although the dead person has gone to the world of barzakh (veil), he has a kind of life peculiar to him. Our Prophet (PBUH) stated the following: "Prophets are alive in their graves." (Ibn Majah, Janaiz 65) Another evidence that prophets are alive in their graves is that Hazrat Prophet (pbuh) met the spirits of all of the prophets in Masjid al-Aqsa and greeted every prophet he met and those prophets replied his greeting. He also said the following about the polytheists who died during the Battle of Badr: "You cannot hear more than those; but they cannot answer.”
According to the people of tariqah (religious order) today, the help of a wali (saint) with a rank, whether he is dead or far away, can be asked for. He has the authority to help. Especially the people of tasarruf (authorized to do extraordinary things) can help both when they are alive and after they die; their help goes on.
As for wasila, as we have just mentiond, it is something to be used as a means to reach the end. There are some kinds of wasila:
1- To use the names of Allah for tawassul: Ibn Majah narrated the following from Hazrat Aisha: ‘The Prophet said the following in a supplication, " O Allah, I ask from you for the sake of your clean, nice and holy name"’
2- To make the supplication of the person as a wasila for whom tawassul is asked.
3- To make tawassul by using the personality of a great man with good deeds as an intermediary. For instance, to say something like ‘O Allah! I make the Prophet or Hazrat Abu Bakr a wasila in order to realize this wish of mine. Hazrat Umar made Hazrat Abbas (the Prophet’s uncle) a wasila in the supplication for rain by saying: “O Allah! We make the Prophet’s uncle a wasila, send us rain." (Bukhari).
4- To make tawassul by using the good deeds as an intermediary: For instance, to say something like “O Allah! I make this hajj or worship that I performed for you a wasila; relieve me of this misfortune or trouble”.
The kinds of wasila we listed above are present in Islam. It is not possible to deny them. The person to be made a wasila does not necessarily have to be superior to the person making tawassul. The Prophet (PBUH) said to Hazrat Umar, who wanted permission to go and make umrah, “Brother! Do not forget to pray for us”. He also ordered Hazrat Umar to tell Uways al-Qarani to pray for him. However, to imagine the prophet or any person independently and ask his help may cause a person to become an unbeliever. One should be careful about it. That is, it is permissible to think and to know that that person is a beloved slave of Allah and he does those things by the permission of Allah and to ask.
According to Ahlu Sunnah scholars, it is permissible to make tawassul as long as one does not go beyond it.
Those who regard wasila as completely haram are kharijites and and those who imitate them.
The information that angels protect people is present in the Quran itself: “For each (such person) there are (angels) in succession, before and behind him: they guard him by command of Allah”(ar-Rad, 13/11). That truth is pointed out in the verse.
The protection of the angels is not polytheism, similarly, the help and protection of other creatures should not be polytheism. However, we should not raise them from the level of being a means, a cause to the level of creation. It is a necessity of our belief that “there is no real creator other than Allah in the universe.”
Is there mediation, wasila in religion?
Wisdom is one of the indispensable elements of life and success; it is also a leaven and an important law in the management and control of all of the beings.
Men make achievements and maintain them by observing that rule and principle called wisdom.
Wisdom makes cause, means, wasila necessary between the Creator and the creatures.
The loftiness and greatness of the creator, the relationship and the balance among the beings are related to wisdom. In addition, the fact that beings serve as proof to their creator, the fact that they are searched and studied like a book by qualified people, and the most important of all, the fact that men are tested and tried for their achievements in the world and in the hereafter, depend on wisdom and a serious relationship with wisdom.
Men who have been given wisdom are the most honorable and valuable beings.
Based on this principle, the general term denoting the phenomenon of relationship between beings, things, man and the creator is wisdom.
In the connections between non-living things and living things,
in the veils between being created and creating,
in the causes between illness and health,
in slavery and its consequences,
in the relationship between conveying the message and guidance,
in the consequences and relationships of agriculture, trade, art and worship, wisdom is essential; and the causes, wasilas and means are the prerequisites of wisdom and they will always be present naturally.
Here, although the existence of means is necessary in terms of wisdom due to divine power and greatness, the oneness and majesty of Allah eliminates their effects. Wisdom necessitates that they remain only as means.
So, means are an essential of creation due to Allah’s name, the Wise.
So, the means like those are existent and necessary in our religion naturally.
For instance, the means of hidayah (guidance) are prophets.
The means of Allah’s orders to His prophets are the angels.
The means of pre-eternal speech are the Books and Pages.
The means of manifestations are miracles and arts.
The means of forgiveness and reward are bounties and Paradise.
The means of suffering and punishment are measures and Hell.
The means of worshipping and slavery are worships.
The means of approaching Allah are knowledge and taqwa (piety).
So, there is no place, state and time without means.
The most important point of the things that we have mentioned so far is as follows: Those means should not be something more than a wasila; they should be transparent and decent; they should not hide and cover the realities; in particular, they should strengthen not break the relationship between the slave and Allah.
If the means that exist between the realities and the people as a necessity of wisdom become dense and break the connection, then wisdom disappears and obstacles emerge. The means loses its property of being a means.
For instance, if a teacher enters between a mathematics book and the students, he integrates the students with the book. He increases the love. He also strengthens knowledge. Teachers form a great amount as means.
Artists are means of transferring the skill between the apprentices and art. Otherwise the arts and skills would cease and die.
Similarly, great religious people are transparent means to ensure and maintain the relationship between Allah and the slave. If they stop acting as intermediaries, the slave will spoil the relationship and break the connection.
However, being an intermediary is not something easy. The most important thing is to be capable and qualified.
That is, a teacher should act as an intermediary between the mathematics book and the student. However, if the teacher is a music teacher, it won’t do any good.
A doctor, who is a transparent means, should act as an intermediary between the patient and the illness in terms of wisdom. However, if an engineer instead of a doctor acts as an intermediary, he will only serve the angel of death.
Glasses become intermediaries between the eyes and things. Hearing aids become intermediaries between the ears and the sounds. As intermediaries, they serve those with ordinary eyes and ears to see and hear better.
Similarly, if qualified and capable people become intermediaries between the realities and ordinary people, they increase those people’s knowledge and virtues. Their spiritual lives become orderly and tidy. Ordinary people cannot see the naked realities and cannot perceive them. They can understand the realities only through some means.
The similes, metaphor and usual examples in the Quran are holy and transparent means like eyeglasses or binoculars between men and the realities that are difficult to perceive.
Therefore, to deny the means (wasila) means to deny wisdom, help, benefit, order, goodness and affair. It is an attitude contrary to creation and reality.
However, as there are always exceptions and misuse, the means deteriorated and misused in time; and bad examples reached present time. While it is necessary to correct, put into order and change them, it will be consciencelessness to wear mediation down and to deny it wholly and radically.
It will be a great mistake to prefer its demolition although it is possible to correct it.
So, mediation is a divine approbation that establishes the connection with reality like transparent glass, and that puts the relationships in order.
As it is present everywhere, there is and will be mediation in our religion. However, intermediaries that are very dense like priesthood, that confine the interest and respect only to themselves and break the relationship with Allah are a kind of hidden polytheism. Mediation like that does not exist in man’s nature and creation; it does not and cannot exist in our religion.
To see the means from the point of view of the evaluations above will protect us from excessiveness and negligence in terms of thoughts and attitudes, will drive all of our feelings and thoughts to the medium way, will provide our life with direction, peace and happiness.
Is it permissible, while praying, to use great personalities as a wasila (intermediary, means) and to say "for the sake of them" while praying?
It is permissible to use great personalities as a wasila while praying. To use especially prophets and our Prophet will facilitate the acceptance of the prayer. In a verse the following is stated and this issue is pointed out. "Surely Allah and His angels bless the Prophet (He always treats him with His special mercy, with the angels praying to Him to grant him the highest station of praise with Him and for the decisive victory of his Religion). O you who believe, invoke the blessings of Allah on him, and pray to Allah to bestow His peace on him, greeting him with the best greeting. (Love and follow him with utmost sincerity and faithfulness, and give yourselves to his way with perfect submission.)"(1).
In addition, in a hadith narrated by Hazrat Anas the following is stated by attracting attention to sending blessings: "Allah sends ten blessings to whoever sends me one blessings, and forgives his ten sins and raises his rank ten degrees."(2)
Therefore, it is permissible to ask something from Allah by using prophets, great personalities with virtues, sahabas, walis as wasilas for the sake of them. However, it is not permissible, as some people do today, to light candles, to fasten wires, pieces of cloth and ropes at the tombs.
It is reported that Hazrat Umar went to pray for rain during his caliphate when there was a drought; He took Hazrat Abbas with him and took his hands between his hands and prayed, "O Allah! This is the hand of the uncle of your Prophet. Send us rain for the sake of this hand". Our great personalities prayed as follows, "O Allah! Have mercy on us, forgive us and meet my..need for the sake of the people you love and the people who love you"
(1) al-Ahzab, 33/56.
(2) Nasai, Sahiv 55, (3, 50);
ANSWER 3
We do not make any comment about people. You can find answers by looking at the Qur'an and Sunnah of the prophet (PBUH).
ANSWER: 1
Children as intercessors mean that, with the help of their supplications and their cute looking appearance which evoke feelings of mercy and compassion towards them, they will cause for Allah to forgive and show mercy on their parents for some of their sins. Our good opinion of Allah necessitates that we expect the Divine Mercy will accept their supplications.
Yes, children who died in their childhood will intercede for their parents. Allah the Just Majesty has given the right of intercession firstly to our Prophet (pbuh) and to apostles, angels, saintly people, who are beloved servants of Allah, martyrs and innocent children who died at a young age. However, what should be understood from intercession is that Allah allows the people, whom He wants to let into Heaven, to be put into Heaven through the intercession of His beloved servants. We understand that no one will be able to redeem the ones whom Allah does not want to be redeemed and whom He does not like or who is not worthy of redeeming. Therefore, people who deserve intercession are already the ones with whom Allah is content. Otherwise, people who could not earn Allah’s content in worldly life, such as infidels and idolaters, will not deserve intercession.
Some of the Prophet’s hadiths on the issue are as follows:
“Allah will let Muslims, whose three children died before puberty, into Heaven because of His mercy and compassion towards children.” (Bukhari,Janaiz (dead) 6, 91; Muslim, Birr (Goodness), 153).
“If any Muslim’s three children die before puberty, the hellfire will touch them only for a short time until Allah’s vow is met.” (Bukhari, Janaiz 6, Ayman 9; Muslim, Birr 150)
The Prophet (pbuh) said: “If any woman amongst you loses three of her children (before puberty), those children will surely be a shield for her against Hell.” A woman asked: “Is it valid also for women who lose two children?” Upon this, the Prophet (pbuh) replied: “Yes, it is the same for those who lose two children.” (Bukhari, Knowledge 36, Dead 6, 91; I’tisam 9; Muslim, Goodness 152).
“Give a name to children whom you miscarried; because they are your pioneers who went before you in order to earn you high positions in the Hereafter.” (Jamiu’s-Saghir, 3/1074).
“Give a name to children whom you miscarried so that Allah will make your scale of good deeds heavier with them. Otherwise, s/he will come and say on the Day of Judgment: “O Lord! They missed the thawab they would earn from me, by not naming me.” (Jamiu’s-Saghir, 3/1075).
“Children who died before puberty are very lively in Heaven, they are like rattling fish. One of them meets his/her parents and takes hold of their clothes and does not let it go until Allah lets his/her parents into Heaven with him/her.” (Jamiu’s Saghir, 3/2364).
As it is seen, those hadiths give good news that parents whose three children died before puberty will enter Heaven because of those children, using different expressions.
While these children are obviously emphasized to have died “before puberty”, no discrimination is made between boys and girls; and precisely the word “child” (walad) is uttered. Therefore, parents whose children, either boy or girl, died before puberty are given the good news of entering Heaven on condition that they show patience when their children die and expect its reward from Allah. That condition of putting up with death and not rebelling against Allah’s decision but being content with it is deduced from the implications, although not from the words of hadiths. In Sahikh Bukhari, the condition of being content with death is clearly stated under the section about the issue. (see: Janaiz 6). As a matter of fact, Allah the Supreme Being states
“Those who patiently persevere will truly receive a reward without measure!” (az-Zumar, 39:10).
In order for children to welcome their parents as intercessors in the Hereafter, with their cuteness, we must consider them as fruit of Allah’ we must not rebel against Allah when He takes them away from us; we must submit to Allah’s decision and considering them a gift and that they are entrusted to us from Allah, we must know that we deliver them to Allah’s mercy, not to the grave when we bury them when Allah takes them away from us. This kind of belief is the essential of the creed of tawhid (Allah’s Oneness). It is, also, submission to and belief in Allah, which gives one the strength to bear a painful situation.
ANSWER: 2
Rather than interceding for those who, as children, did not receive Islamic upbringing from their parents and consequently led a life distant from religion after growing up, they will cling to them and complain to Allah about them.
The following summarized statements by Badiuzzaman Said Nursi support the truths we have mentioned.
"A compassionate mother undertakes every sort of self-sacrifice so that her child should not fall into danger in this worldly life and should receive every sort of benefit and advantage; she brings him up with this in view. Thinking, “My son is going to be a Pasha,” she gives him all her property, takes him from the Qur’an school and sends him to Europe. But it does not occur to her that her child’s eternal life has fallen into danger. She tries to save him from prison in this world, and does not take into consideration his being sentenced to the prison of Hell. And as the complete opposite of innate compassion, she makes her innocent child a claimant against her in the Hereafter, while he should be her intercessor. He will complain to her saying: “Why did you not strengthen my belief and so cause me to be lost?” And in this world too, since he did not receive a proper Islamic upbringing, he cannot respond to his mother’s wondrous compassion in the way it deserves; in fact he does so very deficiently."
"If, not misdirecting her true compassion, she works to save her unhappy child from the everlasting incarceration of Hell and from dying while in misguidance, which is to go to eternal extinction, the equivalent of each of the child’s good works will pass to the book of good deeds of his mother, and just as after her death he will continuously send lights to her spirit with his good works, so too in the Hereafter, he will be not a claimant, but with all his spirit and life an intercessor for her, and a blessed child of her’s for all eternity..." (see The Flashes, The Twenty-Fourth Flash, First Point)
On the other hand, those who died in their childhood will intercede for their parents and other relatives who died as believers. They will let their parents experience the love of children eternally in the Hereafter, as a compensation for the separation they experienced in this short worldly life.
"One time, a man was in prison. They sent one of his lovable children to him. The unhappy prisoner suffered both his own sorrows, and since he could not make the child comfortable, he was grieved also at his hardship. Then the compassionate judge sent a man to him with a message which said:"
"For sure this child is yours, but he is my subject and of my people. I shall take him and look after him in a fine palace."
"The man wept in anguish. He said: "I won't give you my child who is my solace!"
"His friends said to him: "Your grief is meaningless. If you pity the child, he will go to a spacious and happy palace in place of this dirty, stinking, distressing dungeon. If you are grieved for yourself and are seeking your own benefits, if your child remains here, you will suffer much distress and pain at the child's difficulties in addition to your single dubious, temporary benefit. If he goes there, there will be a thousand advantages for you, for it will be cause of attracting the king's mercy and will be like an intercessor for you. The king will want to make you meet with him. For sure, he will not send him to the prison so that you can see him; he will release you from the prison, summon you to the palace, and allow you to meet with the child there. On condition that you have confidence in the king and you obey him...."
"My dear brother, like this comparison, you must think as follows, like other believers when their children die: the child was innocent, and his Creator is All-Compassionate and All-Generous. He has taken him to His most perfect grace and mercy in place of my deficient up-bringing and compassion. He has released him from the grievous, calamitous, difficult prison of this world and sent him to the gardens of Paradise. How happy for the child! If he had stayed in this world, who knows what form he would have taken. Therefore, I do not pity him, I know him to be fortunate. There remains the benefits for myself, and I don't pity myself for those, and I do not grieve and be sorrowful. For if he had remained in the world, he would have secured ten years of a child's temporary love mixed with pains. If he had been righteous and if he had been capable in the matters of the world, perhaps he would have helped me. But with his death, he has become like an intercessor who is the means to ten million years of a child's love in eternal Paradise and to everlasting happiness. Most certainly, one who loses some dubious, immediate benefit and gains a thousand certain, postponed benefits does not display grief and sorrow, he does not cry out in despair. (The Letters, From the Risale-i Nur Collection)
