Question:

Back in my town in India, there is a durga, which is a shrine where a lot of people go to. I understand that a Muslim saint is buried there. The people who visit that place consist of Muslims and even Hindus. Sad to say that some of Muslims commit shirk over there by making du`aa� and asking favors from the saint who is dead.

They believe that the saint is alive in his grave and can ask Allah for the favors that the people want. In fact most of the people who camp in the durga are poor and needy people. When I go back to my town, I usually feed the poor and the needy in my house as a form of charity. Is it permissible to help them in food, money, and clothing even though they do those kind of acts in the durga? They do also perform the Prayers but at the same time they perform those acts. What is the solution for this? Please advise from the Qur�an and the Sunnah.  

 Answer:

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.

Thanks for your interesting question, and we implore Allah to guide us all to the best way through which we can find it easy to practice the pure teachings of Islam.

You should continue doing good acts to those people, and at the same time educate them about Islam in an attempt to help them get rid of such weird acts. In your approach, you should exercise wisdom and fair exhortation so as to win their hearts to accept the truth.

Responding to the question, Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, states the following:

Unfortunately, these Muslims are misguided and uneducated as far as the pristine teachings of Islam are concerned. At the same time they have basic faith, albeit tainted by shirk (associating others with Allah).

It is the duty of Muslims who are educated and conscious of pure tawheed (oneness of Allah) to educate them, but while doing so they must exercise hikmah (wisdom) and leniency. Allah tells us in the Qur\'an to argue or dialogue with the People of the Book in the most gracious manner. If that is the case in dealing with the People of the Book, what about those Muslims who are utterly illiterate and ignorant of their own religion.

Your approach in feeding them and showing compassion to them is the right one. But you must never stop there; rather seize every opportunity you have to educate them about the sound `aqeedah (beliefs of Islam). One of the first steps in this direction is to give them a good translation of the Qur\'an in the language they can read. You can also give them a copy of Taqwiyat al-Iman in Urdu, which is an excellent work.

Exercising wisdom and a gentle approach with them is the only sure way of weaning them off their practices tainted with shirk. If, on the other hand, you were to react to them harshly, that would only drive them away further and further from the path of tawheed and make them more entrenched in their erroneous beliefs and practices.

May Allah grant you wisdom and may He make us all instruments of guidance. Remember the words of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to `Ali: \"If a single person were guided to the right path through your efforts, that would be even better for you than owning the whole world as a treasure!\"

Moreover, Sheikh Muhammad Al-Mukhtar Al-Shinqiti, Director of the Islamic Center of South Plains, Lubbock, Texas, adds:

First of all, those people are Muslims though they are ignorant about the teachings of Islam. In the time of Muslims\' decadence, ignorance spread and people started to do such acts. However, this does not rule out the fact that they are still Muslims. Ibn Taymiyah (may Allah bless his soul) put a very nice rule that states \"not everyone who commits an act of shirk is a mushrik. To judge a certain person, you have to understand all of his situation and surrounding circumstances, for he may be excused because of ignorance, the way he was raised, the culture prevailing in his environment, and so on.\" This does not belittle the gravity of the act you mentioned in the question, but it is only to differentiate between the act itself and those who do it.

My advice to you is that you help those poor people financially, and you should also educate them about their religion. Use these benevolent acts to reach their hearts and teach them the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him).

Allah knows best.

Responded by:

Group of Muftis