WEBVTT 00:00:05.549 --> 00:00:17.550 Praise be to Allah in times of ease and adversity, Whose blessing has firmly rooted Tawhid within the innate nature of humanity. 00:00:17.550 --> 00:00:29.589 Whoever supplicates Allah in distress shall find aid, while whoever seeks of other than Him shall be forsaken and broken. 00:00:29.589 --> 00:00:41.590 What delusion has deceived those who supplicate the inhabitants of the graves, calling upon the dead in moments of hardship? 00:00:41.590 --> 00:00:53.590 For Allah has designated supplication in the clear, decisive Surahs as an act of worship, and likewise did the Truthful Prophet in the transmitted reports. 00:00:53.590 --> 00:01:05.590 Direct all worship solely to the Lord of the worlds, and refrain from directing any part of it to creation, which is pure polytheism. 00:01:05.590 --> 00:01:17.590 Indeed, the decisive verses and preserved hadiths corroborate one another regarding its abhorrence. 00:01:17.590 --> 00:01:29.590 Thus, whoever dies while associating partners with Allah in his deeds has suffered an irreparable fracture. 00:01:29.590 --> 00:01:41.590 For polytheism is never accepted by Allah from anyone, and shirk is an immense, unforgivable sin. 00:01:41.590 --> 00:01:53.590 Polytheism invalidates whatever good deeds once existed, and shirk is grave injustice, so be ever wary of it. 00:01:53.590 --> 00:02:05.590 It veils the soul from all the gardens of Allah, and from the intercession of him who is like the guiding star and shining moon. 00:02:05.590 --> 00:02:17.590 The polytheist tastes diverse shades of humiliation, entirely stripped of the garment of security and the robe of inner peace. 00:02:17.590 --> 00:02:29.590 O you who approach the dead in times of affliction: you have missed the pure fountain, so drink from the bitter dregs of distress! 00:02:29.590 --> 00:02:41.590 The dead cannot benefit those who call upon them even by the weight of a mustard seed, nor can they harm; how wretched is the one whose insight is blinded! 00:02:41.590 --> 00:02:53.590 If the matter of guidance were in the hands of the Guide himself, he would have guided Abu Talib to the truth and ultimate triumph. 00:02:53.590 --> 00:03:05.590 None of his Companions ever sought his aid after his passing whenever grave tribulations befell them. 00:03:05.590 --> 00:03:17.590 If divine control belonged to 'Ali, he surely would have repelled death and protected himself from his wicked killer. 00:03:17.590 --> 00:03:29.590 If divine control belonged to the righteous al-Husayn, he would not have tasted death at the hands of the tyrannical and vile. 00:03:29.590 --> 00:03:41.590 When you ask, ask the Lord of all servants, just as the most sincere advisor to mankind instructed you. 00:03:41.590 --> 00:03:53.590 Even the early polytheists, when affliction struck them at sea, did not associate partners with Allah, so take heed! 00:03:53.590 --> 00:04:05.590 Yet some who claim Islam, if they fall ill or are shaken by calamity, call upon the dead buried in their graves. 00:04:05.590 --> 00:04:17.589 How did such people fail to realize what even Abu Lahab understood of old through simple clear reason? 00:04:17.589 --> 00:04:29.589 O you who call upon servants just like yourselves, will you not call upon their Creator in both hardship and ease? 00:04:29.589 --> 00:04:41.589 O you who claim to take the dead as intermediaries, has Allah ever closed His door before the needy? 00:04:41.589 --> 00:04:53.589 For He is the Exalted, Ever-Near, and Responsive; and whoever associates others with Him, Allah is utterly free of him. 00:04:53.589 --> 00:05:04.589 Relying on intermediaries did not save your predecessors from the verdict of polytheism, as stated in the decisive Surahs. 00:05:04.589 --> 00:05:16.589 They fully acknowledged that Allah was their Lord, and they were not merely worshippers of inanimate stones; 00:05:16.589 --> 00:05:28.589 Rather, some of them worshipped prophets, yet the Chosen Prophet made no distinction between them in judgment and practice. 00:05:28.589 --> 00:05:40.589 Nor did their worship of their Creator avail them, for the purity of deeds is erased by the filth of shirk. 00:05:40.589 --> 00:05:52.589 O you who turn away to other than Allah's pure basin: your true share of purity lies solely in turning to Him and departing from all else. 00:05:52.589 --> 00:06:04.589 He is the Refuge of the poor and the rich alike, freeing them from shirk in times of ease and adversity. 00:06:04.589 --> 00:06:16.589 Fill my heart with sincere devotion, that I may thereby be among the most felicitous of men, finding my succor and ultimate victory.