When we seek help from Prophets and righteous people, we do that as a form of intercession – and absolute help is only from Allāh táālā, and Him alone.
Nobody besides Allāh táālā can grant a child, whether they are dead or alive, nor do we believe they have the Qudrah to do so.
Neither do we believe him or anyone else besides Allāh to be all-hearing, we believe that they hear in their graves by Allāh’s creating and His granted leave.
As for those who say this shirk then it is as if what they worship is located in a far away location, and so they consider it shirk when someone else is called in a far away location or moved on from this physical world.
Our belief regarding the attributes of Allāh such as Seeing, Hearing, Knowledge, Will, Life, Power and Existence is that His attributes have four qualities:
1. Qadīm — they existed pre-eternally. They weren’t given to Allāh. They have always existed. Just as His dhāt is qadīm, so are His şifāt.
2. Intrinsic (dhātī) not gifted (áţā'ī). Dhātī means without being given by anyone and áţā'ī means given by someone.
3. Unlimited. They have no limit. How far can Allāh see? There is no limit. How much knowledge does He have? No limit.
4. Impossible to cease existing. They will never undergo fanā and it isn’t possible for them to.
If anyone proves any one of these four qualities for any creation, this would be shirk fi al-şifāt.
Coming back to this issue of hearing, if someone says, ‘the hearing that I possess has not been given to me’ - this would be shirk fi al-şifāt as he considers his attribute to be intrinsic (dhātī).
Even for RasūlAllāh ﷺ who is the greatest in creation, we bear in mind these four qualities.
Therefore, the hearing of RasūlAllāh ﷺ:
1. It isn’t pre-eternal, whereas, the Hearing of Allāh is - qadīm.
The hearing of RasūlAllāh ﷺ is hādith (created).
2. It isn’t dhātī, rather Allāh gave it to him ﷺ.
3. The Hearing of Allāh is
unlimited but the hearing of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ has a limit.
4. It is impossible for the
Hearing of Allah to cease existing, but, it is possible for the hearing of RasūlAllāh ﷺ to become non-existent.
If these four differences are kept in mind, it can never be shirk.
This applies to anybody else in creation including Shaykh Ábd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī قدس سره العلى.
Therefore, we do not believe his hearing to be similar to be all-hearing or similar to that of Allāh in any form and we seek refuge from Allāh in this.
