The Characteristics Every Muslim Must Have -

1) A Muslim does not commit any act of shirk.

Allah says (what means):

"Verily, Allah forgives not that partners should be set up with Him." (al- Nisa:48)

"Verily, whosoever sets up partners in worship with Allah, then Allah has forbidden Paradise for him, and the Fire will be his abode. And for the wrongdoers there are no helpers."(al-Maidah:72)

2) A Muslim does not set up an intermediary (middle person) between themselves and Allah.

"If you invoke them (the dead), they hear not your call, and if they were to hear they could not grant it to you. And on the Day of Resurrection, they will disown your worshipping them. And none can inform you like Him Who is the All-Knower."(Fatir:14)

3) A Muslim acknowledges that non-Muslims who reject Islam are disbelievers.

"And whosoever seeks a religion other than Islam, it will never be accepted of him, and in the Hereafter he will be one of the losers." (Al-Imran:85)

5) A Muslim does not dislike any part of the religion of Islam.

"But those who disbelieve, for them is destruction, and [Allah] will render their deeds vain. That is because they hate which Allah has sent down, so He has made their deeds fruitless." (Muhammad:8-9)

6) A Muslim does not make fun of any part of the religion.

"If you ask them, they declare, "We were only talking idly and joking." Say, "Was it Allah and His Verses, and His Messenger that you were mocking?" Make no excuse, you have disbelieved after you had believed." (al-Taubah: 65-66)

7) A Muslim does not perform any kind of sorcery.

"They followed what the devils gave out in the lifetime of Solomon. Solomon did not disbelieve, but the devils disbelieved, teaching men magic and such things that came down at Babylon to the two Angels, Harut and Marut, but neither of these two taught anyone till they had said, ‘We are only for trial, so disbelieve not’" (al-Baqarah: 102)

8) A Muslim does not support disbelievers or give one’s loyalty to them.

"O you who believe, take not the Jews and Christians as protectors and helpers, they are but protectors and helpers of one another. And if any among you take them as protectors and helpers, then surely he is one of them. Verily, Allah guides not those people who are wrongdoers." (al-Maida: 51)

9) Muslims believe all of mankind has to follow the shariah of Islam.

"Truly the religion with Allaah is Islam" (Al-Imran:19)

A Muslim does not turn away from the religion and learns and applies the essential aspects of Islam.

"And who does more wrong than he who is reminded of the verses of his Lord, then he turns away therefrom? Verily, We shall exact retribution from the sinners." (al-Sajda: 22)


A Muslim does not deny anything that is known by necessity to be part of Islam.

"Do you then believe in part of the Scripture and reject part of it? What is the recompense of those who do so among you except disgrace in the life of this world and on the Day of Resurrection they shall be consigned to the most grievous torment. And Allah is not unaware of what you do." (al-Baqara: 85)

Jazak'Allah:)

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I understand that this must be a copy/paste from some website. It is allright to do that.
But I have an objection about seeking an intermediary. This article says that it is a characteristic of a muslim that he does not seek intermediary (middle man). In other words, it says that one who seeks an intermediary is not Muslim.
To prove the point, this article cites a verse from Surah Fatir, which says:

"If you invoke them (the dead), they hear not your call, and if they were to hear they could not grant it to you."
(Fatir:14)

The writer of the article tried to deceive people. Because 35:14 is not about invoking the dead, as the writer tried to say by putting it in parantheses, rather it is about the false gods kuffar used to call instead of Allah.
I am going to quote 35:14 along with the last part of the preceding verse.

[35:13] ...and those whom you call upon besides Him do not control a straw.
[35:14] If you call on them they shall not hear your call, and even if they could hear they shall not answer you; and on the resurrection day they will deny your associating them (with Allah);"

So we see that the verse 35:14 is not about seeking intermediaries at all.

Seeking intermediary is proven from Quran and Sunnat.

Please read the following verses from Surah Yousuf:

[12:97] They said: O our father! ask forgiveness of our faults for us, surely we were sinners.
[12:98] He said: I will ask for you forgiveness from my Lord; surely He is the Forgiving, the Merciful.

We see that Yousuf's brothers asked their fathers to ask forgiveness for them. The writer of the article should object to Hazrat Yaqoub as well.


Now please see the other verse from Surah Nisa:

[4:64] ...and had they, when they were unjust to themselves, come to you and asked forgiveness of Allah, and the Messenger had (also) asked forgiveness for them, they would have found Allah Oft-returning (to mercy), Merciful.

So people came to the Prophet and asked him for fogiveness from Allah.

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There are many ahadeeth present which endorses the invoking of the Prophet for prayers. I found this:

QUOTE
Volume 8, Book 75, Number 317e:
Narrated Abu Huraira:

Allah's Apostle said, "For every prophet there is one (special invocation (that will not be rejected) with which he appeals (to Allah), and I want to keep such an invocation for interceding for my followers in the Hereafter."
UNQUOTE

The article says that one who seeks invocation is wrong, but hadeeth clearly says that Prophet is Muslims' shafi.


See this hadeeth from Bukhari:

Volume 5, Book 57, Number 59:
Narrated Anas:

Whenever there was drought, 'Umar bin Al-Khattab used to ask Allah for rain through Al'Abbas bin 'Abdul Muttalib, saying, "O Allah! We used to request our Prophet to ask You for rain, and You would give us. Now we request the uncle of our Prophet to ask You for rain, so give us rain." And they would be given rain."

QUOTE

Originally posted by Diva 5) A Muslim does not dislike any part of the religion of Islam. \\"But those who disbelieve, for them is destruction, and [Allah] will render their deeds vain. That is because they hate which Allah has sent down, so He has made their deeds fruitless.\\" (Muhammad:8-9)

Thats not fair. You cannot MAKE someone believe. I am so much inclined to take the destructive part.... dunno why. There is just something thrilling to say no to a god. I mean its like.. a weak pathetic nothing... saying NO to someone thats HUGE. I think the deed does more damage than the repercussions given to the person saying NO.

Thats your opinion mam

Ayah has been presented so need to say no.

Yeah Abbas you are right it's a copy paste but not from any website but actually my friend sent me this ,i have a whole mail which cant post it here ,few more Ayah's in it and explaination too .

I would like to see the ayats and the explanations.

It would be interesting if you could post it in full.

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This article says:
"2) A Muslim does not set up an intermediary (middle person) between themselves and Allah."

Here is another hadeeth from Sahih Muslim which confirms that Prophet is a middle-man (intercessor) for us.

http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/h...im/004.smt.html

Book 004, Number 0747:
'Abdullah b. Amr b. al-As reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: When you hear the Mu'adhdhin, repeat what he says, then invoke a blessing on me, for everyone who invokes a blessing on me will receive ten blessings from Allah; then beg from Allah al-Wasila for me, which is a rank in Paradise fitting for only one of Allah's servants, and I hope that I may be that one. If anyone who asks that I be given the Wasila, he will be assured of my intercession.


This hadith says that Prophet actually asked Muslims to call the Prophet Wasila, and anybody who considers Prophet the Wasila is assured intercession (shafa'at).

There is a verse in Quran related to this hadith. Surah Maida. Aayat 35.

5:35
Transliteration: Ya ayyuhal lazeena aamanoot taqullaha WABTAGHOO ILEHIL WASEELATA wa jaahedoo fi sabeelehi la'allakum tuflehoon.

Translation: O you who believe! be careful of (your duty to) Allah and seek means of nearness to Him and strive hard in His way that you may be successful.


So much for the authenticity of this article!

http://www.ummah.net/Al_adaab/suwahhab.html

A sahih hadith conveyed by the hadith scholars Ibn Hudhaima, ad-Dara Qutni and at-Tabarani on the authority of 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar (radi-Allahu ta'ala anhuma) states: 'It has become wajib for me to intercede for those who will visit my grave.'
Imam al-Manawi, too, quoted this hadith in Kunuz ad-daqaiq. In addition, he wrote the hadith ash-Sharif, 'After my death, visiting my shrine is like visiting me when I am alive,' from Ibn Hibban; and the hadith ash-Sharif, 'I will intercede for the one who visits my grave,' from at-Tabarani.

The following two hadiths, which are marfu', the first one quoted by Imam al-Bazzar and the second one written in the Sahih of Muslim and both on the authority of 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar (radi-Allahu ta'ala anhuma), are known by almost every Muslim: 'It has become halal for me to intercede for those who will visit by grave' 'On the Day of Judgement I shall intercede for those who come to al-Madinat al-munawwara to visit my grave.'

It is great news that is quoted in the hadith ash-Sharif, "A person who performs hajj and then visits my grave will have visited me when I was alive," which was quoted by at-Tabarani, ad-dara Qutni and ['Abd ar-Rahman] Ibn al-Jawzi. The hadith ash-Sharif, "A person who does not visit me after carrying out the hajj will have hurt me," which ad-Dara Qutni quotes, alludes to those who neglect to visit the Prophet's ('alaihi 's-salam) grave after hajj though they do not have an excuse (not to do so).

Tawassul (to seek a medium) is proven from Qur'an and Hadith. Allah Ta'ala says, 'O you who believe! Fear Allah and seek Waseela to Him.' Hadhrat Umar (ra) sought rain during drought through the Waseela of the Prophet's Uncle. However, due to people trespassing the limits of Waseela and there is fear of committing Shirk, it is advisable to abstain from Tawassul. Any permissible act which may lead to Shirk also
becomes prohibited...

So All in all, it is not haraam, but we must keep in mind that the people who used a waseela were great authorities in islam. They had a manifest belief and control over themselves, the average man now-a-days may be overwhelmend and misuse this concept by internalizing the intention that help is made possible from the medium sought...which is wrong, for the only sustainer and helper is Allah ta'ala, otherwise is becomes shirk. Thus so long we seek it with the pure intention of a medium to the actual goali, it is okay.

All right. But people should stop saying that tawassul is shirk. These people are in large numbers and with good financial resources. Hence they propagate their views easily among the Muslims.
One example is this article itself. This article gives the impression that people who consider the Prophet the intercessor are mushrik by misinterpreting a Quranic verse.