Is the One Who Says Ya Ali a Muslim or a Mushrik? | Shaykh Salih al-Fawzan

4,210 views·May 19, 2026

📌 In this important clarification, Shaykh Salih al Fawzan explains the ruling on the one who says “La ilaha illa Allah” while calling upon other than Allah, such as saying “Ya Ali,” “Ya Husayn,” or “Ya Abd al Qadir.” 📚 The Shaykh explains that calling upon the dead and seeking aid from other than Allah is major shirk which nullifies and destroys the testimony of “La ilaha illa Allah.” ❌ The one who says “Ya Ali,” “Ya Husayn,” or calls upon the graves is a Mushrik who has directed worship to other than Allah, because duaa, seeking rescue, and isti ghathah are acts of worship that belong to Allah alone. ⚠️ Tawhid is not merely a statement upon the tongue. Rather, it requires rejecting shirk and singling out Allah alone in worship, supplication, sacrifice, fear, hope, and reliance. 🚨 However, the Murjiah from the Sufiyyah, the Rafidah, and even those who falsely ascribe themselves to Salafiyyah all affirm Islam for the one who directs acts of worship to other than Allah. ❌ All of them claim that the one who prostrates to the sun, the moon, idols, or calls upon them besides Allah, whether ignorant or not, is still a Muslim until some additional factor, condition, or proof appears beyond the very action or statement of shirk itself. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⚠️ The Murjiah distort the outward ruling with the inward ruling. - The outward ruling is the worldly judgment based solely on a person’s outward statements and actions. It does not depend on what is in the heart. - The inward ruling concerns the hidden reality of the heart, which cannot be known. It is only considered in matters of punishment and the ruling of the Hereafter. Ignorance, coercion, mistake, and denial are considered here, not in the outward ruling. ✍ The Permanent Committee for Islamic Research and Fatwas in Saudi Arabia. Fatwah no. 4400: 👉 (❗) "So clarifying the matter and establishing the proof (Iqāmat al-hujjah) is for the purpose of removing any excuse before carrying out the PUNISHMENT upon him, NOT in order for him to be called a kafir only after the clarification. 👉 (❗) Rather, he IS CALLED a kafir based on the outward act he committed. Such as prostrating to other than Allah, vowing as an act of worship to other than Him, or slaughtering an animal, like a sheep, for other than Allah.” 📚 Source:Kitāb Fatāwā al-Lajnah al-Dāʾimah – First Collection, vol. 1, p. 220 https://shamela.ws/book/8381/396#p1 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ✅ The methodology of Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jamaah: The outward ruling is based exclusively on statements and actions. Matters of the heart are only considered in punishment and the final judgment, in this world by the judge and in the Hereafter by Allah. ✍️ Al-Hafidh Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (d. 852H) in Fath al-Bari (12/272), transmitting consensus: وكلهم أجمعوا على أن أحكام الدنيا على الظاهر، والله يتولى السرائر “THEY ALL UNANIMOUSLY AGREED that worldly rulings are based upon what is outwardly apparent, while Allah alone takes charge of what lies within.” End Quote ✍️ Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728H) said in As-Sarim al-Maslul (2/339): فمن قال أو فعل ما هو كفر, كفر بذلك، وإن لم يقصد أن يكون كافرًا، إذ لا بقصد الكفر أحدّ إلًّا ما شاء الله. “Whoever says or does that which is kufr, then he becomes a kafir by that itself, even if he did not intend to become a disbeliever, for no one intends kufr except whom Allah wills.” End Quote ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ✍ The Permanent Committee for Islamic Research and Fatwas in Saudi Arabia. Question Three from Fatwa No. 11043 Answer: 👉 (❗) This is because their refraining from making takfir of them is due to a shubhah, which is their belief that it is necessary to establish the hujjah upon those grave worshippers before declaring them disbelievers. This is in contrast to those whose kufr carries no ambiguity, such as the Jews, the Christians, the communists, and those like them. There is no shubhah regarding their kufr, nor regarding the kufr of the one who does not decla