[Obenuearema]

I understand isti'adhah, but I get confused between isti'anah and istighathah. Can somebody explain to me the difference between the two?

[Seesspoxy]

http://www.deoband.org/2010/09/aqida...er-than-allah/

http://www.deoband.org/2009/02/aqida...efs/istigatha/

[Ternneowns]

I understand isti'adhah, but I get confused between isti'anah and istighathah. Can somebody explain to me the difference between the two?

Istighatha (calling upon someone for help, through Allah’s love and concern for them),

Isti’ana (seeking someone’s assistance, through Allah’s granting).

In some scenarios it is okay to do , and in some scenarios it is wrong and shirk, but since you have only asked for the definition, so no need to present those details.

[Obenuearema]

Nazar, if you have examples that illustrate the point, by all means, please share them.

[Ternneowns]

Nazar, if you have examples that illustrate the point, by all means, please share them.

Sister from the little i know, my understanding is that To do both of these with a living saint/buzurg/shaykh or a prophet , then it is allowed, infact recommended.

But when you do this at a grave of deceased saint/buzurg/shaykh or a prophet, then it becomes a little tricky and people fall into shirk thinking that the one in the grave have qudrat/qudrah/power to alone help you, or some thinking that ALLah has given some Qudrah/Power to the one in the grave to independently help you, both of these are shirk, because our Aqeeda is that no one has the power/qudrah to do anything independently , and at all times Allah is the doer and he is the one who gives, but yes people and things can becomes means, hence in daliy life we do ask for help and things from people which is fine, but we ask them keeping in mind that Allah is the giver. So it is okay to do with the person who is alive, but to a dead person, it becomes tricky.

Rather through a dead person, we should use his name and the meaning of his being, that he was a great wali of Allah and accepted in the eyes of Allah, so we should ask Allah, through the meaning of this person, that Allah help us. And this is a good thing to do.

Now sometimes people in poetry or in specific Hal do utter sentences which on the surface of it means they are askiing directly to the dead, but we have to look at the aqeeda of the person and then decide what he meant. THose pious elders who have uttered such sentences , were actually in a state of Hal and it was a shaukiyah KAlam, and in that they never mean to say that in reality they are expecting that dead person to do anything, rather they are constantly focused on Allah, and they just utter those sentences because they had emotional , spiritual connecttion with the deceased.

For example, a boy's mother dies, and he is all alone now, so sometime a kayfiat comes when he is sitting all alone, and in his mind or even in some voice he utters out of his attachment to his mother , that o mother if you would still have been here my so and so problem would have been solved or not existed etc. So in reality the boy knows his mum cannot hear him, nor can she do anything , infact he is showing Allah of his helplessness , and Allah is the actual watcher , and Allah is looking at his mazloomiat , and Hence Allah will help him out.

I am sure someone knowledgable can do a better job in explaining these differences.

[megasprut]

aoa,

since u are hanafi, please consult a practising hanafi scholar from the deoband movement (not the barelvi ones). in sha Allah you will get your answer.
this is a very complex topic and it could lead unguided laymen to shirk and bidat. no point in discussing this on sunniforum as there are several deviated members who should not be listened to. so discuss these questions with legitimate alims and in sha Allah there wont be a problem.