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Fatwa CenterAsking help from angels
Question
Assalamu alikum i want to ask you a question, is it allowed to ask help from angels? Because Ibn Abbas said Allah has angels on the earth - other than the record-keepers - who keep a record of the leaves that fall on the ground. Therefore, if one of you is crippled in a deserted land where no-one is in sight, let him cry out: Help O servants of Allah Imam al Haytami (rah) said after this hadith: It is narrated by Al-Bazzar and all its narrators are reliable (thiqa) [Reference: Majma az Zawaid, Volume 10, Hadith No. 17104] This hadith is not only authentic but rather it has been “PRACTICED UPON” by Imam Ahmad Translation: Abdullah bin Ahmed bin Hanbal (rah) said that he heard his father (Imam Ahmed) who said: I performed Hajj 5 times, thrice on foot and twice on ride or he said thrice on ride and twice on foot, once when I was on foot I lost my way hence I started to exclaim this: O Allah’s servants show me the way, I kept on repeating this until I came back on track. [Imam Baihaqi in Shu’ayb ul Iman, Volume 6, Page No 128, Hadith No. 7697] After Imam At-Tabarani transmitted the hadith of calling out : O Servants of Allah, Help me! In his Mu'jam al Kabir (17/117) he said “this has been acted upon Imam Nawawi said‘One of our major scholars in knowledge related to me that he lost his means of transport, which I presume was a mule, and he was aware of this hadith and said (the du’a) so Allah brought to him his animal immediately. ‘I was once with a group of people and my animal fled and the people failed (to find it) and I said it and I found the animal immediately without any means but this statement.[Kitab ul Adhkaar by Imam Nawawi, Page No. 370] Ali qari said it means rijaal al gayb[Sharah Hisn ul Hasin, Al-Hirz al-Thamin, p378
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.
First of all, we would like to mention that the scholars differed in opinion over the Hadeeth narrated by Ibn ‘Abbaas 
as some of them classified it as Hasan [good] and some of them classified it as Dha’eef [weak], and a third party classified it as Hasan but as being a statement of Ibn ‘Abbaas without attributing it to the Prophet 
.
However, this narration is evidence that what was narrated indefinitely in some other narrations refers to the angels. This means that they are slaves who are not from the human beings. This definitely refutes the claim that they are Rijaal al-Ghayb (i.e. men of the unseen), which some people may use as evidence for the permissibility of seeking help from the dead or from the live people in matters that they are unable to do. This indeed opens the door for Shirk [associating partners with Allaah], and it is contrary to what the Quran actually states. Allaah Says (what means): {That is Allaah, your Lord; to Him belongs sovereignty. And those whom you invoke other than Him do not possess [as much as] the membrane of a date seed. If you invoke them, they do not hear your supplication; and if they heard, they would not respond to you. And on the Day of Resurrection they will deny your association. And none can inform you like [one] Acquainted [with all matters].} [Quran 35:13-14]
Finally, this narration – if we presume that it is authentic – is evidence that it is permissible to seek the help of a creature in matters that he is capable of, and that if a Muslim supplicates with this supplication, then Allaah may send him angels who can fulfill his wish.
Allaah Knows best.
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