Qur’an:

وَإِذا سَأَلَكَ عِبادي عَنّي فَإِنّي قَريبٌ ۖ أُجيبُ دَعوَةَ الدّاعِ إِذا دَعانِ ۖ فَليَستَجيبوا لي وَليُؤمِنوا بي لَعَلَّهُم يَرشُدونَ

And when My servants ask you concerning Me – indeed I am near. I respond to the invocation of the supplicant when he calls upon Me. So let them respond to Me [by obedience] and believe in Me that they may be [rightly] guided. (Qur’an, 2:186)

وَقالَ رَبُّكُمُ ادعوني أَستَجِب لَكُم ۚ إِنَّ الَّذينَ يَستَكبِرونَ عَن عِبادَتي سَيَدخُلونَ جَهَنَّمَ داخِرينَ

And your Lord says: Call upon Me, I will answer you; surely those who are too proud to worship Me will soon go to hell in disgrace”. (Qur’an, 40:60)

أَمَّن يُجيبُ المُضطَرَّ إِذا دَعاهُ وَيَكشِفُ السّوءَ وَيَجعَلُكُم خُلَفاءَ الأَرضِ ۗ أَإِلٰهٌ مَعَ اللَّهِ ۚ قَليلًا ما تَذَكَّرونَ

Or, Who answers the distressed one when he calls upon Him and removes the evil, and He will make you successors in the earth. Is there a god with Allah? Little is it that you mind! (Qur’an, 27:62)

فَادعُوا اللَّهَ مُخلِصينَ لَهُ الدّينَ وَلَو كَرِهَ الكافِرونَ

So invoke Allah , [being] sincere to Him in religion, although the disbelievers dislike it. (Qur’an, 40:14)

وَأَنَّ المَساجِدَ لِلَّهِ فَلا تَدعوا مَعَ اللَّهِ أَحَدًا

And that the mosques are Allah’s, therefore call not upon anyone with Allah. (Qur’an 72:18)

Bible:

Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know. (Jeremiah 33:3)

Then you will call on Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. (Jeremiah 29:12)

Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me. (Psalm 50:15)

I called on Your name, O Lord, Out of the lowest pit. (Lamentations 3:55)

He will call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. (Psalm 91:15)

I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, And I am saved from my enemies.(Samuel 22:4)

I have called upon You, for You will answer me, O God; (Psalm 17:6-9)

Moses and Aaron were among His priests, And Samuel was among those who called on His name; They called upon the Lord and He answered them. (Psalm 99:6)

To You, O Lord, I call; (Psalm 28:1-2)

In my distress, I called upon the Lord, And cried to my God for help; He heard my voice out of His temple, And my cry for help before Him came into His ears. (Psalm 18:6)

As for me, I shall call upon God, And the Lord will save me. (Psalm 55:16)

There are over 50 Bible verses in which God alone is invoked and called upon directly by the Prophets and the Saints. The Qur’an is filled with commands to invoke Allah ALONE. All the Prophets invoked Allah directly, none of them prayed through a “higher” Prophet, nor did they teach anyone to do so.

When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they asked for forgiveness from their Lord, praying: “Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves and if Thou forgive us not and have not mercy on us, we shall be of the lost.” (Qur’an, 7:24)

When the Prophet Noah embarked on his Ark, he prayed: “In the name of God be its course and its mooring. My Lord is surely Most Forgiving, Most Merciful. “(Qur’an 11:42)

The following is the prayer of the disciples of Prophet Jesus:

“Our Lord, we believe in that which Thou hast sent down and we follow the Messenger. So write us down among the witnesses.” (Qur’an, 3:54)

When the Prophet David and the Israelites faced Goliath, they prayed:

“Our Lord, bestow steadfastness upon us, and make our feet firm, and help us against the disbelieving people.” (Qur’an, 2:251)

When the Prophet Job was afflicted, he prayed to his Lord:

“I have been afflicted with distress, and Thou art the Most Merciful of all those who show mercy. “(Qur’an, 21:84)

All invocations ( الدعاء ) in Islam are addressed directly to God without the mediation of an intermediary. Prophets and Messengers were only intermediaries in the sense that they brought the message of Allah to us. They are not acting as “secretaries” of God whom we call upon to convey our prayers and wishes to God. Islam condemns such saint worship as polytheism. Islam did not come to replace the invocation of the saints of the church with the invocation of the Prophet (ﷺ), his families, the saints, etc.

Yes, the Prophets prayed for us when they were among us, but no Prophet ever taught his people to invoke Prophets (let alone Imams, Pirs, etc.) after their passing.

And if, when they wronged themselves, they had come to you, [O Muhammad], and asked forgiveness of Allah and the Messenger had asked forgiveness for them, they would have found Allah Accepting of repentance and Merciful. (Qur’an, 4:64)

“Then all the people said to Samuel, “Pray for your servants to the Lord your God, so that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil by asking for ourselves a king.” (Samuel 12:19)

All of humanity is invited and commanded to call upon God, Allah, alone and directly, no matter how sinful they are. In fact, idolatry was introduced to humankind when people started to glorify their ancestors, build statues of them, worship at their graves, and ascribe divine qualities to them. Therefore, supplications must be directed to God alone. This is because invocation is worship in and of itself and no one is worthy of worship but God.

A sahih hadith is reported in Sunan al-Tirmidhi (3247) in which the Prophet (ﷺ) said:

الدُّعَاءُ هُوَ الْعِبَادَةُ

“Supplication is worship.”

Then, the Prophet (ﷺ) recited the verse:

وَقَالَ رَبُّكُمْ ادْعُونِي أَسْتَجِبْ لَكُمْ إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يَسْتَكْبِرُونَ عَنْ عِبَادَتِي سَيَدْخُلُونَ جَهَنَّمَ دَاخِرِينَ

And your Lord says: Call upon Me, I will answer you; surely those who are too proud to worship Me will soon go to hell in disgrace”. (Qur’an, 40:60)

This is Islam. This is flawless Tawhid (monotheism). This is the simple truth and anyone who resists this truth PERISHES.