I feel a little weird including this link to the online book The Jamaa'at Tableegh and the Deobandis. On the one hand the book is probably the most detailed text I've seen which disusses the specific beliefs of the Deobandi movement and really helps to locate the Deobandis in their proper place with respect to Islamic thought. On the other hand, the author is definitely a hostile witness who sees the Deobandis as a deviant group and so the book is very polemical throughout. I'll just say that the book is interesting reading but to take what it says with a great deal of salt. I'm sure you can learn a great deal about the Deobandis by reading it, but you can probably learn a lot more on what the Salafis think about the Deobandis.
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Wa alaikum salaam,
I think that one could probably find examples of individuals who commit shirk in a variety of ways. At the same time, I've also found useful books and articles (some influenced by Deobandis) which discuss these topics in more careful ways. My impression is that there are some controversial practices which qualified scholars accept as praiseworthy, and which might look like shirk, but when done with the right understanding are totally appropriate.
Just as we might go to a super market and "call upon" the people at the market to give us food, or we could "call upon" a doctor and ask for healing, some people say it is ok to "call upon" the prophet or certain pious people from the past.
But in *each* of those cases, it is important for us to understand that the real source of anything is God. I talked a little bit about this in an entry on fatima's hand.
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