وَلَا يَأْمُرَكُمْ أَن تَتَّخِذُوا الْمَلَائِكَةَ وَالنَّبِيِّينَ أَرْبَابًا ۗ أَيَأْمُرُكُم بِالْكُفْرِ بَعْدَ إِذْ أَنتُم مُّسْلِمُونَ
Nor is it (possible for him) that he commands you to hold the angels and the prophets as Lords. Shall he command you to disbelieve, after your having become Muslims? (Surah Aal-‘Imraan v80)
All the Ambiyaa (‘alaihimus salaam) preached tauheed; the belief in the oneness of Allah Ta‘ala. They would have never instructed the people to worship anyone besides Allah Ta‘ala.
Christianity has drifted so far from tauheed that they have ‘sidelined’ Allah Ta‘ala and made their Deen revolve around Jesus whom they worship and to whom they supplicate in du‘aa.
Any person who will be taken as a guide in Deen must fulfill a vital criterion – that his teachings and guidance completely conform to the sharee‘ah and do not violate the laws of Deen in any way. After all, how can a person reach Allah Ta‘ala through disobeying Him and disregarding His commands? Similarly, one will not gain guidance from a person who is himself misguided and in the disobedience of Allah Ta‘ala.
In this day and age, there are many people who portray themselves as saints, sages and scholars. However, on close scrutiny, it is apparent that many of them fail to adhere to essential injunctions of Deen. A glaring example of this is the ‘saints’ or ‘scholars’ who do not observe purdah (hijaab and niqaab) with strange women, and sometimes even stoop to the level of speaking, joking and interacting with them!
Obviously, when these people are bereft of Deen, following them is a recipe for disaster that will cause one to drift away from Allah Ta‘ala.
The sign of a true guide – of one who is really the friend of Allah Ta‘ala – is that he adheres strictly to all the commands of Allah Ta‘ala and the sunnah of Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam). This is the factor that distinguishes between the ‘genuine’ and the ‘fake’.