yes

we have saints in our religion

Rabia Basri was one of them

Ya Ali Madad Mrs bunny

Muslims have lots of holy saints and they regularly visit the graves of these saints for pilgrimage. Its a source of spiritual blessing for anyone to go to grave of a saint. God's holy people can help us in our daily problems. All we have to do is ask.

Saudis don't believe in holy saints. They are a weird sect of Muslims.
But the rest of the Muslims all over the world reveres sainhoot.

Rabia Basri was indeed a very holy woman. She was a saint of God. Fatima daughter of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was another holy saint. So was holy Mary. All Muslim love mother of Jesus (pbuh).

I don't know precisely what Catholics mean by the word 'Saint'.

There are several aspects through which Sainthood in Islam can be understood.

To list a few such aspects: Humanity, consciousness of The Divine, fullfilment.

[u]Humanity[/u]
the virtues of compassion, humility, mercy, love etc. The Saints are the foremost humanitarians.

[u]Consciousness of The Divine[/u]
The Saints are the foremost in remebering God in calling on God and serving God, they are called 'The Folk of God' and are lost in the Love of God.

[u]Fulfillment[/u]
The Saints are those people who the foremost in working in this life to spiritually develop and purify themselves. There is a concept of Spiritual evolution in Islam and The Saints are those who have spiritually evolved to a higher spiritual awareness and state.

I don't think that Catholic Saints are revered in Islam. That is not to say every Muslim de facto denies their Sainthood (although some would). God knows better and best thier state and we [Muslims] will not questioned regarding them, so I just avoid that area.

Err, sorry but dead people can't help us!

Allah Alone is the source of power and if we believe that we can pray to a dead person to give us something that God has refused of us, we are commiting shirk which is the WORST SIN in Islam.

Back to the question:

Saints in Catholicism are people who are recognised by the Church as DEFINATELY in heaven. Someone can only be officially called a 'Saint' if they have already passed away, and the Catholic clergy has acknowledged that God has sent them to heaven. There are other people in heaven who are not called saints, but this is only because they Catholic church might not have enough information about their life to say for certain.

In Islam, we believe that NONE of us can EVER know for sure who is going to heaven and who is going to hell. The only people GUARANTEED Paradise are the Prophets (peace be upon them all) and a few other pious people mentioned in the Qu'ran such as Mary, mother of Jesus, and the wife of the Pharoah. The other people PROMISED Paradise were revealed to the Prophet Muhammad from God, towards the end of his lifetime, and these were all his wives and ten of his close companions.

In a Catholic definition of 'sainthood', these are the only 'Muslim Saints'. But Muslims have a different concept of 'sainthood' to Catholics:

The word 'Waliullah' is often tanslated into English as 'saint', but in this context it means 'trusted one', 'friend' or 'companion' of God. It is believed these people have a closer relationship with God than the rest of us. These people are alive, and therefore do not have to have passed away to be called a saint. This does NOT mean we think they have any special powers. If we ask them to pray for us, we realise that the prayer will only be accepted if Allah wills it to be accepted.

I think I wrote that in the most confusing way, I'm sorry.

Basically, when a Muslim talks about someone being a saint, they don't mean the exact same thing as when a Catholic talks about someone being a Saint.

I think both religions agree that the Virgin Mary is a Saint, other that that its a bit difficult to tell who is a saint in both Islam and Christianity.

We do not believe in saint in the same way as christians. There is no "process" of beatification.

As for wether we accept Christian saints, some. We accept that Mary (as), Mother of Jesus (as) is a saint. There are probably others. But later christians saints such as those who entrenched the belief of the trinity, we will not accept.

Our concept of "Saint" is "Wali-ullah" or "Friend of Allah". There is no formal process one goes through to become a wali, apart from try to be religious. Obviously there are those who are better/closer wali's then others.

@Ya'qub: Definitely if someone believe any power originates from a source other than Allah, that is shirk. But the hadith of the Blind Man, and the story of the man in need show that on can ask another for help AS LONG AS the asker still believes that all power is From Allah. We do not believe Allah (swt) is limited in Power. We do not limit him granting his mercy on others.