What is the ruling on placing intermediaries between the servant and his Lord?

Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah bring you closer to Him, is the means (wasilah) more prevalent in shirk (associating partners with Allah)?

Answer:
What is the means? You mean tawassul (seeking nearness to Allah through a means). If tawassul is accompanied by worship directed to the one through whom one seeks nearness, such as slaughtering for him, making vows for him, or circumambulating his grave to draw near to him, then this is shirk (associating partners with Allah) directed to him, as the grave-worshippers do today. However, if the intention is merely to make the means an intermediary between him and Allah, and he does not direct any part of his worship to it—his worship is directed to Allah, but he places an intermediary between himself and Allah in the acceptance of his worship—then this is bid'ah (religious innovation). This is an innovated tawassul and is not shirk.