Tafsir of the saying of Allah the Exalted: “And seek the means of nearness to Him”
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. He says: What is the correct interpretation of this verse[Al-Ma'idah 5:35], given that the Sufis say it indicates taking intermediaries to Allah?
Answer:
The wasilah is not intermediaries; the wasilah is the worship that brings one closer to Allah. So the wasilah is what brings one closer to Allah the Exalted, and that is worship, the worship of Allah alone, with no partner for Him. This is the wasilah that Allah has commanded us to adopt. Yes.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. He says: What is the correct interpretation of this verse
and seek the means [of nearness] to Him
وَابْتَغُوا إِلَيْهِ الْوَسِيلَةَAnswer:
The wasilah is not intermediaries; the wasilah is the worship that brings one closer to Allah. So the wasilah is what brings one closer to Allah the Exalted, and that is worship, the worship of Allah alone, with no partner for Him. This is the wasilah that Allah has commanded us to adopt. Yes.
Source
شرح إغاثة اللهفان من مصائد الشيطان لابن القيم، فصل ومن كيده : أنه يُحسّن إلى أرباب التخلي والزهد والرياضة العمل بها — islamhouse.com (1:14:48)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.