Distinguishing between the types of innovated tawassul and shirk-based tawassul

The questioner : ... regarding clarifying whether... the tawassul of the prophets, the righteous, and the awliya (close friends of Allah) is shirk. I say that it is shirk if the one seeking tawassul believes that the one through whom he seeks tawassul possesses any authority with Allah; meaning that he commands and the Lord of the Worlds obeys. This is undoubtedly shirk. However, if in his belief this person has nearness to Allah through his righteous deeds and his taqwa (mindfulness of Allah), and he seeks tawassul to Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) through him, as is the case with the prophets, among whom is the noble one... of Allah, and among whom is the righteous servant; these are people and humans chosen by Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He); it is possible, I mean, for a person to seek tawassul to Allah through them based on their status with Allah. Knowing that if one believes that these people do not possess anything for themselves or for others... the issue is that tawassul through the righteous or the awliya is shirk if one believes that they possess something, because the entire matter belongs to Allah; but if one considers that they have nearness or a rank through their righteous deeds and their taqwa, by what Allah revealed to them, for example, and He chose and selected them; yes, then in that case, the possibility of shirk in it is not present?

The Shaykh : The answer.

The questioner : ... If you wish, I will just add a word.

The Shaykh : Please, but without repetition, no blame, without repetition; because time is short, yes.

The questioner : The topic of our master 'Umar seeking tawassul through al-'Abbas, the uncle of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him); this is the action of a noble Companion.

The Shaykh : There is no doubt.

The questioner : ... Do you say that he...?

The Shaykh : Did he associate partners with Allah? Far from it!
Answer: First, I remind you that my discussion was not about tawassul, and I did not utter the word tawassul at all on this night, so the matter was confused for you. I spoke, and perhaps you remember well with me when I mentioned the saying of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He): to the end of the verse, and I said that today many Muslims contradict this verse by calling upon other than Allah. I did not speak about tawassul. I say this because many shaykhs do not distinguish between tawassul through the Prophet and the righteous man, and calling upon him other than Allah (Mighty and Majestic). I do not think you are with them in this; because calling upon the righteous man is one thing, and seeking tawassul to Allah through him is another; because the ignorant man when he says: "O Baz, help me"; this, first of all, does not mention Allah at all, he did not mention Him at all, then he asked this righteous wali (close friend of Allah), "Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani" (may Allah have mercy on him), for something that this righteous servant could not do if he were alive; how could he do it after death? We call this shirk; that is: asking the awliya and the righteous after their deaths, asking them directly, this is shirk. And my discussion in the previous talk revolved around this type of shirk, which is calling upon other than Allah (Mighty and Majestic), whom He singled out with Himself , and slaughtering for other than Allah, which He singled out for Himself, and by His saying: ; so it appears that the matter was confused for you due to one of two reasons, and I understood that one of them is not the case; when I asked you that you do not agree with these shaykhs in their mixing of tawassul through the Prophet and calling upon the Prophet other than Allah; this is one thing, and you have denied it, praise be to Allah.
The other thing - and this seems to be the case - is that your mind is occupied with the issue of tawassul, and with what is said and repeated by tongues about the Salafi group that they deny the issue of tawassul through the prophets and the righteous; so this was in your mind and you rushed to ask - and there is no harm - but assuming that I spoke about tawassul on this night and said: that tawassul is shirk. You may ask about tawassul, and I must answer, but you may not say: that I or others call it shirk; because we distinguish completely - and we have a written treatise on this matter, which is perhaps available in the library here with our brothers, titled: "Tawassul: Its Types and Rulings" -; there we mentioned in detail and explanation that tawassul has what is prescribed (mashru') and what is not prescribed. Of this second category, some is shirk, and some is not shirk.
Now I answer your specific question, which... you, so I say:
If a Muslim seeks tawassul to Allah through a prophet of Allah's prophets or a man from the men of Allah and the righteous with Allah, and says: O Allah, I ask You by the status of so-and-so, or by the right of so-and-so, or by the love of so-and-so; this has two states in his reality: The first state: that he believes in his heart, as I said, that these awliya and the righteous have no effect on Allah at all by any means, but this one seeking tawassul thinks and assumes that his saying: O Allah, I ask You by the status of so-and-so to forgive me, to have mercy on me; he thinks that this tawassul is a cause of the acceptance of the supplication; if that is the case, we say: this is an error, this is a bid'ah (religious innovation) in the religion; it is not permissible for a Muslim to insert an intermediary in his supplication between him and his Lord (Blessed and Exalted is He); why? Because of many verses, and naturally, time is shorter than to repeat what we wrote in the aforementioned treatise, but I remind you of His saying (Exalted is He): , so our Lord (Mighty and Majestic), by His grace and mercy towards His servants, opened the door of asking and supplication to Him wide open, and He never said in our Shari'ah that... = -- ... -- = one should insert an intermediary, even by name, not by calling, between me and Him; no, and He said as you heard: , and the close one does not need an intermediary, this is a fitrah (innate natural disposition) matter before it is a Shari'ah matter.
We say: that this type of tawassul is not prescribed (mashru'), and it is in itself an error with the previous condition; that this one seeking tawassul believes that by this tawassul he does not affect the Lord of the Worlds, making Him respond to him, while the one through whom he sought tawassul responds to him.
And the story of al-'Abbas that you mentioned is one of the common illusions among the masses of people today from the later generations in terms of using the story as evidence. The story is authentic, and it is sufficient for us to know that it is in "Sahih al-Bukhari", but these people erred in using the story as evidence for the tawassul that we believe is an innovated (mubtadi') and not prescribed (mashru') matter; knowing that we are not alone in that; rather, the previous imams are with us in this issue, and of course, I am also not in need of detailing; for that is mentioned in the aforementioned treatise, but I see it necessary to draw attention to the error of using the previous story as evidence for what they hold regarding tawassul.
The tawassul mentioned in the hadith of al-'Abbas must have its meaning understood, so perhaps you remember with me that when they went out in the time of 'Umar ibn al-Khattab for the prayer for rain, 'Umar ibn al-Khattab said: "O Allah, we used to seek tawassul to You with Your Prophet when we were in drought, and You would send us rain, and now we seek tawassul to You with the uncle of Your Prophet, so send us rain." Now a question comes: 'Umar ibn al-Khattab is narrating something that happened and passed; he says: we used to seek tawassul to You with Your Prophet, well, what do they do now? That is: after the death of the Messenger, and after the death of Abu Bakr, and after a portion of 'Umar's caliphate, what do they do? Do they seek tawassul... with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) or not? I ask now a question related to Arabic etiquette and the Arabic language: if 'Umar ibn al-Khattab said: O Allah, we used to seek tawassul to You with our Prophet in the era of our Prophet, and now we seek tawassul to You with the uncle of Your Prophet; does this Arabic construction indicate to us that they are still seeking tawassul with the Prophet, or is this a matter that has passed and ended? I ask you in Arabic, do not tell me: I am a student of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), what do I have to do with a student of fiqh, perhaps a student of some Arabic etiquette or not; I do not know, in any case, you are an Arab man, so what do you understand from this expression? We used to seek tawassul to You with our Prophet; does this mean we are still seeking tawassul to You with our Prophet?
You may find it difficult to answer, so I will spare you the trouble. I say: We never understand, and no one with knowledge or an Arabic instinct understands that this Arabic expression from the Quraysh Arab 'Umar: "We used to seek nearness to You through your Prophet" means that we still seek nearness... Rather, this is a report about what has passed, and this is the truth. They used to seek nearness, but they no longer do. Why? If this report is valid to be called a hadith, it indicates that they do not seek nearness in two ways: First, it makes the issue of their seeking nearness through the Messenger a matter that entered history and passed away. Second, why does he not seek nearness through the Messenger but through the Messenger's uncle? Seeking nearness through the Messenger, if it were prescribed, would undoubtedly be better than seeking nearness through anyone other than the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) by the consensus of the Muslims. This is one point.
The second point: He reports that they used to seek nearness through the Messenger during his lifetime. What were they doing? Question: Do you know how they used to seek nearness during the life of the Messenger (peace be upon him)? Do you know? It is fine to say "I do not know" if you do not know, and it is obligatory for you to clarify what you know; because this is a religious discussion, and the common opinion among us is that we do not have what they call today tyranny and despotism or the like. You advise one another in truth; this is our methodology in our calling. So, do you know how they used to seek nearness?

The questioner: What appears to me is that they seek nearness...

The Shaykh: Okay, meaning they used to seek nearness in their prayer and supplication, and the Messenger of Allah had no knowledge of their seeking nearness? Do you think that? If you think that, then what others think is that you are mistaken. We demand from you one narration—just one!—in the history of the Messenger (peace be upon him), in his prophethood which lasted twenty-three years, of a single incident where a man from the Companions said, as one of us says today in his supplication between himself and his Lord, and the Messenger had absolutely no news of it: "O Allah, I ask You by the status of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), by the right of the Messenger, by the sanctity of the Messenger, that You forgive me, that You fulfill my need," and so on? There is absolutely nothing like this, and here before you... are scholars of knowledge; ask them this question which is actually the key to understanding the issue of seeking nearness, which has been lost or this understanding has been lost from the masses of our Muslim brothers.
I tell you something else: The seeking nearness that was known from the Companions through the Messenger (peace be upon him) was seeking nearness through his supplication. So, in "Sahih al-Bukhari and Muslim"—for example—from the hadith of Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was delivering the Friday sermon on the pulpit when a Bedouin man came and entered the mosque from one of its doors and said: "O Messenger of Allah, the wealth and families have perished due to the scarcity of rain; so supplicate to Allah for us." He raised his hands and said: or similar expressions; so the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) did not finish his supplication until the sky was filled with rain like the mouths of water skins. Anas said: It continued to rain for a Saturday—meaning a full week until the following Friday—and while the Messenger was delivering the sermon, that man or another—Anas was uncertain—came and said: "O Messenger of Allah, the wealth has perished due to the abundance of rain; so supplicate to Allah for us." He said: . He said: So the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) did not finish his supplication until the clouds and rain moved away from the city, and it was like a shield—meaning like a shield; the sky was raining outside the city, but there was nothing in the city.
So this is the seeking nearness of the Companions, or an example of what they used to seek nearness with; meaning that they would come to the Messenger (peace be upon him) and present their problem to him, and ask him for supplication, so he would supplicate for them, and they would say "Ameen" to his supplication.
Similar to this is the story of the blind man, if you have heard it. This story is repeated by some shaykhs today, and it says: A blind man came to the Messenger (peace be upon him) and said to him: "O Messenger of Allah, supplicate to Allah to heal me." He said: . He said: So supplicate. As if he was saying I have no patience; supplicate. He said: Go to the ablution place and perform wudu, and pray two rak'ahs for Allah, then say: اللهم إني أسألك وأتوجَّه إليك بنبيِّك نبيِّ الرحمة ، يا محمد ، إني توجَّهت بك إلى ربي لِيُعافيني ، اللهم فشفِّعْه فيَّ وشفِّعْني فيه O Allah, I ask You and I turn to You by Your Prophet, the Prophet of Mercy, O Muhammad. I have turned to my Lord by you so that He may cure me. O Allah, make him an intercessor for me and make me an intercessor for him, so the man performed wudu, prayed two rak'ahs, and supplicated with this supplication, and he returned with his sight restored.
The shaykhs think that he sought nearness through the person of the Messenger or through the status of the Messenger, and the truth without doubt is that he sought nearness through the supplication of the Messenger. This is clear in the clearest way if we observe the following points:
First: Why did the blind man come to the Messenger? To have him supplicate for him, and this is explicit in his saying: "Supplicate to Allah to heal me." With what did the Messenger promise him? That he would supplicate for him; so the Messenger would supplicate for him. When the blind man said in the supplication that the Messenger taught him: "O Allah, I ask You and turn to You through Your Prophet," here it is necessary to estimate a deleted addition; through Your Prophet by his body, by his person, by his flesh and blood, by his supplication, by his status, by... and so on; it is necessary to estimate. We say: The context and the preceding text compel us to estimate the supplication. "O Allah, I ask You and turn to You through the supplication of Your Prophet." Where did we get the supplication from? The whole story revolves around the supplication, as is apparent, and the completion confirms this meaning for you. اللهم إني أسألك وأتوجَّه إليك بنبيِّك نبيِّ الرحمة ، يا محمد ، إني توجَّهت بك O Allah, I ask You and I turn to You by Your Prophet, the Prophet of Mercy, O Muhammad. I have turned to You by youAl-Mustadrak lil-Hakim 18:126 meaning: through your supplication إلى ربي لِيُعافيني ، اللهم شفِّعْه فيَّ to my Lord so that He may cure me. O Allah, make him an intercessor for me What does "intercede for me" mean? If the seeking nearness is through the person, then this supplication has no meaning at all. But the meaning—and this is understood in the Arabic language—is اللهم شفِّعْه فيَّ O Allah, make him an intercessor for me meaning accept his intercession for me. And what does "accept his intercession" mean? It means his supplication. Okay, and the strangest of all this is وشفِّعني فيه And intercede for me in him, if we say that this blind man seeks nearness through the person of the Messenger, and interprets the intercession of the Messenger for him as seeking nearness through his person, but he is saying: "Intercede for me with You"; "Intercede for me, meaning my person?" "Intercede for me, my person, through the Messenger (peace be upon him)?" Is this reasonable?! But if we understand that intercession means supplication in both of the two paragraphs and sentences, the meaning becomes as clear as the sun in the fourth hour of the day, and it was as follows: اللهم فشفِّعه فيَّ O Allah, so make him an intercessor for me Accept his intercession; meaning: his supplication for me, and accept my intercession and my supplication for him in that You accept his supplication for me.
So the hadith from beginning to end revolves around seeking nearness through the supplication of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), and this is a summary of what I mentioned in the letter.
So if we return to the hadith of 'Umar: "We used to seek nearness to You through the Prophet of Allah"; how? Through the supplication of the Prophet of Allah. Now it is not possible—Professor—for a person to seek nearness through the supplication of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him); and therefore the Companions were compelled to leave seeking nearness through the Messenger to seeking nearness through the Messenger's uncle. And the evidence—also—which confirms what we mentioned earlier about the meaning of seeking nearness in the same story of 'Umar is that after 'Umar said: "And we now seek nearness to You through the uncle of your Prophet, so rain upon us," he said: "O 'Abbas, supplicate to Allah for us." So they supplicated and said "Ameen." This is the seeking nearness. No one among the Muslims denies this seeking nearness. As for seeking nearness through the person, through the sanctity which is established, and the status which, as I said, is also established, this has no basis in the Shari'ah of Islam at all.
Finally, I say: The Muslim seeks nearness through what is a means, either a lawful means or a natural cosmic means. For example: A person seeks nearness to sustenance through what? Through striving and traveling in the earth. This is striving. But is every striving prescribed? Is every striving in traveling in the earth prescribed? Of course not. A person may strive in the path of buying grapes to make them into intoxicants. This is striving and he took a means to sustenance, but although it is a means to sustenance, it is not a lawful means. So now we say: Do you think the saying of the one who seeks nearness: "I ask You, O Allah, by the sanctity of Muhammad"; is this a prescribed seeking nearness? Where do we know that it is prescribed or not prescribed? From the Book and the Sunnah, and in the Book and the Sunnah there is absolutely nothing of that.
I say: This type of tawassul (seeking nearness to Allah through a means) is not prescribed. However, if this tawassul is accompanied by a belief we have heard from dozens of people—and once it happened between me and one of them in Ma'arrat al-Nu'man, after we left here and continued our road from Damascus, turning toward al-Ma'arrat to buy some provisions—it appeared that some of the young people were religious, but—unfortunately—without guidance. One of them knew that I was Shaykh al-Albani, so he turned back and asked me about tawassul. I clarified the issue to him in a manner completely different from this style, because he said what you did not say—and here is the point. He said: "You deny tawassul. One of us today has a need with a minister or a prince, and he cannot reach it except through an intermediary to this minister or prince." So I naturally agreed with his words to let him finish his explanation. I said: "Yes, exactly." He finished speaking. I said to him: "Are you done?" He said: "Yes." I said to him: "Do you mean you want to liken the Lord of the Worlds to these rulers, these unjust princes, to whom the poor, lowly man among people cannot reach except through an intermediary or more than one intermediary? Do you want to liken the Lord of the Worlds to them, or do you liken Him to 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, whose doors were open? The Bedouin would come from the desert and say: 'Where is 'Umar?' 'Here is 'Umar.' He would go straight in and say: 'O 'Umar, my need is such and such.' Do you liken your Lord to 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, or to the unjust rulers?" He said: "No; likening Him to the just 'Umar ibn al-Khattab is better than likening Him to the unjust rulers." I said: "Your likening of your Lord to the just 'Umar ibn al-Khattab is disbelief (kufr) and associating partners with Allah (shirk); because Allah says: لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْءٌ وَهُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْبَصِيرُ There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the Hearing, the Seeing.[Ash-Shuraa 42:11]; so how about you, who are not content to liken Allah, your Lord and the one you worship, to the just 'Umar, but rather descend to the lowest valley and liken Him to the unjust rulers?! And you are not even content with that, because the unjust ruler, even if he is unjust, is a Muslim. Rather, it is the disbelievers who rule by other than what Allah has revealed—for example—what are you? You liken the Lord of the Worlds to them. Is this what tawassul is?!"
This tawassul—O professor—is major shirk and major misguidance. As for a person who assumes that this tawassul will result in his supplication being answered, this is an error in light of the Shari'ah. And we stop here. But if this error is accompanied by likening the Lord of the Worlds to the most wicked of the wicked and the most unjust of the unjust, then that is disbelief itself.
And with this amount is sufficient, and praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.
We have ten minutes left.