The Methodology of the People of the Sunnah and the Community Regarding Seeking Nearness to Allah Through the Prophets, Angels, or the Awliya and the Righteous, and That It Is Not Permissible

The Shaykh : Here is an idea about tawassul and the means, an idea about tawassul and the means.
The truth is that this is a topic that has been repeated by us many times, but it seems that many of our brothers are attending for the first time and have not previously heard our opinion on tawassul and the means in detail; especially since they are hearing from those who did not understand our view on this issue; this is if they are conveying our views with complete objectivity and sincerity and not accusing us of what is not in us. In that case, the matter becomes confusing for them, and at that point, it is obligatory for us to explain this idea to them; first, so that they know what we believe and do not attribute to us what we do not worship Allah with; and second, so that they themselves evaluate their position regarding this issue, which is based on the Book and the Sunnah, so that they may be with us in the Book and the Sunnah if this issue becomes clear to them, and that the truth in it is with us.
First: It must be known by these people today that there is no one among the four Imams to whom we all claim affiliation in the branches of Islamic jurisprudence; there is no one among them who says that seeking nearness to Allah through the prophets, messengers, awliya, and the righteous is permissible as a general, absolute, and comprehensive tawassul. There is no Imam among these Imams, absolutely, who says that. All that has been narrated from Imam Ahmad is that he said seeking nearness to Allah through the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is permissible, and this from him was in connection with the hadith of the blind man, which was previously mentioned. And Imam al-Aziz ibn Abd al-Salam, one of the Shafi'i Imams, said the same; that is, he restricted tawassul to the Messenger (peace be upon him) only, based on the hadith of the blind man. And the hadith of the blind man has an answer for us, as you may hear today or another day, depending on the time available to us.
As for anything other than that; that is, the claim that seeking nearness to Allah through any man, any prophet, any wali, or any righteous man after his death is permissible; there is no one among the Imams of the Muslims who says that absolutely. In fact, the first of the four Imams, Abu Hanifa al-Nu'man ibn Thabit (may Allah have mercy on him), denies all seeking nearness to Allah through persons, explicitly and in a documented manner in all the books of the Hanafi school; where he says: “I dislike that Allah be asked except through Allah,” “I dislike that Allah be asked except through Allah.” And dislike, when stated absolutely by the Hanafis, is interpreted as prohibition, as if he is saying: It is forbidden to ask Allah through any of the means except through Allah (Mighty and Majestic). And the completion of his speech, he said: “And the prescribed supplication is that which is derived from such as His saying, Blessed and Exalted is He: - that is: seek nearness to Allah by them - ” This is the intended meaning of the verse, and the intended meaning is not what many people do today in the name of the remembrance of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), which is the farthest thing from the remembrance of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), to say: “Allah, Allah, Allah, O Subtle One, O Subtle One, O Subtle One”; this is not the intended meaning , rather the intended meaning is that is: seek nearness to Allah by His beautiful names. And if you want other expressions from the language of the hadith, the language of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), listen, for example, to the hadith of the cave, its beginning - we do not have its full length - : “While three men from those before you were walking, when it rained on them, they took refuge in a cave in a mountain, so a rock from the mountain slid down onto the mouth of their cave, and it closed over them. So some of them said to the others: O you, look for deeds that you have done for Allah that are good, and invoke Allah by them.”
So invoke Allah by them, on the pattern of: , so invoke Allah by them; that is: each of you seeks nearness to Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) with a good deed of his.
Likewise, there are other hadiths where this seeking nearness to Allah was by one of the beautiful names of Allah, in more than one hadith, as he said when he heard the Messenger (peace be upon him) a man saying: “O Allah, I ask You by the fact that You are Allah, the One, the Eternal Refuge, who has not begotten nor been begotten, and there is none comparable to Him.” So he said (peace and blessings be upon him): , . So Imam Abu Hanifa (may Allah have mercy on him) understands the verse in light of the Arabic style and the authentic hadiths spoken by the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), so he understands that His saying, the Exalted: means seek nearness to Allah by them, and do not seek nearness to Allah through any person, no matter what his status is with Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). And the secret in that is that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is not like anything; so it is not permissible for the Muslim to treat Him and make the relationship between him and his Lord like his relationship with one of his masters or one of his chiefs. People have established the custom and habit that if he has a need with a great person whom he cannot reach, he is not able to speak to him and face him directly, openly, and that is due to the tyranny of humans over humans, without doubt, he is forced to introduce a means between him and that chief whom he has a need with, so that he introduces a mediator to him. So if the Muslim introduces a human means between him and his Lord (Blessed and Exalted is He), he has likened his Lord to that arrogant, tyrannical chief.
And I was once in “Ma'arrat al-Nu'man,” we stopped at a shop and a conversation about tawassul took place. A cultured young man stood up to us, and he said: My brother, is it possible now for a person to ask for his need directly like this without a means now? If you have a need with - for example - the governor or with ... you can ask him directly. I said to him simply: No, by Allah. He said: Why? I said to him: I mean, do you want to liken your Lord to the governor? Do you think this governor whom you are using as an example, if he were like 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, would that be better for him, or like the tyrant al-Hajjaj? 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, the Bedouin would come to him and say: Where is 'Umar? They would say to him: This is him. He would say to him: O 'Umar, he would not say to him: O Commander of the Faithful; O 'Umar, my need is such and such, and he would listen to him; if his need was a right, he would fulfill it for him, otherwise he would direct him to what is best for him. I said to him: Is 'Umar better or this governor? He said: No, by Allah, 'Umar. I said: So the Lord of 'Umar is better or 'Umar? What is he supposed to say now?!
So when the Muslim descends to this level, he compares the Lord of the worlds to a created being, first of all, and if only his comparison of his Lord was to a perfect created being like 'Umar, if a comparer compared the Lord of the worlds to the just 'Umar, he would be a disbeliever; how much more so when he compares the Lord of the worlds, the most just of the judges and the most fair of the just, to the most unjust of the unjust?! This is the logic of the Muslim today, whose ignorance of the Book and the Sunnah has led to this comparison, in which the words of Ibn Hazm were truly justified in the second part of his speech, where he said: “All analogy is invalid, and if there were any truth in it, this would be the very essence of falsehood.” This is a catchphrase of Ibn Hazm with which he argues with his opponents in dozens of issues; he denies analogy in its entirety and in detail, and he is wrong in this, but in the context of scholarly debate, he sometimes says in some issues: “If there were any truth in analogy, this analogy would be the very essence of falsehood.” And we say: Comparing the Lord of the worlds to the created beings, especially the unjust among them; this is one of the most corrupt, indeed the most sinful, analogies made on the face of the earth.
That is why the wisdom of legislation and the worship of the human being of his Lord is that no intermediary is placed between him and his Lord (Blessed and Exalted is He). When we know this reality, then you will know the ignorance and the fabrication of those who fabricate against us when we say: Do not place an intermediary between you and your Lord, neither the Messenger (peace be upon him) nor anyone below him. They denied the Messenger; they denied the status of the Messenger. You have learned the ignorance of these people or their fabrication. That is because when we say: Do not place the Messenger in your supplication between you and your Lord, this is our jealousy for the status of Lordship and Divinity, and not our belittling of the status of Prophethood and Messengership. This is exactly as the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said to Mu'adh ibn Jabal when he came from Sham to Madinah and intended to prostrate to him, so he said to him: . He said to him: O Messenger of Allah, I came to Sham and found the Christians prostrating to their priests and their great ones, so I saw that you are more worthy of prostration than them. He (peace be upon him) said: .
Even in another story, the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) was approached one day by a mute camel, and it lowered its long neck, so it was as if the Messenger (peace be upon him) listened to it and called out, saying: . A man from the assembly stood up and said: . Then the Messenger clarified to them, or they understood, that this camel, when it lowered its neck, they understood from it that it was prostrating to the Messenger (peace be upon him). When they understood from the information of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) that the camel spoke to him and complained to the Prophet about its owner to remove the injustice from it, they said: O Messenger of Allah, shall we not prostrate to you as this camel prostrated to you? He also said this hadith: . Do you think that if the Messenger (peace be upon him) forbade us with a general prohibition from prostrating to him while he is alive, would he not forbid us from prostrating to him when he is dead? That is even more so. Therefore he said: . If the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade us with a general prohibition from prostrating to him other than Allah (Mighty and Majestic), is this belittling of him? Does he belittle himself? Far from it. So what does the Messenger (peace be upon him) do with this prohibition? He gives the right of Allah to Allah, and He is singled out with it other than anyone else (Blessed and Exalted is He). So we have a model in the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). If we forbid people from placing an intermediary in their supplication between them and their Lord, it does not mean that this intermediary is lowly and has no value, or has no status with his Lord. No, rather the purpose is to make worship sincere for Allah (Mighty and Majestic) according to what our Prophet (may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him) legislated for us.
So the Messenger (peace be upon him), if we say: We do not seek nearness to Allah through him now, we do not mean that he has no status. Rather, Allah described some of the prophets before him: , regarding Isa and Musa. If both Isa and Musa are honored in the sight of Allah, then the Messenger of Allah is undoubtedly more honored in the sight of Allah. But does this honor and this sovereignty justify us legislating in the religion of our Lord what our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did not bring? No. Therefore, if we truly want to honor the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), that is within the limits of what he (peace and blessings be upon him) brought, and we do not add to it. Do you not hear his saying (peace be upon him): ? This is what the Messenger of Allah loves for us, so this is what we draw near to Allah by saying about our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and we do not add a single letter to it. So when our Lord (Blessed and Exalted is He) said: , and Imam Abu Hanifah explained to us the meaning of ; that is: Seek nearness to Allah by them. That is to cut off the root of human intermediaries between the servant and the Lord (Blessed and Exalted is He), because that is a cause, a means, and a path to associating partners with Allah (Mighty and Majestic).