The methodology of the people of the Sunnah and the community regarding seeking nearness to Allah through the prophets, or the angels, or the awliya (close friends of Allah) and the righteous, and that it is not permissible, and this is the methodology of the four imams.

The Shaykh : Here ... regarding tawassul (seeking nearness to Allah through a means) and the wasilah (means of approach), ... regarding tawassul and the wasilah, 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 anew and have not previously heard our opinion on tawassul and the wasilah in detail, especially since they are hearing from those who did not understand our opinion on this issue. This is if they are conveying our views with complete objectivity and complete sincerity and do not accuse us of what is not in us. In that case, the matter becomes difficult 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 the truth in it is with us.
First, it must be known by these people today that there is not among the four Imams, to whom we all claim affiliation in the branches of Islamic jurisprudence, any one who says that it is permissible to seek nearness to Allah (tawassul) through the prophets, messengers, awliya (close friends of Allah), and the righteous in a general, absolute, and comprehensive manner. There is no Imam among these four Imams, absolutely, who says that. All that has been narrated from Imam Ahmad is that he said it is permissible to seek nearness to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and this is from him standing with the hadith of the blind man, which was mentioned earlier. And Imam al-Aziz ibn Abd al-Salam, one of the Shafi'i Imams, said the same, restricting tawassul to the Messenger (peace be upon him) only in 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 else, that is, saying that tawassul is permissible with any man, any prophet, any wali, or any righteous man after his death, there is no Imam among the Imams of the Muslims who says that absolutely. Rather, the first of the four Imams, Abu Hanifah al-Nu'man ibn Thabit (may Allah have mercy on him), denies all tawassul through persons explicitly, as recorded in all the books of the Hanafi school, where he says: "I dislike that Allah be asked for except through Allah". I dislike that Allah be asked for except through Allah. And dislike (kراهة) among the Hanafis, when stated absolutely, is understood as prohibition, as if he is saying it is forbidden to ask Allah through any means other than Allah the Exalted. And the completion of his statement is that he said: "And the prescribed supplication is that which is derived from such as His saying, Blessed and Exalted is He:

And to Allah belong the best names, so invoke Him by them

ولله الأسماء الحسنى فادعوه بها

[Al-A'raf 7:180]

-that is, seek nearness to Allah through them-" This is what is intended by the verse, and it is not what many people do today in the name of mentioning Allah the Exalted, which is the farthest thing from mentioning Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, to say "Allah, Allah, Allah, O Gentle, O Gentle, O Gentle." This is not what is intended by . Rather, what is intended is , that is, seek nearness to Allah through His beautiful names. And if you wish for 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, the beginning of it, for we do not have its full length: "While three men from before you were walking, when it rained on them, they took refuge in a cave in a mountain. A rock from the mountain slid down onto the mouth of their cave and closed over them. So some of them said to the others: 'O you, look for deeds you have done for Allah that are good, and call upon Allah through them.' -So call upon Allah through them, on the pattern of

So call upon Him by them

فادعوه بها

, call upon Allah through them, that is, each of you seeks nearness to Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, through a good deed of his to Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He-" Likewise, there are other hadiths where this tawassul with a name from the beautiful names of Allah came in more than one hadith. As he said when the Messenger (peace be upon him) heard a man saying: "O Allah, I ask You by the fact that You are Allah, the One, the Eternal, Who has not begotten nor been begotten, and there is none comparable to Him." So he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: So Imam Abu Hanifah (may Allah have mercy on him) understands the verse in light of the Arabic style and the authentic hadiths spoken by the Messenger (peace be upon him), and he understands that His saying, Exalted is He: , means seek nearness to Him through them, and do not seek nearness to Allah through any person, no matter what his status is with Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He. The secret of that is that Allah the Exalted is not like anything, so it is not permissible for the Muslim to treat Him, and to make the relationship between him and his Lord like his relationship with one of his masters or one of his chiefs. People have a custom and habit that if he has a need with a great person whom he cannot reach, whom he is not able to speak to and face directly, openly, and that is due to the tyranny of humans over humans, without doubt, he is forced to put an intermediary between him and that chief whom he has a need with. So if the Muslim puts an intermediary of humans 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, and we stopped at a shop, and a conversation took place about tawassul. A cultured young man stood up to us, and he said: "My brother, is it possible for a person to ask for his need directly, like this, without an intermediary? What if you have a need with, for example, the governor or the president? You... ask him directly." I said to him, simply: "No, by Allah." He said: "If I said..." I said to him: "So you want to liken your Lord to a governor? Do you think this governor, whom you are using as an example, is it better for him to be like 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, or like al-Hajjaj the tyrant? 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, the Bedouin would come to him and say: 'Where is 'Umar?' They would say to him: 'This is he.' He would say: 'O 'Umar,' not '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 is the Lord of 'Umar better, or 'Umar? What is left for him to say? So when the Muslim descends to this level and measures the Lord of the worlds by a created being, first of all, I wish that his measurement of his Lord was by a complete created being like 'Umar. If a measurer measured the Lord of the worlds by 'Umar the just, he would be a disbeliever. How much more so when he measures the Lord of the worlds, the most just of the just and the most fair of the fair, by the most unjust of the unjust?!" This is the logic of the Muslim today. His ignorance of the Book and the Sunnah has led to this measurement, in which the words of Ibn Hazm are truly correct in the second part of his statement. He said: "All analogy (qiyas) is invalid, and if there were any truth in it, this would be the very essence of falsehood from it." This is a catchphrase... Ibn Hazm uses it to argue 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 from it." And we say that measuring the Lord of the worlds by the created beings, especially the unjust among them, is one of the most corrupt, indeed the most sinful, measurements on the face of the earth. Therefore, the wisdom of legislation and the worship of the human being to his Lord is that he does not put an intermediary between him and his Lord, Blessed and Exalted is He. If we know this reality, then you will know the ignorance and the fabrication of the fabricators against us, who say about us when we say "do not put an intermediary between you and your Lord, not the Messenger (peace be upon him) nor anyone below him," that we have denied the Messenger and denied the status of the Messenger. Do you know the ignorance of these people or their fabrication? Because when we say "do not put the Messenger in the supplication between you and your Lord," this is our jealousy for the status of Lordship and Divinity, and not a lowering from us 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 went to Sham and I found the Christians prostrating to their priests and their great ones, and I saw that you are more worthy of prostration than they are." He (peace be upon him) said: Even in another story, the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) was approached one day by a donkey, a mute animal, and it lowered its long neck, so it seemed as if the Messenger (peace be upon him) listened to it. So he called out and said: A man from the assembly stood up and said: And the Messenger clarified to them, or they understood, that this donkey, 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 donkey spoke to him and complained about its owner to the Prophet to remove the injustice from it, they said: "O Messenger of Allah, should we not prostrate to you as this donkey prostrated to you?" He also said in this hadith: Do you see that if the Messenger (peace be upon him) forbade us generally to prostrate to him while he is alive, should he not forbid us to prostrate 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 generally to prostrate to him other than to Allah the Exalted, is this a disparagement of him? Does he disparage himself? Far from it. So what does the Messenger (peace be upon him) do in this prohibition? He gives the right of Allah to Allah and singles Him out with it, other than anyone else, Blessed and Exalted is He. So we have an example in the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). If we forbid people to put an intermediary in their supplication between them and their Lord, it does not mean that this intermediary is lowly, has no value, or has no status with his Lord. No, but the purpose is to make the worship sincere to Allah the Exalted, as our Prophet (may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him) legislated for us. So if we say "we do not seek nearness to Allah through him now," no, we do not mean that he has no status. Rather, Allah described some of the prophets before him: about 'Isa and Musa. If both 'Isa and Musa are honored with Allah, then the Messenger of Allah is undoubtedly more honored with Allah. But does this honor and this lordship justify us to legislate in the religion of our Lord what our own Messenger (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 it about our Prophet (peace be upon him). We do not add a single letter to that. So when our Lord, Blessed and Exalted is He, said: , and Imam Abu Hanifah explained to us that the meaning of is "seek nearness to Allah through 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 the Exalted.