Tawassul (Use of a Means )
It is divided into two types:
First type: a worship by which a slave aims to approach the Contentment and Paradise of Allah, this is why we say that all worships are means to escape from Hell Fire and enter the Paradise.
Second type: is the part that is considered as a way to have the call for help responded, and divided into:
First class: is the Tawassul (Use of a Means ) for Allah by His Best Names, whether by all of them as a whole or by One of them only.
An example for the first which is calling Allah for help using all His Best Names is what was reported in the sound Hadith (tradition) in the Du’a of worry and grief which says, meaning- “ O Allah! I am Your servant, and the son of Your servant “ ..Until he said, “I call upon You by every Name of Yours…” And the evidence is in his saying, - ‘ by every Name of Yours’. And we say, ‘O Allah we call you by Your Best Names’. Allay says, -meaning – { The most beautiful Names belong to Allah: so call on Him by them}.
Second class, which is the Tawassul ( Use of a Means ) for Allah by One of His Names, such as your saying, “O Forgiver, forgive me, O Merciful, be Merciful with me, O Allah, You indeed Love pardon, so Pardon me”. So this is a call using a means which is One of His Best Names.
Second type: is the Tawassul (Use of a Means) by all of His Qualifications as a whole or using One of them, including His Deeds for they are considered Qualifications as well. Such as saying, “O Allah, I call You by Your Best names and Your Superior Qualifications”, and this is a sound Du’a. In fact, this Tawassul may also be general including all Qualifications such as the preceding example, or it may be general including all Qualifications such as preceding example, or it may be specific using One of them, such as, -meaning- “I seek Protection of Allah from what I feel or fear of” . So this is a Tawassul using One of Allah’s Qualifications.
Furthermore, an example is given for the Tawassul by Allah’s Deeds is, -meaning- “O Allah! Send Your Mercy on Muhammad (saw) and on the family of Muhammad (saw), as You sent Your Mercy on Ibrahim ( Abraham) and on the family of Ibrahim (Abraham)”, so that you are asking Allah, Who bestowed upon Ibrahim (Abraham) praising him and his family to His Angels, to praise the Prophet Muhammad (saw) and his family.
Third type: is the Tawassul to Allah by your belief in Him, so that you can ask Allah to respond your call because you have believed in Him and in His Messenger and say, “O Allah, because of my belief in You and Your Messenger, I ask such and such…”. This is sound for Allah (swt) said,-meaning- {Behold! In the creation of the heavens and the earth… “Our Lord! We have heard the call of one calling (us) to Faith, Believe you in the Lord’, and we have believed. Our Lord! Forgive us our sins, blot out from us our iniquities}. This means that they asked their Lord to forgive them because they believed, so that they made the faith a means of the call of forgiveness.
Therefore, Tawassul by the belief in Allah or by His Messenger, and Tawassul by loving Allah or His Prophet is permissible because faith in Allah is a means by which one can reach forgiveness, and loving Allah and His Messenger is also a means by which one can reach forgiveness, so one can use it as a means of call.
Fourth type: Tawassul to Allah by presenting the state of the slave so that he would submit himself to his Lord without mentioning anything about his needs, such as saying, “O Allah, I am the needy poor to you, I am the prisoner in Your Hands”. This is clearly shown by what Musa (Moses) said when he watered the two women’s flocks before he went to the shadow and said, -meaning- {O my Lord! Truly am I in (desperate) need of any good that You does send me!}, and did not mention anything about his needs. Obviously, what is important here in this Verse is that the presenting of miserable state indirectly necessitates Mercy, Kindness, and Charity especially when it is concerned with the Most Merciful
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Fifth type: Tawassul by the call of a person whom you think Allah is Responsive to, this is shown in the Tradition reported by Muslim that on a Friday a person entered the main Mosque through the gate facing the pulpit while Allah’s Messenger was delivering the Khutba. The man stood in front of Allah’s Messenger and said, ‘O Allah’s Messenger! The livestock are dying, and the roads are cut off; so please pray to Allah for rain.’ “ Anas said, “Allah’s Messenger raised both his hands and said, -meaning- “O Allah! Bless us with rain! O Allah! Bless us with rain! O Allah! Bless us with rain!’ “ Anas added, “By Allah, we could not see any trace of cloud in the sky and there was no building or a house between us and (the mountains of) Sila.” Anas added, “A heavy cloud like a shield appeared from behind it (i.e. Sila’ Mountain). When it came in the middle of the sky, it spread and then rained. And the Prophet went down with his beard wet.”
Sixth type: Tawassul to Allah by the pious deeds. In fact, it is mentioning to Allah while calling Him for help a good deed one has previously done, which he thinks useful as a means to have his need responded. It is clearly illustrated by the story of the three persons which the Prophet told us about when he said, -meaning- Once three persons (from the previous nations) were travelling, and suddenly it started raining and they took shelter in a cave. The entrance of the cave got closed while they were inside. They said to each other, ‘O you! Nothing can save you except the truth, so each of you should ask Allah’s help by referring to such a deed as he thinks he did sincerely (i.e. just for gaining Allah’s pleasure). ‘So one of them said, ‘O Allah! You know that I had a laborer who worked for me for one Faraq (i.e. three Sas) of rice, but he departed, leaving it (i.e. his wages). I sowed that Faraq of rice and with its yield I bought cows (for him). Later on when he came to me asking for his wages, I said (to him) ‘Go to those cows and drive them away. ‘He said to me, ‘But you have to pay me only a Faraq of rice, ‘ I said to him, ‘Go to those cows and take them, for they are the product of that Faraq (of rice). ‘ So he drove them. O Allah! If you consider that I did that for fear of You, then please remove the rock. ‘ The rock shifted a bit from the mouth of the cave.
The second one said, ‘O Allah, You know that I had old parents whom I used to provide with the milk of my sheep every night. One night I was delayed and when I came, they had slept, while my wife and children were crying with hunger. I used not to let them (i.e. my family) drink unless my parents had drunk first. So I disliked to wake them up and also disliked that they should sleep without drinking it, I kept on waiting (for them to wake) till it dawned. ‘ O Allah! If you consider that I did that for fear of you, then please remove the rock.’ So the rock shifted, and they could see the sky through it.
The (third) one said, ‘O Allah! You know that I had a cousin (i.e. my paternal uncle’s daughter) who was most beloved to me and I sought to seduce her, but she refused, unless I paid her one hundred Dinars (i.e. gold pieces). So I collected the amount and brought it to her, and she allowed me to sleep with her. But when I sat between her legs, she said, ‘Be afraid of Allah, and do not deflower me but legally. ‘I got up and left the hundred Dinars (for her). O Allah! If You consider that I did that for fear of you then please remove the rock. So Allah saved them, and they came out (of the cave),” (This Hadith indicates that one can only ask Allah for help directly or through his performed good deeds. But to ask Allah through dead or absent prophets, saints, spirits, holy men, angels etc. is absolutely forbidden in Islam and it is a kind of disbelief.)”
Therefore, if anybody today ever said, “O Allah, I ask You by my filial piety to make my children pious with me”, then it is permissible as a use of means to call Allah using the good deeds for this purpose.
On the other hand, the type that is not permissible is the use of means which is not a sound way to call Allah with, such as using the means of the Prophet, himself, or his high rank. This is because the rank of the Prophet is not useful for you but rather for him and he benefits from it on the Day of Resurrection. Similarly is in the case of his self.
As a matter of fact, the most obvious evidence can be stated for the prohibition of this act is that when the rain was withheld at the time of Omar bin Al-Khattab, he went to call Allah for blessing of rain. In fact, he said, “O Allah, we used to let the Prophet intercede for us to bless us with rain, but now, [because of the Prophet’s death], we ask your Prophet’s uncle Al-Abbass bin Abdel-Muttalib to do that. Then Al-Abbass rose up and began to call Allah for rain. This is an obvious incident, which proves that the companions used the Prophet’s call as a means of response and not his self.
Whereas the use of Polytheists to their statues and idols and the use of ignorant Muslims to their pious and good men as a means of response is certainly a polytheist means of call. We should not say it is a novelty, but rather it is polytheism and never called a means of worship. This is because these people call those claimed means and say, “O you patron of Allah save me! O you the family of the Prophet help me! O Prophet of Allah save me!”, this should not be called a use of means but rather a mere polytheist.
Calling someone other than Allah for help should never be called by any way of means for call response because it is polytheism and foolishness. It is polytheism because they adopted a partner with Allah to be worshiped and it is a foolishness because Allah (swt) said, -meaning- {And who is more astray than one who calls on (invoke) besides Allah, such as will not answer him till the Day of Resurrection, and who are (even) unaware of theirs calls (invocation) to them} (46:5) Al-Ahqaf
Moreover, they would never benefit them on the Day of Resurrection, -meaning- {And when mankind are gathered (on the Day of Resurrection) , they (false deities) will be hostile to them and reject their worship (altogether)!} (46:6) Al-Ahqaf. Therefore, He described these worshiped partners as being unable to respond even if they were called for help until the Last Day and described them as being inattentive unaware about those callers. Finally, on the Day of Resurrection, where the pressing necessary help is needed, they (claimed partners) would antagonize them and deny their worship.
So this act should not be called a means but rather a great polytheism excluding its people out of Islam, -meaning- {If anyone invokes, besides Allah, any other god, he has no authority therefore; and his reckoning will be only with his Lord! And verily the Unbelievers will fail to win through!}. (23:117) (Al-Mu’minoon). So Allah called this caller a disbeliever.