FATWA ON TAWASSUL

"Praise belongs to Allah the Exalted, "Seeking means (al-tawassul) to Allah through his Prophet or the Prophets or the Righteous (al-salihin) or with the deeds (aʿmal) that are done purely for His glorious countenance: There is no legal prohibition against it, because Allah the Exalted said: { Seek ye the means to Him } ^[1] and { Had they but come to thee when they had wronged themselves, and asked Allah forgiveness, and the Messenger had asked forgiveness for them, they would have found Allah Oft-Returning, Merciful, } and because the Companions -- may Allah be well pleased with them -- used to seek a means through Allah's Messenger ﷺ, as narrated concerning the blind man who used Allah's Messenger as a means (to obtain his request) and his eyes were opened.

"The Community has reached consensus on the fact that tawassul is permissible when belief is sound (idha sahhat al-ʿaqida), and the consensus of the Community is a legal proof (ijmaʿ al-umma hujjatun sharʿiyya); as the Prophet ﷺ said: "My Community shall not agree on an error." As for the claim of some extremists (ghulat) of the Wahhabiyya whereby the law's position with regard to the person who makes tawassul is that it is shirk (worshipping other than Allah together with Him): there is no proof for such a claim either legally or rationally, because the person who makes tawassul does not contravene the Prophet's order: "If you ask, ask Allah, and if you seek help, seek help from Allah." Rather, he is asking Him through one beloved to Him in order that his supplication be answered, and this is what our Lord Glorious and Majestic likes from us. How then can we judge that he is committing shirk when he is not a mushrik (one who commits shirk). Such a act the law considers abominable and our religion declares itself innocent of it, because it has been said: "Whoever declares a believer to be an disbeliever has committed disbelief."

"Our master Usama ibn Zayd killed a mushrik after the latter had said: "There is no god but Allah" (la ilaha illallah). When news of this reached Allah's Messenger ﷺ he condemned our master Usama in the strongest terms and he said to him:
"How can you kill him after he said La ilaha illallah?"
He replied: "But he said it with the sword hanging over his head?" The
Prophet ﷺ said again: "How can you kill him after he said La ilaha illallah?" He replied: "O Messenger of Allah, he said it in dissimulation (taqiyyatan)" The Prophet ﷺ said: "Did you split his heart open (to see)?" and he did not cease to reprove him until Usama wished that he had not entered Islam until after he had killed that man so that he might have been forgiven all his past sins through belief.

"From this and other narrations we conclude that some of the Wahhabis today may be guilty of hastening to accuse others of disbelief (takfir), as they have done in the past with hundreds of thousands in the Hijaz whom they massacred even as they were saying La ilaha illallah, and as the Kharijis have done in the time of our Master ʿAli -- may Allah ennoble his face.

"In short, tawassul is not prohibited, rather it is legally commendable
(mustahsanu sharʿan), and it is not permitted (la yajuz) to cast the
label of shirk on the believer. This is what will be found in the
established books of Islamic law. And Allah knows best."