The wire of appropriate capacity becomes the ‘Wasilah’...

The wire of appropriate capacity becomes the ‘Wasilah’, the connection and the means through which the electrical current flows from the mains to the bulb. In a very similar manner, the human soul, which can be substituted for the bulb in the example above, has all the potential to glow and illuminate spiritually but it must be connected to the Main Power, The Creator – Allah. However, the soul cannot be attached to Allah directly because of its inherent nature.

The soul is finite, limited, weak, impure, sinful and prone to attacks by Shaytan. Allah is All-Powerful, Omnipotent, and Pure. There has to be an intermediary to attach the finite to The Infinite, the sinful to The Pure, the weak to The Omnipotent.

Ibn Alavi has said in his famous book “Mafaheem Yajeb an Tasahhuh” (The Concepts that Must be Corrected), thus: “Lots of people mistook in understanding the truth of Tawassul and because of that we express the correct definition of that as we think and we should remind some points before starting the matter: 1- Tawassul is a kind of prayer and in fact, it is one of the ways of noticing to glorious Allah.

Therefore the main destination and purpose is Allah and the person whom you asked for intercession is the means and medium of approaching Allah and if anyone believes other than this is a polytheist. 2- Persons whom people asked them to intercede for them in front of Allah, are those whom people like and believe that glorious Allah likes them too, and if assumably they are not, then people abstain completely from those persons and will oppose them.

3- If a person who recourse believes that the person whom he has asked for intercession is independent and by himself like Allah, then he is a polytheist. 4- Tawassul is not a necessary and obligatory act and is not the exclusive and only way of praying.

The important thing is to pray and approach Allah, as he said in the Qur’an: “And when my servants ask you about Me, say: I am close (to them)” (Qur’an 2: 186) Ibn Alavi Maliki goes for opinions of scholars and Faqihs of Ahl -e- Sunnah in this issue after this preview and says: There is no contradiction between Muslims in the lawfulness of Tawassul to Allah with good acts; it means that humans can seek closeness to Allah by performing good acts.

This is not in disagreement that if a person performs fasting, performs prayer, recites the Qur’an and gives alms in the way of Allah, then he has sought Tawassul to Allah and has approached him.