"O Allah...

"O Allah, I ask Thee by the honour of the one who seeks refuge in Thy repentance (he thinks of no shelter other than thee) and who seeks protection in Thy Honour and who is under the shadow of Thy protection and who has seized Thy rope and has not attached himself to anyone except Thee.” [^1] In another invocation too, which Imam 'Ali ('a) taught one of his followers, he says as such: وبحق السائلين عليك ، والراغبين إليك ، والمُتعوذين بك ، والمُتصغرين إليك ، وبحق كل عبدٍ متعبد لك في كل برٍ أو بحرٍ أو سهلٍ أو جبل أدعوك دعاء من اشتدّت فاقته “O Allah, by the right of the questioners and those who turn their attention and seek refuge in Thee; and those who are humble before Thee; and by the right of every worshipper who worships Thee in land and in sea, in desert and in the mountains, we call Thee; like the calling of the one whose helplessness has reached the extremes.” [^2] Is it not that such soul provoking prayers and expression of such feelings before Allah brings no result other than strengthening monotheism!

(except for Allah there is no other refuge) and what else can we derive from expression of affection for the friends of Allah which itself is one way of paying attention to Allah!? Therefore, we should overlook the charge of blasphemy and polytheism which can be found more than any other thing in the ‘kit’ of the Wahhabis and the matter should be looked from another angle.

On this basis, some of the moderates amongst them have mooted the matter of ‘pleading Allah by the awliya’ within the limits of prohibition and aversion. Contrary to the extreme al-San'ani who ruled the matter of pleading within the circle of blasphemy and polytheism, they do not talk about it as blasphemy and polytheism.

Now that the main theme of discussion has been made clear and it is known that the matter should be discussed within the framework of haram (forbidden) and makruh (abominable) it is necessary to prove the authenticity of such tawassul (recourse).

Occurrence of such pleadings in Islam In Islamic traditions too, one can find such type of pleadings and with the presence of such firm traditions that have come down partly from the Holy Prophet (s) and partly from his , one cannot consider such pleadings as haram or makruh .

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