We have mentioned earlier the viewpoint of the Wahhabi...

We have mentioned earlier the viewpoint of the Wahhabi 'ulama ' regarding the status of tawassul to other than God. Now, we shall examine their reasons: First reason : By citing as proof the noble verses, ﴿قُلْ ادْعُوا الَّذِينَ زَعَمْتُمْ مِنْ دُونِهِ فَلاَ يَمْلِكُونَ كَشْفَ الضُّرِّ عَنكُمْ وَلاَ تَحْوِيلاً.

أُوْلَئِكَ الَّذِينَ يَدْعُونَ يَبْتَغُونَ إِلَى رَبِّهِمْ الْوَسِيلَةَ أَيُّهُمْ أَقْرَبُ وَيَرْجُونَ رَحْمَتَهُ وَيَخَافُونَ عَذَابَهُ.﴾ Say, 'Invoke those whom you claim {to be gods} besides Him. They have no power to remove your distress nor to bring about any change {in your state}.

They {themselves} are the ones who supplicate, seeking recourse to their Lord, whoever is nearer {to Him}, expecting His mercy and fearing His punishment.' Indeed your Lord's punishment is a thing to beware of , [^3] they have concluded that one should never seek help and resort to anyone other than God.

Analysis of the above verses If one contends oneself with the literal meaning and not take into consideration other Qur'anic verses, these two verses will conform to the statements of the Wahhabi 'ulama' because based on these words of God, when man abandons the “nearer means” (that is, God Himself) in order to get closer to God and resorts to a “remote means” (that is, “other than God” { min duni allahi }) and one who has no power to remove distress and the like, it will fall within the spheres of polytheism in Lordship { shirk-e rububi }.

It must be noted, however, that there are other verses indicating that with God's permission, one may also resort to other than God, in which case, the issue of polytheism would be irrelevant, and one could turn for help from the individuals approved by God. If these 'ulama ' had only paid attention to these other verses, they would have never committed such a glaring mistake.

Turning for help {istimdad} of the weak to the strong In principle, tawassul is one of the laws of creation and it means resorting to a superior means in order to attain an objective. One manifestation of tawassul is a child's tawassul to his mother when something happens to him. This meaning is true in all spheres of human life—social, political, ideological, material, and spiritual. Tawassul to God is the same tawassul to that which is perfect in power and force.

Tawassul to the prophets and the saints of God is a case of the tawassul of the weak to the strong, because the prophets are stronger than other human beings.

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