One may resort to the prophets and saints for help and take...

One may resort to the prophets and saints for help and take their practical conduct, which we called sunnah , as models for ourselves. Tawassul in the Qur’an Many verses of the Qur'an and Prophetic traditions speak about the subject of tawassul to the awliya' . As an example, one may refer to the verses related to the sons of Ya'qub (Jacob) ( 'a ): ﴿قَالُوا يَا أَبَانَا اسْتَغْفِرْ لَنَا ذُنُوبَنَا إِنَّا كُنَّا خَاطِئِينَ.

قَالَ سَوْفَ أَسْتَغْفِرُ لَكُمْ رَبِّي إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ.﴾ They said, 'Father! Plead {with Allah} for forgiveness of our sins! We have indeed been erring'. He said, 'I shall plead with my Lord to forgive you; indeed He is the All-forgiving, the All-merciful' . [^4] In these verses, the sons of Ya'qub ( 'a ) resorted to the inter mediation of their father.

They had committed mistakes so many times; they had annoyed and disturbed two prophets of God (Ya'qub and Yusuf (Joseph) ( 'a )), and transgressed the command of God by annoying their parents and telling lies. Since those mistakes required the sons to seek forgiveness, they took their father as their intercessor; so this action has not been denied or rejected in the Qur'an.

Since God does not reproach the sons of Ya'qub for resorting to two persons of those who are near to Him { muqarrabun }, it can be concluded that there is nothing wrong in entreating the Prophet (s) especially since the eminence of his rank and the loftiness of his station are not hidden to anyone.

The other verse which may be cited is the following: ﴿وَلَوْ أَنَّهُمْ إِذْ ظَلَمُوا أَنفُسَهُمْ جَاءُوكَ فَاسْتَغْفَرُوا اللَّهَ وَاسْتَغْفَرَ لَهُمُ الرَّسُولُ لَوَجَدُوا اللَّهَ تَوَّابًا رَحِيمًا.﴾ Had they, when they wronged themselves, come to you and pleaded Allah for forgiveness, and the Apostle had pleaded for forgiveness for them, they would have surely found Allah All-clement, All-merciful .

[^5]33 It can be deduced from this verse that the inter mediation of the Holy Prophet (s) can also be resorted to in asking God for forgiveness of sins. It is possible to criticize the deduction based on the first verse with the answer that the tawassul of the sons of Ya'qub ( 'a ) to their father had been confined to their own time; that is, one may seek the help of the living and not the dead. We shall talk about this point later on in the section concerning tabarruk .

What can be inferred from the second verse is that tawassul to the Prophet (s) is in a general sense.

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