Some Necessary Remarks

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Recourse (Tawassul) among Verses and Proof of Sanity

1- Pretexts of Wahhabies

Fanatic Wahhabies for reaching his goal, that is accusing Muslim who seek Tawassul to righteous persons to infidelity and heresy, start to pretext against above verses and cabbalas that permit Tawassul in all of its different kinds, and indeed these pretexts are just like pretexts of little children!

Sometimes the say Tawassul to the essence of superiors is forbidden not Tawassul to their dignity, pray or intercession. These are permitted and Tawassul to them is forbidden.

Sometimes they say that Tawassul during the life is permitted not after the death, because when they move to another world they will be disconnected from us. Holy Qur'an says: “Prophet! You can not reach your voice to dead persons”1, you have been disconnected from them.

But these kinds of pretexts are really shameful, because:

First: Holy Qur'an has a general order that we know all kinds of Tawassul which have no contradiction with “unity in worship” and “unity of action” permitted according to generality or its predication. Qur'an says: “وابتغوا إلیه الوسیله” we said that Waseela means the thing that is the medium of approaching Allah. Yes, choose any matter that might be your Waseela for approaching Allah: Pray of Prophet, intercession of Prophet, dignity of Prophet, The essence of Prophet that is close to Allah because of his obedience, worship, servitude and attributes and feature, seek closeness to Allah by these matters. Therefore, there is no reason for limiting Tawassul to good acts of people themselves as it is in words of Wahhabies.

And these that we said neither has changed unity of worship, because we only worship Allah not Prophet, nor has changed unity of action, because this is only Allah that can be the source of any benefit of loss. Anyone has all that he/she has from Allah and by him.

What do we expect more with this generality that is in verses? This is exactly like that holy Qur'an says: “Recite how much you can from Qur'an”.2 Now what happens if we start pretexting and say is it permitted to recite Qur'an while standing or not, what about in laying position?

The generality of verse says that all kinds of recite of Qur'an are permitted, in presence or travel, with ablution, without ablution, unless a reason against it arose.

Generalities and predication of holy Qur'an are acceptable, while there is no obstacle. Verses of Tawassul are also general and general verses of Qur'an are acceptable and we act to them until there is no obstacle and pretexting is not correct.

Second: Cabbalas of Tawassul that we mentioned a part of them above are so different that permit any kind of Tawassul, Tawassul to prophet himself like Tawassul which had been mentioned in the story of that blind man, Tawassul to pray of Prophet, intercession of Prophet, like those which had been mentioned in other cabbalas. There remain no place for pretext with these different cabbalas and different kinds of Tawassul.

Third: What does Tawassul to essence of prophet mean? Why prophet is respectful to us and we ask intercession from his essence in front of Allah, why? Because Prophet had very deep and expanded obedience and worships, therefore our Tawassul to Prophet is Tawassul to his obedience, worships and acts. This is the same thing that Wahhabies say Tawassul to worship is permitted, and then it is literal contest.

It is wonderful that some of them has denied the life of holy prophet (s.a.) after his departure and enumerated his departure compared to death of infidels. Qur'an has cited eternal life for martyrs: “Nay, they live, finding their sustenance in the presence of their God”3, is the dignity of Prophet of Islam (s.a.) is lower than the rank of martyrs, besides, all of you say salaam to him in your prayers, if you do not understand Tawassul of those who seek Tawassul, then you salaam is meaningless (we seek refuge with Allah from deaf and blind fanaticism which brings human to what a places). Fortunately, some of them believe the life of his holiness after his departure that should recant their pretext according to this.

 


1- Naml Sura, verse 80.
2- Muzzammel Sura, verse 20.
3- Aal Imran Sura, verse 169.
 

 

 

 

2- Exaggerators and Extremists

We are between two exaggerator and extremist groups. From one side people who are faulty in the issue of Tawassul, make trouble and forbid Tawassul that Qur'an and cabbalas have permitted and assume that, this is the extreme of their Tawhid (monotheism), while they are mistaking. Tawassul to Awliya Allah because of their obedience, worships, acts and closeness to Allah, confirms Tawhid and asking anything from Allah.

The second group is also extremist, those who choose the way of exaggeration in Tawassul. Danger of these exaggerators is not less than the first group. They have expressions which are not compatible with unity of action, or other expressions that do not agree the unity of worship, while the main efficient in the world is Allah and anything that anyone has is from him. Therefore as we should oppose correctly to the deniers of Tawassul or guide them and avoid them from mistake, also we should guide extremists and exaggerators and return them to the right path.

In fact, it is possible to say that one of reasons of appearing deniers of Tawassul is some of adherents of Tawassul. When these people chose the way of extremism, it is natural that another extremist group in opposite way appears against them, this is a rule in all religious, social and political matters that these two deviational groups were correlative and will be this way and both of them goes the wrong way.

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3- Recourse is not enough Alone

We should teach people that do not suffice to Tawassul to righteous people. Mainly, Tawassul is a lesson for us, why do we recourse to them? Because they are honorable in presence of Allah, why are they honorable? For their good acts, so we should go for good acts. Tawassul teaches us that closeness to Allah is due to good acts and Tawassul to Awliya Allah is because of their good acts. They became close to Allah and we ask them to intercede for us in front of Allah, then we should also try to follow the way that they had gone. Tawassul (recourse) should become a human making and educating academy, lest we stop in Tawassul and forget those excellent purposes of Tawassul. This was also an important matter that everyone should notice.

 

 

 

 

4- Recourse in Creational Matters

Another point is that Tawassul to the world of Asbaab (pl. of sabab which means cause) is available both in religious lawful matters and creational matters and none of them is obstacle in the way of unity (Tawhid). In our normal daily life, when we want achieve good results we go for means, we plow the land, seed, irrigate and remove diseases, harvest in proper time and use the result for our life.

Does Tawassul to these means make us forget our God? Is believing that earth grows the seeds of plants or sunlight and life giving drops of the rain nurture the seeds of plant, flowers and fruits and totally belief of this world of Asbaab against unity of action?

Surely, it is not against that, because we go for means but we know that cause of causes is Allah. Therefore as Tawassul to natural means has no opposition with principal of unity and “All these songs was from the king” (a poem), also in the world of religion Tawassul to prophets, Awliya and innocents and asking intercession in presence of Allah has no opposition with principal of unity.

Albeit we know that an extremist group has been appeared here that has denied the world of Asbaab; assuming that believing the world of Asbaab is against unity of action of Allah, they say fire dose not burn, God burns the thing which fire gets close to. Water does not extinct fire, God extinct fire when water drops on it, and they totally deny causality which is one of obvious relations in the world of creation.

While holy Qur'an authenticated the world of causes (asbaab) clearly and says: We send clouds, these clouds irrigate dry lands, the land survives by them: “

فیحیی به الأرض بعد موتها ”.1یحیی به” means that with these drops of rain survives the land. There are many verses that refer to authentication of world of causes. But these causes (asbaab) have nothing on their own and anything that is available is from him.

Allah had given them these effects, and as deniers of natural causes are unknown faulters, deniers of causes in the wolrd of religion are also faulters.

We hope that according to what that said, they leave extremism and chose the right way and end accusations to infidelity and heresy in this way and Muslims of the world unite and stand against enemies that attach Qur'an, Islam and Allah and introduce lessons of Islam pure of any polytheism, extremism and exaggeration and any kind of failure and decrease to the people of the world.


1- room Sura, verse 24.

The End

Sha’ban 1426 - Shahrivar 1384

Nasser Makarem Shirazi

 

Recourse (Tawassul) among Verses and Proof of Sanity
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