Part 29

O you who believe! Do your duty to Allah and seek the means to approach Him (wasilah), and strive hard in His cause so that you may be successful,

When used in the context of du‘ d, tawassul takes on a more specific meaning. It then refers to seeking a means of having one’s dua accepted, or increasing the chances of one’s dua being accepted.

There are a number of ways that are prescribed in the Shariah for tawassul. These are as follows:

1. Tawassul through Allah’s Names and Attributes

This is one of the most powerful means of tawassul, and has been mentioned many times in this small treatise.

The Prophet (#8) heard a man say in his zashahhud: “O Allah I ask You by virtue of the fact that all praise belongs to You, none has the right to be worshipped but You, alone, having no partner. The Great Bestower of all blessings, O Originator of the heavens and the earth, O Possessor of Majesty and Honour, O Ever-Living, O . Sustainer and Protector of all that exists. Indeed I ask You for Paradise and I seek Your refuge from the Fire”. So the Prophet said to his Companions:

Do you know what he has supplicated with? They said: ‘Allah and His Messenger know best’. He said:

By Him in Whose Hand is my soul! He has supplicated to

Allah by His Great Name (and in a narration: by His Greatest

and if He is asked by it, He gives”.

In another hadith, the Prophet (3%), said, Whoever is greatly troubled and says: “O Allah! I am Your Slave, son of Your male slave and female slave. My forelock is in Your Hand. Your Judgement is continually operative upon me. Your sentence concerning me is just. I ask You by every Name which is Yours with which You named Yourself, (regardless of whether) You have taught it to anyone from Your creation, or sent it down in Your Book, or have kept it to Yourself in the knowledge of the Hidden with You, that You make the Quran the spring of my heart, the light of my chest, the removal of my sadness and of my anxiety!” then Allah will

remove his anxiety and sorrow, and replace it with joy.

354 Reported by Aba Dawid, al-Nasa’i and Ahmad and others with sahih isnad.

eiieoet avg anise Suara

An example of tawassul through Allah’s Attributes is in the hadith in which the Prophet (3) prayed with the following dua:

O Allah! (I ask you) by Your knowledge of the unseen, and Your power to create, that You cause me to live as long as living is better for me, and that You cause me to die when You

know that death is better for me.”

So in this du'a, tawassul was sought through the Attributes of Knowledge, and Power.

2. Tawassul by Mentioning Allah’s Favours

Another manner in which a person may do tawassul is by mentioning the favours of Allah upon him. So, for example, a person might say: “O Allah! You have guided me to Islam, and placed in me a love for knowledge and its people! O Allah! Cause me to increase in this knowledge, and cause me to be amongst the righteous scholars!”

This principle is shown in the du’ a of Zakariyya, when he asked Allah to bless him with a child.

SO SR eo Be rete ee ea 4 Cet aN hae ls 54 biel BL I He said: O My Lord! Indeed, my bones have grown feeble, and grey hair has spread over my head. And I have never been unblest in (or deprived of) my du‘ a to You, O my Lord!”

Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah said: “The meaning is: you have made me accustomed to receiving your response, and You have not deprived me by rejecting me and cutting off (your help) from me. So it is a zawassul to Allah by the blessings that He has previously

given, of answering his dw‘ as, and His good. And this is very appar358

36 Reported by al-Bukhari (# 5671) and Muslim (# 2680). 357 Sarah Maryam, 4. 358 Majma' al-Fatawa, v.15, p. 14.

3. Tawassul by Mentioning the State One is In

Another means of tawassul is by mentioning to Allah the dire circumstances that one is in, and the desperate need that one has for His Mercy and Blessings.

In the du'‘a of Zakariyya quoted above, we find him saying: See Baers tee nett ea Co Sal NN a tel 54 abil 89 GS) 9 SE CD) Gi HAE Veal, He said: O My Lord! Indeed, my bones have grown feeble,

and grey hair has spread over my head. And I have never been unblest in (or deprived of) my dua to You, O my Lord?”

So he begins by mentioning the state that he is in of old age, and

that he needs to be blessed with a son, for he might be on the verge of death.

The Prophet Nah, when he was rejected by his people, cried out:

0 Oi pe Bee tE Boyes pila Bagltt 5h 3455 \645 Then he made a du‘ to his Lord: I have been overpowered, so help (me) pe

So he mentioned the appalling circumstance that he was in — that he had been overpowered by his enemies — and used that as a tawassul so that his du'@ would be responded to. Likewise, when Misa was in the valley of Midyan, alone and with no supporter or helper, he cried out to Allah,

Ler oe BH oa 2 O My Lord! Verily I am fagir (needy) for whatever good that you can send down upon me?

And this type of zawassul is even used amongst people! For does not a beggar, when he stands up to ask for money, announce, “I am a person with a large family, and I have many debts to pay back, and cannot find work...?” All of this is used in order for him to obtain more sympathy from the people that hear him, and indeed to Allah belongs the greatest example.

4. Tawassul Through Good Deeds

Tawassul can also be made through mentioning one’s good deeds. So, one can say: “O Allah! Because of my love for Your religion, and love for You and Your Prophet, forgive me!” Or, “O Allah! Because of the charity that I gave to so-and-so, out of pleasing You,

then grant me my du’ a

The Quran is replete with this type of zawassul. In one verse, the believers are described as:

PES Mae ote ge eam tes A Ae Be ATG Ser Yaa M1 ET RES | Bee ie or Those that say: ‘O Allah! We have believed, so forgive us our sins, and save us from the Fire of Hell!”

In this du'2, tawassul is sought because of one’s man in Allah and His religion, and there is no doubt that the greatest good deed that a person can use is his iman in Allah.

This principle has also been confirmed in the story of the companions of the cave, as is reported by ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Umar, who said: “I heard Allah’s Messenger say:

Three men, amongst those who came before you, set out until night came, and they reached a cave, so they entered it. But a boulder rolled down from the mountain and blocked the entrance of the cave. So they said: nothing can rescue you from this rock except that you supplicate to Allah by mentioning righteous deeds you have done. And in the narration of Mus-

3@ Sarah Al-' Imran, 16.

lim: so one of them said to the others: think of righteous deeds which you have done purely for Allah by making mention of them, that He might release you).

So one of them said: “O Allah! I had two elderly parents, and I had not used to give precedence over them to my family and slaves in giving them milk to drink. But one day I was delayed in secking after something (in the narration of Muslim: for fodder) and I did not return with the flock until they (my parents) had slept. So I milked the animals for my family and slaves before them, and I waited with the bowl in my hand for them to awake, even though my family and children were crying out of hunger. I disliked waking them up, and I also disliked leaving them hungry (by giving the milk to my family and leaving my parents with nothing to drink). I waited for them to wake up until, finally, with the break of dawn, they awoke and drank their milk. O Allah ifI did that seeking Your Face, then relieve us from this situation caused by the rock’. So it moved slightly, and they could see the sky, but they were unable to escape.

The next said: “O Allah! My uncle had a daughter and she was the most beloved of the people to me, and I tried to persuade her to have sexual relations with me, but she refused me until she suffered from a year of famine. Then she came to me and I gave her a hundred and twenty deenars on the condition that she would comply with my desire for her, so she agreed. But when I was about to fulfil my desire she said: ‘Itis unlawful for you to break the seal except by lawful means’. So I felt ashamed to commit the crime against her, so I left her alone, and she was the most dear of all people to me, and I (also) left the gold which I had given her. O AlJah if I did that seeking Your Face then release us from the situation we are in’. So the rock opened further but they were still unable to escape.

And the third said: ‘O Allah! I employed some labourers and paid them their wages except a single man who did not take his wages and went away. I invested his wages and it grew into a great deal of property. Then after some time he came to me and said: ‘O servant of Ailah, give me my wages’. So I said to