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Tawassul: Supplicating Allah through an Intermediary

July 2nd, 2011

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Nuh Ha Mim Keller, 1995

From Reliance of the Traveller
TAWASSUL (definition)
Supplicating Allah by means of an intermediary, whether it be a living person, dead person, a good deed, or a name or Attribute of Allah
Most High. The scholar, YUSUF RIFAI, says: I here want to convey the position, attested to by compelling legal evidence, of the
orthodox majority of Sunni Muslims on the subject of supplicating Allah through an intermediary (tawassul), and so I say (and Allah
alone gives success) that since there is no disagreement among scholars that supplicating Allah through an intermediary is in principle
legally valid, the discussion of its details merely concerns derived rulings that involve interschool differences, unrelated to questions of
belief or unbelief, monotheism or associating partners with Allah (shirk); the sphere of the question being limited to permissibility or
impermissibility, and its ruling being that it is either lawful or unlawful. There is no difference among groups of Muslims in their
consensus on the permissibility of three types of supplicating Allah through an intermediary (tawassul):
TAWASSUL through a living righteous person to Allah Most High, as in the hadith of the blind man with the Prophet (Allah bless him
and grant him peace) as we shall explain;
The TAWASSUL of a living person to Allah Most High through his own good deeds, as in the hadith of the three people trapped in a
cave by a great stone, a hadith related by Imam Bukhari in his Sahih;
And the TAWASSUL of a person to Allah Most High through His entity (dhat), names, attributes, and so forth.
Since the legality of these types is agreed upon, there is no reason to set forth the evidence for them. The only area of disagreement is
supplicating Allah (tawassul) through a righteous dead person. The majority of the orthodox Sunni Community hold that it is lawful, and
have supporting hadith evidence , of which we will content ourselves with the Hadith of the Blind Man, since it is the central pivot upon
which the discussion turns.
THE HADITH OF THE BLIND MAN
Tirmidhi relates, through his chain of narrators from Uthman ibn Hunayf, that a blind man came to the Prophet (Allah bless him and
give him peace) and said, Ive been afflicted in my eyesight, so please pray to Allah for me. The Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him
peace) said: Go make ablution (wudu), perform two rakas of prayer, and then say:
Oh Allah, I ask You and turn to You through my Prophet Muhammad, the Prophet of mercy; O Muhammad (Ya Muhammad), I seek
your intercession with my Lord for the return of my eyesight [and in another version: "for my need, that it may be fulfilled. O Allah,
grant him intercession for me"].
The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) added, And if there is some need, do the same.
Scholars of Sacred Law infer from this hadith the recommended character of the prayer of need, in which someone in need of
something from Allah Most High performs such a prayer and then turns to Allah with this supplication together with other suitable
supplications, traditional or otherwise, according to the need and how the person feels. The express content of the hadith proves the
legal validity of tawassul through a living person (as the Prophet - peace be upon him - was alive at that time). It implicitly proves the
validity of tawassul through a deceased one as well, since tawassul through a living or dead person is not through a physical body or
through or through a life or death, but rather through the positive meaning (mana tayyib) attached to the person in both life and death.
The body is but the vehicle that carries that significance, which requires that the person be respected whether dead or alive; for the
words O Muhammad are an address to someone physically absent - in which state the living and dead are alike - an address to the
meaning, dear to Allah, that is connected with his spirit, a meaning that is the ground of tawassul, be it through a living or dead
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person.
THE HADITH OF THE MAN IN NEED
Moreover, Tabarani, in his al-Mujam al saghir, reports a hadith from Uthman ibn Hunayf that a man repeatedly visited Uthman ibn
Affan (Allah be pleased with him) concerning something he needed, but Uthman paid no attention to him or his need. The man met Ibn
Hunayf and complained to him about the matter - this being after the death (wisal) of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace)
and after the caliphates of Abu Bakr and Umar - so Uthman ibn Hunayf, who was one of the Companions who collected hadiths and was
learned in the religion of Allah, said: Go to the place of ablution and perform ablution (wudu), then come to the mosque, perform two
rakas of prayer therein, and say:
O Allah, I ask You and turn to You through our Prophet Muhammad, the Prophet of mercy; O Muhammad (Ya Muhammad), I turn
through you to my Lord, that He may fulfill my need, and mention your need. Then come so that I can go with you [to the caliph
Uthman]. So the man left and did as he had been told, then went to the door of Uthman ibn Affan (Allah be pleased with him), and the
doorman came, took him by the hand, brought him to Uthman ibn Affan, and seated him next to him on a cushion. Uthman asked,
What do you need? and the man mentioned what he wanted, and Uthman accomplished it for him, then he said, I hadnt
remembered your need until just now, adding, Whenever you need something, just mention it. Then, the man departed, met Uthman
ibn Hunayf, and said to him, May Allah reward you! He didnt see to my need or pay any attention to me until you spoke with him.
Uthman ibn Hunayf replied, By Allah, I didnt speak to him, but I have seen a blind man come to the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless
him and give him peace) and complain to him of the loss of his eyesight. The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, Can
you not bear it? and the man replied, O Messenger of Allah, I do not have anyone to lead me around, and it is a great hardship for me.
The Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace) told him, Go to the place of ablution and perform ablution (wudu), then pray two
rakas of prayer and make the supplications. Ibn Hunayf went on, By Allah, we didnt part company or speak long before the man
returned to us as if nothing had ever been wrong with him.
This is an explicit, unequivocal text from a prophetic Companion proving the legal validity of tawassul through the dead. The account
has been classified as rigously authenticated (SAHIH) by Baihaqi, Mundhiri, and Haythami.
AUTHENTICITY OF THE HADITH OF THE BLIND MAN
Tirmidhi has stated that the hadith of the blind man is a hadith that is well or rigorously authenticated but singular, being unknown
except through his chain of narrators, from the hadith of Abu Jafar, who is not Abu Jafar Khatmi, which means that the narrators of
this hadith, despite Abu Jafar being unknown to Tirmidhi, were acceptable to the degree of being well or rigorously authenticated in
either case.
But scholars before Tirmidhi established that Abu Jafar, this person unknown to Tirmidhi, was Abu Jafar Khatmi himself. Ibn Abi
Khaythama said: The name of this Abu Jafar, whom Hammad ibn Salama relates from, is Umayr ibn Yazid, and is the Abu Jafar that
Shuba relates from, and then he related the hadith by the channel of transmission of Uthman from Shuba from Abu Jafar.
Ibn Taymiya, after relating the hadith of Tirmidhi, said: All scholars say that he is Abu Jafar Khatmi, and this is correct.
Reflect on this.
The hadith master, Ibn Hajar, notes in Taqrib al-tahdhib that he is Khatmi, and that he is reliable (saduq).
Ibn Abd al-Barr likewise says that he is Khatmi, in al-Istiiab fi marifa al-ashab. Moreover, Baihaqi related the hadith by way of
Hakim and confirmed that it was rigorously authenticated (SAHIH), Hakim having related it by a chain of transmission meeting the
standards of Bukhari and Muslim, which the hadith master Dhahabi confirmed, and Shawkani cited as evidence. Dhahabi and Shawkani,
who are they? The meaning of this is that all the men of the hadiths chain of transmission are known to top Imams of hadith such as
Dhahabi (and who is severer than he?), Ibn Hajar (and who is more precise, learned, or painstaking than he?), Hakim, Baihaqi,
Tabarani, Ibn Abd al-Barr, Shawkani, and even Ibn Taymiya.
This hadith was recorded was recorded by Bukhari in his al-Tarikh al-kabir, by Ibn Majah in his Sunan, where he said it was
rigorously authenticated (SAHIH), by Nasai in Amal al-yawm wa al-layla, by Abu Nuaym in Marifa al-Sahaba, by Baihaqi in
Dalail al-nubuwwa, by Mundhiri in al-Targhib wa al-tahrib, by Haythami in Majma al zawaid wa manba al-fawaid, by Tabarani
in al-Mujam al-kabir, by Ibn Khuzayma in his Sahih, and by others. Nearly 15 hadith masters (huffaz, hadith authorities with more
than 100,000 hadiths and their chains of transmission by memory) have explicitly stated that this hadith is rigorously authenticated
(sahih). As mentioned above, it has come with a chain of transmission meeting the standards of Bukhari and Muslim, so there is nothing
left for a critic to attack or slanderer to disparage concerning the authenticity of the hadith. Consequently, as for the permissibility of

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supplicating Allah (tawassul) through either a living or dead person, it follows by human reason, scholarship, and sentiment, that there
is flexibility in the matter. Whoever wants to can either take tawassul or leave it, without causing trouble or making accusations, since it
has been this thoroughly checked (Adilla Ahl al-Sunna wa al-Jamaa , 79-83).
It is well to review some salient features of the proof that was given , such as:
(1) that there are 2 hadiths, Tirmidhis hadith of the blind man and Tabaranis hadith of the man in need to whom Uthman ibn
Hunayf related the story of the blind man, teaching him tawassul that the Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace) had taught the
blind man.
(2) Tirmidhis hadith is rigorously authenticated (sahih), being the subject of the above investigation of its chain of narrators, the
authenticity of which is established beyond a reasonable doubt and attested to by nearly 15 of the foremost hadith specialists of Islam.
The hadith explicitly proves the validity of supplicating Allah (tawassul) through a living intermediary, as the Prophet (Allah bless him
and grant him peace) was alive at the time. The author of the article holds that the hadith implicitly shows the validity of supplicating
Allah (tawassul) through a deceased intermediary as well, since:
The Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace) told the blind man to go perform ablution (wudu) pray two rakas, and then make
the supplication containing the words, O Muhammad, I seek your intercession with my Lord for the return of my eyesight, which is a
call upon somebody physically absent, a state of which the living and the dead are alike.
Supplicating Allah (tawassul) through a living or deceased intermediary is, in the authors words, not tawassul through a physical body,
or through a life or death, but rather through the positive meaning attached to the person in both life and death, for the body is but the
vehicle that carries that significance.
And perhaps the most telling reason, though the author does not mention it, is that everything the Prophet (Allah bless him and grant
him peace) ordered to be done during his lifetime was legislation valid for all generations until the end of time unless proven otherwise
by a subsequent indication from the Prophet himself (Allah bless him and grant him peace), the tawassul he taught during his lifetime
not requiring anything else to be generalized to any time thereafter.
(3) The authenticity of Tabaranis hadith of the man in need during the caliphate of Uthman (Allah be well pleased with him) is not
discussed by the article in detail, but deserves consideration, since the hadith explicitly proves the legal validity of supplicating Allah
(tawassul) through the deceased, for Uthman ibn Hunayf and indeed all the prophetic Companions, by scholarly consensus (ijma), were
legally upright (udul), and are above being impugned with teaching someone an act of disobedience, much less idolatory (shirk). The
hadith is rigorously authenticated (sahih), as Tabarani explicitly states in his al-Mujam al-saghir. The translator (Nuh Ha Mim
Keller), wishing to verify the matter further, to the hadith with its chain of narrators to hadith specialist Sheikh Shuayb Arnaut, who
after examining it, agreed that it was rigorously authenticated (sahih) as Tabarani indicated, a judgement which was also confirmed to
the translator by the Moroccan hadith specialist Sheikh Abdullah Muhammad Ghimari, who characterized the hadith as very
rigorously authenticated, and noted that hadith masters Haythami and Mundhiri had explicitly concurred with Tabarani on its being
rigorously authenticated (sahih). The upshot is that the recommendedness of tawassul to Allah Most High - through the living or the
dead - is the position of the Shafii school, which is why both our author Ibn Naqib Al-Misri, and Imam Nawawi in his Al-Adhkar (281282), and al-Majmu explicitly record that tawassul through the Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace) and asking his
intercession are recommended. A final article below by a Hanafi scholar concludes the discussion.
CALLING UPON THE RIGHTEOUS
The Hanafi scholar, Muhammad Hamid says: As for calling upon (nida) the righteous (when they are physically absent, as in the words
O Muhammad in the above hadiths), tawassul to Allah Most High through them is permissible, the supplication (dua) being to Allah
Most Glorious, and there is much evidence for its permissibility.
Those who call on them intending tawassul cannot be blamed. As for someone who believes that those called upon can cause effects,
benefit, or harm, which they create or cause to exist as Allah does, such a person is an idolator who has left Islam - Allah be our refuge!
This then, and a certain person has written an article that tawassul to Allah Most High through the righteous is unlawful, while the
overwhelming majority of scholars hold it is permissible, and the evidence the writer uses to corroborate his viewpoint is devoid of
anything that demonstrates what he is trying to prove. In declaring tawassul permissible, we are not hovering on brink of idolatry
(shirk) or coming anywhere near it, for the conviction that Allah Most High alone has influence over anything, outwardly or inwardly, is
a conviction that flows through us like our very lifeblood. If tawassul was idolatry (shirk), or if there were any suspicion of idolatry in it,
the Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace) would not have taught it to the blind man when the latter asked him to supplicate
Allah for him, though in fact he did teach him to make tawassul to Allah through him. And the notion that tawassul is permissible only
during the lifetime of the person through whom it is done but not after his death is unsupported by any viable foundation from Sacred
Law ["Rudud 'ala abatil wa rasa'il al-Shaykh Muhammad al-Hamid]
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