al-Tawassul al-Mashru wal-Mamnu - al-Juhani
- Author died
- -
- Editions
- Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Dawah and Guidance - Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
al-Tawassul al-Mashru wal-Mamnu (Lawful and Prohibited Means of Supplication) is a treatise on Islamic creed by Abd al-Aziz bin Abd Allah al-Juhani, a faculty member at the Teachers College in Riyadh, examining the theological definitions, categories, and legal rulings surrounding tawassul (seeking a means of approach to God).
Purpose and Scope
The author states in the introduction that human deeds are accepted by God only when two conditions are fulfilled: sincerity for God's sake alone and conformity with the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Because innovated forms of tawassul violate the requirement of following prophetic practice and can serve as a conduit leading to idolatry (shirk), and because many people misunderstand the concept, al-Juhani composed the treatise to clarify the distinction between lawful and unlawful practices.
Linguistically, tawassul signifies seeking closeness to a desired goal, while wasilah denotes the means through which something is reached or approached. In Islamic jurisprudence, tawassul is defined as seeking proximity to God through what He has legislated in His Book or through His Messenger ﷺ, while wasilah is that which a person uses to draw near to God in anticipation of a desired outcome or in avoidance of harm, encompassing the performance of obligatory and recommended acts and the avoidance of prohibitions.
Structure and Contents
The work is organized into an introduction, a preliminary definition section, two main chapters, and a conclusion:
- Lawful tawassul (al-tawassul al-mashru): Defines valid forms that conform to the Quran and authentic Sunnah, categorizing them into four types: supplication through God's names and attributes, supplication through righteous deeds, requesting the supplication of a living righteous individual, and supplication by invoking one's state of need.
- Prohibited tawassul (al-tawassul al-mamnu): Details invalid practices, dividing them into those explicitly invalidated by scripture and those invalidated by general principles of the law. The latter category includes supplicating to God by the essence of a created being (dhat), supplicating through the status (jah) or right (haqq) of a created being, addressing the deceased to ask them to pray on one's behalf, and petitioning God by swearing oaths upon a prophet or righteous figure.
The book also reviews scriptural proofs for the prohibition of innovated tawassul and systematically addresses counter-arguments and misunderstandings derived from Quranic verses, prophetic traditions, reports from the Companions and Successors, and rational arguments.
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