…its people; and in another verse: “Ya ayyuha alladhina amanu ittaqu Allaha wa ibtaghu ilayhi al-wasilata wa jahidu fi sabilihi” (al-Maida 5:35). They argue that God has ordered us to take a wasila to Him and that wasila means an intermediary. Thus they twist the words from their proper context. The wasila sanctioned in the Quran and the Sunna is obedience that brings one near to God and supplicating Him by His names and attributes. That alone is the legitimate wasila. Seeking a wasila through created beings is forbidden; it is a pathway to shirk (associating partners with God). It is exactly what the earlier idol-worshippers practised: “Wa-yabuduna min duni Allahi ma la yadurruhum wa la yanfaʿuhum wa yaquluna haulai shufaʿauna ʿinda Allah” (Yunus 10:18) and “Wa-lladhina ittakhadhu min dunihi awliya ma naʿbuduhum illa li-yuqarribuna ila Allahi zulfa” (al-Zumar 39:3). This is the same shirk, ancient and modern; even if they call it wasila, it remains shirk in essence and is certainly not the wasila legislated by God. God has never made shirk a means of drawing near to Him; on the contrary, shirk distances one from Him: “Innahu man yushrik billahi faqad harrama Allahu ʿalayhi al-jannata wa maʾwahu al-nar wa ma lil-zhalimina min ansar” (al-Maida 5:72). How, then, could shirk be a wasila to God—far exalted is He above what they claim. The point attested by the verse is that some polytheists worship the righteous; God clarifies this and states that those whom you worship are needy servants: “Yabtaghuna ila rabbihim al-wasilata” (they themselves seek nearness to their Lord through obedience), “ayuhum aqrab” (competing to be the closest), “wa yarjuna rahmatahu wa yakhafuna ʿadhabahu.” Anyone in such a condition is unfit to be invoked alongside God.