Iqtiḍāʾ al-Ṣirāṭ al-Mustaqīm - Ibn Taimiya - (2/318)

Iqtiḍāʾ al-Ṣirāṭ al-MustaqīmIbn Taimiya

by our Prophet and You would send us rain; and now we seek a means to You by the uncle of our Prophet.

What this means is that we draw near to You through his supplication, his intercession, and his entreaty; and likewise we draw near to You through the supplication, entreaty, and intercession of his uncle. It does not mean that we are swearing an oath upon You by him, or anything of that sort that people do after his death and in his absence—

such as when some people say, “I ask You by the rank of so-and-so with You,” or claim, “We seek a means to Allah through His prophets and His saints,” and then cite a fabricated ḥadīth:

“If you ask Allah, ask Him by my standing, for my standing with Allah is immense.”

Had this been the form of tawassul practiced by the Companions, as ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with him) mentioned, they would have continued to do so through him after his death and would not have turned instead to al-ʿAbbās. They knew full well that beseeching Allah by him and swearing oaths by him is greater than doing so by al-ʿAbbās. It is therefore evident that the tawassul they spoke of is something done with the living, not the dead: it is to seek their supplication and their intercession. A living person can be asked for that, whereas nothing—neither supplication nor anything else—is to be asked of the dead.

The same holds true for the ḥadīth of the blind man. He asked the Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace) to pray for him so that Allah would restore his sight. The Prophet taught him a supplication in which he directed him to ask Allah to accept the Prophet’s intercession on his behalf. This shows that the Prophet interceded for him and instructed him to ask Allah to accept that intercession, and that his statement:

(1) From the phrase “by the supplication of his uncle,” roughly one line of text is missing in MS A. (2) This report has already been cited; consult the Hadith Index under the entry that begins, “Allahumma inna… (O Allah, we indeed…).” (3) The printed edition reads: *mimma yafʿaluhu al-mubtadiʿun* (“something the innovators practice”). (4) MS B reads: *ʿabdaka* (“Your servant”). (5) MS Ṭ reads: *aw yaqūlūn* (“or they say”). (6) The word *inna* (“indeed we”) is absent from MSS A, B, and Ṭ. (7) The author remarks in Majmuʿ al-Fatawa, Kitab al-Tawassul wa-l-Wasīla 1:319: “This hadith is fabricated; it is found in none of the Muslim works relied upon by the hadith scholars, and no expert in hadith has ever mentioned it.” (8) The preposition *bihi* (“by it”) is missing in MS A.

بنبينا فتسقينا، وإنا نتوسل (١) إليك بعم نبينا " (٢) معناه: نتوسل إليك بدعائه وشفاعته، وسؤاله ونحن نتوسل إليك بدعاء عمه وسؤاله وشفاعته، ليس المراد به أنا نقسم عليك به أو ما يجري هذا المجرى مما يفعله (٣) بعد موته وفي مغيبه، كما يقول بعض الناس: أسألك بجاه فلان عندك (٤) (٥) ويقولون: إنا (٦) نتوسل إلى الله بأنبيائه وأوليائه، ويروون حديثا موضوعا: «إذا سألتم الله فاسألوه بجاهي، فإن جاهي عند الله عريض» (٧) . فإنه لو كان هذا هو التوسل الذي كان الصحابة يفعلونه، كما ذكر عمر رضي الله عنه؛ لفعلوا ذلك به بعد موته، ولم يعدلوا عنه إلى العباس مع علمهم بأن السؤال به والإقسام به (٨) أعظم من العباس، فعلم أن ذلك التوسل الذي ذكروه هو مما يفعله الأحياء دون الأموات، وهو التوسل بدعائهم وشفاعتهم، فإن الحي يطلب منه ذلك، والميت لا يطلب منه شيء، لا دعاء، ولا غيره. وكذلك حديث الأعمى، فإنه طلب من النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم أن يدعو له ليرد الله عليه بصره، فعلمه النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم دعاء أمره فيه أن يسأل الله قبول شفاعة نبيه فيه، فهذا يدل على أن النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم شفع فيه، وأمره أن يسأل الله قبول الشفاعة، وأن قوله:

(١) من هنا قوله: بدعاء عمه (سطر تقريبا) : ساقط من (أ) . (٢) الأثر مر. انظر: فهرس الأحاديث، وطرفه هو: "اللهم إنا". (٣) في المطبوعة: مما يفعله المبتدعون. (٤) في (ب) : عبدك. (٥) في (ط) : أو يقولون. (٦) إنا: ساقطة من (أب ط) . (٧) قال عنه المؤلف في مجموع الفتاوى، كتاب التوسل والوسيلة (١ / ٣١٩) : "وهذا حديث كذب، ليس في شيء من كتب المسلمين التي يعتمد عليها أهل الحديث، ولا ذكره أحد من أهل العلم بالحديث". (٨) به: سقطت من (أ) .