Section Two
Natural and Sharʿī Means
Definition of the Natural and Sharʿī Means

Once it is clear that a means (wasīlah) is the cause by which, through deliberate choice, one reaches the desired end, know that it is of two kinds: a natural means and a Sharʿī means.

1. The natural means: every created, physical cause that achieves its purpose by the very constitution with which Allah formed it and by the innate disposition He placed within it. Such means are available to believer and unbeliever alike, without distinction. Examples include water, which is a means to quenching thirst; food, a means to satisfying hunger; clothing, a means to protecting a person from heat and cold; and a car, a means to moving from one place to another, and the like.

2. The Sharʿī means: every cause that attains its objective through what Allah has legislated and clarified in His Book and in the Sunnah of His Prophet. This category is specific to the believer who follows the commands of Allah and His Messenger.

Examples include: pronouncing the two testimonies of faith—with sincerity and understanding—as a means to entering Paradise and escaping eternal punishment in the Fire; following a bad deed with a good one as a means to erasing the bad deed; reciting the prescribed supplication after the call to prayer as a means to earning the intercession of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace; and maintaining ties of kinship as a means to longevity and increased provision, and so forth.

It is solely through revelation that we have come to know that these and similar matters are genuine means to those desired ends