and it continued in just that way: no report from any Companion diverges from ʿUmar’s practice. Indeed, an authentic account shows that Muʿāwiyah and those with him followed the same course, seeking tawassul through the supplication of Yazīd ibn al-Aswad, a venerable Successor. Can it reasonably be claimed that their tawassul by him was an act of imitating the Prophet ﷺ?

I say in all honesty: the Companions’ consistent abandonment of tawassul by the Prophet’s person ﷺ when calamities befell them—after having sought tawassul by none but him during his lifetime—constitutes one of the clearest and strongest proofs that tawassul by his person is not legislated. Were it permissible, countless narrations from numerous incidents would have reached us. Do you not see how these opponents champion tawassul by his person at the slightest pretext, convinced of its legitimacy? If that were truly the case, something comparable would surely have been transmitted from the Companions themselves, who revered and loved him far more than these people. Yet not a single instance has been recorded; on the contrary, what is authentically reported is that they turned away from it and instead sought tawassul through the supplications of the righteous.