his caliphate as well. Now, had they continued to seek the Prophet’s intercession after his death in the same way they had during his life, they would surely have said, “Why are we appealing through the likes of al-ʿAbbās or Yazīd ibn al-Aswad and others, and leaving aside the Prophet ﷺ—who is the noblest of creation and the greatest, most exalted means of access to Allah?” Since no one among them ever said such a thing—and since it is clear that while he was alive they sought nearness through his own supplication and intercession, whereas after his death they sought it through the supplication and intercession of others—it follows that what they regarded as prescribed was invoking Allah by means of the prayer of the person appealed to, not by the person’s mere being.

There is yet another point in this narrative which, when pondered by anyone familiar with the Companions’ virtues, further exposes its strangeness and weakness: it depicts the Rightly Guided Caliph ʿUthmān—may Allah be pleased with him—as refusing to look into that man’s need or even acknowledge him. How can this be reconciled with the authentic report that the angels feel bashful before ʿUthmān, and with the well-known gentleness, benevolence, and mildness he showed toward people? All of this makes it highly improbable that such conduct could be attributed to him; it would be an injustice utterly at odds with his noble character—may Allah be pleased with him and grant him satisfaction.

Note: After these pages had gone to press, we examined the book “Attaining the Reality of Tawassul” by Shaykh Muḥammad Nasīb al-Rifāʿī, who appends to his name the title “Founder and Servant of the Salafī Call.” Scholarly integrity, religious counsel, and the obligation to speak the truth require us to state—according to our understanding, and in a manner for which we seek Allah’s pleasure—the ruling of Allah concerning this title:

It should hardly need saying that the call (daʿwah) is simply the call to true Islam as Allah revealed it to the Seal of His messengers and prophets, Muhammad ﷺ, for Allah