Tawassul and Istighāthah

How, then, is intercession different from that of the pagans? And how is it different when people use the Prophet (peace be upon him) and the pious as a means, that is, tawassul?

It is actually very different. The pagans are directly calling on these unseen gods that they have developed, and saying that they are intermediaries to Allah (swt), and Allah is out of the picture. Tawassul is when a person is calling on Allah, but invoking the position that a particular shaykh, or pious person, has in His sight: taking that person's name because Allah loves him so much, and because he is such a muttaqī and such a pious individual, while the one asking is nothing; using his name in the middle, so that just as Allah would be more merciful to him, He would have His mercy on the one asking as well. So the call is to Allah (swt), and not to the individual. So tawassul is definitely very, very different.

When it comes to istighāthah, that becomes a bit more problematic. There is a group who will say that tawassul and istighāthah are completely out of the question, ḥarām, except in certain very specific conditions, like with the Prophet (peace be upon him) when he was alive; and they have a few other conditions. There is another group who believe that everything and anything is permissible. That is also problematic.

The thing with istighāthah is this: istighāthah is actually to call out to somebody other than Allah, who is not present. If somebody is present, and one calls out to them for help, that is a whole different thing. When somebody is not present, and one calls out to them, whether they are dead or alive (it does not really matter), that has the form of shirk. Take the saying Yā ʿAbd al-Qādir, madad: O ʿAbd al-Qādir, assist me. That means Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī, who has left this world, and who is in his grave in Baghdad. Again, it does not matter whether the person is alive or dead; Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī is simply being used as the example.

The reason why this is a bit problematic is that an onlooker, number one, will look at this and say: why is this person not calling out to Allah? Why is he calling to somebody who is not present? It kind of insinuates that the person is maybe present and listening. So regardless of the person saying this, and regardless of what their ʿaqīdah is, it definitely insinuates this idea of shirk to others.

As for the person who is saying it: if somehow they manage to direct this to Allah, so that what they intend by it is that they are actually speaking to Allah, and only saying it in this way, then that cannot be called shirk or anything of the kind, because the ʿaqīdah inside is correct. But still, this seems undesirable for the public, because it has this connotation.

These statements are found in the poems and writings of some ʿulamāʾ, where they will say: Yā Rasūl Allāh. Again, their intention is not that they are calling directly on the Prophet (peace be upon him). They are calling on Allah (swt), or they are simply saying this out of love. It is just a statement in absentia, just as in the tashahhud we say: al-salāmu ʿalayka ayyuhā al-nabiyyu wa raḥmatu Allāhi wa barakātuh. It is a narrative; it is a statement.

So that is istighāthah. Istighāthah is best avoided; but if somebody has done it, in a poem, for example, or something like that, then a label is not going to be put on them immediately. It has to be taken in context, to see what they are talking about. Unfortunately, for a lot of common people (not great scholars, but normal common people) it becomes part of their language to such a degree that Allah's name is completely replaced. So whatever happens, when an accident takes place, or something bad happens, immediately they say: Yā ʿAbd al-Qādir, madad. Yā ʿAbd al-Qādir. So instead of saying Yā Allāh, they will say Yā ʿAbd al-Qādir. So a lot of the common people, unfortunately, may have a very misconstrued ʿaqīdah in this regard, and may actually even start believing that they are calling out to ʿAbd al-Qādir Jīlānī. And that is where the problem lies. So this needs to be understood carefully, and Allah knows best.