Supplication through the Wasila of a Particular Pious Elder

Question

Recently I have read the following three statements. (1) Hazrat Mujaddid Alf Thani forbids kissing graves, but considers it permissible to seek help from the occupants of the graves. (“Mujaddid-e A‘zam” (“The Greatest Renewer”), by the respected Muhammad Halim, Maktaba Diniyat, Delhi, p. 111) (2) The tawassul which is established from the hadiths is that one supplicates to Allah the Exalted: “By the blessing of such-and-such accepted servant [of Yours], fulfil this need of mine.

Answer

If that pious elder is such that there is evidence for his saintliness (wilaya), then there is room for such a supplication too — “O Allah, for the sake of this special servant of Yours, or through his wasila, accept my supplication” — but what is appropriate and more cautious is not to make a specification (takhsis).

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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