We all want to earn Allah’s love, and to get closer to Him. Each individual has their own way of doing so, whether it be praying extra nawaafil, giving extra charity, keeping the tongue wet with thikr of Allah or, calling out to Allah in good times and in bad times.

However, some people overstep the boundaries, and go overboard in their method of trying to get close to Allah. When seeking a means of nearness to Allah we must do so in accordance with the Sunnah.
Tawassul is to seek a means of nearness to Allah, by doing actions which are pleasing to Him. Notice that the actions have to be righteous and in accordance with the Sunnah, and thus they are pleasing to Allah. For an action to be ‘righteous’ in Islam it must fulfil two basic conditions; firstly that the individual performing the action has a sincere intention of pleasing Allah, and secondly that the action is in accordance with what Allah has prescribed and what the Prophet (Saw) has explained in his sunnah. To decide on your own method and ways which are not prescribed by the Shari’ah, is to innovate. The prophet (Saw) clearly told us, “Every innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance leads to the hellfire.” (Abu-Dawud, Tirmithi) To further emphasise this, he (Saw) also said, “Whoever performs an action not in accordance with this affair of ours, then it will be rejected.” (Muslim) It is therefore imperative that we follow the Sunnah in seeking a means of nearness to Allah.
We have been ordered to call upon Allah, to supplicate and invoke Him, “And your Lord said, “Call on Me, and I will respond,” (Surah Ghafir 40:60) There are three types of Tawassul which are permissible, which if we use when calling out to Allah He will certainly respond.
1) Tawassul by means of Allah’s perfect Names or Attributes: We can call on Allah using His names, or glorifying Him with His Attributes. Allah says, “And all the Most Beautiful Names belong to Allah, so call on Him by them.” (Surah Al-‘Araf 07:180) More evidence for this type of Tawassul can be found in the Sunnah; Anas (ra) reported that the Prophet (Saw) would supplicate, “O Ever-Living, O Sustainer and Protector of all that exists, by your Mercy, I beg for your aid.” (Tirmithi). I have only given one example, but often the Prophet (Saw) and the sahabahs would call on Allah by referring to His Names and Attributes.
2) Tawassul by means of a righteous deed: Allah says “Those who say, Our Lord! We have indeed believed, so forgive us our sins, and save us from the punishment of the fire.” (Aal Imran 03:06) They have sought tawassul through their sincere belief in Allah. I’m sure we all know the hadith of the three, who were trapped in a cave. They said “nothing can rescue you from this rock except that you supplicate to Allah, by mentioning righteous deeds you have done.” Each one supplicated Allah, mentioning a deed he had done sincerely for the pleasure of Allah until He (azza wa jal) moved the rock that obstructed the cave and relieved their distress. Each one of the men supplicated purely and sincerely to Allah, they mentioned righteous deeds they had done in times of ease hoping Allah would in return, ease their hardship. (Find the full hadith in Bukhari and Muslim)
3) Tawassul by the supplication of a righteous person: If a difficulty befalls a muslim, and he has been negligent with regards to Allah and His rights upon him, he is allowed to go to one who he deems righteous, god-fearing or knowledgeable about the deen. This practice is evident in the Sunnah and in the actions of the three best generations. On one occasion, a Bedouin asked the prophet (Saw) to supplicate for rain, and he (Saw) did so. Then it rained until it flooded madinah, then the Bedouin returned the following week, and asked the Prophet (Saw) to ask Allah to withhold the rain. So the Prophet (Saw) smiled and did so. (Find the full hadith in Bukhari) After the death of the prophet (Saw) Umar ibn Al Khattab would go to the uncle of the Prophet (Saw), Al-‘Abbas, and ask him to supplicate for rain. He used to say, “O Allah, we used to request our Prophet (Saw) to supplicate to You for rain, and You would bless us with rain. Now we ask the uncle of our Prophet (Saw) to supplicate to You, so grant us rain.” Sheikh Albani, explains the saying of Umar (ra) as follows, “What the saying of Umar means is: We used to go to our Prophet and ask him to supplicate for us, and draw nearer to Allah by means of his supplicating for us, and now that he has passed on to the company of the highest angels, and it is now not possible for him to supplicate for us, so we go to the uncle of our Prophet (Saw). Al-‘Abbas, and ask him to supplicate for us.”
Asking a righteous person to make duaa for you is allowed, their duaa perhaps has a greater chance of being accepted than yours because of a sin you committed. However, some people twist this type of tawassul, as being the status of a person, which has no basis in the Shari’ah. Shaikh Albani further explains with regards to the hadith of Umar mentioned above “it certainly does not mean that they used to supplicate saying, ‘O Allah by the status of your Prophet, grant us rain’ since this supplication is an innovation having no proof or basis in the Book or the Sunnah, and it was not done by a single of the Pious Predecessors.”
When doing Tawassul by means of a righteous person’s invocation, such a person must be alive, for if they are dead, then they cannot hear, let alone respond, or ask Allah on your behalf.
Tawassul is ammunition in the duaa, for it increases the chances of your duaa being accepted. However, it is a delicate issue, and if not adhered to correctly can cause one to fall into bid’ah (innovations) and in some cases even shirk. All-in-all tawassul is encouraged and prescribed, for us to get closer to Allah in our duaas.

Recommended reading: ‘Tawassul: Seeking a means of nearness to Allah –Its types and Rulings’ by Sheikh Muhammad Nasiruddin Albani