I have confusion about the concept of waseela in Islam?
what are exact meanings of waseela ? Can any living or dead person be a waseela for us in this life or in life after here?
Sister In Islam
Salaamu Alaikum Warahmatullah,
1) What does waseela mean as a word? It is a means of support in order to reach something, or somebody supporting you in order to reach. Waseela can be a person, knowledge, a means, physical support, financial support or emotional support. It can mean anything according to the sentence.
To give you a simple example, if I tell you, the waseela , the way to such and such city, to take the bus number such and such, to arrive at such and such, and take the train such and such, it will make you reach such and such. Another example: Somebody's sick or you have a physical illness and you ask me what is the waseela to cure it? Now I tell you, the waseela to cure it is to go to doctor such and such, he is a good doctor. Or go to a herbal man such and such or go to so and so make him make dua for you, by this way by asking me a question, I lead you to the answer, this is called waseela. I hope you get it.
Now let’s examine it from the Islamic point of view:
1) From Quran - Chapter 5, Verse 35; Chapter 17, Verse 57
When you look at these two verses, Allah (Subhana Huwa Ta’la) asks us to seek His waseela. Meaning his ways to achieve his bounty, his rahmah, his guidance, his jannah. When you examine it in detail you realize that in order to seek waseela you have to get closer to Rasulullah( Sallallahu Alaihi Wasalam). To do that you get to obey Rasulullah (S A W) and follow him. In Pakistani society and some of the sufi (or corrupted sufi groups) they take this concept to the extremes. They have their own evidence but they twist it. These people start to believe that a pious person can heal their daughter and if they pray for so and so he can do such and such for them and if they go to the grave of so and so and make duaa, their duaa will be accepted. Now without knowing we become a mushrik and instead of believing in Allah (S W T) and his oneness, we believe in that person. Somebody might argue... NO..!! we are just doing waseela… This is what the kuffar of the Qureysh did. They believed that Allah (S W T) was the creator, he was the one who was the owner of the kaaba and the statues were but a waseela to reach Allah (S W T). these are actually the roots of Christianity: when the miracle that Allah (S W T) gave to Jesus the power to heal people, bring the dead back to life, it was a fitnah for the majority. Instead of taking it just a miracle, they elevated a human being to the level of the creator, Allah S W T…
Similarly today, if we go to Sheikh so and so, we say “he can protect us, he can heal our son, he can make my wife pregnant, he can protect me from shayteen”. “So and so peer can perform a miracle.. I saw people coming with such and such diseases and they left cured. He is the one he can do it”. All this language and all this belief can only belong to Allah (S W T). I hope you understand. I am only giving you a glimpse. By this way, the prefix, "Ya" only belongs to none but Allah (S W T). You cannot call Rasulallah (S A W) as “Ya RasulAllah” while making duaa or go to someone’s grave and use them to pray for something. This is a bida’ and shirk.
But if you know somebody who is good or someone who is travelling, you can ask them to make dua’ for you, because the one who travels for the sake of Allah or the duaa’ of a Muslim for his brother behind his back is accepted. You can go to the chapter of accepted duaa’, and you can see in how many elements the duaa’ is accepted. All of what I have said to you so far is a glimpse of a huge topic. I am just giving you a headline. By this way as a Muslim, we should not believe anyone can help me or support me except Allah (S W T). Because Allah is the owner of all bounty and he is the only one who can cause harm and nothing can happen to us without the knowledge and the will of Allah.
Note: How can I really gain waseela in practicality? Getting to know Allah is waseela, learning the Quran is waseela, doing good deeds is waseela, by this way every good deed and anything that gets us closer to Allah (S W T) is waseela. Allah makes it compulsory to love Rasulallah (S A W), follow him and obey him, for he is one of the highest waseela to get closer to Allah and please Him.
I hope I gave you a few major elements to understand the meanings of waseela in Islam. I tried to make it simple because today we make it too complicated.
May Allah swt enable us to understand and comprehend the way beloved to Him.