Title: I am a software engineer. I have a talk with my Barelvi friends regarding asking help from auliya Allah (pious persons).

Question: I am a software engineer. I have a talk with my Barelvi friends regarding asking help from auliya Allah (pious persons). From my childhood I was taught asking help other than Allah is shirk but these people claiming asking help from auliya Allah is part of Sunni belief and they quote some hadith about it. They name it istighatha and claim it is a form of Tawassul. I know about Tawassul and its permissibility but first time I heard this term "istighatha". I am really confused now. Please help me to come out of this confusion state.

Answer ID: 33496Posted on: Sep 1, 2020

Bismillah hir-Rahman nir-Rahim !

(Fatwa: 1205/770/L=1432) Seeking help from awliya Allah (pious persons) believing them beneficial and harmful is haram and unlawful. Almighty Allah says in the holy Quran: وَلاَ تَدْعُ مِن دُونِ اللّهِ مَا لاَ يَنفَعُكَ وَلاَ يَضُرُّكَ [يونس : 106] And it is mentioned in hadith: واذا استعنت فاستعن بالله الحديث وقال العلامة آلوسى: إن الناس قد أكثروا من دعاء غير الله من الأولياء والأحياء منهم والأموات وغيرهم مثل يا سيدى أغتني وليس ذالك من التوسل المباح فى شئ .... وقد عده أناس من العلماء شركاء (روح المعانى: 4/128) We learnt with this text of Allamah Alusi (رحمة الله عليه) that it is not right to consider it a kind of wasilah (intermediation) rather a group of Ulama have counted such types of instighatha (seeking help) as shirk. Hence it is necessary to avoid it.