| Answer: There is no concept of Wasīlah in Islam. The Qur’ān
tells the believers to ask directly from the Almighty:
When my servants ask you [O Prophet!] concerning Me; I
am indeed close to them. I listen to the prayer of every supplicant when he
calls on Me. (2:186)
The Qur’ān does not accept the existence of any
intermediary between a person and his Allah. In fact, in several sūrahs, it has
severely reprimanded the idolaters of Makkah who used to regard the angels as
the daughters of Allah and held that these angels would mediate and intercede
for them on the Day of Judgement. For example, consider these verses of Sūrah
Najm:
Have you ever pondered over the reality of this Lāt and
this ‘Uzzā and this third Manāt, which is next in rank below them? [You consider
them as the daughters of Allah, whereas it is not befitting to ascribe either
sons or daughters to Him. But just reflect on your own foolishness:] For your
own selves you like sons and for Him daughters! This indeed is a division
unjust! [Nay, they have no basis]. They are but names which you and your fathers
have invented in whose favour the Almighty has revealed no warrant. [Woe be to
their foolishness.] They follow vain conjectures and the whims of their own
souls, even though there has already come to them a manifest guidance from their
Lord
[Let them desire what they want], but will man attain
all that he desires? [No, certainly not! The Almighty shall not alter his law
for anyone] Therefore, they should remember that this world and the Hereafter
are under the control of Allah. And [not to mention these deities], how many
angels are there in the heavens whose intercession shall avail nothing until the
Almighty gives permission to whom He wants and for whom He chooses. Those who do
not believe in the Hereafter call the angels by the names of females. Yet of
this they have no knowledge; They follow merely conjecture and conjecture can
never take the place of truth. Therefore, [O Prophet!] turn away from those who
turn away from Our Reminder [the Qur’ān] and seek only the life of this world.
This is the farthest limit of their knowledge. [O Prophet ! leave them to
themselves. They shall soon be nabbed and summoned]. Your Lord best knows those
who have strayed from His path and those who are rightly guided. (53:19-30)
As far as the 5:35 is concerned, you are right that it does
mention the word Wasīlah. However, whenever one interprets a Qur’ānic verse, one
must not forget that it is set in the most eloquent Arabic idiom, which must be
understood keeping in view some universal principles of linguistics. All
meanings which betray the denotions and connotations of the word they are
attributed to are redundant and have no place in the world of interpretation. It
is no less than injustice to the Qur’ān to attribute to its words those meanings
which have no basis in the Arabic language at all. The word Wasīlah in Arabic
has a different meaning from the one in Urdu. Some people translate it while
keeping in mind the Urdu meaning. In Arabic it means ‘nearness’. The correct
translation of 5:35, keeping in view this explanation, is:
O you who believe, seek the nearness of Allah only and
strive in his way that you may attain salvation. (5:35)
The context of the verse shows that Muslims have been
directed to leave aside all other supports and depend only on Allah -- the best
way for this being to follow the Sharī‘ah revealed by Him.
So you must remember that the same in word in two languages
can have different meanings. In fact, it is by not being aware of this fact that
some people ascribe the Urdu meaning of a word to its counterpart in Arabic, and
in this way end up wrongly interpreting a word. For example, the word Jannah in
Urdu means ‘paradise’. However, in Arabic, as an indefinite noun, it means an
‘orchard’. Similarly, the word ‘Makr’ in Arabic means ‘a secret plan’, while in
Urdu it means ‘an evil scheme’. So one must be careful in this matter. |