Erasing the Accusation of Shirk

Almighty rejected this excuse because their crime of worshipping their idols
could not be justified with the excuse of wasila. It is a shame that even the
polytheists of Makkah knew that Muslims accept and use wasila, although
sadly the Khawarij cannot understand this. The polytheists knew that the
Muslims believed in wasila as they had heard this verse:
017.057 Those unto whom they cry seek the way of approach to their Lord,
which of them shall be the nearest; they hope for His mercy and they fear
His doom. Lo! the doom of thy Lord is to be shunned.
in which Allah Almighty informs us that we should seek the way of
approach to our Lord ( wasila). Another interesting part of this verse is
‘which of them shall be nearest’, which informs us that they wanted to know
which of them is nearest to Allah so that they can use the nearest one to
Allah as a wasila! Otherwise there would be no need for them to find which
of them is nearest to Allah. 017.057 is the famous verse which the
polytheisst of Makkah heard and realised that the Muslims believed in
Wasila. Even though the polytheists used the excuse of wasila to justify their
worship, it does not mean that it is the same as ours or that we are
committing shirk like them. Wasila does not justify their idol-worshipping!
Two Examples
It may be easier to look at it like this: a mother may be feuding with her
neighbours for some reason, her son is tired of the feuding and begins to
explain that Islam forbids feuding with neighbours and encourages us to love
our neighbours. However, at the same time he is also cursing his mother as
he is annoyed with the feud. At this point the father comes home and asks
his son why he is swearing at the mother. The son explains how his mother
has been feuding with the neighbours which is against Islam. The father then
explains that no matter what the mother was doing, it does not justify the son
swearing at her. In this example we can see that the son tried to justify the
swearing at his mother by saying he was stopping her from feuding with the
neighbours. The son justified his bad deed by using a good deed, although
this is no justification for the bad.
In the same way, the polytheists used the good, permissible concept of
wasila to justify their bad idol-worshipping, just as cursing was not justified
by forbidding the feuding with the neighbours, the idol worshipping cannot
be justified by using wasila.
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