Various forms on invocation and their differences

Invocation from devoted friends of Allah is of the theological issues enjoying supreme significance among Muslims. Although it is agreed upon as a certain issue, some differences exist in its forms and methods among Islamic Sects. In a general view, Tawassul, Shafaah, and Istaghathah, three forms of invocation, bring about three verdicts in Islam. According to the first verdict, three of them are permissible. The second verdict forbids all of them, while the third one requires some explanation, meaning some of them are problematic while others are allowed. Wahhabis ,applying Takfir and polytheism, hold such radical views regarding Tawassul, Shafaah, and Istaghathah that they exclude large number of Muslims from Islam and consider their murder permitted. Investigating various aspects of invocation from devoted friends of Allah as Tawassul, Shafaah, and Istaghathah, this study lists 16 types for the fore-mentioned issues and clarifies the areas of dispute with the opponents. It ought to be mentioned that, out of the 16 forms, five are related to Tawassul, upon one of which Shias and Wahhabis do not agree. Five other concern Shafaah with one of them being the area of difference. The other six forms are associated with Istaghathah. Studying this illustration, the reader with eventually figure out that the misunderstanding in this concept has been merely caused by not having accurate view towards various forms of this issue. That is because in most of the cases Wahhabis and Shias share views.