A Special episode in the occasion of the Prophet’s Birthday

Intercession is a controversial topic, some Muslims even denied it. But this subject should be understood as Allah intended if we want to clear our religion and our deeds in this world.



To understand intercession as those followers of Sunnah and Jama’a and our ancestors did, we will give an example knowing that to Allah is the greatest example: If a school year started in any university, college or school and one of the students at the very first day, instead of going to ask about the timetable; the curricula; the teachers; the subjects that he is going to learn and the books; he went and asked for the marks of passing the exams which are going to be held at the end of the year? what do we describe such a student? He is simply not eligible for this study. Such are some of the Muslims who depend on the intercession but do not work hard to earn it. They would steal, fornicate and kill and then would depend on the intercession. Intercession to them is like the passing marks for that student we mentioned in our example. This is why I say, we must understand the Qur’an as Allah intended it, and we should correct those concepts before reviewing the issue of intercession.



Definition of Intercession:



Linguistically intercession is asking or interceding to remove or reduce punishment. Actually, intercession is a word derived from alshaf’e ‘even’(the opposite of al-watr) ‘odd’. We have said in a previous episode that if a person goes to a debtor alone, he would be ‘odd’ so he takes someone to intercede for him to be ‘even’. If we want to take someone to intercede for us, this interceder should be highly ranked with the one to be interceded to. Mohammad (PBUH) is the owner of the greatest intercession, thus we must take any sayings about intercession from his mouth (PBUH) to correct the concepts of some people.



The Pillars of Intercession:



Intercession has pillars, it entails the presence of an interceder allowed to intercede, a person to intercede for, and someone to be interceded to i.e. Allah SWT Who can accept or reject the intercession without any comment on his verdict. He gives permission for intercession, and He raises the rank of the interceder and the one to be interceded for. We should understand these things very well and have absolute faith in them.



If we talk about the one to be interceded for; we say he should work before seeking intercession. The Prophet (PBUH) will not intercede for anyone who made any innovation after him. The evidence for this is in the text of a noble Hadith narrated by Abu Huraira; Ibn Abbas; Ahmad and Anas, in several narrations:



‘When the Hour of Judgment comes, the first to be donned beautiful garments is Ibrahim, then men of the nation of Mohammad will be brought and taken to the one on the left (Hellfire), then (PBUH) would say: ‘My nation, O Lord’ and he will be told, “you do not know what they innovated after you”.



Intercession then is rejected for innovators in the nation. Therefore we should pause at the one for whom intercession is sought, and know that not everybody will deserve intercession, and that even if the Prophet (PBUH) interceded he would be denied because those people have innovated things after him (PBUH). Even the non-Muslims will ask for intercession. Intercession on the Day of Judgment is the greatest intercession granted, when the accounting starts, to the Prophet (PBUH) with Allah’s permission.



Before talking about intercession, let’s talk about what it would be for, which is a major issue. Let’s ask what will the Prophet (PBUH) intercede for? If it is understood that He will intercede for fornication, robbery and penalties; then that would be a misconception. We can take that from the Hadith about the woman from Makhzoum who has stolen and Quraysh made Osama Bin Zaid intercede for her because they knew his standing with the Prophet (PBUH), but the Prophet (PBUH) asked him, ‘Do you dare intercede in a limit set by Allah?’ These words were enough for Osama, and the nation does not know what they did to Osama. He never replied because he understood the warning of the Prophet (PBUH) to him. What to be interceded for is then a very serious issue; and the Prophet (PBUH) can never intercede for a limit set by Allah.



As for the intercession itself, we must understand that deeds come before intercession. The Prophet (PBUH) is the owner of the greatest intercession and of the special one, and yet He is the one who tells his nation: ‘Read the Qur’an, as it will come as your interceder’. He did not tell us: I will come as your interceder.



Therefore we say: do whatever entitles you for the intercession; as the Prophet (PBUH) said, “The five prayers; a Friday to the next Friday and Ramadan to next Ramadan are atonements to what is between them as long as the grave sins are avoided’“



The Prophet (PBUH) knows that man can do well and can do wrong, he said, ‘Every son of Adam is a wrongdoer; and the best wrongdoers are those who repent’. Allah SWT in Surat Al-Najm says, “Those who avoid great sins and Al-Fawahish (illegal sexual intercourse, etc.) except the small faults…” Allah said after that, “Verily, your Lord is of vast forgiveness.”



Therefore we must think of repentance before we depend on intercession, we should not die sinners and then say the Prophet (PBUH) will intercede for us. We must understand intercession as Allah meant it to be. The Prophet (PBUH) teaches us for whom the intercession will be. In an authentic Hadith in Bukhari and Ahmad, ‘The Prophet (PBUH) is asked who will be the luckiest person to receive your intercession on the Day of Resurrection. He said, ‘The luckiest person to receive my intercession on the Day of Resurrection; is the one who said there is no god but Allah sincerely from his heart’ and in another narration, ‘He who witnesses that there is no God but Allah sincerely from his heart’.



Whether it was who ‘said’ or who ‘witnessed’ he will be the luckiest person to receive his intercession on the Day of Resurrection. Here, some people will have a misconception, as they will depend on the Hadith that says, ‘He who says there is no God but Allah will enter Paradise’, and on a narration by Muslim, ‘He who dies knowing full well that there is no God but Allah will enter Paradise’. The word ‘knowing ‘ here is meant for knowing and working; and this is an important issue because we should not depend solely on the intercession and say that we think the best of Allah, because the Prophet (PBUH) when they told him ‘we think the best of Allah’, said, ‘they lied; if they thought the best of Allah they would have done the best deed.’



In a previous episode we mentioned the attitude of Dr. Al-Qaradawi when he defended Dr, Mustafa Mahmoud who set aside the weak Hadiths about intercession. The Sheikh said in defense that people have been too dependent on the intercession and have neglected to work.



We do not deny intercession, to the contrary we say it is a truth, but we are only asking who will deserve the intercession? And for what will it be? And how will it be? We must know that the intercession is not absolute for all people. When a man does wrong he must repent to Allah first before he depends on the intercession, and because of his repentance; Allah will change his bad deeds into good ones. This is for the grave sins which Allah stated in Surat Al-Furqan, (68) “And those who invoke not any other illah (god) along with Allah, nor kill such life as Allah has forbidden, except for just cause, nor commit illegal sexual intercourse_ and whoever does this shall receive the punishment.”. After that He said, (70) “Except those who repent and believe (in Islamic Monotheism), and do righteous deeds, for those, Allah will change their sins into good deeds, and Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.”



These people committed sins and then repented so they deserve the intercession, because they have known the good taste of sins, and here we are asked: does a sin have a good taste? And we say: yes, only known to the sinner, and yet they gave up this good taste because of their fear of Allah SWT!



Let’s go back to the person who said there is no god but Allah, did he say it and slept, or did he say it and worked according to it? Working on it is important before depending on the intercession. If we knew, witnessed and said that there is no god but Allah, understanding its meaning, can we disobey Allah SWT under His sky knowing that He is the All-Hearer, the All-knowing, the Most Observing and the Most Dominant? Even if we could hide our sins from all people, can we really hide them from Allah?



Al-Kawthar:



There is a noble Hadith by the Prophet (PBUH) which tells us while the Prophet (PBUH) was with his companions he had a nap, and when he woke up was smiling. His companions asked him: why are you smiling, he told them: Surat Al-Kawthar was revealed to me, and asked them: do you know what Al-Kawathar is? They replied: Allah and His messenger know best. He said: Al-Kawathar is a river in Paradise promised to me by My Lord.



The problem of this river is that all Muslims will reach it, but some will be taken away to the left (Hellfire), the Prophet (PBUH) would say: But he is one of my companions! and He would be told: You do not know what he had innovated after you’. In another Hadith, the Prophet (PBUH) was asked: How would you know your people? He said: ‘You will be gathered with white faces (Ghurr) and with white hands and feet (Muhajjaleen) from ablution’.



IF we look into Surat Al-Kawathar which is a very short one but with very great meaning, we find that it comes between Surat Al-Ma’oun and Surat Al-Kafiroun, and that is a meaningful arrangement by Allah SWT. Let’s look first into Surat Al-Ma’oun which has the following verses:



1- “Have you seen him who denies the Recompense?”

2- “That is he who repulses the orphan (harshly).”

3- “And urges not the feeding of (the poor).”

4- “So woe unto those performers of (prayers) (hypocrites).”

5- “Who delay their (prayer) from their stated fixed times.”

6- “Those who do good deeds only to be seen (of men).”

7- “And refuse Al-Ma’un (small kindnesses e.g. salt, sugar, water, etc.)”



It seems as if Allah SWT wants to draw our attention that a person who repulses an orphan is like a person who denies the whole religion. Religion should be taken as a whole, and thus Allah SWT gave the example of someone who repulses an orphan as someone who denies religion totally.



These verses require us to reread the Qur’an according to Allah’s intention for us.

In Surat Al-Ma’un we find that it describes the maximum of meanness in its verses, and then we shift to the description of the maximum of giving in Surat Al-Kawthar.

So it seems that the person who denies religion is an example of how faith is applied, it is either he understands religion or he doesn’t. A person cannot say I understand religion while his deeds contradict it and do not indicate it.

We also notice in the verses:



4- “ So woe unto those performers of (prayers) (hypocrites).”

5- “Who delay their (prayer) from their Stated fixed times.”



That some people said thanked Allah for saying ‘from’ and not saying ‘in’. They forgot that Allah SWT in the beginning of the verse has affirmed their praying by describing them as those who delay their prayers. So the state of their prayer is one of two, either they pray absent-mindedly or they delay their prayer.



Allah Has praised those who perform prayers in Surat Al-Mu’minun:



1- “Successful indeed are the believers.”

2- “Those who offer their (prayers) with all solemnity and full submissiveness.”





Solemnity and submissiveness in prayer mean that the person praying; when he enters the state of prayer, throws the whole world behind his back and totally submits to his Lord. The preposition ‘from’ here means ‘in’, and it is a usual practice in the Holy Qur’an for prepositions to replace one another.



Let’s take another example for prepositions, in Surat Al-Jumu’ah :



8- “O you who believe (Muslims)! When the call is proclaimed for the (prayer) on the day of Friday, come to the remembrance of Allah {Jumu’ah religious talk (khutbah) and (prayer)} and leave off business and (every other thing), that is better for you if you did only but know!”



The preposition (on) here means (in), which means that a Muslim should prepare himself on that day to attend the Friday prayer, and should not, for example, set a date with someone at the time of the prayer. Anyway, whether the preposition was (from) or (in), the verse confirms the praying status, “So woe is unto those performers of (prayers) (hypocrites).”



This is very serious because it was followed by the verse, “Those who do good deeds only to be seen (of men).”



This means those who pray to be seen by people, and not for Allah SWT. Followed by the verse, “And refuse Al-Ma’un (small kindnesses e,g. salt, sugar, water, etc.)”



Those who refuse to give any alms or help.



The Prophet (PBUH) said: ‘Prayer is light, charity is proof, patience is illumination and the Qur’an is evidence against you.’ This means that prayer is a light for the believer, and charity is a proof that indicates his true faith in Islam.



Then after the verse, “And refuse Al-Ma’un (small kindnesses e,g. salt, sugar, water, etc.)”



Another verse comes from Surat Al-Kawthar, (1) ”Verily, We have granted you (O Muhammad) Al-Kawathar (a river in Paradise).”



Scholars differed in interpreting the word Al-Kawthar; the linguists said Al-Kawthar is a multitude of bounties from Allah.



It is also the river promised by Allah SWT to His Prophet (PBUH). Others said that the river is Kawthar, being religious is Kawthar, Islam is Kawthar, Faith is Kawthar, wisdom is Kawthar and the Qur’an is Kawthar. This means that Allah has given His Messenger everything. HE then asked him to, (3) ”Therefore turn in prayer to your Lord and sacrifice (to Him only).”


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