Role of Shifaat in Getting Nearer to God
And when someone else prays without having the condition for the prayer to be accepted, God grants him what he wants with the blessing of the prayers of the first group.
This is according to seminary scholar Ali Akbar Seifi Mazandarani, speaking in a Quran interpretation session featuring Shifaat (intercession). Following are excerpts from his remarks at the session:
Verse 122 of Surah Al-Baqarah has several points that I briefly discuss here. God says in this verse: “… recall My favor to you and the preference that I gave to you over all the other nations.” Here God points to the blessings given to the Bani Isra’il.
One of the blessings was that when the army of pharaoh was chasing them, Moses (AS) stretched the staff and separated the Nile into two parts so that the Bani Isra’il could cross the river. God says He made the Bani Isra’il excel the other nations as the religion of Moses (AS) spread after people saw his miracle.
In Verse 123 God says: “And fear a Day when no soul for another will compensate a thing, and no equivalent will be accepted from it, neither intercession will benefit it, nor shall they be helped.”
Here we can talk about the issue of Shiafaat. When someone does Shifaat for someone else, he draws God’s mercy and forgiveness to that person.
Sheikh Tusi has a beautiful remark about Shifaat, saying that its root is the word Shif’I, which means a request. What the Shafi (one who intercedes) does is taking a person’s request to God.
As Imam Hassan al-Askari (AS) says, Shifaat does not mean Musani’a (giving bribes, nepotism or prioritizing one over another).
In Musani’a, one is given priority over others by trampling on others’ rights. In Shifaat, however, a servant of God has reached such a status that God grants his prayers.
And when someone else prays without having the condition for the prayer to be accepted, God grants him what he wants with the blessing of the prayers of the servant who has interceded.
Basically, God has established Shifaat in His religion: “Believers, have fear of Allah and seek the means by which you come to Him. Struggle in His Way in order that you are prosperous.”
