THE FALSEHOOD AND

CONFUSION SUSTAINING THE

INTERCESSION DELUSION
INTRODUCTION
Praise be to Allah, Lord of The Universe, who revealed the
Qur'an to the messenger and commanded him to recite it unto
us.

Praise be to Allah, Lord of The Universe, who has preserved the

Qur'an, has taught the Qur'an, and has made it easy.

Praise be to Allah, Lord of The Universe, who made the Qur'an

a criterion and placed in it clear evidence for the criterion (wa
bayyinaatin lilhuda walfurqon).

My dear brothers and sisters in faith, there is a desperate need

for Muslims to take a serious approach to the discussion of
intercession. The need comes from the combination of the
following conditions:

1. it is a serious matter, errors in which may result in idol

worship;

2. there are few debates about intercession that follow a

proper methodology or arrive at genuine evidence-based
conclusions.

This is clearly an undesirable condition, since we are absolutely

in need of the truth and have been endowed with the means to
obtain it. We have intellect, have time on our hands, and have the
verses of the Qur'an which contain the truth. What is needed
then is to contemplate the verses and discuss them skillfully, in
sha Allah. This particular article is intended to serve the following
functions:

1. move intercession debates into a serious and productive

frame, in particular by presenting a lengthy section of Quranic
text and explaining it carefully;

2. introduce Surah al An'am as the best high quality

comprehensive discussion of intercession to be found on earth;

3. prove the futility of claiming intercessors besides Allah

using the verses and arguments given in Surah al An'am;

4. expose the creation of confusion which has occurred and

which results in intercession delusion.

Praise be to Allah who has revealed the entire Qur'an, made it

the truth, made it doubtless, made it clear, and obliged us to
contemplate it.

Praise be to Allah, who has revealed the entire Qur'an as

guidance, including chapter 6, al An'am, and who has not placed
any crookedness in it.

Verses 21 to 95 of surah al An'am provide a proper exposition

of intercession with context and wisdom. This is required in order
to avoid the misunderstandings.

In the intercession discussion of our time, perception

differences are often brought into debates unnecessarily.
Assumptions about the veracity of ahaadith may be taken for
granted, which is not a way to seek the truth. Assuming
something is true and researching whether it's true are obviously
very different.

SERIOUS DISCUSSION
Without a serious discussion, a lot of weak debate and harmful
debate take place. Yet Christians have serious debates,
universities have serious debates, Buddhists have serious
debates, parliamentarians have serious debates that can take
months, and Allah has called us to bring forward proof.

So what is left, then, but to take this debate seriously and make
every effort to resolve it with evidence-based presentations that
remain within ma'ruf lines. The idea that differences are a mercy
is known to have it's limitations. If there's any chance of idolatry
or oppression being present amongst us, then it's worth debating
further to find the truth rather than parking the debate at the
difference of opinions.

Thus I have embarked on a series of essays about intercession

in order to show the evidence. Praise be to Allah in all cases and
may the truth be proven by my writing or by the efforts of other
believers to make it clear.

SURAH AL AN'AM
Al An'am is certainly not alone. It's not the only quranic
discussion of intercession that we have, as there are many other
mentions of intercession found in the Qur'an, nor is it exhaustive.
It is part of the discussion, yet I consider it a significant part.

The surah comes in the Qur'an as a thesis on shirk and a

message to the mushrikeen:

– it discusses shirk at length;

– the inclusion of Abraham's debate with the mushrikeen in
the surah;
– the mention of a number of types of shirk;
– the mention of light and dark *
– the description by other scholars of this surah as a thesis on
idolatry and polytheism.

* the way that light and dark are mentioned elsewhere in the
Qur'an where there is discussion of monotheism and shirk.

The crux of it. The crux of it is baatil, which is the Arabic word
for falsehood. All false gods are not real gods, but are god-notions
based in baatil. Yet falsehood can't be considered falsehood
without it containing something that is false. It is explained in
surah al an'am as follows:

Verses 21 to 27
Making up false claims, setting up idols to worship, the failure
of it when it is called by Allah, and the denial of it by the guilty,
the confession of it by the guilty, and their regret.

Yes, falsehood is both denied and confessed by those souls who

accept it. Denied to be false whilst they are in delusion about it,
and then confessed to be false when Allah shows them the reality
of it. Today Christians are denying that the sonship of Jesus is a
false claim, but later they will confess that it is indeed a false
claim.

Verses 28 to 30
Continue to show the failure and the associated woe of false
claims including denial of Judgement Day and denial of
punishment.

The above two sections bring in the falsehood problem. Praise

be to Allah who has sent us the Qur'an so we may the truth.

Verses 31 to 35
The risalah and it's burden in the face of denial: denial of
messengers and the process of carrying the message.

Verses 36 to 39
More of this: the deafness prevents them receiving the
message; how they falsely protest the credibility of the
messenger; Allah guides and misguides.

Verses 40 to 44
More of the denial process and pathology: what to call on for
help; hardening of hearts; forgetting the reminder; giving up.

The falsehood leads to destruction, which is not my focus here

but is yet significant. My focus in this writing is mainly the
theology. These earlier sections of the surah show how falsehood
persists among men sociopathologically, then the chapter
mentions a few idolatrous claims about Allah. These claims
persist by way of the sociopathologies mentioned earlier, and
thus leave people in delusions about Allah. Putting hope in
intercessors is one of them.

Verses 45 to 49
 Oppression brings destruction by Allah in the world; denial
will lead to ruin and the ruin is oppressive to the people of a
society.

Verse 50
The messenger isn't aware of the unseen, rather, he conveys
the knowledge of it that is granted to him by Allah, which grants
insight and removes blindness.

This verse is a great teaching. People may wonder what the

relevance is, when this discussion is about theology. The
relevance is that it positions the messenger squarely where he is
supposed to be, which as a teacher and a prophetic one at that,
and not as a Judgement Day intercessor.

Messengers provide mankind with enough knowledge to avoid

ruin, and therein lies the culpability of denying them. Denying
messengers does not deny us any supernatural abilities that they
possess that will save us. They don't have such abilities. Rather,
denying messengers denies us the knowledge they bring, such as
the knowledge that we will be resurrected.

The position of the verse and the content of it shows that

although messengers aren't responsible for destroying or saving
nations, their function serves the sunnah of Allah, Allah's process
of saving and destroying nations. Messengers can't do anything
for us, but they can warn.

The point for us to take is that the risalah should bring about
enlightenment within a community, enabling it to avoid its own
ruin. Such a community accepts guidance, acts upon it, and is
shaped by it. Justice, peace, and other manifest outcomes of this
process will bring the goodness.
 The nature of risalah is relevant to the intercession discussion.
Intercession claims that lead a society to decrease in godfearing
are among the factors that ruin, and conservative attitudes
towards intercession that generate an increase in godfearing are
from among the factors that will bring peace. That is what verse
51 of the surah tells us clearly.

And this is part of what process? The process of leaving

falsehood and accepting truth. This sets the stage for the downfall
of deluded ideas of intercession. They are false. Generally, hopes
for intercession are part of falsehood. Only if Allah had written
about an intercession would we need to know about it.

And so Allah says:

And warn with it (with the Qur'an) those who fear

standing before their Lord: besides Him they will have no
protector nor intercessor. Maybe they will be godfearing
(Qur'an 6:51).

Leave alone those who take their religion to be mere

play and amusement, and are deceived by the life of this
world. But proclaim to them that every soul delivers
itself to ruin by its own acts. It will find for itself no
protector nor intercessor except Allah. If it offered every
ransom, nothing would be accepted. Such is the end of
those who deliver themselves to ruin by their own acts.
They will have boiling water for drink and a most
grievous punishment, for they persisted in rejecting
Allah (Qur'an 6:70).

Then we hear the story of Abraham in detail, and it shows us

the essence of idolatry. The essential display of idolatry found in
the Qur'an that has served as a model description of it for
countless discussions of what idolatry is.

Why did the story of Abraham come after these two mentions
of the futility of hoping for intercessors, and before another
mention of the same thing – intercession - in verse 94 of this
great surah? It is because hoping for intercession is a delusion like
praying to statues is a delusion. Alhamdulillah.

And in verse 88 Allah goes on to say that this was the position of
other prophets: whoever among them did shirk would cancel all
their good deeds. Subhaanallah! Allah brings on a teaching.

Then verses 93 and 94 are a great condemnation of any soul

taken by falsehood to set up partners with Allah. Claiming
intercessors who will help out a soul at Judgement time is
condemned. It is shattered in verse 94, included below.

The evident reality of having been created without need of an

intercessor is recalled. While mothers and fathers are actors in
the birth process, they are only engaged at the physical level, not
the spiritual, and the cases of Adam and Jesus prove this.

And furthermore, what intercession do they have? Can they

control the process? No. They are actors but not agents.

Then what about a spiritual transformation, like what goes on at

Judgement? For spiritual processes, which is what going forward
to Heaven and going down to Hell are, there is no created
element that is interceding in it. Allah, the Creator, is the
originator and the intercessor.
 Allah steps in and He acts in the processes of the soul because
He is the Creator of souls and can act upon them.

With its criticism of lying about God, verse 93 sets the lead for
what comes in verse 94 to shatter intercessor delusions:

Who can be more wicked than one who invents a lie

about God, …

… a penalty of shame, because you told lies about God,

and rejected his signs.

The above sections severely condemn investing in falsehood

about Allah. Then in verse 94, intercessioral delusions come
down:

And behold! You have come to us bare and alone as We

created you for the first time. You have left behind all the
favours which we bestowed on you. We don't see your
intercessors with you whom you thought to be partners
in your affairs. So now all relations between you have
been cut off, and your fancies have left you in the lurch
(Qur'an 6:94).

What has left the person in the lurch? The claim. The false
belief. The delusion. The delusion was more harmful than the fake
intercessor itself, which could actually do nothing.

If that person had simply rejected the false claim, there would
be no problem. The verse says: and your fancies have left you in
the lurch.

There is also a separation between what is found in the world

and what is happening at the time of Judgement. You have left
behind all the favours we which bestowed on you. Subhaanallah.
Glory be to Allah! The delusion is separated from the person just
like the favours he left behind.

These verses are the truth and they are clear. All praise is for
Allah. It is important to reject false claims, as false belief is the
basis of idolatry. The lessons are there for us to learn. Praise be to
Allah.

The next verse, verse 95, mentions an amazing thing: delusion.

It says: How then, are you deluded away from the truth? Praise be
to Allah.

Abdullah Reed