The Quranic position on intercession is clear and categorical:

All intercession belongs to God alone and therefore all other ‘intercessions’ are futile, including ‘intercessions’ by messengers (2:48, 2:123, 2:254, 6:15, 6:51, 6:70, 6:94, 6:164; 7:53, 7:188, 9:80, 9:114, 10:15, 10:49, 21:26-28, 39:36, 39:43-45, 63:6, 66:10, 72:20-21, 74:48).

So, equally futile are ‘intercessions’ by the celebrated messengers like Noah (11:46, 66:10), Abraham (9:114), Lot (66:10), Moses (2:48-51), Jesus (2:253-254, 21:26-28), Muhammad (9:80, 39:3, 39:19, 63:6) and so on.

Then who will be allowed, exceptionally, to intercede?

The Quran, however, maintains that there will be ‘some’ who will still be allowed, exceptionally, to ‘intercede’ on the day of Judgment:

Who is there that can intercede with Him except by His leave? 2:255

None will have power to intercede except the one who has received permission from the Beneficent. 19:87

On that day no intercession will avail except the one whom the Beneficent has approved and whose word He accepts. 20:109

But who are these exceptions who have been approved by God for intercession, and ‘whose word He accepts’? Well, they are specified below:

Those whom they call on beside Him have no power of intercession, except those who bear witness to the truth and they fully know. 43:86

So these exceptions, who have been approved by God for intercession and ‘whose word He accepts’, are simply ‘those who BEAR WITNESS to the truth and they fully know’. Let us see who qualifies for this:

On the day when their tongues, and their hands, and their feet will BEAR WITNESS against them for what they used to do. 24:24 

On that Day We shall set a seal on their mouths but their hands will speak unto Us, and their feet will BEAR WITNESS to whatever they had earned. 36:65

When they come to it, their hearing, sights and skins will BEAR WITNESS to everything they had done.

And they will ask their skins: Why did you BEAR WITNESS against us? They will say: God, who gives speech to all things, has given speech to us, and He created you in the first instance, and unto Him you return.

And you cannot be hiding yourselves from the TESTIMONY of your own hearing, your sights and your skins about you! 41:20-22

Read your record: your own self suffices today as your own account. …

And follow not anything of which you have no knowledge; surely the hearing and the sight and the sense, all those will be questioned about it. 17:14, 36

Clearly, it is human’s own self – which is sufficient for self-recording (17:14) – and its associated controllers (53:26, 2:30, 21:26-28), like one’s own parts and senses (tongue, hands, feet, hearing, sights, skins etc), that are ‘witnesses’ of one’s own actions and so are allegorically the only ‘intercessors’ divinely approved, since they are the only ones who can ‘BEAR WITNESS to the truth, and they fully know’ (24:24; 17:14, 36; 36:65; 41:20-22; cf. 81:7).

Meaning of “except those who have been approved …”

Now the Quranic expression “those who have been exceptionally approved to intercede” has an idiosyncratic meaning (implies natural consequences of cause-and-effect chains), which is very different from the traditional meaning of intercessors (implies extra favor and nepotism). Their presence and witnessing during the divine judicial process appear to be completely passive, no more than future shadows of past memories.

For example, you worked hard to prepare for exams. Your past efforts become your intercessors during the day of exam. Thus, from a Quranic perspective, the term ‘shafa’at’, though usually translated as ‘intercession’, actually means ‘to stand with’ (4:85), or ‘to stand up as a witness to speak the truth (20:109, 78:38)’.

Final thoughts

The Quran thus considers one’s own self – which witnesses and self-records its own actions – and its associated controllers who witness these actions, like one’s own parts and senses (tongue, hands, feet, hearing, sights, skins etc), as the only ‘intercessors’ to be allowed on the day of Judgment, when the judgment absolutely belongs to God alone (10:3, 20:109, 34:23, 43:86, 78:38). Otherwise, it unconditionally dismisses all intercessions as futile and any belief in intercession as idolatry, including intercession by any messenger, avatar, saint or whosoever (2:48, 2:123, 2:254, 6:70, 6:94, 7:53, 39:44, 74:48, 66:10).

 

Related article:

What does the Quran really say about intercession?