SHAFÂ’AH – شفاعة
Literally: An interceding. An intercession. To intercede. The means of being forgiven.
On the day of judgment, Muhammad (asm) and awliyâ pleading and praying to Allah for the forgiveness of the sins of mu’mins or for a higher rank being granted to the mu’mins who obeyed Allah.
Allah granted the honour of the greatest shafâ’ah to our Prophet (asm) due to:
Yes, many proofs and indications of the highest rank being given to the personage of Ahmad in the Qur'an, and the messengership of Muhammad and “Muhammadurrasûlullah”, which is held equivalent to the pillar of “Lâ Ilâha Illallah” by comprising four pillars of îmân, being the greatest haqiqahs in the universe, and the personage of Ahmad being the noblest of creatures, and his universal ma’nawî collective personality and sacred rank, which are described as the haqiqah of Muhammad (asm), being the most brilliant sun of the two worlds and his worthiness for this extraordinary rank have been proved decisively in the Risale-i Nur. One in a thousand of them is this:
Al-‘Allâm Al-Ghuyûb knew and saw that the haqiqah of Muhammad, which is his ma’nawî personality, in the future, will be a Tûbâ-tree of Jannah due to the equivalent of all the good works performed at all times by his whole ummah entering his book of good works through the principle of اَلسَّبَبُ كَالْفَاعِلِ 1 ,and his illuminating the haqiqahs of all the universe with the nûr he brought, and his making grateful not only the jinn, mankind, malâikah and living beings, but also the universe and the samâwât and earth, and through the testimony of the actual acceptance of the plants’ du'âs offered by the language of disposition and the animals’ du'âs offered by the language of fitrî need in front of our eyes, the millions even billions of his (asm) ummah’s sâlihs, whose fitrî and unrejectable du'âs are accepted, every day bequeathing first of all to him their ma’nawî gains and rahmah du'âs under the title of salâh and salâm for such personage, and since each of the three hundred thousand letters of the Qur'an yields from ten sawâb to a hundred and a thousand merits and fruits, only with regard to the recitation of the Qur'an by all his ummah, infinite nûrs entering into his book of deeds. According to that rank, He has given such immense importance in His Qur'an and He showed that receiving his shafâ’ah through following him and conforming to his sunnah is one of the most important matters of mankind in His Decree. And from time to time it takes into consideration his personality as a human and his state of humanity in his early life, which was a seed of that majestic Tûbâ-tree.
Thus, since the haqiqahs repeated in the Qur'an are of this value, all sound fitrahs testify that in its repetitions is a powerful and extensive ma’nawî miracle. Unless, that is to say, a person is afflicted with the sickness of the heart and conscience due to the plague of materialism... He is included under the rule, قَدْ يُنْكِرُ الْمَرْءُ ضَوْءَ الشَّمْسِ مِنْ رَمَدٍ ٭ وَ يُنْكِرُ الْفَمُ طَعْمَ الْمَاءِ مِنْ سَقَمٍ2
The Twenty-Fifth Word – The Flower of Emirdag
The result of love for the prophets and awliyâ in a way that Qur'an describes is, by means of that love, to benefit from the highly elevated ranks and faydh that suit them, as well as the shafâ‘ah of those prophets and awliyâ at the barzakh and the rising from the dead and assembling for judgment.
Indeed, according to the mystery of اَلْمَرْءُ مَعَ مَنْ اَحَبَّ 3 an ordinary man can reach the highest rank by following an exalted rank person whom he loves.
The Thirty-Second Word/Third Stopping Place/The Second Discussion of The Second Point/An Important Question