Question 26: What is the meaning of the verse ⸨And fear a Day when no soul will suffice for another soul at all, nor will intercession be accepted from it, nor will justice be taken from it, nor will they be supported.⸩ [Surat al-Baqara (The Cow) 2:48]?
And also the Almighty’s saying ⸨ And fear a Day when no soul will suffice for another soul at all, and no justice will be accepted from it, nor will any intercession benefit it, nor will they be supported⸩ [Surat al-Baqara (The Cow) 2:123]? Do these verses negate intercession?
Answer: These verses absolutely do not negate intercession.
⸨And fear a Day⸩ means to be afraid of a day – and this day is the day of death, meaning the hour of death or the moments of death. Although the intercession of whoever has intercession is useful every hour in this world and after death in the grave, in the purgatory, and on the Day of Resurrection; there is, however, no intercession to anyone at the time of death. Rather at the time of death, neither justice nor any good deed is accepted.
And this is because death is the extraction of the soul from the body. And this extraction, or taking away, or complete removal must be accompanied by the cutting of the ties between the soul and this world. And depending on the thickness and abundance of these ties, the soul’s interlock with the body becomes thick. Thus the cutting of these ties must be accompanied by pains. And no intercession of an intercessor would benefit in preventing or removing these pains. Rather no deed of a human being will benefit in removing or lifting these pains.
⸨nor will justice be taken from it⸩: And that is because the human being’s attachment to this world (the house, the wife, the children, the money and other worldly attachments) is equivalent to ropes which the human being tied to himself. And there is no exit for the spirit from this world nor separation of it from the body without the cutting of these ropes and ties. And no one survives from the pains of death except he who accompanied this world with his body while his spirit is attached to the people of the seventh sky, and those are the Close Ones. The Prince of Believers (pbuh) said what means, “I was only a neighbour to you, my body neighbored you for days.” And the Almighty said,
⸨88 And if he was of those brought near to Allah, 89 Then [for him is] rest and bounty and a garden of pleasure.⸩ [Surat al-Wāqi`ah (The Inevitable) 56:88].
And no intercession will benefit and no good deed will benefit during the moments of death except in one case and that is the case of breaching the law of existence, and with that the cutting of these ropes would become painless, just as the fire of Abraham pbuh became non-burning, or that it did not affect him due to a barrier which Allah willed to place in him pbuh. And we do not see this breach to the law of existence as being a common matter. Rather it does not happen except in cases which relate to the existence of Allah swt or to his relationship swt to a matter or a certain person, and his support of a person by this breach of the laws of existence.
Therefore, the Companions of the Right, who are below the Close Ones, will not survive the torment of death, even though they are from the people of heaven, as He swt became quiet about their condition at the time of death. The Almighty says,
⸨And if he was of the companions of the right, Then peace be to you from the companions of the right.”⸩ [Surat Al-Waqiah (The Inevitable) 56:90-91].
This means that He did not demonstrate the condition of that person at the time of death if he was from the companions of the right, although the verses from the end of Surat Al-Waqiah are to demonstrate the condition of death. However, He demonstrated their condition after death, as He said to the Prophet, “Peace be to you from the companions of the right.”
And one of the greatest examples through which the image of these three categories manifest, meaning (The Close Ones, the Companions of the Right and The Denying and Misguided Ones) is Saul’s testing of the soldiers who were with him. When he passed a desert land and they became thirsty, he showed them the river in the road. Then Saul said to them,
⸨”Indeed, Allah will be testing you with a river. So whoever drinks from it is not of me, and whoever does not taste it is indeed of me, except one who takes a handful from it.” But they drank from it, except a few of them.⸩ [Surat al-Baqarah (The Cow) 2:249].
Meaning that whoever does not taste it is from the Close Ones, and whoever takes a handful is from the Companions of the Right, and whoever drinks from it is from the Denying and Misguided Ones. So if one truly believed that Saul was a assigned king from Allah swt, he would work by his command and not drink from the water.
And this denying is the denying of Allah swt and not only of Saul. And this river is this worldly life. So whoever does not taste it is from the Close Ones who cut their attachments to it. Thus the taking of their spirits does not need the cutting of any attachments or ropes. And he who takes a handful from it will need, at the time of the complete removal of his soul, the cutting of his ropes which he tied to himself. The more numerous they are, the more his pain will be. As to whoever drank from it until it made him drunk and he became unaware of what he is saying, then at the time of his death he will see that he was living on the edge of a crumbling cliff. And his death will be: the collapsing of this cliff along with him into the fire of hell.
And the path that remains in order for the human to be from “The Close Ones”, even though he has a wife, money, a son, a house, and what the people of this world have, is that he uses his money the same way the Imams pbut did when they spent on the poor ones and particularly the orphans, with no boundaries. As for the children, he would devote them for the face of Allah to be fighters who strive to raise the Word of Allah swt; so that Allah might accept them with a goodly acceptance, and cause them to grow in a good manner. As for the wife, it is making the friendship with her be the strive towards Allah swt, and he has to work to make her reach the high ranks of obeying Allah swt and knowing Allah swt as much as he can.
Ahmed Alhasan
The Allegories – volume 2
First Mahdi : Yamani : Ahmed Alhasan 