Intercession by the Prophet is one of the events concerning the Day of Requital about which explicit information has been given in the Traditions and to believe in which is an essential religious duty of the Muslims. The number of Traditions relating to it is very large, and, taking them together, the authorities have concluded that the Prophet will intercede again and again and in various ways. First, when all men marshaled before the Lord for Final Reckoning will be striken dumb with fear and astonishment and even the Divine Apostles – from Adam to Jesus – will have enough concern of their own to make them indifferent to others, the sacred Prophet will, step forward with fullest faith in the Mercifulness of God and entreat Him humbly that the state of anxious uncertainty and expectation be ended, the Reckoning done and the Judgement pronounced. It will be the first act of intercession before the Lord and the sacred Prophet will do it. It is then that the Final Requital will begin. This intercession, as we have seen, will be for the whole of mankind, and, hence, it is also called the Great Intercession. After it, the Prophet will plead on behalf of the sinners among his own followers who will have been condemned to Hell due to their wicked actions. This intercession will, also, be granted and a large number of his transgressing followers will, in this way, be taken out of Hell. The Prophet will, further, pray for some devout and virtuous Believers that they may be admitted to Heaven without their deeds being brought to account. Similarly, he will beseech God for elevation in the ranks of many of his followers. All these types and events of intercession have been described in the Traditions.
It, also, appears from the Traditions that once the door of intercession has been opened through the Prophet, other Apostles, Angels and earnest bondmen of the Lord, too, will plead on behalf of the Believers in whom they will be interested, and even the children of believing men and women who had died in infancy will interpose with God for their parents which will also be granted and the salvation of a good many people will take place in that way.
But all the intercessions will come to pass only by the grace of the Lord and by His permission, and no Prophet or Angel can venture to take even a single man out of Hell or intercede on his behalf without His leave. The Quran says: Who is he that intercedeth with Him save by His leave? [ii : 255], and , also: And they cannot intercede except for him whom He accepteth. [xxi : 28].
As some theologians have wisely observed, intercession will only be for making evident the glory of and the Divine fondness for those who will intercede and with a view to exalt them, otherwise no one can interfere with the Functions and Judgement of the Almighty.
(101) It is related by Anas that the Apostle of God said: “When the Last Day will be set up [and all the former and the latter ones will be gathered together on the field of concourse], there will be great anxiety among the people. Thus, they [i.e., some of their representatives] will approach Prophet Adam to intercede on their behalf, and Adam will reply, ‘I am not worthy of it. You should better go to Prophet Abraham; he is the Friend of Allah [and may be able to help you]j.' They will, accordingly, approach Abraham and make the request of intercession to him. He, too, will reply, ‘I am not worthy of it. You should better go to Prophet Moses; he is the Speaker with Allah [and may be of help to you].' They will, accordingly, approach Moses and made the request to him. But he, again, will reply, ‘I am not worthy of it. You should better go to Prophet Jesus; and he is the Spirit of Allah [and may be able to help you].' They will, accordingly, approach Jesus [and place the same request before him]. But he will also say, ‘I am not worthy of it. You should better go to [the last of the Divine Apostles] Muhammad.' They will, thereupon, come to me and ask me to intercede. I will say, ‘This is my job.' ‘I will, then, seek an audience with the All-merciful which will be conceded. The Lord will communicate to me the superhuman knowledge of some of His Praises [which are not known to me at present]. I shall glorify Him through those Praises and bow low, touching the ground with the forehead in reverence. [According to a report in Musnad-i-Ahmad, the Prophet will remain in that posture for a week after which] it will be said to him, ‘O Muhammad ! Raise your head and say what you want. Your prayer will be heard. Ask for anything you like. It will be granted. Make whatever intercession you wish to make and it will be allowed.' I shall say, ‘My followers ! My followers !' [Meaning mercy may be shown to them today and they may be forgiven]. I will be told to go and take them out [of Hell] in whose hearts there is Faith even of the weight of a mustard-seed. I shall go and do so. Afterwards, I shall return to the benevolent presence of the Lord, and, again, sing His Praises through the hymns inspired to me and fall in prostration before Him. It will, once more, be said to me, ‘O Muhammad ! Raise your head and say what you want. Your prayer will be heard. Ask for anything you like and it will be granted. Make whatever intercession you wish to make and it will be allowed.' I shall say, My followers, My followers.' I will be told to go and take them out [of Hell] in whose hearts there is Faith even of the weight of a dust-particle. I shall go and do so. Afterwards, I shall return to the benevolent presence of the Lord, and, again, sing His Praises through the hymns inspired to me and fall in prostration before Him. It will, once more, be said to me, ‘O Muhammad ! Raise your head and say what you want. Ask for anything you like and it will be granted. Make whatever intercession you wish to make and it will be allowed.' I shall say, ‘My followers ! My followers !' I will, thereupon, be told to go and take them out [of Hell] in whose hearts there is Faith even of a lesser weight than a dust-particle. I shall go and do it. After it, I shall return, for the fourth time, to the benevolent presence of the Lord and sing His Praises through the hymns inspired to me and fall in prostration before Him. It will be said to me, ‘O Muhammad ! Raise your head and say what you want. Your prayer will be heard. Ask for anything you like and it will be granted. Make any intercession you wish to make and it will be allowed.' I will, then say, ‘O Lord ! Allow me [to intercede] on behalf of all those who may have said La-Ilaha-Il-lallah.' God will, thereupon, remark, ‘It is not your job. By My Power and Glory, and by My Majesty and Magnificence, I shall take out of Hell all those who have said La-Ilaha-Il-lallah.'”
-Bukhari and Muslim
Commentary.-A few points in the above Tradition require a clarification.
i) What is meant by the presence of Faith in the heart of the weight of a mustard-seed or even less are degrees of the effulgence of Faith which we do not perceive but which the Holy Prophet will, due to his special discernment, see distinctly, and, by the command of God, take out of Hell every one belonging to those grades.
ii) It says that after interceding on behalf of his followers thrice the Holy Prophet will, for the fourth time, beseech God for permission to plead for those who have said La-Ilaha-Il-lallah. Apparently, it denotes men who accepted the prophet's call of Divine Unity and embraced Islam but did not, at all, observe the duties that were necessary for gaining admission to Heaven. The Prophet will, thus, seek the permission to take out of Hell bondmen who will be possessing Faith and believing in Divine Oneness to any extent but utterly devoid of well-doing. Upon it, he will be told by God that the duty of taking out of Hell those unfortunate men had not been assigned to him or that it did not befit the Prophet, but was worthy only of Divine Power and Majesty, and so He will carry it out Himself. In our humble opinion, it signifies that it was not proper for the Prophet to take out of Hell men who did not, in any way, obey the commands of the Lord after they had accepted Islam. Forgiveness on such a scale was suitable only for the All-merciful.
iii) God will inspire the seekers of intercession to go first to Adam, and then, on his advice, to Noah, Abraham, Moses and Christ. It will take place, on the Day of Judgement, at His behest so that it may be made known to all men in a practical way that ‘function of intercession and the place of choicest favour and worthiness' had been reserved for the Last of the Apostle.

(102) It is related by Imran bin Hasin that the Apostle of God said: “A group of my followers will be taken out of Hell, at my intercession, who will be remembered by the name of the Dwellers of Hell.”
-Bukhari
Commentary.-It will not be insulting for these people to be called as such but a source of joy for it will remind them of the Generosity and Kindliness of the Lord.
(103) ‘Auf bin Maalik related to us, saying that the Apostle of God said: “A messenger from my Lord brought a message, giving me the right to choose between two things : either God allowed half of my followers to enter Heaven or I was given the chance to intercede. I preferred the right of intercession and my intercession shall be on behalf of those who [after accepting Islam and acknowledging the Oneness of God] died in such a state that they ascribed no partners to Him.”
-Tirmidhi and Ibn-i-Maja
(104) It is related by Abu Hurairah that the Apostle of God said: “On the Day of Recompense only those [bondmen] will profit by my intercession who will have said la-Ilaha-Il-lallah with a sincere heart.”
-Bukhari
Commentary.-Both the above Traditions show that people who are guilty of Polytheism will not be benefited by intercession. Those who are free from it, but have committed other sins, will, of course obtain profit from it.
(105) It is related by Anas that the Apostle of God said: “My intercession will be on behalf of my followers who will have been guilty of major sins.”
-Tirmidhi, Abu Dawood and Ibn-i-Maja
Commentary.-It will be the height of meanness to derive the wrong kind of encouragement from such sayings and become more fearless in evil-doing. Their purpose, simply, is that the unfortunate ones who fall into error do not lose hope and give way to despair. The Prophet will intercede on their behalf. They should, on their part, make themselves deserving of his intercession by trying earnestly to set right the bond of servility to God and adherence to His Apostle.
(106) It is narrated by Abdullah bin ‘Amr bin-el-‘Aas that the Apostle of God [one day] recited the Quranic verse concerning Abraham : My Lord ! Lo ! they [the idols] have led many of mankind astray (xiv : 36), and, also, the Quranic verse concerning Jesus : If Thou punish them, lo, they are Thy slaves, and if Thou forgive them [lo, they are Thy slaves]. (v : 18). After reciting the two verses, the Prophet remembered his followers and raising his hands in prayer said: “ O my Lord ! My followers. My followers.” He, also, wept during the prayer. God, thereupon, commanded Gabriel : “Go to Muhammad. Though everything is known to your Lord, you go to him and ask on Our behalf what is the cause of his crying.” Thus, Gabriel came to the Prophet and inquired. The Prophet told Gabriel what he had said to God [i.e., the reason of his weeping was the anxiety for his followers]. [When Gabriel reported back to God] He made him, “Go to Muhammad and tell him, on Our behalf, that We shall make him happy in spite of his followers, and not make him dejected.”
-Muslim
Commentary.-the import of the above saying is that the Prophet recited two verses of Quran, one from Sura-i-Ibrahim in which it is stated about Hazrat Ibrahim (Abraham) that he said to God about his followers that “those among them who obeyed me are mine and I pray to Thee for forgiveness for them, and those that disobeyed me – Thou art Forgiving, Merciful, i.e., Thou can forgive them”, and the other from Sura-i-Maida in which it is stated about Hazrat Isa (Jesus) that he will pray to God for his erring and misguided followers that “if Thou punish them, they are Thy slaves and Thou hast every right to punish them, and if Thou forgive them, Thou art the Might [and can do anything] and the Wise [i.e., whatever Thou doest will not be without wisdom].” In both of these verses, two exalted Apostles of God have pleaded on behalf of the wrongdoers among their followers with complete reverence and humility.
On reciting the verses the sacred Prophet was reminded of his own followers and he expressed his anxiety about them to God with hands raised in prayer and tears flowing from his eyes. He was, thereupon, assured that the matter of his followers will be settled to his satisfaction and he will not have to be broken-hearted on their account.
Every Prophet or, rather, every leader has a special affection for his followers in the same way as all of us possess a peculiar fondness for our children. It is, therefore, his natural with that they obtained deliverance from Divine Chastisement. Since the sacred Prophet was ahead of all other Apostles in this particular kind of compassion and attachment also, he was specially anxious about the salvation of his followers and used to pray frequently that they were not thrown into Hell and those of them whose sinfulness was such that they could not escape punishment might be taken out of it after undergoing the Penalty of Fire for some time.
From the Traditions belonging to the above category it is clear that the Lord will fulfil the earnest desire of the Prophet and a large number of Believers will be saved from the chastisement of Hell through his intercession or taken out of the infernal place after being cast into it.
(107) It is related by Osman bin ‘Affan that the Apostle of God said: “On the Day of Judgement three types of men will [particularly] intercede: the Apostles, the theologians and the martyrs.”
-Ibn-i-Maja
Commentary.-It does not mean that no one aside of the three groups mentioned above will be able to plead on behalf of others on the Day of Requital but that a special intercession will be made by them. Some other pious and high-souled persons will also be permitted to intercede, and, as we have indicated earlier, even children who had died in their infancy will intercede on behalf o their parents and intercession by good actions will also take place.
(108) It is related by Abu Sa'eed Khadri that the Apostle of God said: “Among my followers there will be some who will intercede on behalf of nations and communities [i.e., their station will be so high that God will permit them to intercede on behalf of whole communities and their intercession will be accepted], and some who will intercede on behalf of groups of from ten to forty people, and some who will intercede on behalf of one person [and God will accept the intercession of all of them] till everyone shall enter Paradise.”
-Tirmidhi
(109) It is related by Anas that the Apostle of God said: “On the Judgement Day the people of Hell will be marshaled in a row [i.e., some sinful men among Believers who will be deserving of chastisement will stand in a row on some occasion on the Last Day]. A dweller of Paradise will pass by them and one of the men standing in the row will call him and say, ‘Do you not recognise me? I am the person who once gave you water [or some other wholesome beverage] to drink', and another man standing in the same row will say, ‘I am the person who had [once] given you water to perform the Wudu.' Thus, the dweller of Paradise will intercede with God on behalf of those people and get them admitted to Heaven.”
-Ibn-i-Maja
Commentary.-It shows that the bond of affection with devout and virtuous men in the present world is going to avail a great deal in the Hereafter provided that one is blessed with Faith.