Allah is looking for an intercessor

Fürsprecher

We are searching for the meaning of the term ‘Messiah’ in the Qur'an. From Al-i Imran 3:55 and Nisa 4:159 we know that God will make known his view about the correct understanding of Jesus at the Last Judgement. In Maide 5:109-120 we find a pre-view of God's judgement on Jesus at the beginning of the second creation. Therefore, let us turn to these verses and try to gain an overview of what is said there.

Allah is Looking for an Intercessor

From Maide 5:109 we learn that God will gather all His messengers (rrusule) at the Last Judgement and give them the opportunity to express their judgement on the reception of their message: ‘One day will Allah gather the messengers together, and ask: "What was the response ye received (from men to your teaching)?"...’ The envoys addressed would now have the opportunity to complain about the response to their message from the nations entrusted to them, or to speak favourably of their successors, or even to intercede on behalf of their followers. Here God shows his willingness to listen to the opinion of his messengers in the Last Judgement and to judge the believers belonging to each prophet according to their intercession. This possibility was already prophetically foreshadowed in Araf 7: 6-9: ‘Then shall we question those to whom Our message was sent and those by whom We sent it. And verily, We shall recount their whole story with knowledge, for We were never absent (at any time or place). The balance that day will be true (to nicety): those whose scale (of good) will be heavy, will prosper: Those whose scale will be light, will be their souls in perdition, for that they wrongfully treated Our signs.’

In Nisa 4:41-42 the question is raised as to how the unbelievers will fare if these messengers bear witness against them: ‘How then if We brought from each people a witness, and We brought thee as a witness against these people! On that day those who reject Faith and disobey the messenger will wish that the earth Were made one with them: But never will they hide a single fact from Allah!’

The answers of the messengers are sobering in view of the opportunity offered to them by Allah and in view of the fear prophesied for the unbelievers concerned regarding this Hour: ‘They will say: "We have no knowledge: it is Thou Who knowest in full all that is hidden."’ (Maide 5:109).

Like back then with Hz. Adam

A comparable situation is reported in the Qur'an about the beginning of the first creation. When God asked the angels for the names of all things, they too had to admit with words similar to those of the messengers in Sura 5:109: ‘… Glory to Thee, of knowledge We have none, save what Thou Hast taught us: In truth it is Thou Who art perfect in knowledge and wisdom.’ (Bakara 2:32).

The parallels in the answers of the envoys questioned are intriguing:

Angels in Bakara 2:32	Messengers in Maide 5:109
Kâlû subhâneke lâ ‘ilme lenâ illâ mâ ‘allemtenâ(s) inneke ente-l’alîmu-lhakîm(u)	Yevme yecme’u(A)llâhu-rrusule feyekûlu mâżâ ucibtum(s) kâlû lâ ‘ilme lenâ(s) inneke ente ‘allâmu-lġuyûb(i)
‘… of knowledge We have none, save what Thou Hast taught us: In truth it is Thou Who art perfect in knowledge and wisdom.’	‘We have no knowledge: it is Thou Who knowest in full all that is hidden.’

It is astounding that such a similar scene takes place at the beginning of both the first and second creation - and that is what the resurrection of the dead is all about. In the first creation, God uses the question to the angels to distinguish his caliph, Adam: Allah ‘said: ’"O Adam! Tell them their names." When he had told them, Allah said: "Did I not tell you that I know the secrets of heaven and earth, and I know what ye reveal and what ye conceal?"' (Baqarah 2:33). That which the angels do not know, Adam is now to proclaim by divine inspiration (cf. Bacara 2:31) before all those assembled.

God answers his messengers in a very similar way in the second creation: ‘Then will Allah say: “O Jesus, the son of Mary ...” (Maide 5:110) and this is followed by a lengthy account of the life and person of Jesus (Maide 5:110-117). Here, too, God seems to take the response of the messengers seriously, with the exception of Jesus, whom he now places before the congregation as he did Adam at that time. It is reasonable to assume that this is also about Allah choosing Jesus for a special task.

Honouring Adam as God's Khalifa in Bakara 2:33	Honouring Jesus as '???' in Maide 5:110
Kâle yâ âdemu ...	Iż kâla(A)llâhu yâ ‘îsâ ...
‘Er [Allah] sprach: "O Adam, ..."’	‘Then will Allah say: "O Jesus the son of Mary! ..."’

The word ‘Resul’ (cf. Maide 5:109) includes beings such as the angel Gabriel (Tekvir 81:19), other angels (Hud 11:77), Muhammad (Al-i Imran 3:144), other prophets (Shuara 26:16; here Aaron and Moses) and possibly even the friends of Muhammad (Müminun 23:51). The fact that angels are also present at the event described here in Maide 5:109ff. makes the parallel to Adam even clearer. Jesus is thus chosen in the Last Judgement from the entire host of Allah's messengers - angels, prophets and saints included - to give an answer to God's question in Qur'an 5:109 - ‘What was the response ye received (from men to your teaching)?...’. Jesus here, like Adam at the time, is chosen by God as the only spokesperson among all the assembled messengers.

Jesus is chosen as intercessor

Why would God choose a spokesperson on the Last Day? According to the Qur'anic testimony, it is known that God will choose intercessors on the Last Day (e.g. Taha 20:109, Enbiya 21:28, Necm 53:26). The assumption that Maide 5:109-110 refers to the election of Jesus as intercessor is based on the following considerations.

- Not every messenger is suitable as an intercessor, but there will be some. Allah Himself will choose intercessors: ‘How many-so-ever be the angels in the heavens, their intercession will avail nothing except after Allah has given leave for whom He pleases and that he is acceptable to Him.’ (Necm 53:26). What is true for angels will be true for all messengers. According to Sura 5:110, God's choice falls explicitly and exclusively on Jesus. No other messenger that Allah has sent throughout human history comes into question. They are all disqualified by the admission not to know an answer.

- According to the Qur'an, there are two criteria that a successful intercessor must fulfil: ‘On that Day shall no intercession avail except for those for whom permission has been granted by (Allah) Most Gracious and whose word is acceptable to Him.’ (TaHa 20:109). The intercessor must therefore (1) have God's permission and (2) his words must be pleasing to God:

(1) As we have seen, in singling out Jesus among all the messengers, God gives this special permission: ‘O Jesus, ...’ you intercede.

(2) From Maide 5:116ff. it further emerges that the second criterion of intercession is also fulfilled in the case of Jesus. Allah asks the critical question: ‘And behold! Allah will say: "O Jesus the son of Mary! Didst thou say unto men, worship me and my mother as gods in derogation of Allah'?" ...’, provoking Jesus to say: ‘Glory to Thee! never could I say what I had no right (to say). Had I said such a thing, thou wouldst indeed have known it. Thou knowest what is in my heart, Thou I know not what is in Thine. For Thou knowest in full all that is hidden. ...' (Maide 5:116-117).

In response to Allah's critical question, Jesus claims nothing less than that he has only ever spoken in a manner pleasing to God. He even boldly invokes God's knowledge of this fact. And God does not contradict him, does not even correct him for his extraordinary impudence. In other words: God agrees with Jesus, he only said what was pleasing to God during his entire life on earth.

Maide 5:110 + 116-117 thus shows that Jesus fulfils both criteria for the office of intercessor: God explicitly authorises him (vv. 110ff.) and he only speaks what pleases God (vv. 116f.).

- A further indication that we are on the right track with this interpretation follows in Maide 5:118ff: In verse 118, Jesus actually intercedes for his disciples: 'If Thou dost punish them, they are Thy servant: If Thou dost forgive them, Thou art the Exalted in power, the Wise.’

Many commentators doubt that this verse is an intercession. Rather, they assume that Jesus leaves the decision on how to deal with his followers entirely to God.1 This is contradicted by a hadith that describes how Muhammad repeated this very verse as an intercession (‘şefaat etmek’) for his followers for an entire night.2 As we will show later, the content of the statement is also clearly an intercession on behalf of Jesus' followers.

According to another hadith, there was already a discussion among the early commentators as to whether Jesus appears here as an intercessor: ‘Wahidi (r.h.) narrated that in the mushaf of Abdullah Ibn Mas'ud (r.a.), this sentence was in the form of “If You forgive them, surely You are gracious and merciful”’ (Maide 5:118).3 One scholar explains the choice of words in today's Qur'an as follows: ‘If Jesus (a.s.) had said, ‘You are gracious and merciful’, it would have implied that Jesus (a.s.) could be their intercessor. But when he did not say so, but said, ‘You are the absolute victor (saint), the only judge and the only sovereign and the only wise ...’, this indicates that Jesus' intention was to refer everything to Allah and not to touch upon these matters in any way.'4

- The criterion of the usefulness of intercession - ‘On that Day shall no intercession avail except for those for whom permission has been granted by (Allah) Most Gracious and whose word is acceptable to Him.’ (TaHa 20:109) - is also fulfilled in the case of Jesus. God responds to Jesus‘ intercession in Maiden 5:118 with an invitation to paradise (Maiden 5:119): “Allah will say: "This is a day on which the truthful will profit from their truth: theirs are gardens, with rivers flowing beneath,- their eternal Home: Allah well-pleased with them, and they with Allah: That is the great salvation, (the fulfilment of all desires: al-fauz al-'aziem).

In Mumin 40:9 it is explained what the ‘great salvation’ and the unbelievable hapiness consists of: ‘And preserve them from (all) ills; and any whom Thou dost preserve from ills that Day,- on them wilt Thou have bestowed Mercy indeed: and that will be truly (for them) the highest Achievement ( supreme triumph [Ali Unal] al-fauz al-'aziem).'

It is about God's forgiving acceptance of the inherently sinful person. The great happiness is when God does not take into account people's bad deeds - or even had prevented them from doing such deeds -, but rather mercifully overlooks them. Allah thus follows Jesus' intercession in his answer (Maide 5:119): 'If Thou dost punish them, they are Thy servant: If Thou dost forgive them, Thou art the Exalted in power, the Wise.' (Maide 5:118). According to Maide 5:117-120, it is the disciples of Jesus to whom God is merciful through the intercession of Jesus and who enjoy the forgiveness of Allah (i.e. protection from the consequences of evil deeds). It is them that will profit from Allah's great salvation.

Intercessor before God

Based on the above considerations, we come to the conclusion that Allah will appoint Jesus as an intercessor for his followers in the final judgement. It is also clear from Maide 5:109-120 that of all the messengers, only Jesus will be chosen by God as an intercessor. Through his intercession, humanity's journey to earth comes to an end. God has gathered mankind back to Himself, He has successfully completed the plan He had already revealed to Adam: ‘(Allah) said [to Adam]: "Get ye down. With enmity between yourselves. On earth will be your dwelling-place and your means of livelihood,- for a time.“ He said: "Therein shall ye live, and therein shall ye die; but from it shall ye be taken out (at last or on the day of resurrection [Ali Unal])“' (Araf 7:24-25). ‘... Unto God you all must return: and then He will make you [truly] understand all that you were doing [in life]' (Maide 5:105; Muhammad Asad). This return takes place immediately after Jesus' intercession in verse 118. With the salvation of the people for whom Jesus will intercede, the relatively short episode compared to eternity in which Satan provoked the disobedience of people on earth with God's approval ends (Araf 7:12-17). Now God is once again the undisputed, absolute ruler: ‘To Allah doth belong the dominion of the heavens and the earth, and all that is therein, and it is He Who hath power over all things.' (Maide 5:120).

From the above considerations it is clear that in Maide 5:109ff. God chooses Jesus exclusively from the multitude of all messengers as intercessor at the Last Judgement.5 We will look at Jesus' memorable intercession at the Last Judgement in more detail at a later stage.

But first, let us focus on how Allah justifies his choice of Jesus as intercessor (Maide 5:110-115). From this we will be able to draw conclusions about what Allah considers important and right to believe about Jesus (cf. Al-i İmran 3:55 and Maide 5:110ff.).

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1 z.B. Sayyid Qutb: Jesus ‘... concludes with leaving the fate of his people absolutely to God, stating at the same time that they are His servants and at His disposal. God is able to forgive them or to punish them. Whether He decides on one course or the other, that decision is based on His wisdom, which operates in the same measure whichever fate He determines for them. “If You punish them, they are Your servants; and if You forgive them, You are indeed Almighty, Wise.” (Verse 118) This is all that Jesus, a model servant of God, says in this awesome position’ (In the Shade of the Quran, vol.4, p. 249).

2 Hz. Ebu Zer, Hz. Peygamber (asm) Efendimizin bir gece sabaha kadar namaz kıldığını ve namazda sürekli,

“Eğer onlara azap edersen, onlar senin kullarındır (dilediğini yaparsın), eğer onları bağışlarsan, şüphesiz sen daima üstünsün, hikmet sahibisin!” (Maide, 5/118) ayetini okuduğunu; hatta rüku ve secdelerde bile bunu tekrarladığını görür. Bunun üzerine,

“Ya Resulallah! Neden sürekli bu ayeti okuyorsunuz; hatta rüku ve secdelerde bile onu tekrarlıyorsunuz?” diye sorar. Hz. Peygamber Efendimiz (asm) de şöyle buyurur:

“Ben Rabbimden ümmetime şefaat etmeyi istedim. O da bunu bana verdi. Şefaatim, Allah'a hiçbir şeyi ortak koşmayan herkese ulaşacaktır” (Müsned, 5/149; quoted in https://sorularlaislamiyet.com/hz-peygamberin-bir-ayeti-cokca-okuyarak-namaz-kildigi-dogru-mu, (visited, 15/04/2025)).

3 ‘Vahidi (r.h.), Abdullah İbn Mesud (r.a.)'un mushafında, bu cümlenin 'Eğer onları bağışlarsan, muhakkak ki sen, gafur ve rahimsin' şeklinde olduğunu rivayet etmiştir’ (Fahreddin Er Razi, Tefsir-i Kebir, Cilt 9, p. 297 in https://archive.org/details/tefsir-fahreddin-er-razi-17.-cilt/Tefsir-Fahreddin-Er-Razi-09.Cilt_/page/n297/mode/1up (visited: 03/01/2025)).

4 ‘Diğer bir kısım alim de: 'Eğer Hz. İsa (a.s.), 'Sen gafur ve rahimsin' demiş olsaydı, bu 'Hz. İsa'nın onlara şefaatçi olabileceğini ihsas ettirirdi. Ama o böyle demeyip, 'mutlak galip (aziz), yegane hüküm ve hikmet sahibi (hakim) olan da, hakikaten sensin sen ...' deyince, bu söz, Hz. İsa'nın maksadının, her şeyi Allah'a havale edip, bu konulara hiçbir bakımdan değinmeme olduğuna delalet eder’ (Fahreddin Er Razi, Tefsir-i Kebir, Cilt 9, p. 298 in https://archive.org/details/tefsir-fahreddin-er-razi-17.-cilt/Tefsir-Fahreddin-Er-Razi-09.Cilt_/page/n297/mode/1up (visited: 03/01/2025)).

5 Many Muslim exegetes also recognise the selection of Jesus from among all the messengers in v. 110, but completely overlook the fundamentally positive side of this election due to the critical question in Maide 5:116ff. They see in this election only a negative emphasising of Jesus and ultimately a fundamental correction of his disciples. Jesus was chosen because the Christians worshipped Jesus and his mother in the wrong way. God corrects and judges this erroneous belief in Maide 5:110-120, they believe: 'Those messengers who were sent before the time of Jesus were believed by some people and denied by others. Their account is thus completed with this general answer that they give, leaving all knowledge to God and putting the whole matter into His hands. Hence, the surah adds nothing here about them. The address is made to Jesus alone, who was a total wonder to his people. It was Jesus who was surrounded with mystery and around whom all sorts of myth and superstition have circulated. A great deal of confusion has been made about his qualities, nature, birth and end. … The account given in this surah addresses Jesus, son of Mary, in front of all those who attributed to him Divine status, worshipped him and weaved around him and his mother all sorts of exaggerated stories. … We listen now to a straightforward questioning about the Divinity claimed for Jesus and his mother. The person now interrogated is none other than Jesus, facing those who worshipped him. They listen to him as he, surprised and amazed, disclaims before his Lord all knowledge of such a grievous sin they attach to him. He is, indeed, innocent and it is all fabrication …' (Sayyid Kutub, In the Shade of the Quran, pp.1336 and 1341). We argue against this view: True, Jesus clearly distances himself from all claims that he declared himself and his mother to be two gods besides Allah. But he skilfully uses this distancing to say that he never said anything that would not have pleased God, and thus becomes a suitable candidate for the role of intercessor. As already mentioned, the context supports our interpretation.