They are accountable for their sins while we are accountable for our sins.

They are accountable for their sins while we are accountable for our sins. The two kinds of burden are not interchangeable; they are mutually exclusive. Thus the Qur’anic verse transparently applies the process of accountability, which will be based on a comprehensive evaluation of our acts. It has nothing to do whatsoever with the act of intermediation.

Therefore, to spin it out unnecessarily and to fit it into the straitjacket of intermediation with which it is not even remotely related, is to disfigure its application, which comes close to a form of heresy. The third verse relates to commission and consequence. This brief explanation makes it clear that all these Qur’anic verses, from the thematic as well as the semantic point of view, are extraneous to the discussion of intermediation.

The following tradition is an irrefutable argument in support of the act of intermediation: It is attributed to Abū Hurayrah that Allah’s Messenger (Peac Be Up Him and His Household)* said: When a person dies, his acts are disconnected but three acts are not disconnected: continuing charity, knowledge that benefits mankind and pious children who pray for him.[4]* From the point of view of the tradition, even death cannot terminate these three human acts and man will continue to receive their reward and recompense even after his death: The first of these acts is the continuing act of charity.

For example, someone constructs a mosque or an educational institution or a road or hospital; or finances a campaign or an organization for the dissemination and resurgence of Islamic faith; or funds a struggle for the welfare of the poor and the needy, he will continue to receive their reward as long as they survive. Similarly, beneficial knowledge.

For example, a scholar teaches someone and he continues to teach others, or he writes a book on religion or some branch of knowledge or does research for any useful work for Allah’s pleasure. As long as his ideas are transmitted to mankind through his pupils and work, and human beings benefit from them or that book remains a part of the syllabi of various universities in the world and the people find it positively rewarding, he will continue to reap the reward of his efforts.

There is an agreement on the continuing act of charity, and beneficial knowledge that they can act as sources of intermediation but the tradition also refers to pious children. They can also serve as an act of continuing charity for their parents.