Also Allah may nurture a small deed to make it greater than the original...

Also Allah may nurture a

small deed to make it greater than the original: `These shall be granted

the reward twice' (28: 54); `whoever brings a good deed, he shall have

ten like it' (6: 160); Likewise, He may treat a nonexistent deed as

existing: And (as for) those who believe and their offspring and We will

not diminish to them aught of their work; every man is responsible for

"To make a long story short, Allah does what He pleases; and decrees

as He wills. Of course, He does so pursuant to His servants' interest,

and in accordance with an intermediary cause and intercession of the

intercessors (e.g., the prophets, the friends of Allah and those who are

nearer to Him) is one of those causes, and certainly no rashness or

It should have been clear by now that intercession, in its true sense,

belongs to Allah only; all His attributes are intermediaries between Him

and His creatures and are the Channels through which His grace,

mercy and decrees pass to the creatures; He is the real and all-

encompassing intercessor: Say: `Allah's is the intercession altogether'

(39: 44) .. you have not besides Him any guardian or any intercessor'

(32: 4); ...there is not guardian for them nor any intercessor besides

Him' (6: 51). The intercessors, other than Allah, get that right by His

In short, intercession with Him is a confirmed reality-in cases where it

does not go against the divine glory and honor."

Sayyid Tabatabai also answers the following question:

He writes: "It has been described that intercession takes place in two

spheres: in creation and in legislation. So far as the intercession in

creation is concerned, all intermediary causes are intercessors

may be divided into two categories: (1) Intercessors in this life, and (2)

Intercessors in this life: All the things that brings a man nearer to Allah

and make him eligible for divine forgiveness. The following come into

a. Repentance: Allah says: `Say: O my servants! who have acted

extravagantly against their own souls, do not despair of the mercy of

Allah; surely Allah forgives the faults altogether; surely He is the

Forgiving, the Merciful And return to your Lord...' (39: 53-54). It covers

all the sins, even polytheism; if one repents from it and believes in One