The Guiding Light — Page 353
S u rah al-Baqarah, Verse 255-258 353 Prophets. It is indeed a great honour that He should allow a person to intercede with him. It has been objected by some Christian critics of Islam that the doctrine of ﺷﻔﺎﻋﺔ ( shaf a ‘a h ) is likely to encourage people to commit sins. Nothing can be farther from the truth. The ﺷﻔﺎﻋﺔ ( shaf a ‘a h ) as allowed by Islam should encourage people to strengthen their connection with the Prophet rather than weaken it. As sin is nothing but the product of weakness in spiritual connection, ﺷﻔﺎﻋﺔ ( shaf a ‘a h ) and sin really stand poles apart and it is sheer ignorance to suggest that doctrine of ﺷﻔﺎﻋﺔ ( shaf a ‘a h ) , whose very conception rests on the soundness of man’s connection with God and His Prophet, encourages one to sin. On the contrary, it is the Christian doctrine of Atonement which throws open the floodgates of sin; for, unlike Islamic ﺷﻔﺎﻋﺔ ( shaf a ‘a h ) the doctrine of Atonement is based on the unnatural conception that one man can bear the sins of another. Now we come to the last question in this connection i. e. , who will be ﺷﻔﻴﻊ shaf i ‘ ) intercessor on the Day of