The Honour of Prophets — Page 7
7 a person becomes heir to their ancestor due to similarity of nature. As we have explained, the root word for ‘inter cessor’ or shafa’at in Arabic derives from shaf ’un which means to couple. Thus, a person who is by nature coupled with another will surely partake of the qualities of the latter. The transmission of qualities from the natural order of creation is based upon the same principles. In other words, a human child partakes of human faculties, the foal of a horse inherits the characteristics of a horse, and the offspring of a goat is born with the attributes of a goat. This inheritance under other but similar cir cumstances is known as deriving benefit from interces sion. As the essence of intercession lies in the concept of pairs and couples, the entire basis upon which one derives benefit from intercession is that a person who desires to benefit from the intercession of another must have a natural relationship with that person so that he should be given whatever has been bestowed upon the nature of the other. A relationship between two human beings—as they are of the same species—has been estab lished by nature without effort on their part, but it may be further increased through effort. When a person desires an increase in the inherent love and natural sym pathy that they possess for mankind, such increase can be achieved in proportion to the scope of such a per