The Honour of Prophets — Page 4
Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad 4 cal or man made theory. On the contrary, from the very beginning there are examples of this phenomenon in the divine scheme of things. Furthermore, the law of nature, too, provides clear testimony to this effect. The philosophy of intercession can be understood as such: the root word for intercession or shafa’at ( شَفَاعَت ) in Arabic is shaf ’un ( ٌ شَفْع ) which means ‘a pair’. Hence the very word ‘intercession’ or the Arabic shafa’at indi cates that the necessary quality of an intercessor is that they possess a two fold relation. On the one hand, the soul of such a person ought to have a deep relationship with God Almighty, as if through a perfect union he is paired with the One True God and bound to Him completely; and on the other, he ought to possess an unbreakable attachment to mankind, as if he were part of their limbs. Therefore, it is in reality these two aspects which are necessary for intercession and the foundation upon which its outcomes are based. This secret is the reason that God in His wisdom created Adam in such a manner that from the very outset these two different relationships were instilled in his very nature. One relationship was established with God as is said in the Holy Quran: