and among the perfections of His dominion is that no one may intercede with Him unless He grants permission. Every dignitary who might hope to intercede is but a slave owned by Him, and they do not venture to plead for anyone until He allows them, for He says: “Say, ‘Intercession rests entirely with Allah. To Him belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the earth.’” (39:44)

They will intercede only for those whom Allah approves, and He approves only of those who uphold tawḥīd and follow His messengers; whoever lacks these qualities will have no share in intercession. The happiest of all people with the intercession of Muhammad ﷺ will be the one who declares, “There is no deity worthy of worship except Allah,” with a heart free of all pretence.

The verse then speaks of His vast, all-embracing knowledge: He knows what lies before the creatures—the boundless events still to come—and what lies behind them—the limitless events of the past. Nothing is hidden from Him: “He knows the furtive glance of the eyes and what the breasts conceal” (40:19); “With Him are the keys of the unseen—none knows them but He. He knows all that is on land and sea; not a leaf falls without His knowledge, nor a grain in the darkness of the earth, nor anything moist or dry, but it is recorded in a clear Book.” (6:59)

No created being can grasp any part of Allah’s knowledge or of the realities He knows except what He Himself wills—what He has allowed them to learn of religious truths and decreed matters. That share is vanishingly small compared with the knowledge of the Creator; all sciences fade away before His knowledge, just as the most knowledgeable of the creation—the messengers and the angels—confessed: “Glory be to You; we have no knowledge except what You have taught us.” (2:32)