with him, for he would still have ample space, and they will be known as al-Muḥarrarūn, “the liberated.” (1)

This context indicates that the Prophet’s intercession on behalf of those who had been ordered to the Fire is mentioned three times so that they do not actually enter it. Accordingly, his words “then bring them out” mean “deliver them,” as is shown by his subsequent statement: “Yet a group will remain and will enter the Fire.” Allah—glorified and exalted—is most knowing of what is correct.

The fourth category of intercession is his ﷺ intercession to raise the ranks of those who enter Paradise beyond what the reward of their deeds alone would merit.

The Muʿtazilah have accepted this specific intercession but have rejected the others, despite the mass-transmitted reports concerning them, as you will soon see, Allah willing.

The proof for this intercession is what is authentically recorded in the two Ṣaḥīḥs and elsewhere from the narration of Abu Musa al-Ashʿari: when his uncle Abu ʿAmir was struck at the Battle of Autas, Abu Musa informed the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. The Messenger of Allah performed ablution, raised his hands, and said, “O Allah, forgive ʿUbayd Abu ʿAmir and on the Day of Resurrection place him above many of Your creatures.” (2)

A similar report is the ḥadīth of Umm Salamah: when Abu Salamah passed away, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ supplicated, “O Allah, forgive Abu Salamah, elevate him among the rightly guided, take charge of his descendants after him among those who remain, forgive us and him, O Lord of the worlds, expand for him his grave, and illuminate it for him.” This is found in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (3).

Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ and others have mentioned yet another, fifth, form of intercession: that certain people will enter Paradise without reckoning. I have not found corroborating evidence for this, nor did Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ cite a source, as far as I have seen. Then I recalled the ḥadīth of ʿUkkāsha ibn Miḥṣan, in which the Messenger of Allah ﷺ prayed that he be among the seventy thousand who will enter Paradise without reckoning; this ḥadīth is recorded in the two Ṣaḥīḥs, as noted earlier (4), and it is pertinent here.

Abu ʿAbd Allah al-Qurṭubī, in al-Tadhkira, has cited a sixth variety of intercession: the Prophet’s ﷺ intercession on behalf of his uncle Abu Ṭālib that his punishment be lightened. He supported this with the ḥadīth of Abu Saʿīd in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, in which the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was mentioned