Thus, intercession is of two kinds:
The first is the intercession that Allah Most High has denied, such as that affirmed by the polytheists and by those ignorant and misguided people of this community who imitate them. This constitutes associating partners with Allah.
The second is for the intercessor to intercede with Allah’s permission. This is the intercession that Allah Most High has affirmed for His righteous servants. Hence, when people ask the foremost of intercessors to intercede on the Day of Resurrection, he will come forward and prostrate. He said:
“Then I will praise my Lord with praises He inspires me with, which I cannot offer now. Then it will be said: ‘O Muhammad, raise your head. Speak, and you will be heard; ask, and you will be given; intercede, and your intercession will be accepted.’”
Once he is permitted to intercede, he—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—will intercede for whomever Allah wishes him to intercede for.
Those who hold this view say: The permissibility of seeking a means through him and seeking his intercession—in the sense that he supplicates for the person seeking a means through him—does not entail that this is prescribed in his absence or after his death, when he has not supplicated for that person. Rather, the person seeking a means through him has sworn an oath to him or made a request by virtue of his person. Moreover, the Companions distinguished between the two cases.
This is because, during his lifetime, he himself supplicates for whoever seeks a means through him. His supplication to Allah, glorified be He, is the finest supplication offered by any created being, for he is the best of creation and the most honoured of them before Allah. His supplication and intercession for someone are therefore the finest supplication one created being can offer for another. How, then, can this be equated with the case of someone for whom the Messenger has neither supplicated nor interceded? Whoever equates someone for whom the Messenger has supplicated with someone for whom he has not, and treats these two ways of seeking a means as equivalent, is among the most misguided of people.
Furthermore, there is no harm in asking him to supplicate, in his offering that supplication, or in seeking a means through his supplication