In His words, “They have no power to address Him,” He mentions no exception, for no one has any independent right to address Allah. No created being possesses anything in which he shares ownership with the Creator. As we explained concerning His words, “Those whom they invoke besides Him possess no power of intercession,” this statement is general and unrestricted in scope. None of those invoked besides Him possesses the power of intercession under any circumstances. Rather, when Allah permits them, they intercede without possessing that power as their own. The same applies to His words, “They have no power to address Him.” This is the view of the early generations and the majority of Quranic commentators.

Some, however, said that this refers to the disbelievers: they have no power to address Allah on that Day.

Ibn ‘Atiyyah said: “In His words, ‘They have no power,’ the pronoun refers to the disbelievers. That is, they have no power—through His bounty and His acts of perfecting—to address Him with an excuse or anything else.”

This is an innovated interpretation and an outright error. The correct view is that of the majority and the early generations: this statement is general, as He says in another verse:

“Voices will be humbled before the Most Merciful, and you will hear nothing but a whisper.”

In the hadith concerning Allah’s manifestation, recorded in the Sahīh, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, when describing their passage over the Bridge:

“No one will speak except the messengers, and the messengers’ supplication will be: ‘O Allah, grant safety! Grant safety!’”

This will be during the passage over the Bridge, after the reckoning and the weighing of deeds. What, then, of the time before that?