The Rejected Types of Intermediaries

The Qur’an contains more rebuttals of such notions than this brief legal opinion can possibly cover. Now, the intermediaries who stand between kings and their subjects fall into one of three categories:

First: they convey to the king information about the people’s circumstances that he would otherwise not know. Whoever claims that Allah does not know the conditions of His servants until some angel, prophet, or anyone else informs Him is a disbelieving infidel. On the contrary, exalted is He—He knows what is hidden and what is even more concealed; nothing in the heavens or on earth escapes Him. “He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing” (Qur’an 42:11). He hears the tumult of voices in every language and with every variety of need; one appeal does not distract Him from another, requests do not confuse Him, nor does the persistence of the insistent weary Him.

Second: the king may be unable to manage his subjects and fend off his enemies without aides to assist him; because of his weakness and incapacity he must have supporters and helpers. But Allah—glorified be He—has no supporter, nor any ally out of weakness. He says: “Say, ‘Call upon those you claim [as gods] besides Allah; they do not possess even an atom’s weight in the heavens or on the earth. They have no share in either of them, nor does He take any helper from among them’” (Qur’an 34:22).