especially since the Quran, the hadith, and the consensus of the Salaf all support their position [in affirming this principle] (1).
[The Meaning of Allah’s Words: “So That Allah May Forgive You”]
Those who deny this (2), in (3) distorting the Quran, make claims akin to those of people given to calumny, and they displace words from their proper contexts [as when they say concerning Allah’s words:
{So that Allah may forgive your past and future sins}
[Surah al-Fath: 2]
that this means Adam’s sin and the later sins of his community (4). This and similar interpretations displace words from their proper contexts] (5).
First, Adam had repented, and [his] (6) sin had been forgiven before Noah and Abraham were born. How, then, could He say [to him] (7):
{Indeed, We have granted you a clear triumph}
so that Allah may forgive you Adam’s sin (8)?
Second, Allah says:
{No bearer of burdens will bear the burden of another}
[Surah al-Isrā: 15]
How, then, can one person’s sin be attributed to another?
Third, the hadith of intercession recorded in the Sahih collections (9) relates that they will go to
(1) The text in square brackets appears only in ʿ.
(2) B and A: “and those who deny.”
(3) N: “They say, rather…”
(4) ʿ: “of your sin (that is, Adam’s sin), and what came later (the sin of his community).”
(5) The text in square brackets is omitted from N and M.
(6) “for him” is omitted from N and M.
(7) “to him” is omitted from N, M, and ʿ.
(8) The expression “Allah … you” is omitted from B and A. N and M read: {So that Allah may forgive your past sins}.
(9) ʿ: “in the Sahīh.” The hadith of intercession is transmitted through several routes from a number of Companions, with similar wording. See al-Bukhārī, 6:84–85 (Book of Quranic Exegesis, Surah of the Children of Israel, chapter “The Descendants of Those We Carried with Noah”); Muslim, 1:180–187 (Book of Faith, chapter “The Lowest-Ranking Inhabitant of Paradise”); *al-Musnad*, al-Maʿārif ed., 1:161–163, no. 15. See also *al-Targhīb wa-l-Tarhīb*, 5:398–406; Ibn al-Athīr, *Jāmi al-Usūl*, 11:123–133; and Ibn al-Qayyim, *Hādī al-Arwāh*, pp. 227–232. The hadith will appear later (p. 423; see n. 3), where we shall quote a substantial portion of it, Allah willing.