Examination of the View of Asma Afsaruddin about  Shafaa in The Quran: An Encyclopedia by Oliver Leaman

This study critically examines the entry ‘Shafāʿa’ written by Asma Afsaruddin, a professor at Indiana University in Bloomington, in The Quran: An Encyclopedia edited by Oliver Leaman. Afsaruddin discusses verses concerning Shafāʿa as well as the views of Muslims in this regard. Making use of Wahhabi ideas, she rejects Shafāʿa and Ziyāra. The Holy Qurʾān, however, approves of dependent Shafāʿa authorized by God. Shafāʿa is an effusion of God's mercy and can only be carried out by those accepted by God. Therefore, the Shafāʿa of idols, an unwarranted notion of polytheists, is rejected. Shafāʿa fundamentally differs from idolatry in terms of the dependence of Shafāʿa of those who perform Shafāʿa, the growth and development of the individual through love for those who perform Shafāʿa, the inadmissibility of worshiping those who perform Shafāʿa, the life and intelligence of those who perform Shafāʿa, the conditionality of Shafāʿa, the lack of power of those who perform Shafāʿa in engendering greatness or abjection and victory or defeat. It is therefore inappropriate to consider these two equivalent. On this basis, this paper demonstrates that the beliefs of the Wahhabi sect concerning Shafāʿa are contrary to the teachings of Islam.