Concerning intercession, why would Allah ask someone to say on somebody else’s behalf when He knows what He is going to say and that person is only going to say the truth? Why go through this “hassle”, if I may? In other words, what is the rationale behind the idea that God would forgive some people on he request of some others although the decision of forgiveness was already taken by Him independent of the request?
Answer
The reason is simple: We pray to God that a certain person gets cured of his disease. God knows whether He plans to cure him or not and yet He encourages us to pray for the ailing person. Our prayer is an expression of our sympathy for the friend and a way of praying to God for seeking his help and mercy. That is the man-God relationship. We request and He delivers. He wants our prayer to get the privilege of getting accepted and getting responded to. It is not a dull, mechanical world where only cause-effect relationships work. It’s a world where the ‘abd (servant) and God are tied in seeker-responder relationship. The same is going to happen in the Hereafter. We, the believers, have seen prayers getting heard many times in this world; therefore, we don’t see any problems in the explanation of intercession. Those who are deprived of that privilege cannot comprehend it.