except those specifically named in the Quran.
Less clear is whether prior to JUdgment day,
prayer on another’s behalf will have any efficacy.
Several passages indicate that God grants interces-
sory power to those whom he chooses (Q 2:255,
10:339; 19:87; 20:109; 21:28; 34:23; 40:7; 42:5;
53:26). There are also hadith describing Muham-
mad’s practice of praying in cemeteries on behalf
of the dead. This tradition is continued in the
standard funeral prayers (salat al-janaiz), which
include a communal supplication to God and
the Prophet on behalf of the deceased. However,
several other verses in the Quran emphasize the
futility of appealing to intercessors of any kind on
the part of the wrong-doers (Q 6:94; 7:53; 21:28;
30:13; 36:23; 39:43; 40:18; 74:48) and that the
privilege of intercession is the sole province of
Allah (Q 6:51; 6:70; 10:18; 32:4; 39:44).
Such passages give ground to a host of later
commentators, such as the famous 14th-century
scholar ibn taymiyya (d. 1328), who vehemently
opposed the practice of prayer and supplication
at the tombs of the dead for their intercession
with God. Among many Sunnis, however, belief
in the ability of Muhammad and the saints, those
who are closest to God (the awliya), to bring
the prayers of the common people closer to God
is nearly universal. The practice is defended by
many on the grounds that these saints are models
of piety, that they are better able to communicate
directly with God, and that contemplation at
any grave provides an important reminder of the
ephemerality of life. However, such prayers are
equally universally challenged by absolute mono-
theists who claim that such prayers commit shirk
(assigning partners to God) and appear to ques-
tion the omnipotence and omnipresence of God.
Among the Twelve-Imam Shia, the intercessory
power of the imams is affirmed, and prayer at their
tombs and those of other members of the ahl al
bayt (the house of the Prophet) is canonical.
See also aFterliFe; bidaa; FUnerary ritUals;
shiism.
Anna BigelowFurther reading: Muhammad Hisham Kabbani, Interces-
sion (Chicago: Kazi Publications, 1998); Shaun Marmon,
“The Quality of Mercy: Intercession in Mamluk Society.”
Studia Islamic 87 (1998): 125–139; David Pinault, “Shia
Lamentation Rituals and Reinterpretations of the Doc-
trine of Intercession: Two Cases from Modern India.”
History of Religions 38, no. 3 (1999): 285–305; Annema-
rie Schimmel, And Muhammad Is His Messenger: The
Veneration of the Prophet in Islamic Piety (Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 1985).intifada See israel; palestine.
Iqbal, Muhammad (1877–1938) leading
Indian poet, intellectual, and statesman
Muhammad Iqbal, a remarkably brilliant Muslim
intellectual who initially articulated the idea of mod-
ern pakistan, was born in Sialkot, a town north of
Lahore. His father owned a tailor shop. He received
both his B.A. (1897) and M.A. (1899) degrees from
the Government College in Lahore. An outstanding
student, he excelled in Arabic, Urdu, Persian, and
English and emerged from the university as a poet
of note in both Urdu and Persian. In 1903, while a
faculty member at his old school, he published his
first book, a study of economics.
In 1905, he traveled to Europe for postgraduate
studies and completed a Ph.D. at Munich two years
later after completing a dissertation on Persian
metaphysics. He came to know some of the most
brilliant scholars in Europe at the time, including
the Orientalists Thomas Arnold, E. G. Brown, and
R. A. Nicholson. He taught for a year at London
University, was admitted to the bar, and in 1908
returned to what then was india. For the next years,
Iqbal practiced law, taught part time in Arabic and
English literature, and wrote the Urdu and Persian
poems that would make him famous. In 1915, he
quit his teaching post to spend time promoting
humanistic Islamic reform. In 1923, he received a
knighthood from the British government.
Iqbal entered politics in 1926 and was elected
to the Punjab Legislative Council, where heIqbal, Muhammad 361 J