شفع
Shafaʿa
To intercede with God on the Day of Judgement, which only those to whom He grants permission may do.
What it means
The verb shafaʿa means to intercede, to plead for someone before another. In the Quran, intercession before God belongs to Him alone to allow: “Who is there that can intercede with Him except by His permission?” (2:255). The Quran adds that on the Day of Judgement intercession will benefit only those to whom God gives leave and with whose word He is pleased (20:109, 21:28). Faruqi therefore stresses that this act is permissible only for those to whom God has granted it. Muslims accept intercession by the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and others whom God permits, and they reject any mediator between a person and God in this life.
Often misunderstood as
Intercession is sometimes taken as a claim that holy persons can force God’s hand, whereas the Quran makes every act of intercession depend on His permission.
What the sources say
The Prophet is reported to have said that each prophet had a prayer that was answered, and that he had kept his in reserve as intercession for his community on the Day of Judgement (Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim). Scholars treat this as the basis for belief in his great intercession.
Term and Arabic as listed in Ismail al Faruqi, Toward Islamic English (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1995), p. 37, listed as SHAF'A. The definition is restated here.