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WHAT
WILL BECOME IN THE HEREAFTER OF
THOSE WHO
WERE BORN AND LIVE IN NON-ISLAMIC
COUNTRIES?
Those
who put this question imply: ‘Since
we believe in God and His Prophet,
we will go to Paradise. But those
who were born and live in
non-Islamic countries do not benefit
from the Divine Light and Guidance,
so they will go to hell’. The
question is a debating ploy,
claiming on the one hand a greater
concern for the non-Islamic peoples
than God, on the other hand sneaking
in a stealthy criticism of Islam.
There
is no general statement or
decree in Islam that those who
live in nonislamic countries
will go to Hell.
First
of all, it should be noted that
there is no general statement or
decree in Islam that those who live
in non-Islamic countries will go to
hell. Rather, the decree is this: if
those who heard the message and
invitation of the Prophet Muhammad,
upon him be peace, and witnessed the
truth and light of Islam, reject it
out of spiteful obstinacy and shut
their ears and turn away from it,
they will go to hell. To pretend to
more mercy and compassion than the
Compassion of God is the worst sort
of impertinence. Whether those who
have heard the Divine Message live
in Islamic countries, is less to the
point than whether they heed and
obey that Message: those who do not
will indeed go to hell and suffer
eternally.
The
question is one that has been
treated at great length by the
scholars of Islamic theology who
have spoken and written fully on the
import of Quran and Hadith on the
subject. But why, when there are so
many pressing issues today, do
people dwell upon this sort of
question? If they get the answer to
it, how will it affect and change
their lives? What will they gain
concerning their life in the
hereafter? How will the answer
affect the daily practice and
lifestyles of those who ask it or of
those on whose behalf it is asked?
Is
there a difference between those who
have gone into unbelief willfully
and those who have had no
opportunity to hear about Islam?
Will the latter go into hell and
suffer the same punishment? The
answer will be given in the light of
the views of the imams of Islamic
theology.
The
Ash’aris held that one who has not
heard the name of God and has not
been communicated to about Him,
wherever and however he lives, will
not be punished but rather ‘excused’:
God, as He wills, rewards such
people to the measure of the good
they have done and they enjoy the
blessings of paradise.
The
view of the Maturidis is somewhat
similar to the Mu’tazilites. They
hold that if one finds his Creator
through the use of his reason, even
though he does not now His Names or
Attributes, he will be saved. But,
if he does not find and know the
Creator through his reason, he
will not be saved. In fact, this
position is not so different from
that of the Ash’aris, although
they do sound different at first
hearing. According to the Maturidis,
it does not matter where one lives.
Whether a man lives in the
mountains, in a desert or on an
island, he can observe the rising
and the setting of the sun and moon,
the sparkling light of the stars,
the balance and order of the
creation, the splendor and
regularity amid the enormous variety
on the surface of the earth, the
grandeur of mountains and the
gentle, easing breezes on their
slopes, the thrilling colors and
movements of flowers, trees and
animals. All these are signs of the
Owner, Creator, Sustainer and
Administrator of all things. One can
thus observe and acknowledge the
absolute existence, power and
grace of the Creator without knowing
His Names and Attributes, or His
Books and Messengers. Such a person
is among the excused. That is why,
one should not rashly assert that
people who live in non-Islamic
countries will go to hell if they do
not believe in God. Rather, one
must, at least, keep silence, given
the views of the imams of Islam.
Imam
Ash’ari deduces his judgment from
the verse of the Quran: We would
never visit our wrath on any
community until We had sent an
Messenger to give warning (17:15).
So, someone may not be punished for
a wrong, until due warning has
reached him through a true
Messenger.
According
to the Maturidis, reason (‘aql) is
an important faculty capable of
discerning good from evil, but it
would be wrong to go too far and say
that reason is able to work
everything out by itself. That is
why God commands the good and
forbids the wrong, and never leaves
the matter wholly to human judgment
and experience which are fallible.
He conveyed His commands and
prohibitions to people through
Messengers, and thus has never left
them in obscurity. The Maturidi
argument goes like this: ‘Aql can
work out that adultery and
fornication are evil, because
genealogy and lineage are
interrupted and lost, with
consequent problems of, among other
things, how to divide inheritances.
‘Aql can work out that theft is
evil, because if it were normal to
steal the belongings of one who
acquired them by long hard labor,
no-one could live in any degree of
security. ‘Aql may discover that
drinking is evil, because it causes
one to lose one’s consciousness,
damages health and makes one
vulnerable to many illnesses, and
can even affect one’s offspring.
The same is true for what is good.
Justice, doing well by others,
etc., are all recognized as good by
‘aql.
Faith
in God is also a good that ‘aql
can grasp because faith leads
us to satisfaction and inward
contentment
Faith
in God is also a good that ‘aql
can grasp because faith leads us
to satisfaction and inward
contentment. Even in this world,
we begin to sense the contentment
that we will have in paradise. The
way to faith is not so difficult as
to be inaccessible by ‘aql. As in
the case of the Bedouin, who came to
the Prophet and explained how he
attained faith : ‘Camel droppings
point to the existence of a camel.
Footprints on the sand tell of a
traveler. The heavens with its
stars, the earth with its mountains
and valleys, and the sea with its
waves-don’t they point to the
Maker, All-Powerful, Knowing, Wise
and Caring?’ This bedouin attained
faith in God through the use of his
mind, therefore, we must not
underrate the role of reason and
thinking in faith. Setting out from
this point, Maturidi says that one
may find the Creator through one’s
reason. There are many good examples
from pre-Islamic times. One of them
is Waraqa bin Nawfal, cousin of Umm
al-Mu’minin, Khadija, the first
wife of the Prophet Muhammad, upon
him be peace and blessings. Waraqa
felt that the coming of the Prophet
would be in his lifetime. When the
first revelation came to Muhammad,
upon him be peace, he saw the Angel
Gabriel, filling up the horizon and
the heavens with his grandeur. The
Prophet came back to his home and,
with still quaking heart, told
Khadija what he had seen and heard,
begging her to cover him. Khadija
went to Waraqa to seek his advice,
and he confirmed the truth of
Muhammad’s mission and
revelations. Waraqa was among those
who knew and had felt many of the
predicted signs of the Prophet’s
coming, upon him be peace, which had
already been fulfilled. So,
understanding that no good would
ever come from the idols, Waraqa
ignored them, and through the use of
his own judgment believed in the
existence of the One God. Another
such person was Zayd bin ‘Amr, the
uncle of ‘Umar bin al-Khattab. He
too did not incline to idols but
worshipped the One God. He
despised the idols and told people
that they were false and no good
could come from them. He knew that
the coming of a Prophet was
imminent. However, as God willed, he
did not live long enough to see the
Prophethood of Muhammad, but
intuitively knew of its coming. He
called his son Sa’id and ‘Umar
and other family members to his
death-bed, and said: ‘The light of
God is on the horizon. I certainly
believe that it will emerge fully
very soon. I am already feeling its
signs over our heads. As soon as the
Prophet comes, without losing any
time, go and join him.’ What human
beings have themselves made cannot
be God or answer their needs. For
such things themselves need man. How
can something which is itself in
need and want, answer and provide
the call of man? Through such simple
reasoning a man can come to know of
his need to know the Lord of the
earths and the heavens. However,
when a person gives the direction of
his mind and reason to the
Revelation, his need to know is
itself met and the way to
eternal bliss opened for him.
In
sum, those who saw or have heard
about the Prophet and the Quran,
but have stubbornly insisted on
their unbelief without needing to
investigate the matter or after
their conscience acknowledged their
truth, will go to Hell. However,
those who have remained in darkness
involuntarily, and who have not had
the slightest chance to hear and
learn about the Quran and the
Prophet, we may hope that they may
benefit from Divine Grace, and not
be blamed and punished for such
wrongs as they may do in unwilled
ignorance.
This
question brings to mind the
difference between the early and
the present-day Muslims, and the
duties of Muslims towards
non-Muslims
The
first Muslims lived Islam fully, and
represented and spread the Message
revealed to Muhammad, upon him be
peace, over a large area and
awakened the collective conscience
of mankind. Many centuries later,
when we read their life histories,
we can see such greatness in their
Islamic thinking and living that it
becomes obvious why people were not
indifferent to the Message they
brought. They were so fearless and
indomitable, and so disregarded the
concerns, the pleasures and
sufferings of worldly life, that
they made a lasting impression upon
the world. Thanks to their sincerity
and zeal, a great number of people
heard the messages of Islam within a
very short time. They were so lofty,
profound and thorough in their
bearing and spirit that, by the time
of Caliph ‘Uthman, the light of
Islam had spread from the Straits of
Gibraltar to the Aral Sea, from the
stretches of Anatolia to the Great
Wall of China. During the time of Mu’awiya,
the Muslims reached the Atlantic
Ocean. All of Morocco, Tunisia and
Algeria were under the glorious flag
of Islam. In less than 30 years,
after the last revelation to the
Prophet, Muslims reached these lands
and laid the foundations of Islam
there. Since they themselves lived
Islam thoroughly, most people in
those lands loved and respected
them, and so admired and then
embraced Islam. The Christians and
Jews of those lands preferred
government by the Muslims to that of
their own people. When once the
Muslims had to leave Hims, the
Christians together with their
religious leaders gathered in the
churches and prayed for them not to
leave; then when the Muslims did go,
the Christians promised them to live
under their rule and pay the due tax
if the Muslims were able to return
in the future. Moreover, the
sincerity of the Muslims brought a
great number of people to enter
Islam. Indeed, it is impossible to
imagine how it could have been
otherwise when those people saw the
early Muslims so many of whom were
each an ‘Umar’ in sincerity and
commitment. They kept long vigils in
the night. They won over so many
hearts and impressed people that all
believed that the gates of the whole
world would soon be open to them.
If
we consider how people in the
present age cannot successfully
provide security even in a small
area for even their own community,
we begin to understand how great an
achievement the early Muslim
administrations were. In return for
their security, reliability, wisdom,
subtlety of mind and piety, the
doors of many castles and cities
were opened to them, not as honorary
title-holders or visitors, but as
governors and rulers.
When
the Muslims took over Syria and
Palestine, the commanders asked for
the keys to the Masjid al-Aqsa. The
Patriarch in charge of the keys told
them that the description of the
person who would take the keys was
known to him, and that it was
impossible to hand them over to any
other person. While they were
disputing, the Caliph ‘Umar set
out from Madina. No one knew how he
would be traveling. But it was known
to the Patriarch and the priests how
the one who would receive the keys
would come. ‘Umar borrowed a camel
from the treasury of the state (bait
al-mal). He might have borrowed a
horse, but he did not. He took it in
turns to ride the camel with his
servant who accompanied him on the
journey. When the Muslims commanders
heard about ‘Umar’s coming in
that manner, they prayed that as
they crossed the river of Jordan it
would not be ‘Umar’s turn to
walk. For the Byzantines were used
to seeing pomp and magnificence in
their rulers, and the Muslim
commanders thought that it might
be shaming for the Caliph to be seen
by them leading a camel on which the
servant rode while the Caliph held
the reins with rolled-up trousers
crossing the river. In fact, most of
political pomp is injustice and
inequity, and ‘Umar was trying to
avoid it. However, everything was
ordained by God, and what happened
happened just as the commanders most
feared. Moreover, ‘Umar’s
garment, worn and battered by the
journey, had many patches on it.
When the Patriarch saw this figure,
he cried out: ‘This is the man
whose description we have in our
books. Now, I shall give him the
key.’ Because of the special
spiritual insight of their elders,
the priests had already known how
‘Umar would look and how he would
cross the river. The handing of the
key and the Masjid al-Aqsa to the
Muslims caused many to come into
Islam.
With
whole hearted ardor, ‘Uqba bin
Nafi’ was one of those who set
forth to make other people hear
about the Truth all over the world.
The conquest of Africa fell to his
lot. After successive victories,
some people envied his fame and
misinformed the Caliph about him.
Thus, the Caliph was provoked and
‘Uqba was dismissed from his post,
arrested and kept from spreading
Islam. Imprisoned for five years,
his only sorrow and great longing
were expressed thus: ‘I would like
to have spread Islam all over
Africa. I was prevented from
achieving this. That is the only
thing I regret’. Freeing and then
appointing ‘Uqba as the governor
of Africa, Yazid did one good thing
to counterbalance his many
injustices. He re-opened the way to
the conquest of Africa and the
spread of Islam in the region which
had all but come to an end with the
arrest of ‘Uqba. ‘Uqba reached
the Atlantic Ocean in a single
campaign. He could not help riding
his horse into the ocean and crying.
‘O God! If this dark sea had not
prevented me going further, I would
carry Your Holy Name to overseas
lands.’ Had someone been there
able to speak to him of the American
continents, ‘Uqba would surely
have set about planning how to go
over there.
Contrary
to early Muslims, today our
words do leave our mouths but do
not penetrate the hearts and
souls of people.
These
are narrated just to make us think
how Islam was represented in the
past and how it is now. The early
Muslims took the territories now
called, Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq,
North Africa, Bukhara, Tashkent,
Samarkand places which would
produce Bukhari, Muslim, Tirmidhi,
Ibn Sina, al-Farabi, Biruni-within
25 years, less than a single
generation. It seems to have been
achieved almost in the saying of it,
in a single breath. Those first
Muslims carried the message of Islam
to almost every part of the then
known world and made the glorious
flag of ‘There is no god but God,
Muhammad is His Messenger’ wave
over many lands. As for ourselves
we are scarcely able to speak the
Truth to the people around us, let
alone go to foreign lands and tell
the people there. Some of the people
around us may be willing to listen
to us, but we, alas, are unable to
persuade even them. Our words come
back to us, as if from walls of ice,
cold. Our words do leave our mouths
but do not penetrate the hearts and
souls of people. In saying this, it
is not our purpose to express
ingratitude for the blessings we do
have; we mean only to draw attention
to the great, indeed immeasurable,
distance between ourselves and the
quality of men who were the
Companions of the Prophet. They
conveyed the Message to all
peoples, and held this task as the
very reason for their existence;
when they could not do so, they felt
sorrow and pain for the lands and
people unaware of the Truth. By
contrast, we are unable to represent
Islam fully in our individual lives,
still less convey its message to
multitudes abroad. We have not
abandoned our personal needs and
preoccupations; we have not given
the highest priority to working on
the way of God. We remember too
well, alas, the ways to our homes
and our jobs, our worldly lives.
Those of us who did go abroad, to
non-Muslim countries, did so to earn
dollars, or pounds, or marks, or
francs-not to take the name of God
to those lands. That is why we are
unable to make them hear about the
great Truths. If today the
non-Muslims live in deviation,
corruption and unbelief due to our
neglect, ignorance, inability,
laziness and incompetence, we shall
certainly be summoned to account for
it. If a question is asked of them
in the hereafter; then definitely it
is asked of us as well. Giving
lectures and organizing seminars and
panels are not the only way to
spread Islam. Such activities can be
considered as a movement in the
direction of being on the way God,
but they do not themselves
constitute the true service to
Islam. If true service to Islam is
likened to a great palace, our
efforts so far are just like
wandering about around the first
entrance to the palace: we have not
yet entered upon the task.
Therefore, many people are going
astray. Occasionally, we have gone
to those people to speak of Islam,
but we have not saved ourselves from
futile disputes and conflicts
amongst ourselves. We have
definitely not yet come near to
representing Islam at the level of
‘Umar, ‘Uqba bin Nafi’, and
others of that quality. Who knows
how their opponents were struck with
fear at seeing their determined
courage, their indomitable devotion
to God; or struck with wonder by
their reliability, generosity,
justice, and humanity, and so
moved to wonder about, then to
embrace, Islam. The fact that many
of the countries in which the
Muslims live now, except far a few,
were conquered by these early
Muslims is evidence enough of what
absolute sincerity in the way of God
can achieve.
Looked
at from this direction, the question
about non-Muslims, especially those
living in non-Islamic countries,
takes on a different aspect. We need
to see those non-Muslims with a
greater tolerance, and say: ‘Shame
on us! We have not been able to
convey the message of Islam, and
bring them to the light out of the
darkness they live in.’ It will
help to narrate here the true story
of a German family.
A
Turkish worker found accommodation
in the house of this German family.
He paid great attention to his
religious duties and performed
them sensitively. Except for working
hours, he never omitted, when with
the family, to tell them about
Islam. After a while the owner of
the house became Muslim. His wife
said to him, as did the wife of ‘Amir
ibn Tufayl: ‘We have always been
together so far. Let us be together
in the future, too. Together on the
Bridge Sirat and also in Paradise.
If Islam really makes one reach
heavenly realms, as you said, why
should I stay back from such a
blessing while you enjoy it?’ She
completed her words with the Kalima.
With their children coming into
Islam the family group of Islam was
completed and the home an outpost of
paradise. Several days later the
owner of the house came and said
these startling words to the Turkish
worker: ‘I could not express my
love and gratitude to you, because
you have been an honored guest to
us. However, sometimes, I get very
angry and wish to beat you up. You
came and the Qur’an, the Prophet
and God followed you. My home became
a heavenly abode. But I had a
father. He was a very straight, good
man. He passed away a few days
before you came. Why couldn’t you
have come a bit earlier and told him
of Islam as well?’ These words
indeed represent the voice, the
complaint, the rebuke, of the whole
non-Muslim world. We have failed to
take Islam to them. Even in our
own countries we have not been able
to exert enough effort or give
enough support to the cause of Islam
to make our own people know it
properly.
Another
aspect of the question is this:
Those who took us away from Islam
have always promised a Western life
of Western standard. 150 years later
we are still beggars at the doors of
the West. Little has changed and we
cannot say that we have
progressed, in any important sense.
Throughout a century and a half, the
West have considered and treated
us as servants: servants who leave
their countries in return for poor
wages. Even if we took them the
golden principles of Islam, the best
of messages, which will open the
gates of Paradise for them, they
will not accept them from us, they
will not recognize the quality and
worth of Islam in us. In part this
is because we are despised laborers
at their disposal. As ever, the rich
man has difficulty imagining that he
is in need of something from the
beggar at his door.
Today,
the Muslim world has not proved
itself a worthy model for the rest
of the world
Today,
the Muslim world has not proved
itself a worthy model for the rest
of the world. Quite the contrary. It
has been defeated in many fields
many times over and because
dependent on the Western countries.
Only if we live and represent Islam
thoroughly, and go to the
non-Muslims with a commanding
confidence in our own honor,
dignity and greatness, and do so
only for the sake of God, as our
forefathers and the first Muslims
did, then only have we a right to
hope that they will listen to and
accept the call of Islam. We cannot
like, still less approve, their
regarding us in the light of
servants and beggars, yet, while we
do not regain our true Islamic
identity, we continue to give them
an excuse to regard us so.
Certainly, if they will be asked to
account for their attitudes and
behavior in the Hereafter, so shall
we, also, who have failed to convey
Islam to them, be questioned and
chastised for that failure. So, the
responsibilities of both Muslims
and non-Muslims should be considered common and equal.
Judgments about them should be made
justly and uprightly. We are far
from any understanding that condemns
all non-Muslims to hell simply for
their being non-Muslim. Equally, we
are far from such vain day-dreaming
as to suppose that by stepping out
one day and in a perfunctory manner,
mentioning the worth of Islam, we
shall get people to follow us.
We
believe that there will be changes
in the balance of the world in the
near future. Muslims will regain
their consciousness and raise up
strong persons able to turn away
from pursuing worldly interests for
the sake of establishing Islam and
its high values among other peoples
and other countries besides their
own. Only through sustained, sincere
efforts, will Islam be a major
factor in the balance of the world
and be respected, and the voice of
Muslims calling non-Muslims to Islam
be heard.
That
is not something impossible. Rather
it will certainly happen. But
those who will manage it will be men
and women of good character whose
very souls are bonded with Islam,
not those inconsistent and
inadequate people who are under the
impress of their bodily needs and
who concern themselves with Islam,
as it were, only in their spare
time.
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