Hi, first post, tried doin a bit of research but didn't find anything on google so signed up here.

I always assumed that the concept of hell was the similar between Islam and Christianity (although the ambiguity surrounding what send you to hell in Christianity, is it sins or the non-acceptance of Jesus still confuses me a bit). Was talking to a muslim aquaintance a long time ago, and remember him telling me something along the lines of everyone according to Islam goes to hell for the sins they have comitted. The only person never to have experienced hell was Allah. I think what he was trying to say is, everyone pays for their sins comitted in their lifetime, but eventually is reuinited with God in heaven after effectively serving their time. This would mean that even the worst sinners in the world would eventually gain entry to heaven. Would this also mean that converts to Islam would suffer for their sins before converting?

Please don't flame me if this is completely wrong, I may have misunderstood, or the guy I was talking to may have been misinformed. If it is wrong, could someone please explain the concept of hell in Islam to me, and if it's on the right path, could someone be kind enough to clear it up for me.

Thanks in advance.

Hi

Yes, you do seem to have misunderstood.

Firstly, Allah is not a person. He is God. And of course He will never be punished by hell!

Secondly, hell was created only for humans and jinn (an alternate creation which we can not see. They were created from fire, rather than clay like humans. The devil is a jinn by Islamic belief, not an angel). Therefore animals, angels etc do not enter the hell fire.

Thirdly not all humans will enter hell. Only Muslims will be save from hell- but not all of them. Some Muslims will not go to hell because their good deeds out weight their bad deeds, and will enter paradise. other Muslims will have bad deeds that Allah did not forgive them for and so will enter hell, however they will eventually be taken out of hell and entered in to Paradise.

Fourthly- non-Muslims. Non-Muslims will never enter Paradise. Ever. They will spend eternity in hell. However the precondition is that they knew Islam, understood it properly, and then still rejected it. Only then are they eligible for hell.

As for those people who died non-Muslim but never understood Islam or even heard about it, they will be tested on the day of judgement- if they accept Islam they will enter paradise and if they reject they will go to hell for ever.

Fifthly- about converts to Islam. Becoming a Muslim wipes out all the sins committed by a person before becoming Muslim, so no they will not be punished for it.

Hope that helps!

Allah knows best.

Peace brother, thanks for bringing up your question.

I will attempt to give my view of what hell is in Islam. Let me first correct you by saying that Allah is not a person, He is God, He is unlike anything that we've ever seen/known. To put it briefly, those who did not believed and worshipped Allah alone and did not follow the teachings and virtues that He put forth in the Quran are going to hell. Allah is most forgiving and most merciful. If we sin and repent sincerely to Him then He will forgive us. I believe, that any punishment from sin in this world is due to the disobedience of the laws of nature that Allah created.

I, myself, can never say a person is going to heaven or hell but I can say that they are on the path to such destination. Allah is the the most just of all and He will decide who will go where on the Day of Judgement.

And Allah knows best...

Peace.

Peace.

You can check out a detailed description of Hell Here.

If you need any more information then please do not hesitate to ask

Well, there's no harm asking. In Christianity, I do not know on what is their definition of HELL. In ISLAM, it is TRUE that those MUSLIMS who had committed wrong-doing PURPOSELY will face wrath of ALLAH. As for MUSLIMS understanding the ways of life (DO and DON'Ts) is very important so that anyone one wouldn't want to commit any offense to Allah and towards other people even more towards other Muslims. HELL also meant for those who disbelieve in ISLAM, rage war against ISLAM and more. Need someone who has deep knowledge could DEFINE in-depth.

As human no one perfect except our Prophet MUHAMMAD (Peace Be Upon Him). Even I committed few offenses but in our 5 times a day prayer .. I ALWAYS pray for FORGIVENESS as one of ALLAH name .. He The Forgiver. And ask for His Guidance to guide us NOT to commit any more of the same mistake.

Light of Islam or HIDAYAH is from ALLAH Himself not us Muslims or other people. If someone who looking for the TRUTH of his or her life and CONVERTED to ISLAM means that he or she had been given HIDAYAH by Allah Himself. And therefore, those who were a NON-MUSLIM, and then CONVERTED to ISLAM or to be a MUSLIM .. all his or her past doings will be FORGIVEN by ALLAH as the knowledge of ISLAM is only known to him or her after converted to ISLAM.

Try to look for tapes or other medias of SYEIKH AHMED DEEDAT. One of the BEST Islam Missionary in this century. Al-Fatihah to him. I hope you would get a better picture from the explanation given. May Allah gives his Guidance to whom He wanted.

Dear Anssi,
Thanks much for your questions. As for the reverts they are not at all punished for their previous sins before Islam. This is as clear as crystal in Islam (like everything else in fact)

What this muslim meant by all people are going to hell is that theres a verse in Quan says so. And this means that all people will bypass the hell but most of good and kind people will not feel anything while bypassing it.

Bad people will be tortured in it according to their bad deeds. Some of them will bypass slowly and some will even fall into it.

The thing I want to tell you -as I see you are open hearted and minded- is to read more and more about Islam. You will not take much time to discover that it is the true religion of all prophets even Jesus. You will find it all as much of logic as you can expect.

My kind regards

Oh wow, I didn't mean to come off sounding ignorant, I know Allah is God, I meant Muhammad, **** that sounded stupid, must have been tired when writing it.

The first post suggested that if you are aware of Islam but reject it, you will go to hell for eternity, but if you are unaware of it you will be judged. I want to read the Qu'ran and most probably will, because I want to understand the religion myself instead of making assumptions from the way Islam is portrayed in the media. However, I'm a very, very strong Atheist, and I would say with a 99% certainty, that after reading the Qu'ran, I would reject it like all other religious texts and beliefs.

Hypothetically, wouldn't it be a better option for me not to read the Qu'ran and possibly save myself eternal ****ation because I may well reject it? :P

This isn't an entirely serious question, but humor me with responses.