format_quote Originally Posted by
anonymous
:sl:
:wasalamex
Ok, here goes:
- Regarding the Heaven and Hell issue, I don't for a second doubt the ability for them to exist Physically. The doubts I have concerning Heaven and Hell, are more on the Philosophical side. e.g. How a mass murderer can attain infinite Paradise, as long as he sincerely repented before death, in contrast to a non-believer, who did good deeds all their life, never said a bad word to anyone, could go to hell for eternity, just for failing to believe in God. I mean many people don't go out of their way to research religions, they may have heard about them, but thats about it. How many of us can truly say we have studied other major religions with depth and sincerity? So why would non-believers who did good all their lives, be subject to infinite torture, just for not going further in depth, into a topic that serves of no interest to them. You could say that the Quran tells them to accept God, and gives them signs, but I'm talking about the people who have heard of Islam, know it exists, have a rough idea of what the beliefs are, but never really looked into it, at least not enough for them to give up a lifetime of beliefs.
I think you need to realise that Allaah will guide anyone who is sincere in searching for the truth. We know this in the example of Waraqa ibn Nawfil - the uncle of Khadija, the wife of the Messenger of Allaah (peace be upon him.) Who when young would go out with his companions to search for the religion of truth, they knew that all the other ways of life never made sense. They knew that the polytheists way of life wasn't right. Allaah also gives us fitrah [a natural inclination] to believe in One God, and to do good, stay away from evil etc.
This [following] Hadith was also collected by At-Tirmidhi who said that it is Hasan Gharib.
Also, when Zayd bin `Amr bin Nufayl went with some of his friends - before Islam - to Ash-Sham seeking the true religion, the Jews said to him, "You will not become a Jew unless you carry a share of the anger of Allah that we have earned.'' He said, "I am seeking to escape Allah's anger.'' Also, the Christians said to him, "If you become one of us you will carry a share in Allah's discontent.'' He said, "I cannot bear it.'' So he remained in his pure nature and avoided worshipping the idols and the polytheistic practices. He became neither a Jew, nor Christian. As for his companions, they became Christians because they found it more pure than Judaism. Waraqah bin Nawfal was among these people until Allah guided him by the hand of His Prophet, when he was sent as Prophet, and Waraqah believed in the revelation that was sent to the Prophet may Allah be pleased with him.
Tafsir Ibn Kathir
Allaah has given us all a long enough life to try to search for the truth, and we know that if someone finds it and accepts it, Allaah will remove all their past sins, out of His Mercy. We also know that the people who are good, if they search for the truth - their traits will fit in with the fitrah and teachings of islaam, so it should be easier for these people to actually accept islaam than people who are indulging in sins without no regret.
Now we also know that everyone has an intention when doing any act. Some people when doing some act of good might do it for respect, some people might do it for money, some might do it for their idols/deities. In islaam, whenever we do any action - we do it to please Allaah.
There may be people who do actions to please God, but at the same time doing it maybe to gain honor, or money, or for Jesus (peace be upon him) etc. However in the sight of Allaah, for any act of worship to be accepted - it has to be done sincerely for the sake of Allaah Alone. We do this act of worship in order to gain Allaah's Mercy so that He may allow us to enter His paradise. This has been explained by the Messenger of Allaah (peace be upon him) himself, when he said that he could only enter paradise through Allaah's Mercy too.
What does this mean?
It mean's that anyone who's been really good in this life, if they never did an act to please Allaah. They won't gain their reward from Allaah, rather on the day of judgement Allaah will tell this person to get their reward from the one they did the act for. So if they performed a good deed in order to please Jesus (peace be upon him), they will have to get their reward from him, which obviously they won't be able to. Because the only reward on that day will be from Allaah. The same can be said about the people who did acts for the sake of their stone idols etc.
Those who did good in this world like said earlier had intentions when doing an act, some did it for honor while others did it for money etc. Like mentioned earlier. Now because these people did it for those specific reasons, due to Allaah's justice - He will actually allow these people to have what they wanted. So maybe Ghandi had the intention of uniting people in peace, but at the same time he probably wanted to get famous, get attention. He got that, but did he die as a believer? Did he actually do these acts for the sake of Allaah Alone? If no - then he got that respect which he wanted, and if he rejected the hereafter - then he doesn't get no share of it.
What about those who believe and do good to please Allaah Alone?
On the day of judgement, everyone will get the reward off the one they did the act of worship for. There may have been believers who did many sins, and they may get punished for these sins in the hellfire for a temporarily while. They may have done acts to please others besides Allaah, and they may be liable to the punishment of Allaah or gain Allaah's Mercy.
But what if, what if they did one act of worship sincerely for the sake of Allaah Alone? What if this deed was salaah [the 5 daily prayers] for example? Now because they did this deed sincerely for the sake of Allaah Alone, with no associates attatched - who would they get their reward off? If they've been punished for their sins for a temporary amount of time in the hellfire, and Allaah accepted this deed off them - they will get the reward off Him, the Almighty right? Because they never did it for no-one besides Allaah. Even if they did an atoms weight of good, it will not be ignored by Allaah and He will reward them for it inshaa'Allaah.
Now this person did this act of worship for Allaah Alone, so He never associated partners [i.e. idols, other humans, philosophies etc.] with Allaah. He did it in order to please Allaah Alone. And obviously this act of worship has to be done according to the way of the Messenger of Allaah to be accepted. So if this is accepted by Allaah, this person's reward is with Him. Whereas those who didn't do anything for the sake of Allaah Alone, and never believed in Allaah and His signs, then they don't have anything left for them of the hereafter.
And Allaah Almighty knows best.
PS: Sorry if this was long.
- Regarding the Holocaust, and other such travesties. When people are being massacred on a large scale, why aren't those peoples prayers being answered? These people are suffering, inhuman acts, injustice can be seen around the world, why wasn't a monster like Hitler stopped? Was it because he has freewill, and he was given a chance to repent? Then the question begs, that where is the opportunity of those millions who were slaughtered, to repent? Were their opportunities sacrificed so that tyrants could have theirs?
I'll leave it at that for now, once these two issues are cleared up, I'll move on
:w:
First of all, i think one of the main reasons why these jews were massacred according to history was because they started lending money out to the germans, and along with that they used interest/usury to get extra money from these people.
Now we know that according to the jewish scriptures, riba/usury was prohibited. The same way its prohibited in the ummah of Muhammad, the Messenger of Allaah (peace be upon him.) But the jews now say that it is only forbidden to deal with riba for jews, and not for non jews. So they dealt with these germans in riba.
We also know that Allaah has said in a hadith qudsi and in qur'an that Allaah wages war against two types of people; People who wage war against Allaah's awliya [friends, supporters etc.] and those people who deal in riba. [
Qur'an 2:279]
Due to the fact that these people dealed in riba, the truth may have been clear to them, but they turned away from it anyway and carried on in their sin. If Allaah's forbidden it, then why are they still continuing? Due to the truth being apparent - but them turning away, Allaah may have humiliated them and this may have been one of the reasons for this holocaust. And Allaah knows best if this is true or not.
Also remember that Allaah only destroys a nation once they reject the truth after a warner has been sent to them. That is Allaah's sunnah [way.] And Allaah isn't unjust to any of His servants. The tyrant may have done alot of injustice, but he will be responsible for it and hold an even more heavier burden on the day of ressurection, unless he/she repents and change their ways - according to Allaah and His messenger's.
So what we realise is that a nation is destroyed only once Allaah has sent a warner, and if the people reject this warner. These people only turn away from this warner because of their sin, like we know from many stories in Qur'an of the previous prophets.
The tyrant is humiliated too, in this world and the hereafter.
Allaah isn't unjust to any of His servants. And may He forgive us on our wrongdoings and mistakes. ameen.
Allaah Almighty knows best.
:salamext: