AlHamdulillah dear brothers and sisters, I have been looking into this issue for quite some time now and I think i just might be able to give you all a rather definitive view as to the stance of mainstream Islam on it.
basically from what i have seen, mainstream Islam [sunni Islam whcih is adhered to by about 85-90 % of the Muslims] has two strong views on it, but what the Scholars say is that out of such theological views only one can turn out to be correct on the Day of Judgement, unlike the views on jurisrudence which allows all differences of opinions within the boundaries of Islam to be correct for their adherants, so regarding these two views, we can only wait to see which of them will be correct
one view as stated by many here, is that only those who have reached the message of Islam and theirafter who die as non-muslims will die as the rejectors of faith that will remain in hell for all eternity and thsoe who have not been reached by the message are iether excused or will be put to a test on the day of judgement; this is the Ashari view; one of the two creedal schools whcih maeks up mainstream islam
The other school; Maturidi say basically the same as the above view but also say that out of those who have not been reached by the message, only the monothiests [i.e those who believe in Allah without partners] out of them will be saved, for monothiesm is reachable by intellect alone
thus since their are these two somewhat different views regarding this issue. I think the most cautious approach is to try our best to save all non-Muslims [and ourselves ofcourse!] as they could all be heading for an eternity to hell if they should die without being Muslims, as this fatwa shows:
Q. regarding a hanafi choosing an aqeeda; maturidi or ashari? he wants to choose ashari as non muslims will enter paradise; this the question
and the answer given to this is
As-salaamu Alaykum
I first would like to correct you in saying that the Ash'ari school of
thought does not say that the nonMuslims will go to Jannah. But it
says that it is possible for Allah to send them to Jannah (which means
going against His Word that he will never forgive them). The Maturidi
school of though says that it is not possible for not muslims to go to
Jannah as that would entail Allah going against His Word and this is
not possible.
At the end of the entire arguement both schools of thought concede
that the nonMuslims will never enter paradise. There is a third
opinion amongst the scholars that Allah will not allow the nonMuslims
to enter Jannah but He through His mercy will end their torment by
erasing their existance. This view however is extremely weak as in the
Qur'an the words Daaiman Abadan have been used for their staying in
Hell also (Surah Jinn).
Ultimately it would not make a difference in what your friend would
want to believe as the Qur'an is the final word on this. My sincere
hope is that his family accepts Islam and thus save themselves from
Hell. My only advice is that he continues to make effort in showing
them that Islam is the true religion. If Allah wills they will accept.
MAy Allah guide us all.
Was-salaam
Mufti Ebrahim Moosa
Now here are some evidences of both views:
Would Allah put someone in the hellfire merely for worshipping in another religion besides Islam? This question is answered by traditional Islam according to two possibilities:
(1) There are some peoples who have not been reached by the message of the Prophet of Islam (Allah bless him and give him peace) that we must worship the One God alone, associating nothing else with Him. Such people are innocent, and will not be punished no matter what they do. Allah says in
surat al-Isra',
"We do not punish until We send a Messenger" (Qur'an 17:15).
These include, for example, Christians and others who lived in the period after the spread of the myth of Jesus godhood, until the time of the prophet Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace), who renewed the call to pure monotheism.
The great Muslim scholar, Imam Ghazali, includes in this category those who have only been reached with a distorted picture of the Messenger of Islam (Allah bless him and give him peace), presumably including many people in the West today who know nothing about Allah's religion but newspaper stories about Ayatollahs and mad Muslim bombers. Is it within such people's capacity to believe? In Ghazali's view, such people are excused until after they have had an opportunity to learn the undistorted truth about Islam (Ghazali: "
Faysal al-tafriqa,"
Majmu'a rasa'il al-Imam al-Ghazali, 3.96). This of course does not alter our own obligation as Muslims to reach them with the
da'wa.
(2) A second group of people consists of those who turn away from God's divine message of Islam, rejecting the command to make their worship God's alone; whether because of blindly imitating the religion of their ancestors, or for some other reason. These are people to whom God has sent a prophetic messenger and reached with His message, and to whom He has given hearing and an intellect with which to grasp it but after all this, persist in associating others with Allah, either by actually worshipping another, or by rejecting the laws brought by His messenger (Allah bless him and give him peace), which associates their own customs with His prerogative to be worshipped as He directs. Such people have violated God's rights, and have accepted to go to hell, which is precisely what His messengers have warned them of, so they have no excuse:
"Truly, Allah does not forgive that any be associated with Him; but He forgives what is less than that to whomever He wills" (Qur'an 4:48).
In either case, Allah's mercy exists, though for non-Muslims unreached by the message, it is a question of divine amnesty for their ignorance, not a confirmation of their religions validity. It is worth knowing the difference between these two things, for one's eternal fate depends on it.
[above by shaykh Nuh keller]
the Prophet said, upon him blessings and peace: Four will present excuses on the Day of Resurrection: The deaf one, the idiot, the senile old man, and the one who died in Fatra (the time between Prophets). The first will say, I didn't hear anything; the second, Islam came and street-children were throwing dung at me; the third, Islam came and I did not have my wits about me, and the fourth: my Lord, no Messenger came to me. Allah will Himself take their covenant to obey Him. They will be told to enter the fire (as a test). Those who obey will find it cool and safe, while those who refuse will be dragged to it. (Aswad, Abu Hurayra)
Al-Bazzar and al-Tirmidhi who graded it hasan narrated that the Prophet said, upon him blessings and peace: The one who died in Fatra, the retard, and the infant will say respectively: No Book or Messenger reached me; You gave me no mind wherewith to understand good or evil; I did not have a chance to do anything. A fire will be presented to them and they will be told to enter it. Those who would have done well in life will obey and enter it (temporarily) while those who would have disobeyed in life will refuse. Allah will tell them: You disobey Me (seeing Me), so how could you obey My Messengers in My absence? (Abu Sa`id al-Khudri)
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The Prophet Muhammad said, "No babe is born but upon Fitra (as a Muslim). It is his parents who make him a Jew or a Christian or a Polytheist." (Sahih Muslim, Book 033, Number 6426)
Islam is the religion of all Prophets, Adam to Muhammad. Children are not born out of any sin, original, inherited or derived. They are born on the religion of their nature, i.e., Islam.
RECOGNITION OF ALLAH
The question which arises here is, "How can all people be expected to believe in Allah given their varying- backgrounds, societies and cultures? For people to be responsible for worshipping Allah they all have to have access to knowledge of Allah. The final revelation teaches that all mankind have the recognition of Allah imprinted on their souls, a part of their very nature with which they are created.
In Soorah Al-A'raaf, Verses 172-173; Allah explained that when He created Adam, He caused all of Adam's descendants to come into existence and took a pledge from them saying, Am I not your Lord? To which they all replied, " Yes, we testify to It:'
Allah then explained why He had all of mankind bear witness that He is their creator and only true God worthy of worship. He said, "That was In case you (mankind) should say on the day of Resurrection, "Verily we were unaware of all this." That is to say, we had no idea that You Allah, were our God. No one told us that we were only supposed to worship You alone. Allah went on to explain That it was also In case you should say, "Certainly It was our ancestors who made partners (With Allah) and we are only their descendants; will You then destroy us for what those liars did?" Thus, every child is born with a natural belief in Allah and an inborn inclination to worship Him alone called in Arabic the "Fitrah".
If the child were left alone, he would worship Allah in his own way, but all children are affected by those things around them, seen or unseen.
The Prophet (PBUH) reported that Allah said, "I created my servants in the right religion but devils made them go astray". The Prophet (PBUH) also said, "Each child is born in a state of "Fitrah", then his parents make him a Jew, Christian or a Zoroastrian, the way an animal gives birth to a normal offspring. Have you noticed any that were born mutilated?" (Collected by Al-Bukhaaree and Muslim).
So, just as the child submits to the physical laws which Allah has put in nature, his soul also submits naturally to the fact that Allah is his Lord and Creator. But, his parents try to make him follow their own way and the child is not strong enough in the early stages of his life to resist or oppose the will of his parents. The religion which the child follows at this stage is one of custom and upbringing and Allah does not hold him to account or punish him for this religion. (By Abu Ameena Bilal Phillips )
