19 April, 2024

10 Shawwal, 1445 H

Donate Now HEART-ICON
MENU

"Silence saves you from regret"

- Imam Ali (as) -

Learning
imge

Core Curriculum
Section 1 - God, Religion and Islam: An Introduction

  • Topic 1.1 - God, Allah and Religion

  • Topic 1.2 - What is “Religion” and What’s the Point of it Anyways?

  • Topic 1.3 - Introduction to Islam

  • Topic 1.4 - A Brief Introduction to the Prophet Muhammad (s), the Prophet of Islam

Section 2 - Foundations of Islam - Theology

  • Topic 2.1 - Satan, Jinns and Angels: Their Influence in the World

  • Topic 2.2 - The Islamic Concept of the Nafs: Battling the Human Ego

  • Topic 2.3 - The Sharīʿa: Purpose and Practice

  • Topic 2.4 - Nubuwwa: The Purpose of Prophethood in Islam

  • Topic 2.5 - Tawhīd: The Unity and Oneness of God in Islam

  • Topic 2.6 - The Usūl al-Dīn: The Fundamental Beliefs of Islam

  • Topic 2.7 - Adala: Divine Justice in Islam

  • Topic 2.8 - Entering Islam: The Shahada

  • Topic 2.9 - Maʿād: The Day of Judgment in Islam

  • Topic 2.10 - Imāmah or divinely guided leadership in Islam after the Prophet Muhammad.

Section 3 - Foundations of Islam - Obligatory Acts

  • Topic 3.1 - Accepting Islam: Putting Faith into Action

  • Topic 3.2 - The Furūʿ al-Dīn: The Fundamental Practices of Islam

  • Topic 3.3 - Salāt: Obligatory Ritual Prayers in Islam

  • Topic 3.4 - Fasting in Islam, its Purpose, Dos and Don’ts

  • Topic 3.5 - The Hajj Pilgrimage

  • Topic 3.6 - The Purpose of Zakat and Khums in Islamic Law

  • Topic 3.7 - Jihād in Islamic Law and Spirituality

  • Topic 3.8 - Commanding the Good and Forbidding Evil in Islam

  • Topic 3.9 - Tawalla and Tabarra, its Basics and Purpose

  • Topic 3.10 - The Five Categories of Islamic Law

  • Topic 3.11 - Niyya: Religious Intention as the Foundation of Islamic Practice

  • Topic 3.12 - Ritual Purity in Islamic Law: Understanding Tahāra and Najāsa

  • Topic 3.13 - Other Obligatory and Forbidden Acts in Islam

Section 4 - Prophethood in Islam

  • Topic 4.1 - A Brief Biography of the Prophet Muhammad (s): The Prophet’s Childhood (PART I of III)

  • Topic 4.2 - Bio: The Prophet Muhammad as a Prophet of God (PART II of III)

  • Topic 4.3 - A Brief Biography of the Prophet Muhammad (s): The Prophet’s Character (PART III of III)

  • Topic 4.4 - The Prophet Muhammad (s) as Messenger and Teacher

  • Topic 4.5 - The Prophet and his Relationships

  • Topic 4.6 - The Prophet’s Sunnah and Hadith

  • Topic 4.7 - Ghadīr and Arafah: The Two Last Sermons of the Prophet

  • Topic 4.8 - Jesus and Mary in Islam

Section 5 - The Qur'an and Hadith

  • Topic 5.1 - Islam and Other Religions

  • Topic 5.2 - What is the Qur’an? A Short Introduction to Islam’s Holy Book

  • Topic 5.3 - The Structure of the Holy Qur’an

  • Topic 5.4 - The Quran and Islamic law

  • Topic 5.5 - The Qur’an, Allah and Humankind

  • Topic 5.6 - Hadith and Sunnah, difference and variations

  • Topic 5.7 - The Reliability of Hadiths

  • Topic 5.8 - A Reflection on Verses of the Holy Qur’an

  • Topic 5.9 - Hadith al-Thaqalayn

  • Topic 5.10 - Imam Ali (as) and Nahj al-Balagha.

  • Topic 5.11 - Taqlid and Tawḍih Al Masail Genre of Literature

Section 6 - Measuring Good and Bad in Islam

  • Topic 6.1 - Guidance According to Islam

  • Topic 6.2 - Life and Death in Islam

  • Topic 6.3 - Heaven and Hell in Islam

  • Topic 6.4 - The Effects of Our Actions in this World

  • Topic 6.5 - The Gray Areas of Islamic Law and Morality

  • Topic 6.6 - Benefits of Islamic Law in this World

  • Topic 6.7 - Good and Bad Deeds: The Spiritual Consequences of our Choices

  • Topic 6.8 - The Effect of Culture and Environment in Shaping our Religious Choices

  • Topic 6.9 - Fate and the Consequences of our Choices in Islam

  • Topic 6.10 - Trivializing the Harām

  • Topic 6.11 - Sinning Against Others and their Delayed Punishment

  • Topic 6.12 - The Three Kinds of Rights in Islam

  • Topic 6.13 - Major Sins in Islam

  • Topic 6.14 - Repentance and Forgiveness of Sins in Islam

  • Topic 6.15 - Kufr in Islam

  • Topic 6.16 - Why Allah Allows People to Sin

Section 7 - The Legacy of the Prophet Muhammad (s) and his Ahl al-Bayt (as)

  • Topic 7.1 - Islam and Knowledge: the Importance of Islamic Education

  • Topic 7.2 - The Ahl al-Kisa

  • Topic 7.3 - Imamah in the Qur’an

  • Topic 7.4 - Fatima al-Zahrah (as)

  • Topic 7.5 - A Brief Look at the Lives of the Imams (Imam al-Hasan until Imam Muhammad al-Baqir)

  • Topic 7.6 - A Brief Look at the Lives of the Imams (Imam Jafar al-Sadiq until Imam Hasan al-Askari)

  • Topic 7.7 - A Brief Look at the Life and Importance of Imam al-Mahdi (aj)

  • Topic 7.8 - Salawat and Atonement in Islam

  • Topic 7.9 - The Companions (Sahaba) of the Prophet According to the Qur’an

  • Topic 7.10 - Clerical Hierarchies in Muslim Communities

  • Topic 7.11 - Mosques in Islam

  • Topic 7.12 - The Philosophy of Karbala and Majalis

  • Topic 7.13 - A Brief Biography of Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib (as)

  • Topic 7.14 - The Battle of Karbala: A Brief History

Section 8 - Islamic Relationships, Sects and Conflicts

  • Topic 8.1 - Islam and Rights

  • Topic 8.2 - Islam and Religious Conflicts

  • Topic 8.3 - Major Sects of Islam

  • Topic 8.4 - Sunnism and Shi’ism, beginnings and historical developments.

  • Topic 8.5 - Misconceptions about Shi’ism

imge

Special Topics
Section 9 - Independent Topics

  • Topic 9.1 - Muslim Converts – Welcome to Islam!

  • Topic 9.2 - Basic Dos and Don’ts of Being a Muslim

  • Topic 9.3 - Halal Food and Zabiha

  • Topic 9.4 - Modesty in Islam

  • Topic 9.5 - Family, Parents and Marriage in Islam

  • Topic 9.6 - Marriage in Islam

  • Topic 9.7 - Islam and Sex

  • Topic 9.8 - Women’s Menstruation in Islam

  • Topic 9.9 - Music, Alcohol, Drugs and Pork in Islam

  • Topic 9.10 - Islam and Science

  • Topic 9.11 - A Reading List of Islamic Knowledge

  • Topic 9.12 - Islam and Sufism

  • Topic 9.13 - Ritual Prayers and Supplications in Islam

  • Topic 9.14 - Death & Burial Rituals in Islam

  • Topic 9.15 - The Battle of Armageddon: An Islamic View

  • Topic 9.16 - The Muslim Calendar

  • Topic 9.17 - Muslims and non-Muslims in the Shariah

  • Topic 9.18 - A Timeline of Major Events in Islamic History

  • Topic 9.19 - Introducing the Qur’an: Why it is the way it is

  • Topic 9.20 - The School of Imam Jafar al-Sadiq

  • Topic 9.21 - Major Fields in Islamic Studies

  • Topic 9.22 - The Caliphate in Sunni and Shia Islam

  • Topic 9.23 - The Spread of Islam: After the Prophet until the Ottoman Empire

  • Topic 9.24 - Islam, Racism and Anti-Semitism

Section 10 - Islam, Religion, and Modern Controversies

  • Topic 10.1 - Modern Fallacies about God: where Theists and Atheists Agree

  • Topic 10.2 - Tawhīd: The Muslim God according to the Prophet Muhammad and the Ahl al-Bayt (as)

  • Topic 10.3 - God’s Existence: The Argument From Being (Wujūd)

  • Topic 10.4 - God’s Existence: The Kalam Cosmological Argument

  • Topic 10.5 - God’s Existence: The Argument From Design

  • Topic 10.6 - The Problem of Evil, Suffering and Pain

  • Topic 10.7 - Why did God Create Us? The Purpose of our Creation

  • Topic 10.8 - Why Humans Need Religion according to Islam

  • Topic 10.9 - Jahl and Spiritual Ignorance in Islam

  • Topic 10.10 - Faith in Islam: Belief without Evidence?

  • Topic 10.11 - Do Non-Muslims Go to Hell?

You have to login to use this feature

Do Non-Muslims Go to Hell?

Abstract

Non-Muslims who are sincere and good at heart may be endowed with God’s grace and enter heaven. Non-Muslims who arrogantly reject Islam while knowing the truth may enter hell. 

INTRODUCTION 

 

Bismillāhir Rahmānir Rahīm, As-salāmu ʿAlaykum wa rahmatullāhi wa barakātuh. Peace be upon you brothers and sisters. 

 

Welcome back to the Muslim Converts Channel! 

 

This lesson may perhaps be the most important topic for a convert to Islam. For those of us who reverted to Islam, many of our family members, if not all of them, are non-Muslims. 

 

A pressing question that comes to mind is the following: if my family doesn’t convert to Islam, does that mean that they will go to hell?  

 

What if I talk to them about Islam and they refuse to convert, will they go to hell? 

 

We are aware that often times black and white answers are given and they tend to be quite alienating. One the one hand, they don’t take into account the gray areas involved in this subject, and on the other, they ignore the fact that God is the only sovereign entity who decides who goes to hell and who doesn’t, so this is not something that can be decided by armchair theorists.  

 

In this lesson, we will discuss the school of Ahl al-Bayt’s (as) view on the subject on the status of non-Muslims in hell.  

 

BODY OF TEXT 

 

O you who have believed, do not put [yourselves] before Allah and His Messenger but fear Allah. Indeed, Allah is Hearing and Knowing. (Chapter 49, verse 1 of the Holy Qur’an) 

 

A common pain that reverts are usually faced with is loneliness. Many, if not all of their family members, often reject their faith.  

 

Despite this, they see many of their family members as good and decent people, and it is sometimes hard to hear from some Muslims that all non-Muslims will necessarily go to hell.  

 

This raises a few important questions, for example; what if the person just isn’t sincerely convinced? What if a person has never heard of Islam? What if all a person has heard of regarding Islam is just bad stuff and this person has no access to decent sources of information? 

 

Furthermore, isn’t it unfair that some are born in Muslim families and others are not, yet the latter are expected to go to hell if they don’t do their “research” regarding the truth?  

 

And how about people who are victims of their circumstances? What if a person is born in a village somewhere in the mountains of Tibet and has never heard of Islam? Or what about someone who was born in a family of drug addicts and a neighborhood that’s full of crime and is thus not in the right state of mind to figure out religious truths? 

 

Islam teaches us that matters like these are not black and white, but gray. 

 

The school of the Ahl al-Bayt (as) teaches us that there are two kinds of non-Muslims. One is called al-Jāhil al-Qāsir and the other is called al-Jāhil al-Muqassir.  

 

Al-Jāhil al-Qāsir  is a non-Muslim who either does not know about Islam, or is a victim of his or her circumstances which do not allow him or her to make proper decisions about the truth. A Jāhil al-Qāsir can also be a person who has had Islam presented to him or her in such a bad way that he or she rejects it. 

 

As such, al-Jāhil al-Qāsir is someone who sincerely does not believe Islam is the truth. Rejection of Islam is not out of malice or spite or love of the world, it is an honest and sincere non-acceptance of the religion. 

 

Such a person, according to the school of Ahl al-Bayt (as), if presented with the true and pure message of Islam, along with its true and intelligent proofs, would undoubtedly accept the religion yet his or her circumstances have not allowed it unfortunately. 

 

In this sense, the Jāhil al-Qāsir, who is also sometimes called a mustaḍʿaf in the Qur’an (namely someone who is in a weakened position who cannot make proper decisions about the truth), is someone whom God may forgive and grant him or her heaven if the person lives in accordance with his or her spiritual nature or fitrah where he or she lives a good and moral life and keeps his or her heart and soul relatively clean. As such, Allah is just and He does not take people to task until the truth is manifest unto them.  

 

Remember that this does not give a person the green light to just reject Islam and accept no responsibility for seeking the truth. God has given us an intellect and some resources. To the best of our abilities, we are still required to search. Taking the easy way out will get a person in trouble on the Day of Judgment and possibly send him or her to hell. 

 

Al-Jāhil al-Muqassir is the very opposite of al-Jāhil al-Qāsir. He or she knows the truth, yet because of arrogance, malice, pride, love of the world, he or she decides to reject Islam. Such a person may find it very, very difficult to find himself or herself in heaven unless he or she is purified either in this world or at some point in the Hereafter. 

 

So if a non-Muslim person goes to hell, it is usually a non-Muslim who is either guilty of evil or is a Jāhil al-Muqassir just like an evil Muslim who may be denied heaven and be sent to hell.  

 

Before we leave you, we’d like to make the following point: notice here that we’ve used the word “may” a lot here. We do this because in the end, every single individual will be judged individually by God for his or her state on the Day of Judgment. Unless the Prophet (s) and his Ahl al-Bayt (as) or the Qur’an calls out a person specifically, or a person is so blatantly evil until the moment of his or her death that there is little doubt that he or she will go to hell, it is very difficult to try to guess what will happen on the Day of Judgment. 

 

As seen in the beginning verse of this lesson, that is, Chapter 49, verse 1 of the Holy Qur’an, we really don’t know what is in God’s or the Prophet’s mind. So we should leave it up to Allah Himself to judge who will go to heaven and who will go to hell. As caring individuals, we should pray for the salvation and guidance of the good and bad people of this earth. 

 

Until Next Time, Thank you for watching. As-salāmu ʿAlaykum wa rahmatullāhi wa barakātuh

Al-Jāhil al-Muqassir

A person who rejects Islam while knowing it is the truth.

Al-Jāhil al-Qāsir

A person rejects Islam while not knowing it is the truth.

Mustaʿḍaf

In the Qur’anic sense, it sometimes refers to someone who is in a weakened position who cannot make proper decisions about the truth.

Q1

Do non-Muslims go to hell?

Only God knows, but Allah is just. He only sends to hell people who are evil or who reject the truth knowingly. 

Q2

Do all Muslims go to heaven?

No, Muslims who are evil may go to hell.

Q3

Does hell last forever?

Only for those who do not truly and sincerely want God’s love and forgiveness

Q4

Can a non-Muslim enter heaven on the Day of Judgment?

If the non-Muslim is spiritually pure and sincere, and accepts Islam on the Day of Judgment, God may let him or her enter heaven.

Q5

What can I do if my family doesn’t convert to Islam?

Be kind and pray for them.

non-Muslims in hell
do non-Muslims go to hell
hell
non-muslims
family doesn’t convert to islam

Faith and Reason by Mahdi Hadavi Tehrani