Faith IQ – Is my Non-Muslim Relative Going to Hell?

			converts. And I'm not talking about recent Congress could be recent Congress could be somebody with
Muslim for 30 years, right? People who have family members who are not Muslim, and they pass away,
in contrast to what you see from people who are Muslims living in, quote, unquote, the West. And
then when they see that so and so passed away, and they were not Muslim, they automatically draw the
conclusion. And in an insensitive way, like, yeah, that person is destined for the hellfire, is that
appropriate?
		

			It is never appropriate when someone dies, whether
		

			they were non Muslims we knew or didn't know, for us to make explicit conclusive statements about
where they're ending up. It's just no.
		

			Frankly, there's no benefit.
		

			Like there's no benefit. I'm not talking here about somebody who oppressed Muslims for 30 years and
then died. And the Muslim said, Hamdulillah, like were relieved of his oppression. I was like
explicitly saying, This person is going straight to the hellfire, this person is going to be
punished. How do you know that? Right, unless the name is mentioned in the Quran or authentic
hadith. We don't make judgments about where people are ending up even if we are relieved of their
oppression, or we see clearly that they rejected the truth numerous times, even in that case. Now,
in the case of many converts, may last PATA, relieve their affairs and reward them for their
		

			steadfastness. It's not always easy. Oftentimes, we've had brothers and sisters tell us that they've
had family members who died, maybe before this person converted to Islam. So they maybe never
received the true message of Islam. Again, you don't know. So you leave there, they're like you
leave their affairs to Allah subhanaw taala. It's not for us. And there's no benefit in us thinking
about it, because we don't pass that judgment. And also, we're not the wisest of the wise, I would
hacky mean, we're not the fairest of the fair and the Most Merciful, Allah is more aware than we are
of their situation, if really, they didn't have that fair chance to receive Islam, and to become
		

			Muslim in this world, perhaps they'll have their test in the next life. And that's the opinion of
even Taymiyah, that they'll have some tests to give them an opportunity to go to Jenna, and be
protected from the fire. So we don't have this, here's, here's what gets me. We don't have this
idea, this default idea that every human being on Earth who died as a non Muslim is necessarily
explicit going to how far I don't know where this idea came from. And what I mean by this, let me
clarify a bit is that there are many people who just simply did not hear about Islam. And there are
many scholars who believe that if someone did not hear about Islam, and they did not, maybe they
		

			could have researched it, but they did not search for Islam, but they believed in God, in some way,
they didn't reject belief in God, that there's hope for them that they'll they'll get a chance in
the next life to receive some kind of test. And the same goes for people who received the wrong
message of Islam for 3040 years that Islam is violence, terrorism, this and that. Some of them look
beyond it. And they research the became Muslim, many of them and Hamdulillah, some of the worst
critics of Islam. They became Muslims, and others simply don't they don't research beyond that. Do
we really do we pass judgment on them say they're going to *, I don't think that it would be a
		

			responsible, respectful or even our place to make such a judgment. So we leave the affairs of all
who passed away to Allah subhanaw taala. Even believers, when they die, we generally say like, we
make dua for them, right? We make dua for them, but we don't say this person is explicitly in Jenna
right now about what we just don't know. We will leave it to ALLAH SubhanA. Allah, a lot of us one
more thing to add to that. That's why like, the word non Muslim is very interesting in English,
right? Because in Arabic, there was always this like, there's always been distinctions. Well, in
Arabic, like, especially in the Muslim world, it's always like Muslim versus Catherine. Right?
		

			Everyone's either a Muslim or a Catholic. Right? What's now for some people a trigger word, a
keyword, like what do you mean? So
		

			when we say non Muslim, it doesn't mean they receive the message of Islam. It just means they died.
And as far as we know, they weren't Muslim when they died. Yeah. Right. But it doesn't. It doesn't.
It's not an equivalent to saying that's where they're ending up. That's the distinction. Yeah.
Because even even though I mean, I guess it's a question in regards to like, the people who are not
Muslim, that are referenced in the Quran in general terms are also in categories, too, right? Like
you have people who are kuffaar, you have Muslims, you have al Kitab. And maybe there's overlap in
these categorizations. But
		

			it's more or less as an example and warning for the reader who's, you know, listening or engaging
with the words of Allah. But when it comes to our current time and day, when engaging with people,
ultimately, it's like, we can't pass any judgment, because we don't have the authority or the place
nor the appropriateness to do so. And when it comes in my
		

			also question me is like, somebody was mentioning how it
		

			I guess in a engagement setting to call people non Muslims
		

			seems maybe inappropriate,
		

			right in the sense that if you want to engage with people don't say Muslim, non Muslim, but you will
talk about Muslims and people of other faiths.
		

			That's interesting because of course, that's subjective. But you have some people who will say,
		

			Muslim, non Muslim is better than saying Muslim and disability. Well, this believer itself is just
like it's coming at it from a very
		

			remember that's the terminology of the Quran, right? It's the terminology of the Quran in relation
to somebody who has done the verb of disbelieving. Excellent, that's true, right? As a and that's
where the whole categorization of Gafford comes, they've rejected they've covered the truth and
chose not to embrace it, as opposed to somebody who may or may not as you had mentioned, may or may
not have received the message appropriately or completely.
		

			But like what I mean, in your own work of interfaith and social community gatherings and whatnot, I
say non Muslims you say even in front of non Muslims, I will say non Muslims and sometimes the
setting is one based on the sentence the terminology what I'm saying Muslims, Christians, Jews,
others, people of various faiths, okay, it just depends on the context. But if I'm giving a lecture
at an MSA about Islam to Muslims, when both okay to both non Muslims are in attendance, I will say
Muslims and non Muslims at times, okay, well, how would that sound if you're attending a lecture by
Christian reviews? I have no problem hearing okay. I'm Christian. I'm like, Yeah, I'm not a
		

			Christian right now. Thank you. I'm definitely not a Christian. Okay, so I don't know. I think it's
a personal thing about how we receive it. Like if somebody gets offended by hearing they're non
Muslims. I'm confused. Are you offended because you think you should be Muslim? No, I feel like it's
like you're talking about
		

			like the message itself is directed towards Muslims whatever you're speaking to. I guess that's
that's why I said depends on the context right? But I've never had I've had so many non Muslims come
up to me and talk to me normally had great conversations and lectures were like yeah, sometimes
Muslims non Muslims, Muslims, Christians, atheist others. Just depends on the context. Okay, a lot.
Oh, I'm sure it's very subjective, though.