Suleiman Hani – 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 not a motive presents q&a with Solomon, honey, frankly, there's
no benefit. Like there's no benefit. And I'm not talking here about somebody who oppressed Muslims
for 30 years and then died. And a Muslim said, Hamdulillah, like were relieved of his oppression.
I'm saying 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 also 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 their like you leave their
affairs to Allah subhanaw taala. It's, 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 don't have
		

			you 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 an opinion of
even saying that I have a law 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, but 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 their research to 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
responsible, respectful, or even our place to make such a judgment. So we leave the affairs of all
who passed away Tomas Pattana. 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 general right now.
But what we just don't know we leave it to a loss partner, or one of us. One more thing to add to
that. That's why I 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 Catholic. Right? Everyone's either
Muslim or a Catholic. Right? What's now for some people a trigger word, the K word, like what do you
mean? So?
		

			When we say non Muslim, it doesn't mean they receive the message in 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. 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 Kufa, they have mushriks, you have al Khattab and maybe there's overlap in these
categorizations. But
		

			it's more or less as an example in 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 might also question me is like, somebody was mentioning how it made 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 this believer. Well, this believer itself is
just like, it's coming at it from a very
		

			remember that's the terminology of the Quran, right? But like what I mean, in your own work of
interfaith and social community gatherings and whatnot, I say non Muslim, you say, even in front of
non Muslims, okay, I will say non Muslims and sometimes the setting is one based on the sentence
that 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, 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 Jews? 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 not Muslims. I'm confused. Are you
offended because you think you shouldn't 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 what I said. depends on the context. Right? But I have never had I've had so many non Muslims
come up to me and talk to me normally had great conversations and the lecturers were like, yeah,
sometimes Muslims non Muslims, Muslims, Christians, atheist others, just depends on the context.
Okay, a lot. I'm sure it's very subjective, though.