Yasir Qadhi – Ask Shaykh YQ – Episode 31 – Is Infinite Punishment Fair

			Our brother Ahmed emails and says,
		

			I'm having trouble understanding the issue of the eternality of jahannam. How do we answer somebody
who says that no matter how evil a person is, a finite amount of sins should not be punished for
infinity? on
		

			any gala
		

			ilaria no fee him.
		

			So the brother is asking, How can we understand that jahannam is never ending, and this dunya is
ending. And a person says, How is it fair that somebody is being punished for all of eternity for a
finite quantity of sins? And then the brother says, And on that note, is it true that even taymiyah
denied the eternality of jahannam? Okay, so he asks a very deep and profound question of theology.
And as you know, I always like to start with theology or methodology. And my first question, so,
this is a two part question. Number one, the wisdom of jahannam being a bit about the eternality and
number two did Yvan Tamia say that jahannam is not eternal, that it will stop and that there will be
		

			no agenda after that. As for the first question,
		

			realize that the scholars of Islam of all of the fit of Islam that are mainstream Fedak all of the
classical groups of Islam, they have unanimously agreed that Jana is eternal. No one of significance
of any group denied that gender is eternal. And this is the standard position of all the schools of
Islam. As for jahannam, then it is also the case that the majority position the mainstream position
of all of the groups and even Yes, of course, the one we're most most interested in Sunni Islam is
that jahannam as well is eternal. And this is the standard doctrine that we find explicitly
affirmed. And many books of al Qaeda have many strands even as soon as I'm not just of any one
		

			particular strand. And there are many evidences for this, for example, in the Quran, in Surah,
telegin. Allah says woman jasola, hawara Sula, who for in Allah who narrow Johanna Hadid enough he
has a bada. And by the way, FYI, three times in the Quran three times Exactly. Allah azzawajal
mentions hardy the NFP about that for jahannam. And for agenda is more than this for Gen num three
times. Allah says Holly Dena, Fie ha aboda they shall be residing in it forever, Khalid and hard,
Khalid actually does not mean forever hard, it means long life. So that's where the name Khalid is
the one who lives long. So Hollywood does not necessarily mean forever, hollywood or Hollywood means
		

			long, but not forever. But the word Abba de, that's where we bring the the twist and we say other
than means, and it does mean in Arabic, that means forever and ever and ever and ever. So three
times Allah mentions Johanna, and then he says Holly Dena fee ha aboda. And in another verse in that
image in the minify, that'd be Johanna Ma, ha the dune the sinners shall be in jahannam sinners here
means we should akun because whenever Allah says Colleen, then he's talking about the big sin which
shook the sinners will be in jahannam Holly Dune forever any longtime holiday and Islamic forever
longtime la you tell one whom it will never subside from them life Toronto won't be here mobility
		

			soon, and they shall remain in it a one mile bottom now when I can come home over the mean, and we
did not do just injustice to them. They did injustice to themselves. And there are many, many
evidences in the Quran, for example, called Mr. Naughty Judo to home but the now home Judo den hire
Alia do colada, every time their skin withers away, we will give them another skin so that they can
taste the torment. So there are many, many verses that indicate eternality of jahannam. Therefore,
it is pretty much standard doctrine that jahannam will also last forever, for the category of those
who commit shit. As for sinful Muslims, then by unanimous consensus, they will not be in Jannah
		

			forever. There's no controversy over that. Now. The question was not over the eternality to the
question was how do we understand the wisdom? Right? How do we understand the wisdom because no
matter how many sins a person has done, one lifetime is how long 60 years, seven years. 100 years.
		

			Let's even say the profit nor time, 900 years, 900 years, compared to infinity of jahannam, a coffee
comes a non Muslim comes, or even a Muslim who has doubts and says, How is that fair? This is the
question, right? Okay, how do we respond to this question? Firstly, realize that
		

			the problem of trying to explain the wisdom of Allah is an impossible one.
		

			You're asking a human, to try to explain to you the wisdom of the creator of humans.
		

			You are putting a person and it's not possible. And in the end of the day, perhaps our minds cannot
understand what are you going to do then? Rather than come with the assumption that I can understand
every wisdom of Allah? This is an arrogant assumption. Who are you to understand every wisdom of
Allah. Now? Is it wrong to ask for the wisdom? Is it wrong to ask the wisdom of a ruling? Yes or no?
No. What's the evidence for this?
		

			How do we know it's okay to ask for the wisdom?
		

			Many the Sahaba asked us aluna case alone, aka the angels asked, Why are you creating Adam, right?
Why would you put Adam although we haven't used a one 100 to subdue him? Because it is not how wrong
to try to ask why it is how long to reject if you don't understand why there's a difference between
the two. Right? They asked you about this, they asked you about that? And no problem asked. So the
brothers question is not a problem. But before I answer I want to say even if you don't understand
or I don't understand, or I cannot help you understand, that doesn't change the ruling. So we have
to answer the first in this manner. also realize that while we fully believe that Allah does not do
		

			any injustice in the law, Hola, yo limo, Miss Oliveira one hour rabuka Viva La Molina beat, your
Lord does not do volume. While we firmly believe this, what is volume, volume is to burden someone
with more than he or she can bear or to punish someone for the sins of another person. This is.
		

			As for the severity of punishment, this is not the same
		

			as for punishing this versus that. This is not the law giver in any law in any land and the
Constitution, they will give you the punishment, the same crime in this country in 50. States, you
might have 50 different punishments. In this one country, you might have 50, I'm being exaggerating,
but really, I'm being true in the same way. It is possible the same issue can have multiple
punishments, even in this land, depending on what state you live in.
		

			This is the reality of law, punishments are different. And the law has every right to assign any
punishment to any crime, because he is the law giver, he is the one who decides. So when he has
assigned a punishment for a crime, somewhere in our autonomy, this is not volume, volume would be to
punish x for the crime of why that is blue. And Allah will never do that. Right? Luckily for not
nothing that was I have what it is, it was it was it. These are two looms, Allah said he will never
do. As for the severity of punishment, there is no volume over here, the law is clear. And the law
has been told to us. So there cannot be any volume for the quantity of punishment. In the end of the
		

			day, Allah is Malik and he can punish as long as you want for any crime that he has told us as a
crime. The second point here
		

			is that to try to understand the wisdom, let us give us some examples in our own human law. Do we
judge the length of the sentence by the length of the crime or by the severity of the crime?
		

			Do we judge the length of the sentence by the length of the crime or by the severity of the crime?
severity of the crime? A murder in our times, if you use a gun will take one millisecond 0.001
seconds something like this, a murder will take less than one 100th of a second? Correct? If you use
a gun?
		

			Should the punishment if somebody were to say why did why why was he given a lifetime for the deed
that costs point? 01? Would anybody think this is a logical a logical error rather or excuse? Will
anybody say Oh, the crime only took one second? Why is he being punished for 70 years? No, you don't
look at how long the crime was you look at how evil the crime was correct. This is the law everybody
understands. Now in our religion, and honestly, even without the Quran telling us this common sense
tells us the biggest question
		

			crime of any human being is to ignore why he has been created. What bigger crime is there than to
ignore, to not even think about to simply turn away from the highest purpose of existence? Which is
to really try to find a Why am I here? Who created me? What's the purpose of life, worship of Allah
subhanho wa Taala. And therefore, it is completely logical and rational, that the one who refuse to
even think about a law the real mushrik and Kaffir. And that's why we say the believers who are
sinful this does not apply to them. The believers who believe in Allah who have an ounce of EMA, and
as the prophets have said, eventually there'll be more from Johanna no problem there. That is where
		

			the logic applies where, okay, a finite quantity of sins. Yes. Okay. But the one who did not even
think about sin and good, he didn't think about heaven and *, life and death, he never thought
about why he is here. Then this person, any sub panel, or what was his life for? What did he do with
all of his life, as he said about her great uncle intrude on? You had a solo live injured, and
there's so much goodwill ALLAH forgive him? And even the profitsystem said, law you have been to so
difficult No, because it began to dawn never once said, Oh, Allah forgive me. He never once even as
a mushrik, as a pagan as a golfer. He never said, Oh ALLAH forgive me. Allah was never on his mind,
		

			why should then Allah turn to him and forgive him? So the one who never thinks of Allah turns away
from a law has no purpose other than to live like an animal, when a law made you a human and better
than an animal and you live your life like an animal, then this, the severity of the punishment is
based upon the severity of the crime, and what greater crime is there than to turn away from a law.
And this is indicated in a hadith in Sahih, Muslim authentic hadith, the prophet system says that
Allah will say, to the one who is being punished the least in jahannam, the least, and in which he
has been punished forever, Allah will say, Oh, so and so? Would you give up all that you possessed
		

			in your life, your wealth, your family, everything? Would you give it up right now to be saved from
Johanna? And the man will say, Yes, I will, and 10 times more, Allah will say, listen to this, but I
didn't ask you for all of this in this worth Earth. I only asked that you worship Me, and don't do
shit with me. And you refused for a beta. You refused, and you insisted on worshipping other than
me. So here we have one of the wisdoms of the eternality of the punishment. What did Allah ask of
us? All of our time, all of our wealth know, Allah said, understand who created you and believe in
that entity and worship Him and if you're sinful turned him for forgiveness? alesco photo Rahim. But
		

			the one who didn't even care to think. And that's why again, we go back to another question I gave
many, many months ago, about how about non Muslims who never heard of Islam and I mentioned look, we
say Islam is the only way to Allah Subhana. Without it, there's one path, but there might be people
on other paths, the path does not lead to gender. But Allah knows the person was sincere, not the
path. And Allah might forgive the person, not the path. So we firmly believe somebody who tried to
be religious in an environment where there was no Islam, who try to be sincere, righteous, pious in
his own way, without knowing Islam and whatnot, inshallah, this person, we hope, the best for him.
		

			We don't pronounce a verdict in this dunya. But the accurate we hope, the best for him, no problem
with that person. But how about the one who just did not care, woman and Vickery, the one who turned
away from Ola sticker. So the severity of the punishment is due to the severity of the crime. The
third thing we can say here, is that another thing that some of our scholars have mentioned, the
eternality of the punishment, is due to the fact that the crime would have been eternal if they
lived eternally. In other words, Allah says in the Quran, they want to come back to this earth,
right? And Allah says, What do I do? Right, if they were to come back? Right, well, Roger, what is
		

			it? Well?
		

			No, well, I will do the I'll do the man wonder if they were to be returned, they would go back to
what they were doing. This is a very key phrase in the Quran. What do they do? If Allah Allah says,
If I were to bring them back, they would go back to doing what they had been doing, which means if
they live forever, there should be forever. And so their punishment is for ever as well. So these
are three answers that can be given to respond to the wisdom as for the issue of Ibn taymiyyah,
denying the eternality of jahannam This is a very, very interesting and a very detailed and a very
question.
		

			controversial topic. And I would love to give a much longer lecture, which was a very advanced
lecture for were to be given. And in fact, in my master's dissertation 20 years ago or something,
there's an entire section about this issue. Because it dealt with whatever topics I was doing in a
nutshell, did event me hold this view,
		

			it is quite clear that he defended the existence of two views in Sunni Islam, one that says jahannam
is eternal, and one that says janome is not eternal. In fact, the last book that he ever wrote, and
I have it in my library, the last book that he ever wrote, before he passed away is the refutation
of the written eternality of jahannam. Or in the title itself has has there are different versions
of the title. The title is the the issue about the eternality of gender is gender eternal, are not
ignore. Aiya mentions this that I asked him when Tamia came as his main student, I asked him in
Tamia about this question, that is it true that some of the set of denied that jahannam is going to
		

			be forever had been Tamia said, Yes, it is true. And then he wrote his famous treaties. And it is a
treatise that has been discovered, and it has been published recently. And he defends the two
opinions, but he doesn't actually say what his own opinion is.
		

			So this has left people skeptical. Now his students ignore him. His student abdelkarim
		

			has written about this in many, many places. And in fact, in one of his books, he has like 1015
pages about this topic. And in fact, I've written a paper that is published as well about Liam's
view on this issue, and you can reference it over there. But in in em, perhaps in all of Sunni
history, is the one who defends this issue of jahannam not being permanent, most like the most
detailed evidences he brings to claim that jahannam is not eternal, that at some stage jahannam will
cease to exist and the people in Jannah will cease they will not. And he interprets Holly Dena, fie
halberda, as aboda here means long, long, long, long, long, long, long time, but not eternal and his
		

			evidence is organic, and from the setup as for the Quran, Allah says lab Athena fee haba an odd
means long periods of time. So Allah says they will be in it for long periods of time and a lot also
says in the Quran that they will remain in it mme it is semi watchword although in the Masha are a
book in the Rebecca Farah Ulema unit, they will be punished in jahannam for as long as the heavens
and earth remains now this is an expression in Arabic Madame it is semi watered out means for
forever right? Then out so it means they will main agenda forever. Then Allah says Illa Masha are a
book except if your Lord decreased something else. In Rebecca Lima you read Allah is able to do
		

			whatever he wants. Now why did Allah end the verses of john adams punishment with this very
interesting ending? They shall be in there forever. Except for law wills and a lot can will whatever
he wants. You see this except it will tell you and bases it on this issue. And he does bring this
issue as well, Avalos Rama, etc, etc. Then after 10 pages of defending and evidence and he quotes
even Masood Eben Massoud said this formidable cop said this, Abu huraira said this, there are
narrations found in the classical books that eventually jahannam will cease to exist from the Sahaba
not any Hadith about the prop from the Prophet system. Then it will tell you him says if you were to
		

			ask me what my opinion is, I will say Allah knows best and he and left it there. He did not
categorically state right. A lot family Modi recorded the Quran in Arabic founded Lima, UT. So both
have been telling me I have no claim they
		

			This is my opinion, seem to be inclined towards the claim that jahannam is not eternal. But to say
that they believed this is also not 100% accurate. They defended it. Yes. And they said this is very
plausible, especially if not by him. They said this is very plausible. Now. I want to just finish
off here by saying that this question there's a second question as well, that the the issue of Ibn
taymiyyah and his position has caused much controversy. Has it been Tamia typically always does upon
Allah Masha Allah had been Tamia is the person I admired the most in all of Islamic history. And it
is also true to say he generated so much controversy while he was alive and even until our times not
		

			all controversy is bad By the way, hint hint.
		

			So, and of course, even it even TV, of course, is very interesting. That's how to look. I just have
to say this here that his followers and I have gently criticized many of his followers, his
followers, some of his followers today, they did not like the fact that had been Tamia might have
denied the eternality of jahannam. Because this is something that you don't find in any person
before even taymiyah. So some of the modern people of that movement, who claim to fall live in Tamia
deny that Epitome ever said this, and they say this book is a fabrication. And they say he could
never have said this. And there are massive debates within that movement, whether he said it or not.
		

			And I find this so interesting, that they have constructed an image of a bit of a meme that even
even taymiyah could not live up to, if you understand what I'm talking about. If not, then don't
worry about it. But the image that they have of their version of Islam is so unreal, that even their
own scholar that they look up to, could not live up to their own interpretation of that image. And
also, I would I, of course, I admire me immensely, even though I'm not a blind follower. And I
respectfully disagree with some minor things. But one thing I love about Ibn taymiyyah he didn't
care what anybody thought. And he spoke what he believed to be the truth, even if and this is a key
		

			point, even if pretty much everybody before him said something else.
		

			And he seems to be one of the first people breaking away from a vast majority of scholarship. But he
feels the Quran and Sunnah, says something else, simply because 99.9% of the people before him said
something didn't mean anything to him.
		

			And to me, that requires intellectual bravery, whether you agree or disagree, this is independent
mind set. And I hope that also contextualize this a little bit of other things without going too
detailed. Whether that is true or not. A low bidder just in the African history will be the judge in
this world as well. But I agree with this point. 100%. So what if 99.9% of the people before you
said it doesn't make a doc with a capital hat?
		

			And if you look at his position on the triple product, for example, we'll talk about the one because
that was a question also can one day we'll talk about that. Even Tamia was the first fucky the first
item to publicly state the triple product cannot be triple. And this is the fifth way that even as
hard now is adopting and other institutions are adopting, because they realize the world is a very
difficult place. If you follow this position, we'll get to the issue of triple da even taymiyah was
the one who said this, that now is becoming standard position, even though none of the mainstream
scholars before him said that. So in any case, if you want a further reading, there is actually a
		

			book published by Oxford, a collection of articles you also have my article in there published in
it. And the title of the book is Islam and the fate of others by Mohammed Hassan Ali. And there is
an entire chapter about even to me his view about jahannam and there's also a chapter about my view
about salvation. You will find it in that book. That is our first question. The second
		

			law is
		

			enough in dounia Solomon
		

			Leah
		

			Leah