Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,

As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.  (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)

One of our brothers/sisters has asked this question:

In response to your answer for question 4722: Quran written by man

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Dear Burhan,

As always, it is a pleasure reading the e:mails from Islam Helpline.While I read this one, I totally understand the arguments. However, what I do not understand is the level of discrimination Allah Subhanaho would make. Afterall, even the disbelievers are His creations.For perspective, I understand that our life is full of trials and tribulations and we will be judged for the choices we have made on the Day of Judgmenet and I like that because that is what makes this life so very meaningful.However, would Allah Subhanaho "give up" on his own creation, the disbelievers, by sealing their hearts ? Isn`t this a very human response to people who would not listen to you ? My expectation from Allah Subhanaho would be to keep providing divine guidance despite the fact that I do not listen, to my dying day and then punish me every time I "act" against the guidance but not for not believing in Him.

Long e:mail - I seek 2 clarifications :

1) Would Allah Subhanaho give up on his own creation ?

2) Would He punish us for not believing or would He punish for committing ACTION against His guidance ?

Thank you.

(There may be some grammatical and spelling errors in the above statement. The forum does not change anything from questions, comments and statements received from our readers for circulation in confidentiality.)

Answer:

Sealing hearts

In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there is none worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad (saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.

Your Question: However, would Allah Subhanaho "give up" on his own creation, the disbelievers, by sealing their hearts?

Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 5 Surah Maidah verses 70-71:

70 We took the Covenant of the Children of Israel and sent them our Messengers. Every time there came to them our Messenger with what they themselves desired not, some (of these) they called impostors, and some they (go so far as to) slay.

71 They thought there would be no trial (or punishment); so they became blind and deaf: yet Allah (in Mercy) turned to them: yet again many of them became blind and deaf. But Allah sees well all that they do.

Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 2 Surah Baqarah verses 170-171:

170 When it is said to them: "Follow what Allah hath revealed" they say: "Nay! we shall follow the ways of our fathers." What??? Even though their fathers were void of wisdom and guidance?

171 The parable of those who reject faith is as if one were to shout like a goat-herd to beasts that listen to nothing but calls and cries; deaf, dumb, and blind they are, void of wisdom.

Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 30 Surah Rome verses 52-53:

52 So verily, thou canst not make the dead to hear, nor canst thou make the deaf to hear the call when they show their backs and turn away!

53 Nor canst thou lead back the blind from their straying: only those wilt thou make to hear who believe in Our Signs and submit (their wills in Islam).

Dear and beloved brother in Islam, those abject and ardent disbelievers who listen and obey every falsehood, but absolutely refuse to give even an ear to the warnings of Allah and His Messenger (saws); chose themselves to be and remain deaf to the good cautions of Allah and His Messenger (saws), although there is nothing wrong with their actual and physical hearing!

Those rebellious transgressors who chose to see every falsehood, but absolutely refuse to see the Clear and Manifest Signs of their Lord….choose themselves to be and remain blind when shown the Path of Guidance from Allah Subhanah; although there is absolutely nothing wrong with their actual and physical sight!

Because these arrogant transgressors, of their own intellect, reasoning, and free will, chose to disbelieve in their Lord and His Guidance; and persisted in their disbelief by refusing to so much as even hear Good Caution when told; or refused to see the Manifest Signs of the Lord when shown….they are those who chose to remain deaf and blind, although there was absolutely nothing wrong with their hearing or their sight! It is not Allah Subhanah, their Lord and Creator Who wronged them or was unjust to them; but they themselves chose to wrong their own souls!

Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 10 Surah Yunus verses 42-44:

42 Among them are some who (pretend to) listen to thee: but canst thou make the deaf to hear even though they are without understanding?

43 And among them are some who look at thee: but canst thou guide the blind even though they will not see?

44 Verily Allah will not deal unjustly with man in aught: it is man that wrongs his own soul.

Similarly brother, when the Lord Most High Declares that He has sealed up the hearts of the most ardent disbelievers; it is not as if these people wished to be guided aright but could not do so because their hearts were sealed……but such was the level of their hatred and persistent disbelief towards the Guidance of their Lord, that they chose not even to open their hearts towards guidance!

Because the Lord All-Just has Ordained and Decreed this short transitory life as a test, and because He has allowed each and every individual, of his own reasoning and free will, to choose between belief and disbelief as an integral part of this test….He allowed and permitted those who chose to open their hearts towards Guidance to be guided aright; and for the period of the short test, He allowed and permitted those who wished not to open their hearts towards Guidance to remain misguided, although He absolutely despised and detested the choice they had made for themselves!

Had the Lord All-Mighty Willed, He could very well have forced every soul to open their hearts and accept His Guidance…but then life would no longer remain or be called a test!

Thus when the Lord Declares that He ‘seals the hearts’ of the disbelievers, it does not at all mean that they wished to be guided aright but could not do so because the Lord has sealed their hearts….but rather it means that they chose to seal their own hearts….and the Lord All-Just, to fulfill the condition of the test, allowed and permitted them to do so….although He absolutely abhorred and detested the choice they had made for themselves!

Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 2 Surah Baqarah verses 6-7:

6 As to those who reject Faith it is the same to them whether thou warn them or do not warn them; they will not believe.

7 Allah hath set a seal on their hearts and on their hearing and on their eyes is a veil; Great indeed is the Penalty they (will incur upon themselves).

Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 30 Surah Rome verses 58-59:

58 Verily We have propounded for men in this Quran every kind of Parable: but if thou bring to them any Sign, the unbelievers are sure to say "Ye do nothing but talk vanities!"

59 Thus does Allah seal up the hearts of those who (wish to) understand not.

Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 40 Surah Mumin verse 35:

35 "(Such) as dispute about the Signs of Allah without any authority that hath reached them. Grievous and odious (is such conduct) in the Sight of Allah and of the believers. Thus doth Allah seal up every heart of arrogant and obstinate transgressors."

Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 16 Surah Nahl verses 106-109:

106 …. but such as open their breast to unbelief, on them is Wrath from Allah and theirs will be a Dreadful Penalty.

107 This because they love the life of this world better than the Hereafter: and Allah will not guide those who (chose to) reject faith.

108 Those are they whose hearts, ears, and eyes, Allah has sealed up and they take no heed.

109 Without doubt in the Hereafter they will perish.

Your Question: Would Allah Subhanaho give up on his own creation ?

Al-Tirmidhi Hadith 2355 Narrated by Abu Dharr

Allah's Messenger (saws) said, "Allah Most High forgives His servant as long as the ‘veil’ has not fallen." He (saws) was asked what the ‘veil’ meant, and he (saws) replied, "That a soul should die while associating partners with Allah."

Al-Tirmidhi Hadith 2338 Narrated by Abdullah ibn Umar

Allah's Messenger (saws) said, "Allah accepts a servant's repentance till he gives up his soul in death."

Just as a teacher giving a test in school allows her students to change their answers until the time appointed for the test comes to an end; to fulfill the requirements of the test of life, the Lord Most Merciful has left open the ‘doors’ of Taubah and repentance for each and every individual, until the very moment when they are faced with the reality of death; after which the doors of ‘taubah’ and repentance are shut closed!

Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 3 Surah Ale-Imraan verse 91:

91 As to those who reject faith and die rejecting (faith), never would be accepted from any such as much gold as the earth contains, though they would (willingly) offer it as ransom. For such is (in store) a Penalty Most Grievous, and they will find no helpers.

Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 47 Surah Muhammad verse 34:

34 Those who reject Allah and hinder (men) from the Path of Allah, then die rejecting (faith); Allah will not forgive them.

Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 4 Surah Nisaa verse 18:

18 Of no effect is the repentance of those who continue to do evil until death faces one of them and he says "Now have I repented indeed"; nor of those who die rejecting faith: for them have We prepared a punishment, Most Grievous.

Allah Says in the Holy Quran Chapter 23 Surah Muminoon verses 99-100:

99 (In falsehood they remain) until when death comes to one of them he says: "O my Lord! send me back (to life)

100 In order that I may work righteousness in the things I neglected." "By no means! It is but a word he says; before them is a Partition till the Day they are raised up (again)!

In light of the above absolutely clear guidance of the Quran and Sunnah, it is absolutely evident that the Lord Most Merciful does not ‘give up’ on those who chose to disbelieve until the very last moment when they are required to give up their souls at death!

Your Question: Would He punish us for not believing or would He punish for committing ACTION against His guidance?

There are some major and heinous sins, like the abomination of ‘shirk’, which the Lord All-Mighty has singled out and Decreed as absolutely unforgivable in the Hereafter for those who die in that state of disbelief without seeking repentance!

Allah says in the Quran: Chapter 4 Surah An-Nisa Verse 48
Shirk (associating other deities with Allah) is the only sin that Allah does not forgive, and He forgives, whomsoever He pleases, sins other than this. For whosoever associates any other partners with Allah, does indeed forge a big lie and commits the most heinous sin

Were one to die (without seeking repentance for one’s sins) other than disbelief (which include shirk, kufr and hypocrisy)….it is entirely upto the Mercy of the Lord Most Merciful to either forgive them those deeds if He Wills and Pleases, or punish them for those deeds if He Wills and Pleases; but the Lord Most High has made it absolutely incumbent and binding upon Himself to never forgive those who die in the state of disbelief (in the Hereafter)!

Hadith Qudsi 34

The Messenger of Allah (saws) said that Allah Subhanah, High and Exalted He is, says: ‘O son of Adam, so long as you call upon Me and ask of Me (in this life), I shall forgive you for what you have done, and I shall not mind. O son of Adam, were your sins to reach the clouds of the sky and were you then to ask forgiveness of Me (in this life), I would forgive you. O son of Adam, were you to come to Me with sins nearly as great as the earth and were you then to face Me (in the Hereafter), ascribing no partner to Me, I would bring you forgiveness nearly as great at it!’

Your Question (again!): Would He punish us for not believing or would He punish for committing ACTION against His guidance?

Regardless of the sins one were to commit on this earth (including those of disbelief, shirk, hypocrisy, or transgression against His Guidance), if one were to seek sincere forgiveness for those sins before one meets with one’s appointment of death, and the Lord is Pleased to accept their repentance….The Lord Most Merciful has GUARANTEED complete, total, and absolute forgiveness for all those sins!

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 39 Surah Zumur verses 53-54:

(O Prophet) say: “O My servants who have wronged their own souls….Do not despair of Allah’s Mercy! Surely, Allah forgives all sins. He indeed is the All Forgiving, All Merciful. Return to your Lord and submit to Him before the scourge (death) overtakes you; for then you may get no help from anywhere.”

Allah says in the Holy Quran Chapter 6 Surah Anaam verse 54:

When those come to you who believe in Our Signs, say: "Peace be on you! Your Lord had inscribed for Himself (the rule of) Mercy. Verily if any of you did evil in ignorance, and thereafter repented and amended (his conduct), Lo! He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful."

Al-Tirmidhi Hadith 2357 Narrated by Abdullah ibn Mas'ud

Allah's Messenger (saws) said, "He who repents of a sin (before one’s death) is like him who has committed no sin."

If one were to die in the state of sin without seeking repentance for one’s sins, in light of the guidance of the Quran and the Sunnah, the ‘sinners’ can be divided into two cateories:

1. Those who died in the state of disbelief, they can never ever be forgiven for their crime of disbelief in the Hereafter, and the Fire of Hell will be their guaranteed and permanent abode….for the Lord All-Mighty has made it incumbent and absolutely binding upon Himself never never ever to forgive (in the Hereafter) those who died in the state of disbelief!
2. Those who died in the state of belief but were guilty of transgressions against the Guidance of the Lord, it is entirely upto the Lord Most Merciful whether to forgive them or punish them!

Thus in conclusion, those who die in the state of disbelief, there is absolutely no chance for their forgiveness in the Hereafter; but those who die in the state of belief but were guilty of transgression against the Guidance of their Lord, there is a chance that their Lord may turn towards them in Mercy and forgive them all their sins, if He Wills and Pleases to do so; and if He Wills and Pleases, He may extract punishment.

In all humility, we do hope and earnestly pray that you, us, and all the believers are amongst those who are recipients of the Mercy of our Lord Most Merciful and not amongst those who are faced with the Wrath and Anger of the Lord Most High, Most Supreme. Ameen.

Sahih Muslim Hadith 6631 Narrated by Abu Hurayrah

Allah's Messenger (saws) said: ‘The Lord Most Merciful divided ‘Mercy’ into a hundred parts; and out of this (hundred parts of Mercy), He has sent down one part of His Mercy upon the jinns and the human beings and the animate creatures; and it is because of this (one part) that they love one another, show kindness to one another, and even the beast treats its young one with affection. Allah has reserved ninety-nine parts of His Mercy (with Him), with which He would treat His believing servants on the Day of Resurrection.’

If one trusts, obeys, and follows the guidance and commands of Allah and His Messenger (saws), one can be assured of never ever being misled; but if one believes, obeys and follows any other guidance, other than that of Allah and His Messenger (saws), one can be assured of being led astray.

Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me alone. Allah Alone Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.

Your brother and well wisher in Islam,

Burhan