According to Imam alGhazali, these 'some people' are as follows:
As for other nations [consider the person] who imputes lying to the Prophet [saw] after he has heard of the impeccable and undeniable transmission of his appearance, his quality and his miracles that suspended normal laws, such as his splitting the moon, the pebbles praising God in his hand, the welling up of water from between his fingers, and the miraculous Quran revealed to him, that challenged the eloquent to rival it but [all who tried] failed; if all of this information has reached his ears, yet he shuns it, turns his back, does not consider it or reflect on it, and does not hasten to believe in it, then such a person is indeed a denier and a liar, and he indeed is a disbeliever (
kaafir)
However such a person does not fit the description of most of the europeans and central asians who live far away from the land of the muslims, infact I would argue that whoever did hear of these things [about the Prophet [saw] would have to have wanted to find them out in order to ascertain the reality of what is claimed [such a person would have to be] a religious person who did not prefer wordly matters to otherwordly one's, If he felt no urge to find out the truth, it could only be due to the fact that he was complacent, inclined toward this world and bereft of piety and a sense of momentuousness of religion and that is what desbelief (
Kufr) is
However if a person felt a desire to find out the truth, but neglected to do so, that negligence is also desbelief. Indeed anyone of faith in God and the last Day of any religion will indeed indefatigably seek the truth after he has seen the appearance of signs that suspend the norms of experience [miracles], if someone sets out and attempts to ascertain the reality but dies before being able to complete his investigation, he is also forgiven and granted the vast mercy and grace of God, so have a vast view of the Mercy of God, the Exalted, and do not measure divine matters with ordinary wordly standards and know well that afterlife is simmilar to this life, for the Quran states, 'your creation and your ressurection is as one soul' [31:27]
Most people in this world enjoy relative security and ease or a state that makes life enjoyable; for that reason, if most people were given a choice between life and death, for example, they would choose life; as for those suffering to such a degree, that they would prefer death, such cases are rare. THOSE CONDEMED ETERNALLY TO THE FIRE IN THE AFTERLIFE WILL ALSO BE RARE, for the attribute of divine Mercy does not change due to the diversity of our circumstances, and 'this life' and the 'afterlife' are simply two expressions designating the diversity of our circumstances, were it not so, there would be no meaning to the statement of the Prophet [saw], when he said, 'the first thing that God wrote in the first book was, 'I am God, there is no deity but Me, My Mercy takes precedence over my wrath, so he who witnesses that there is no God but God, and muhammad [saw] is His servant and apostle, for him is the garden'
...............................
There is no doubt that the desbelievers are in the inferno, but imam Al-Ghazali is explaining that kufr [desbelief] is an active denial, not a passive state of ignorance. That is, denial must follow a clear understanding of what one is denying, moreover, for those who are sincere, it is not only understandable, but neccessary that they would search for the truth.
http://www.zaytuna.org/WhoAretheDisbelievers.pdf
Hi All
I'm a bit worried that the above article could be misleading to some so I'd like to clarify this issue a bit further
The above view is just of one great Scholar and theologian in Islam, however there are other views of equally great or even greater Scholars, like that of imam Maturidi who is of the view that any non-Muslim unreached by the message has to be a monothiest in order to be saved, and unlike valid differences of opinions in jurisprudence being all correct as a Mercy from God, only one opinion can be correct in such theological issues, which the following article highlights:
regarding a hanafi choosing an aqeeda [creed]; maturidi or ashari? [these are the names of the two theological/creedal schools that make up mainstream Islam] he wants to choose ashari as non muslims will enter paradise; this the question
and the answer given to this is
As-salaamu Alaykum
I first would like to correct you in saying that the Ash'ari school of
thought does not say that the nonMuslims will go to Jannah. But it
says that it is possible for Allah to send them to Jannah (which means
going against His Word that he will never forgive them). The Maturidi
school of though says that it is not possible for not muslims to go to
Jannah as that would entail Allah going against His Word and this is
not possible.
At the end of the entire arguement both schools of thought concede
that the nonMuslims will never enter paradise. There is a third
opinion amongst the scholars that Allah will not allow the nonMuslims
to enter Jannah but He through His mercy will end their torment by
erasing their existance. This view however is extremely weak as in the
Qur'an the words Daaiman Abadan have been used for their staying in
Hell also (Surah Jinn).
Ultimately it would not make a difference in what your friend would
want to believe as the Qur'an is the final word on this. My sincere
hope is that his family accepts Islam and thus save themselves from
Hell. My only advice is that he continues to make effort in showing
them that Islam is the true religion. If Allah wills they will accept.
MAy Allah guide us all.
Was-salaam
Mufti Ebrahim Moosa
so we really have to wait till the day of judgement... to find out which one is true and from what we see above, it seems that the latter one is trumps!
May God save us All, ameen
ps; the maturidi view takes the human intellect, our innate nature, and the abundant signs of monothiesm into consideration too, and thus regards that every human [not reached by the message] is obliged to work out the fact of monothiesm himself for it is reachable by intellect alone [and not being monothiests bellies our innate nature too], and the Quranic evidence for it, amongst other verses, seems to be the following one too:
Surah Al-Araaf, verse 172-3:
And (remember) when thy Lord brought forth from the Children of Adam, from their reins, their seed, and made them testify of themselves, (saying): Am I not your Lord? They said: Yea, verily. We testify. (That was) lest ye should say at the Day of Resurrection: Lo! of this we were unaware; Or lest ye should say: (It is) only (that) our fathers ascribed partners to Allah of old and we were (their) seed after them. Wilt Thou destroy us on account of that which those who follow falsehood did?
Abu Aminah Bilal Philips explains the verse as following:
The question which arises here is, "How can all people be expected to believe in Allah given their varying- backgrounds, societies and cultures? For people to be responsible for worshipping Allah they all have to have access to knowledge of Allah. The final revelation teaches that all mankind have the recognition of Allah imprinted on their souls, a part of their very nature with which they are created.
In Soorah Al-A'raaf, Verses 172-173; Allah explained that when He created Adam, He caused all of Adam's descendants to come into existence and took a pledge from them saying, Am I not your Lord? To which they all replied, " Yes, we testify to It:'
Allah then explained why He had all of mankind bear witness that He is their creator and only true God worthy of worship. He said, "That was In case you (mankind) should say on the day of Resurrection, "Verily we were unaware of all this." That is to say, we had no idea that You Allah, were our God. No one told us that we were only supposed to worship You alone. Allah went on to explain That it was also In case you should say, "Certainly It was our ancestors who made partners (With Allah) and we are only their descendants; will You then destroy us for what those liars did?" Thus, every child is born with a natural belief in Allah and an inborn inclination to worship Him alone called in Arabic the "Fitrah".
If the child were left alone, he would worship Allah in his own way, but all children are affected by those things around them, seen or unseen.
The Prophet (PBUH) reported that Allah said, "I created my servants in the right religion but devils made them go astray". The Prophet (PBUH) also said, "Each child is born in a state of "Fitrah", then his parents make him a Jew, Christian or a Zoroastrian, the way an animal gives birth to a normal offspring. Have you noticed any that were born mutilated?" (Collected by Al-Bukhaaree and Muslim).
So, just as the child submits to the physical laws which Allah has put in nature, his soul also submits naturally to the fact that Allah is his Lord and Creator. But, his parents try to make him follow their own way and the child is not strong enough in the early stages of his life to resist or oppose the will of his parents. The religion which the child follows at this stage is one of custom and upbringing and Allah does not hold him to account or punish him for this religion. (By Abu Ameena Bilal Phillips )
www.islam101.com/dawah/newBorn.htm
