Incredible, He Repented Before He Died

Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah. May Allah keep you in goodness, dear guests. I hope the image is clear and the sound is clear.

I would like to speak a word, but first, allow me to ask you a question. Suppose a relative of mine has died, and I say: "I will not pray for this relative, nor will I ask Allah for mercy and forgiveness for him because he wronged me. Perhaps he was a disbeliever before he died. I will not bury him in the Muslim cemeteries because perhaps he was a disbeliever before he died."

What do you think of this proposition, brothers? Is it a scholarly proposition or a local term, meaning a mix-up?

I think you agree that this is an unscholarly proposition.

The Principle in Islam: Taking People at Face Value

Why? Because in Islam, we are commanded to take people at face value. We are not tasked with probing their hearts and accusing them of something contrary to their appearance. Okay, excellent.

Similarly, if a person dies as a disbeliever or an atheist, we should not say: "What do I know? Maybe he repented before he died. Maybe I will ask for forgiveness for him, pray for him, and bury him in the Muslim cemeteries because he repented before he died."

We say to you: No. The same hadith you use as evidence is the one we use: "Did you not tear open his heart?" I cannot say about a Muslim that perhaps he died as a disbeliever. I do not know, perhaps before his death. "Did you not tear open his heart?" We do not have access to the inner hearts, but we have the outward appearances.

Similarly, if someone dies as a disbeliever or an atheist and a corrupter, we do not have the right to tear open his heart to say that perhaps he repented before he died, but rather we take him at his outward appearance.

Responding to Common Objections

I imagine now some of those who hear me are fuming, their faces red, and want to launch the comments we have heard, the worn-out tape, and say: "You are hard-hearted, you want to throw the maximum number of people into the fire, you are as if Allah has given you the keys to paradise and hell, you are as if Allah has made you to throw people into the fire." The same tune that indicates a psychology that acts with reactions and complexes and phobias of extremism and rigidity that the media has worked on.

So we say to you, brother: No. The issue is not that I am holding a wedding. If you saw me holding a celebration and this celebration is titled "Celebrating the Entry of So-and-So into Hell," you would say to me: "What blackness of heart do you have, brother, that you want people to enter hell?" But this is not our issue.

I do not, and the second reason for caution and warning against normalizing the output of those who die as disbelievers in appearance.

Legal Rulings Based on Belief and Disbelief

Okay, come to the first reason. We, brothers, are originally Muslims, and therefore when you see Muslims contradicting the legal ruling in their positions, you must warn them. And Allah has reactions and tensions and psychological complexes and phobias of rigidity, and thus he generalizes unjust generalizations because he is complexed by what he has seen from some extremist and takfiri people, and Allah, this is his problem. But we, brothers, do not have these psychological complexes, praise be to Allah, but we refer to what Allah has said and what His Messenger has said, because we believe in the supremacy of Islam over all our actions.

We do not take emotional or ideological positions, but rather legal positions. Imam Shafi'i in his book "Al-Risalah," and Imam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali in his book "Ihya' 'Ulum al-Din," both have reported, and others of course, the consensus that it is not permissible for the responsible person to do anything until he knows the ruling of Allah regarding it. You cannot do anything, any action, any expression until you know the ruling of Allah regarding this thing that you are doing. "Indeed, the hearing, the sight, and the heart, all of them will be questioned about that." You will be held accountable for everything you do and say.

Now, as Muslims, we know that judging people as having died as disbelievers or believers has legal consequences, people. The person who dies as a Muslim is called for mercy and forgiveness, and the one who dies as a disbeliever is forbidden to be called for mercy and forgiveness. The one who dies as a Muslim is prayed for, and the one who dies as a disbeliever is not prayed for. The one who dies as a Muslim is buried in the Muslim cemeteries, and the one who dies as a disbeliever is not buried in the Muslim cemeteries. The one who dies as a Muslim inherits his Muslim son, and the one who dies as a disbeliever does not inherit his Muslim son.

These are legal rulings, people! The matter is not a game. There are legal rulings based on the conviction that a person has died as a disbeliever or an atheist or has died as a Muslim. So the first point is that we must take a legal position based on the apparent condition of people that they have died as disbelievers or Muslims.

Warning Against Normalizing the Output of Disbelievers

The second point, brothers, is that we notice that there is a normalization with the output of those who die as disbelievers, normalization with their output. You find a person who has spent and devoted his life to doubting Islam or changing its landmarks. Now, it has not been discovered that he died as a disbeliever or an atheist, etc. You find someone who will say: "No, no, no, and I mean I saw in his last days that he was thinking about returning to Islam, and therefore maybe he repented? Do not say she is an atheist."

I do not care about the truth of whether she will be in paradise or in hell now. One thing concerns me: that after taking the legal position, we must warn and warn and deter from the output of those who die as disbelievers in appearance. You find that people have begun to realize that there are those who have ended badly and died as disbelievers, and therefore we warn against his output, his writings, his tapes, his videos, his literary works in quotation marks, and people have begun to form consciousness, and someone comes to say: "No, no, no, I felt that he maybe wanted to return to Islam."

I mean, glory be to Allah, you find one of them when he left Islam and became an atheist, or the one who knew the nation of there is no god but Allah and the nation of polytheism with Allah that she became an atheist and the reasons for her atheism and began to spread atheism, and then he wants me to take a position based on private correspondence that Allah knows the sincerity of and something she did not announce. I, brothers, do not care, what concerns me is taking a legal position? And it concerns me to deter from the output of those who die as disbelievers in appearance, to deter from their output, not to normalize with this output, with their literary output or their videos and the like, to normalize and spread misguidance under the name "maybe he repented before he died." This is a stupid excuse.

Declaring Someone to be Among the People of Hell

Alright, after this, can we declare that so-and-so is among the people of Hell? Here, there is indeed a difference of opinion among scholars. Some say: "We do not declare a disbeliever who died upon disbelief to be among the people of Hell except those explicitly mentioned in the Qur'an and Sunnah like Abu Jahl and Abu Lahab. As for those who die in our times, you cannot say that so-and-so is specifically in Hell, but rather you say a general rule that it appears that so-and-so died upon disbelief." Number two: "Everyone who dies upon disbelief and the proof has been established against him is in Hell." Alright, fine. Alright, the conclusion: "You do not conclude anything, do not judge individuals to be in Hell, but rather give a general rule and do not judge individuals themselves to be in Hell."

Alright, and another group said: "Rather, we say that so-and-so is in Hell, even those not mentioned in the Qur'an and Sunnah." And there is a mediating group, and by Allah, I think I am more inclined towards this third opinion. What is the third opinion, brothers? It is that one may know the condition of a person that he indeed died upon disbelief, meaning at the time of his death, he is called to Islam and he refuses and rejects, so we take the apparent that he died upon disbelief. He is not prayed over, mercy and forgiveness are not invoked for him, and he is not buried in the Muslim cemeteries, nor is his Muslim son and daughter inherited, and so on with the rulings. But to declare him to be among the people of Hell, we do not declare him to be among the people of Hell as long as their condition before death is hidden from us.

And a verse may testify to this mediating opinion: "It is not for the Prophet and those who have believed to ask forgiveness for the polytheists, even if they were relatives, after it has become clear to them that they are companions of Hellfire." It was revealed about whom? About Abu Talib. Abu Talib was visited by the Prophet, peace be upon him, and others, Abu Jahl and Abdullah ibn Abi Ubay visited him, and the Prophet tried to extract from him the words "There is no deity but Allah," and the other two commanded him or deterred him from it, so the last thing Abu Talib said was: "Rather, I am upon the religion of Abd al-Muttalib." Clear, clear. And thus, Allah's statement was revealed: "It is not for the Prophet and those who have believed to ask forgiveness for the polytheists, even if they were relatives, after it has become clear to them." The matter is clear: "After it has become clear to them that they are companions of Hellfire."

This matter, brothers, its fruit is much less than the first matter. The matter of judging people by their appearances and consequently building the Islamic rulings of supplication, burial, and prayer, this is an important matter. The matter of deterring from their corrupt output, we do not say by Allah that his writing was indeed blasphemous or disbelief, but it seems that he repented in his last days until we print with his books or with his videos. This is an important matter.

As for the matter of where he is now, frankly, it is a matter that does not have an important fruit, it does not have an important jurisprudential fruit. Of course, if it was your father or your brother or someone dear to you, you would hope that he died upon Islam and I do not know. Alright, I hope that, my lord, but it does not build jurisprudential rulings upon it. This matter does not build jurisprudential rulings upon it, the certainty or uncertainty of a person who apparently died upon disbelief. This does not build jurisprudential rulings upon it.

Conclusion

As for me, I love goodness for people and I love for everyone I disagree with, who are on the face of the earth now, to utter "There is no deity but Allah" and die upon it and enter Paradise, because their entry into Paradise will not take away my seat, it will not take my place in Paradise, and I will not benefit from their entry into Hell. But in the end, the matter is Islamic rulings, not psychological contracts and emotional reactions.

I ask Allah, the Great Lord of the Great Throne, to guide us all to what He loves and is pleased with, and to guide from His creation whom He wills. May the peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be upon you.