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Fatwa CenterPeople of Paradise and Hell-Fire
Question
I have several question: I took a religion class that made my faith in Islam very weak, things occurred to me like more people will go to hell then heaven because there were and are more non-Muslims. Why would Allah send most of his favorite creatures to Hell?A. If a non-Muslim do very good deeds all their life, will they go to Hell?
Answer
Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the World; and blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.
First of all we advise you to fear Allah as He should be feared and to avoid being overwhelmed by Satan's whispers, as failing to do so will lead you to slipping in to temptations and bad acts. Then, you should know that Allah is The Owner of everything from the smallest atom to the biggest galaxy. Indeed, Allah does whatever He Wishes with any of His Creatures. No one can cause any change to anything Allah has decided and no one can stop any act Allah has predestined. Allah forgives the good, pious people and rewards them with Paradise out of His Mercy only. Allah also punishes the disobedient people out of His Justice. Allah Says (interpretation of meaning): {Shall We then treat the Muslims (believers of Islamic Monotheism, doers of righteous deeds) like the Mujrimin (criminals, polytheists and disbelievers, etc.)? What is the matter with you? How Judge you?}[68:35-36]
So, the perfection of Allah's Wisdom calls for rewarding the good, pious people who abide by Allah's Orders and punishing the bad dissolute people who disobey Allah and deny His Prophet's messages and fight against His good people.
Moreover, Allah has honoured the children of Adam (Peace and blessing be upon him) and has preferred them to many of His Creatures.
The honour Allah has given His servants is subject to their being good sincere slaves who do not worship anyone but Him. So, those who do not worship Allah as He has prescribed do not deserve this honour. They are like beasts or even worse, and if they are punished by Allah, it is because they have chosen to be punished and not to be honoured.
As for your question about those unbelievers who perform good deeds and whether they will be rewarded or just punished; the first condition to avoid being thrown in Hell-Fire is to have a true belief in Allah and in His Angels and in His Books and in His Prophets and in The Last Day and in Predestination, good or bad. So anybody who does not firmly believe in the above has no chance of avoiding Hell-Fire. Indeed, this true belief (Iman) is a precondition to the acceptance of the good deeds. So, the unbelievers who do some good deeds in this life are rewarded in this life by more comfort, … etc. But they do not deserve any reward on the Day of Judgement.
Muslim reported that the Prophet said: "Allah does not do injustice to a Believer, if he practices any good act Allah will reward him in this world and the Hereafter. But an unbeliever eats for his good deeds in this life only so he does not have any act that deserves to be rewarded in the Hereafter. [Reported by Imam Muslim]
Allah knows best.
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