Answer
Asalamu Alaikum,
Thank you for contacting About Islam with your question.
Dr. Shabir Ally addresses this question in the video below:
Transcript:
Aisha Khaja: Dr. Shabir, the question that we have is, is it better not to invite someone to Islam who will most likely reject it because then he or she will have the excuse that the message of Islam did reach them?
Dr. Shabir Ally: The question is based on certain presuppositions which I need to piece out here. Ok, so, the questioner is basically asking okay, suppose I know that somebody’s not gonna embraced Islam. And now, I go on and tell him the message of Islam.
So, what has happened here now? Previously, it would seem that he might have had an excuse. He could go up to God on the Day of Judgment and when God asks him, why didn’t you become a Muslim, that person could have said.
Aisha Khaja: I didn’t get the message.
Dr. Shabir Ally: Well, I didn’t know. Nobody told me about Islam. So, now, by telling him about Islam, now you have removed that excuse. So, now, he’s definitely going to be punished in the life hereafter. So, then why tell him in the first place because you know he’s not going to accept.
Better not to tell him so that he can say, I haven’t heard.
Aisha Khaja: He has an excuse.
Dr. Shabir Ally: But that’s based on the presupposition, that dilemma is based on the presupposition that non-Muslims are automatically going to the hellfire unless they have this excuse. And that presupposition is wrong.
It would mean that God somehow is, you know, creating like a vast population of people who will go to the hellfire. Unless of course, He’s going to excuse them.
And many people will not be excused because just like the questioner is thinking there are some people who, if I tell them about Islam, they still will not accept.
There are people who will hear about Islam and will not accept for whatever reasons. Either, you know, we know of a physical handicap which may excuse a person from certain religious obligations in Islam. But there’s also a mental handicap.
If a person is insane, then that person is not responsible for what we do as Muslims: for prayer, fasting, performing pilgrim, or giving charity. Whoever controls the wealth of the insane person may be responsible for giving charity on behalf of that person because the charity is due on wealth, not so much on the person.
But the insane person is freed of obligation. God is not going to ask the person, why didn’t you pray because the person was insane. Now, what about a mental block. Some people may have a mental block.
And so, for whatever reasons: either due to their childhood experiences, what they have been taught, the society in which they live, the media images that were constantly poured into their brains—[they have a mental block].
However, they have been led to believe what they believe, this is what they know. And probably for some people, it’s not even like thinkable for them to become a Muslim. So, how do we reconcile all of this? It seems to me that every person has a certain range of options.
There are good options and bad options. And that person is either a good person or a bad person, depending on whether he or she is generally a choosing the good options and avoiding the bad options.
So, for some people, it’s within the range of options to become a Muslim. For some people, it’s not even within that range. It’s unthinkable. Now, let’s say, if somebody’s a good person, they don’t know anything about Islam, but they are basically a good person. That person will go to Paradise.
Now, if we go to that person with the message of Islam, by definition, that person is going to rally to that call. They are gonna say, yeah, I always wanted to pick the good options. And now you are putting Islam in my range of options. Yeah, that sounds good.
I want to be a Muslim. So, that person will then gravitate towards the message of Islam, [or] come at least closer. And that will be a positive for that person’s life hereafter because now a range of options suddenly includes the religion of Islam.
And they’re accepting that as part of the good range and choosing this good. As opposed to the other person, who always chooses the evil things. They are going to hell anyway for the evils, unless God forgives them.
And we pray that God will guide them and forgive them. When Islam is presented to an evil person, that person will find everything good in Islam to be objectionable because they usually choose the evil things.
So, they wouldn’t choose Islam because Islam is good. They’re choosing evil. They wouldn’t choose Islam. But they were choosing evil anyway. And now, the only difference is that Islam has entered the picture and now they have compounded their error by even rejecting the message that came to them.
But that’s not our fault. It is our hope that by introducing Islam to them they would shift their position. Instead of choosing evils they would come towards good. And it is with that hope, and sometimes the hope is very slim, but it is with that hope that we offer them the message of Islam.
So, when we think about it this way, there’s no dilemma. If somebody is good already, we offer them Islam. They become even better. Somebody’s bad already, we offer them Islam. There’s a possibility that we shift them from bad to good.
Aisha Khaja: So, we shouldn’t be concerned about, you know, whether they are gonna accept or not. Our responsibility is to share the message of Islam.
Dr. Shabir Ally: Yes, we pray to God for His guidance and we leave the rest to him.
I hope this helps answer your question. Please keep in touch.
Walaikum Asalam.
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