Answer
Peace be upon you dear reader,
Thank you so much for sending your question. This shows you are sincere and Allah will always guide the humble, sincere hearts who seek Him with humility.
The Mercy of Allah
To answer your question, let’s clarify a few points:
- Allah is the Creator of Mercy. No one on earth can even remotely come close to the level of mercy Allah has. Even if all creations from the beginning of time until the end of time combined try to manifest maximum mercy, they will only exhibit a portion, and 99 DOUBLE that ENTIRE amount is still withheld by Allah!
So, kindly, let’s not question or doubt the mercy of The One who created mercy in the first place. It’s like a drop of water claiming to have more water than the ocean.
As Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) said, “Verily Allah created Mercy. The day He created it, He made it into one hundred parts. He withheld with Him ninety-nine parts, and sent one part to all His creatures. Through this one part creatures deal with one another with compassion. Allah has retained ninety-nine mercies to deal kindly with His slaves on the Day of Resurrection. Had the non-believer known of all the Mercy which is in the Hands of Allah, he would not lose hope of entering Paradise…” (Bukhari)
- Now, you are so concerned about people who do “good deeds” in your opinion, but not concerned at all about people ignoring Allah and denying His rights upon them and showing ingratitude to Him despite Him being the Source of all their blessings every single second of every single day!
Why must someone believe and have faith, you ask?
Dear, are you aware that the people who don’t want to have faith, their blood is circulating with the Will and Mercy of Allah, their lungs are breathing with the Will and Mercy of Allah, they are able to see, walk, talk, eat, drink, stand, sit, sleep with the Will and Mercy of Allah, and they still don’t want to have faith or thank Him and you still want to defend that?
“And He has granted you all that you asked Him for. If you tried to count Allah’s blessings, you would never be able to number them. Indeed humankind is truly unfair, ˹totally˺ ungrateful.” (Qur’an 14: 34)
Moreover, when you judge someone as “good and sincere”, based on what are you judging? Do you know what is in their hearts? Have you seen them behind closed doors? Do you live with them 24/7 and know their past, present and future?
If you are the owner of a company and some employees do not do their job at all in the company, they completely ignore you as the owner, they do not connect with you or care about knowing what you want in the company, they don’t thank you when you give them their pay-checks daily, but they still do other “good deeds”, can we still say these are “good and sincere employees” if they’re ignoring the owner of the company and not even doing their jobs?
We need to leave the judgement to Allah, The Owner Himself
“… It is only Allah who judges. He declares the Truth, and He is the Best of Judges.” (Qur’an 6:57)
We must remember something very carefully, Allah created us for a purpose, Allah gave us intellect and ability to gain knowledge and find Allah and connect with Him. We are the only creations who have the ability to learn.
You don’t see a monkey having a PhD from Harvard, or the sun or the moon or any other fascinating creation in the universe being an intellectual being. So this intellect is a responsibility and this intellect is designed to help us and guide us to acknowledge and admire our Creator. If we don’t do that, then we miss the whole point of our creation.
And if we miss the whole point of our existence, what’s the use of our “good deeds”?
Think about it this way, if a group of students are sitting in an exam room being tested for a biology exam. They don’t answer the biology exam, but they do other “sincere good deeds” in the exam room, like cleaning the room, being kind to their fellow students etc. Then they fail the test because they didn’t even answer it.
Can you blame the teacher for failing them? Can you tell him, yes they didn’t answer the biology exam but they did other good deeds, so why are you so evil and you want them to fail, give them an ‘A’ in the biology test!
Does this make sense!
If these students didn’t fulfill the purpose of being in the university, by learning, studying, attending exams and passing them, can you force the university to give them certificates- just because you think they were doing other sincere good deeds while being in the university?
They missed the whole purpose of being in the school, so you can’t blame the school if they fail. You should instead encourage and advise them to do their job and fulfill their purpose.
Here is a fascinating story of how an American atheist professor accepted Islam after learning the purpose of life from the Qur’an.
Most importantly, who is more worthy of your love, care and commitment? Allah who has been with you ever since you were an infant inside your mom’s belly, taking care of you, feeding and protecting you, and then bringing you to life and allowing you to see and breathe and talk and walk— and your entire existence is a gift from him, and if you do wrong and seek forgiveness He forgives you and if you talk to Him, He always listens and responds with what will benefit you— is He more worthy of your love, loyalty and support, or the people who have not done you any favour really! Who should you care more about? Allah who is more merciful to you than your mother or people you don’t even know?
Dear, please reassess your priorities and your loyalty.
Allah is not interested in punishing anyone
Another crucial point, Allah is not interested in punishing anyone, as a matter of fact, Allah says:
“Why should Allah punish you if you are grateful and faithful? And Allah is ever Appreciative, All-Knowing.” (Qur’an 4: 147)
So, the real question is: why do people insist on being unfaithful and ungrateful to The One who made them, The One who gave them life, The One who is in control of every single inch of their being, The One who is showering them with His blessings and mercy every single second of every single day? Why do they want to be ungrateful and unfaithful to Him?
This is the question you should be asking really!
Allah is appreciative of every thought and deed we do for His Sake and He rewards for it immensely beyond what we deserve. Even if we live for 80 years worshipping Allah, the fair compensation would be 80 years in paradise, right? This is life’s measurements.
It is like if you work for a week in a company, you can’t ask to get paid for two years ahead, right! And you can’t study for one semester in college, and ask to succeed for all the semesters until you graduate. But Allah’s generosity is beyond all accounts, and He grants us billions and billions of endless years in heaven enjoying whatever we desire for eternity.
Why still do people want to be unfaithful and ungrateful to Him?! Someone might still say “I don’t want to have faith or believe in Allah, and I don’t want to thank Him or be grateful to Him… at the same time, I am a good person and I want to end up in eternal paradise…”
So, someone who disregarded Allah all their lives, they want to end up in His eternal heaven that He made for His loving slaves?
Do you find this fair?
Imagine if a group of people bully you and disrespect you all year long, and then you throw a party at your house and of course they’re not invited, then people start blaming you and saying you are evil for not hosting the people who ignore you in your house!
Does this make sense?
You want to argue that these are good people, but they are good with everyone and in everything except with Allah who created them. Great, but then why do they want to take their reward from Allah!
Can you work for, let’s say, Samsung company and then go get your pay check from Apple?
Can you study for Med school and go get your degree from Engineering school?
If people do good deeds not for the sake of Allah, then why do they want to take their reward from Him!
– And to respond to a major point you raised, Allah does not leave a single person on earth without giving him/her the message of Islam in the way that suits him/her. I am a witness to that from personal experience and from vast research with many converts to Islam.
Islam is easy, simple and straightforward. It makes perfect sense, there is One Powerful Creator and we connect with Him directly and He teaches us and guides us and He gave us perfect complete guidance through the Qur’an that has been protected and unedited ever since it was revealed and its the Direct word of the Creator to all mankind.
Allah never leaves His slaves. I know personal stories of friends who have been guided to Islam through dreams and then doing quick research to know more about the Truth. So the truth is easy and simple and Allah is continuously working on guiding ALL His slaves. It is the people who reject Him.
Even born Muslims, there comes a point in their lives when Allah presents to them the message of Islam and they either take it or leave it. As Allah said: “Whoever chooses to be guided, it is only for their own good. And whoever chooses to stray, it is only to their own loss. No soul burdened with sin will bear the burden of another. And We would never punish ˹a people˺ until We have sent a messenger ˹to warn them˺.” (Qur’an 17: 15)
So don’t think that Allah will ever punish anyone without having the full message of the Truth being presented to them and repeatedly. There are millions of stories to confirm that, and you can find many stories of people who accepted Islam without ever meeting a Muslim person in their lives.
So in short, Allah is Kind. Allah is Fair, Merciful. Allah is Generous beyond imagination. It is the people who need to use the faculties He gave them in order to do their job and their purpose of creation and simply be grateful to their Creator. Is this really too much to ask!!
“And little of my slaves are grateful”
- Regarding why someone might end up in hell, check this previous answer. The short answer is, faith without good deeds is not enough. Good deeds without faith is not enough. The perfect required balance is faith and good deeds together.
- Personal advice, when someone starts blaming Allah and being ungrateful to Him, this is clearly from the whispers of Satan whose main job is to make people ungrateful to Allah “[Satan] said, “Because You have put me in error, I will surely sit in wait for them on Your straight path. Then I will come upon them from before them and from behind them and on their right and on their left, and You will not find most of them grateful [to You].” (Qur’an 7: 16-17)
Protective Measures
So, protect yourself from these thoughts and these inclinations, please make sure to remain in a state of wudu’ (ablution), do personal ruqyah for yourself always even with just surat al Fatiha, and do your morning and evening adhakar regularly.
Read surat al baqarah and listen to it frequently every 3 days at least in your house. Try to be among good, righteous companions who remember Allah often and who soften your heart towards Him and towards His Beauty and His countless favours.
Mending your relationship with Allah is more important than your exam. The test of the eternal afterlife is more worthwhile than a test of temporary worldly life. And Allah is the most Merciful and most Generous of all examiners.
- Finally, matters are very simple. Allah created us and every single second of our lives and every single inch in our being is a gift and mercy from Him. He is not asking for much; other than acknowledging His favours and following His revelation that help us live as dignified people and reach the best version of ourselves spiritually, physically and socially.
- He sent Prophets to teach us that and He sent His Final Messenger with the final message to all mankind. Whoever follows the message will gain true full peace in this life and the next, whoever refuses, then there is no one to blame except their own selves!