Full Lecture Transcript (Cleaned)
Question and Context — 0:00
Our brother Ahmed emails and says I'm having trouble understanding the issue of the eternality of Jahannam how do we answer somebody who says that no matter how evil a person is a finite amount of sins should not be punished for infinity md him personally so the brother is asking how can we understand that Jahannam is never-ending and this dunya is ending and a person says how is it fair that somebody's being punished for all of eternity for a finite quantity of sins.
And then the brother says and on that note is it true that even Tamiya denied the eternality of Jahannam okay so he asks a very deep and profound question of theology and as you know I always like to start with theology or methodology and my first question so this is a two-part question number one the wisdom of Jahannam being abbot abadieh eternality and number two did even Tamiya say that Jahannam is not eternal that it will stop and that there will be no genom after that as for the first question.
Realize that the scholars of Islam of all of the farik of Islam that are mainstream farik all of the classical groups of Islam they have unanimously agreed that Jena is eternal no one of significance of any group denied that Jannah is eternal and this is the standard position of all the schools of Islam as for Jahannam then it is also the case that the majority position the mainstream position of all of the groups and even yes of course the one woman most interested in Sunni Islam is that Jahannam as well.
Is eternal and this is the standard doctrine that we find explicitly affirmed in many books of al-qaeda of many strands even of soon ISM not just of any one particular strand and there are many evidences for this for example in the Quran in surah al jinn Allah says wah - allaha wa rasuluhu ferrand na hoona Raja Han na ma Harley Dena hija a Buddha and by the way FYI three times in the Quran three times exactly Allah Azza WA JAL mentions Holly Dina feeha ibadah four Jahannam and four agenda is.
More than this for Jahannam three times Allah says Holly Dina feeha ibadah they shall be residing in it forever Khalid and HOD Hollett actually does not mean forever hard it means long life so that's why the name Khalid is the one who lives long so kelud does not necessarily mean forever hulu door hotted means long but not forever but the word ibadah that's where we bring the the twist and we say ibadah means and it does mean in Arabic I bet that means forever and ever and ever and ever so.
Three times Allah mentions Jahannam and then he says Holly Dena feeha ibadah and in another verse in the Machine immunity either be Jehan NEMA Hadid oon the sinners shall be in Jahannam sinners here means mushrikuna because whenever Allah says Calladine then he's talking about the big sin which is shirk the sinners will be in Jahannam Holly Doon forever any long time howdy-doo knows no me forever long time la you fat tell one whom it will never subside from them life at Iran home won't be he mobile is soon and they.
Shall remain in it a woman Werdum now whom well I can kind of home of Allah mean and we did not do just injustice to them they did injustice to themselves and there are many many evidences in the Quran for example killuminati jululu home but then now whom jalloo then hiya rehalia do will adapt every time their skin withers away we will give them another skin so that they can taste the torment so there are many many verses that indicate eternality of Jahannam therefore it is pretty much standard doctrine that.
Jahannam will also last forever for the category of those who commit as for sinful muslims then by unanimous consensus they will not be in Jannah forever there's no controversy over that now the question was not over the eternality the question was how do we understand the wisdom right how do we understand the wisdom because no matter how many sins a person has done one lifetime is how long 60 years seven years a hundred years let's even say the Prophet nor time years 900 years compared to infinity of Jahannam a kafir.
Comes a non-muslim comes or even a Muslim who has doubts and says how is that fair this is the question right okay how do we respond to this question firstly realize that the problem of trying to explain the wisdom of Allah is an impossible one you're asking a human to try to explain to you the wisdom of the creator of humans you are putting a person in you know it's not possible and in the end of the day perhaps our minds cannot understand what are you gonna do then rather than.
Come with the assumption that I can understand every wisdom of Allah this is an arrogant assumption who are you to understand every wisdom of Allah now is it wrong to ask for the wisdom is it wrong to ask the wisdom of a ruling yes or no no was the evidence for this how do we know it's okay to ask for the wisdom many the Sahaba ask yes Aluna case Eroica the Angels asked why are you creating Adam right why would you put Adam although attach a trophy hey man you see.
There be a 100 a sub you how am I gonna cut this along it is not haram to try to ask why it is haram to reject if you don't understand why there's a difference between the two right they ask you about this they ask you about that and no problem ask so the brothers question is not a problem but before I answer I want to say even if you don't understand or I don't understand or I cannot help you understand that doesn't change the ruling so we have to answer.
The first in this manner also realize that while we fully believe that Allah does not do any injustice in Allah Allah lovely mom is all Adara one hour of bookable vollum a lil a beat your Lord does not do wound while we firmly believe this what is voom voom is to burden someone with more than he or she can bear or to punish someone for the sins of another person this is Lauren as for the severity of punishment this is not Vaughn as for punishing this versus that this is not.
Vaughn the law giver in any law in any land in a constitution they will give you the punishment the same crime in this country in 50 states you might have 50 different punishments in this one country you might have 50 I'm being exaggerating but really I'm being true in there some way it is possible the same issue can have multiple punishments even in this land depending on what state you live in this is the reality of law punishments are different and Allah has every right to assign every any punishment to.
Any crime because he is the lawgiver he is the one who decides so when he has assigned the punishment for a crime Samara now Wakonda this is not Valen Valen would be to punish X for the crime of Y that is done and Allah will never do that right la yukallifu Nelson it was ah ha what ethnicity was written was Roja these are two of them Allah said he will never do as for the.
Core Ruling and Evidence — 8:19
Severity of punishment there is no Volm over here the law is clear and the law has been told to us so there cannot be any volume for the quantity of punishment in the end of the day Allah is Maalik and he can punish as long as he wants for any crime that he has told us as a crime the second point here is that to try to understand the wisdom let us give us some examples in our own human law do we judge the length of the sentence by the length.
Of the crime or by the severity of the crime do we judge the length of the sentence by the length of the crime or by the severity of the crime severity of the crime a murder in our times if you use a gun we'll take one mili second 0. 001 second something like this a murder will take less than 1/100 of a second correct if you use a gun should the punishment if somebody were to say why do why why was he given a lifetime for the deed that cost point.
Zero one will anybody think this is a logical illogical it's a rather or excuse will anybody say oh the crime only took one second why is he being punished for 70 years no you don't look at how long the crime was you look at how evil the crime was correct this is the law everybody understands now in our religion and honestly even without the Quran telling us this common sense tells us the biggest crime of any human being is to ignore why he has been created what bigger crime is there.
Then to ignore to not even think about to simply turn away from the highest purpose of existence which is to really try to find a why am I here who created me what's the purpose of life worship of allah subhanahu wata'ala and therefore it is completely logical and rational that the one who refused to even think about Allah the real mushrik and kafir and that's why we say the believers were sinful this does not apply to them the believers who believe in Allah who have an ounce of Iman as the.
Prophet system said eventually they'll be moved from Jahannam no problem there that is where the logic applies where okay a finite quantity of sins yes okay but the one who did not even think about sin and good he didn't think about heaven and how life and death he never thought about why he has here then this person yanny subhanAllah what was his life for what did he do with all of his life as Asia said about her great uncle Abe injured on Yasuo live in truth and did so much good.
Will Allah forgive him and even the professor Sam said la yeah bento so del caño because even to Don never once said oh Allah forgive me he never once even as a mushnick as a pagan as a kafir he never said oh Allah forgive me Allah was never on his mind why should then Allah turned him and forgive him so the one who never thinks of Allah turns away from Allah has no purpose other than to live like an animal when Allah made you a human and better than an animal.
And you live your life like an animal then this the the severity of the punishment is based upon the severity of the crime and what greater crime is there than to turn away from Allah and this is indicated in a hadith a Muslim authentic hadith the the the Prophet ﷺ says that Allah will say to the one who is being punished the least in janam the least Janna mu should equip in Spanish punished forever Allah will say Oh so-and-so would you give up all that you possessed in your life your wealth your.
Family everything would you give it up right now to be safe from Gehenna and the man will say yes I will intend times more Allah will say listen to this but I didn't ask you for all of this in this Worth earth I only asked that you worship me and don't do with me and you refused for a betta you refused and you insisted on worshipping other than me so here we have one of the wisdoms of the eternality of the punishment what did Allah ask of us all of our.
Time all of our well no Allah said understand who created you and believe in that entity and worship Him and if your sinful turned him for forgiveness Allah is the father Raheem but the one who didn't even care to think and that's why again we go back to another question I gave many many months ago about how about non-muslims who never heard of Islam and I mentioned look we say Islam is the only way to allah subhana wa ta'ala there's one path but there might be people on other paths the.
Path does not lead to Jenna but Allah knows the person was sincere not the path and Allah might forgive the person not the path so we firmly believe somebody who tried to be religious in an environment where there was no Islam who tried to be sincere righteous pious in his own way without knowing Islam and what not inshallah this person we hope the best for him we don't pronounce a verdict in this dunya but the after we hope the best for him no problem with that person but how about the.
One who just did not care woman Radha and Vicki the one who turned away from Allah sticker so the severity of the punishment is due to the severity of the crime the third thing we can say here is that another thing that some of us others have mentioned the eternality of the punishment is due to the fact that the crime would have been eternal if they lived eternally in other words Allah says in the Quran they want to come back to this earth right and Allah says while our I do.
Right if they were to come back right well no Roger what what is it well no well I would do that how do women want you if they were to be returned they would go back to what they were doing this is a very key phrase in the Quran well no root do la do if Allah Allah says if I were to bring them back they would go back to doing what they had been doing which means if they live forever their would be forever and so their punishment is forever.
As well so these are three answers that can be given to respond to the wisdom as for the issue of IBN taymiyah denying the eternality of Jahannam this is a very very interesting and a very detailed and a very controversial topic and i would love to give a much longer lecture which was a very advanced lecture for were to be given and in fact in my Master's dissertation 20 years ago or something there's an entire section about this issue because it dealt with one of our topics I was doing in.
A nutshell did even Tamiya hold this view it is quite clear that he defended the existence of two views in Sunni Islam one that says Jahannam is eternal and one that says Jahannam is not eternal in fact the last book that he ever wrote and I have it in my library the last book that he ever wrote before he passed away is the refutation of the eternality of Jahannam or and the title itself has.
Practical Guidance and Caveats — 15:52
Has there are different versions of the title the title is the the issue about the eternality of Jahannam is janam eternal or not even though kaya mentions this that i asked even Tamiya claimed as his main student i asked even Tamiya about this question that is it true that some of the set of denied that Hannum is gonna be forever a been Tamia said yes it is true and then he wrote his famous treatise and it is a treatise that has been discovered and it has been published recently and he.
Defends the two opinions but he doesn't actually say what his own opinion is so this has left people skeptical now his student ignore pay him his student aid Nilayam has written about this in many many places and in fact in one of his books he has like ten fifteen pages about this topic and in fact I've written a paper that is published as well about my Eames view on this issue and you can reference it over there but in in opium perhaps in all of Sunni history is the one who.
Defends this issue of Jahannam not being permanent most like the most detailed evidences he brings to claim that Jahannam is not eternal that at some stage Jahannam will cease to exist and the people in Jahannam will cease they will not and he interprets Halle Deena feeha ibadah as ibadah here means long long long long long long long time but not eternal and his evidence is Quranic and from the Salaf as for the Quran Allah says la bikina feeha acaba and hob means long periods of time so Allah says they will.
Be in it for long periods of time and Allah also says in the Quran that they will remain in it madam it is Emma watch what I'll do allah masha arabic in arabic affero ulama you read they'll be punished in Jahannam for as long as the heavens and earth remains now this is an expression in Arabic madam it is semi water dog means for forever right then also it means they will remain in Jannah forever then allah says allah masha arabic except if your lord decreased something else in the rebecca.
Follow lima you read Allah is able to do whatever he wants now why did Allah end the verses of Jahannam nourishment with this very interesting ending they shall be in there forever except if Allah wills and Allah can do whatever he wants you see this except a million bases it on this issue and he does bring this issue as well of Allah's Rama etc etc then after 10 pages of defending and evidence and he quotes even Masaru even Masood said this remote Omaha table said this Abu Huraira said this there.
Are narrations found in the classical books that eventually Jahannam will cease to exist from the Sahaba not any hadith about the prop from the Prophet system then Ibrahim says if you were to ask me what my opinion is I will say Allah knows best and he and lefted it there he did not categorically state right Allah finally married according to Quran and I already map you read so both IBN taymiyah and i broke I am they this is my opinion seem to be inclined towards the claim that Jahannam is not.
Eternal but to say that they believed this is also not on a person accurate they defended it yes and they said this is very plausible especially I'm not buying they said this is very plausible now I want to just finish off here by saying that this question there's a second question as well that um the the issue of even Tamiya and his position has caused much controversy has it been Tamiya typically always does Subhan Allah Masha Allah iemon tamiya is the person I admire the most in all of Islamic history.
And it is also true to say he generated so much controversy while he was alive and even until our times not all controversy is bad by the way hint hint so and of course even even Tamiya of course is very interesting that's had a lot I just have to say this year that his followers and I have gently criticized many of his followers his followers some of his followers today they did not like the fact that even taymiyah might have denied the eternality of Jahannam because this is something that you.
Don't find in any person before you Ben Tamiya so some of the modern people of that movement who claim to follow Ben Tamiya deny that he became he ever said this and they say this book is a fabrication and they say he could never have said this and there are massive debates within that movement whether he said it or not and I find this so interesting that they have constructed an image of him in Tamiya that even even Tamiya could not live up to if you understand what I'm talking about.
If not the nori about it but the image that they have of their version of Islam is so unreal that even their own scholar that they look up to could not live up to their own interpretation of that image and also I what I of course i admire Bentham immensely even though I'm not a blind follower and I respectfully disagree with some minor things but one thing I love about even Tamiya he didn't care what anybody thought and he spoke what he believed to be the truth even if and this.
Is a key point even if pretty much everybody before him said something else and he seems to be one of the first people breaking away from a vast majority of scholarship but he feels the Quran and Sunnah says something else simply because 99. 9% of the people before him said something didn't mean anything to him and to me that requires intellectual bravery whether you agree or disagree this is independent mind set and I hope that also contextualizes a little bit of other things without going to detailed whether that is true.
Or not Allah villages in the after and history will be the judge in this world as well but I agree with this point 100% so what if 99. 9% of the people before you said it doesn't make it the Huq with the capital hat and if you look at his position on the triple product for example we'll talk about the one because I was a question also can one day I'll talk about that event Tamiya was the first fully the first atom to publicly state the triple Tov cannot be triple.
And this is the fatwa that even as her now is adopting and other institutions are adopting because they realized the world is a very difficult place if you follow this position we'll get to the issue of triple Dada even Tamiya was the one who said this that now is becoming standard position even though none of the mainstream scholars before him said that so in any case if you want a further reading there is actually a book published Oxford a collection of articles you also have my article in there published in.
It and the title of the book is Islam and the fate of others by Muhammad Hassan Holly and there is an entire chapter about Eman Tamia's view about Jahannam and there's also a chapter about my view about salvation you will find it in that book that is our first question