Do non-muslims go to hell?

Question

The Christian faith believes that non-Christians go to hell.
Is this the same in Islam because I was told that Allah can chose non-muslims also?

Answer 1

No, not all non-Muslims will go to Hell. Some might disagree with this statement by telling you the following:

“He that chooses a religion other than Islam, it will not be accepted of him in this world, and in the world to come, he will be one of the lost.” 3:85

However, the word ‘Islam’ in the Arabic of the Qur’an means complete devotion/submission to God, unmixed with worship of any other. All earlier prophets are thus described by the Qur’an as Muslims. Those who read this word ‘Islam’ in the sense of the religion of prophet Muhammad PBUH will illegitimately set up a barrier between Islam and other monotheistic religions.

Further proof that many non-Muslims will enter Heaven can be seen in the following qur’anic verses:

“The [Muslim] believers, the Jews, the Christians, and the Sabians – all those who believe in God and the Last Day and do good – will have their rewards with their Lord. No fear for them, nor will they grieve” 2:62
(these are the non-Muslims who worship God ALONE, but are not necessarily "official" Muslims)

“Some of the People of the Book believe in God, in what has been sent down to you and in what was sent down to them: humbling themselves before God, they would never sell God’s revelation for a small price. These people will have their rewards with their Lord: God is swift in reckoning”; 3:199

“You [Prophet] are sure to find that the most hostile to the believers are the Jews and those who associate other deities with God*; you are sure to find that the closest in affection towards the believers are those who say, ‘We are Christians,’ for there are among them people devoted to learning and ascetics. These people are not given to arrogance, and when they listen to what has been sent down to the Messenger, you will see their eyes overflowing with tears because they recognize the truth [in it]. They say, ‘Our Lord, we believe, so count us amongst the witnesses. Why should we not believe in God and in the truth that has come down to us when we long for our Lord to include us in the company of the righteous?’ For saying this, God has rewarded them with Gardens graced with flowing streams, and there they will stay: that is the reward of those who do good.” 5:82-85
*Though it sounds as a generalization, it ended up to be unfortunately true

The Qur’an forbids arguing with the People of the Book except in the best way and urges the Muslims to say, "We believe in what was revealed to us and in what was revealed to you; our God and your God are one [and the same]." 29:46 And in another verse, it says, "Say, 'People of the Book, let us arrive at a statement that is common to us all: we worship God alone, we ascribe no partner to Him, and none of us takes others beside God as Lords.' " 3:64

It is even possible to argue that even Christians, who believe that Jesus is the son of God, might enter Heaven too (though maybe they might be punished first) if Islam was not conveyed to them in an appropriate and convincing manner - especially nowadays when Muslim not only fail in this respect, but also push away non-Muslim through their un-islamic actions (e.g. killing of innocent people). Only those who have been PROPERLY presented with Islam and have willingly rejected it are the ones that will enter Hell, but even then, God is the most merciful of the merciful, & He knows best.

We have to remember that in the end, God's mercy encompasses everything, and that God will forgive people on the Day of Judgement such as no man would think possible. The great catastrophe, however, is when people condemn others to Hell. In Islam, anyone who does that, or says that God won't forgive so and so, his deeds will be brought down to nothing, and God will make him enter Hell for this (i.e. for assuming God's position as Ultimate Judge and telling things of which he has no knowledge) and forgive and admit the other into Heaven.

That's why i dont like "dangerous" questions such as this, because there are too many ignorant persons who dont know the gravity of their words.

Peace be with you

Answer 2

Hell? It's a hole in the ground. The grave. The Hell of Revelation is an allegory, as is the whole book. The 'fiery pit' referred to in the Bible was a place where gas came out of the ground and was always burning, and also a pit outside Rome where the rubbish was burned. It's easy to imagine how the medieval view of hell came about, but you don't really think there's somewhere in the Earth with devils torturing people, do you? Hell is a lost eternity of not being in God's kingdom. We Christians are, much to the amusement of atheists & others, still arguing about 'the truth' amongst ourselves.

I know you had a serious question about Islam; I hope you get some answers because I too am interested in their beliefs.

Answer 3

Non-muslims don't go to hell. and here's why.

Modern man has been on Earth for 200'000 years approx and the earliest known religions which I believe to be islam (could be wrong) has been around for 8000-9000 years approx, Now maths isn't my strong point but even so there is quite a discrepency. We know of early mans behaviour through archaelogical digs and that they worshipped a form of God because there was lightning in the sky so God was angry, if early man understood the concept of charged particles in the atmosphere that creates lightning then maybe we wouldn't have religion in the first place. If Nurofen was available then, they probably wouldn't have chiselled at their skulls to let the demons out.

Hell is a concept, but Hell is on earth, with war and people fighting against each other or just hating each other because of different beliefs or denomination. Nobody goes to Hell, we are all there now as it affects everybody.

Answer 4

I think it depends on what the individual person believes.

I personally think that here on earth is the kind of 'hell', and we keep getting sent back here, re-incarnated as new people until we have been good enough during our life to go to Heaven. Then we can stay there. Otherwise - it would be too overcrowded there.

Also, Christians believe that God promised to forgive everyone, no matter what they've done, so how can anyone really get sent to Hell forever, as that would mean that they had not been forgiven and God had broken his promise?

I think that religion is a very personal thing to each individual, and although there are recognised faiths, you can't generalise and say, 'all these people are Muslim so they all believe this', and , 'they're all Christian so they believe in that'. There is room within every religion for everyone to believe what they personally think happens.

Answer 5

At the end of the day we can all be divided in to three groups. The Muslims (remember Islam calls anyone who worships one God a Muslim,) the Non-Muslims (anyone who doesn't worship one God,) and the hypocrites (those who lie about being a God fearing Muslim because they commit evil deeds on the earth.) Its a bit like in maths where you draw three circles and they overlap each other so you can belong to two of these groups as well as one, but obviously not all three. As a general rule of thumb all the hypocrites will go to Hell, for them is the worst punishment imaginable. With the other two groups its hard to tell where the person will end up. I can tell you that not one single person who has ever lived on the earth can possibly know where they will end up, and to be honest it is wrong to speculate. I'll give you two examples at different ends of the spectrum. It was said that there was this nasty woman living as a prostitute, a job she did for her whole life, she was generally a nasty person. One day, towards the end of her life she found a starving cat who she took pity on and gave it some milk. Now although she was a nasty crude woman she was granted permission in to heaven because she did this one good deed, which proved she wasn't 100% bad. On the other hand, there was this guy who was always a good person, prayed 5 times a day etc and he was certain he would end up in heaven, so because he tried to second guess god he ended up in hell. Moral of the story, try to live your life as best you can and don't think about where you will end up, and don't be a hypocrite.

Answer 6

In Islam only those who submit to the will of Allah go to paradise. Islam means "to submit" and refers to submitting to Allah.
Islam has "5 pillars" - 5 basic things that support the faith:
Shahadah - the declaration of belief in Allah as the one God.
Salat - to pray to Allah 5 times a day
Zakat - compulsory charity
Sawm - fasting in Ramadan
Hajj - the pilgrimage to Mekkah.
All 5 of these must be done (as closely as possible for example a crippled person does not have to make a pilgrimage, a beggar does not have to give to Zakat when he has no money) to attain paradise.

Answer 7

It's all up to God at the end, but the true Christian (in Jesus days the authentic one) are going to heaven, and anyone who believes that there's no God but Allah, his creator. But these days Islam has entered every single home, so no excuse of not knowing or hearing about that religion.

Answer 8

I lived with a Muslim girl last year, and she basically told me that the Koran teaches Muslims that all non-Muslims will go to hell, regardless of whether they are good people or not.

Thus it is the same principle as with Christians.

Answer 9

No, of course not.

Firstly, I know that the Christian faith teaches that those who do not follow God will go to hell, but believes followers of other faiths who mean right and are following a path to truth and goodness still go to heaven, as that is what they know of the truth.

Islam teaches that followers of other faiths are just as likely to go to heaven if they conduct their lives in consideration of God and others, in a good way basically.

Answer 10

no
the learned people of islam dosent think like this but there is one thing that u will have the punishment of it or whatever u did like the hell is not just for disbelivers its for muslims too those they dont obey allah..they belive in quran..muhammad..and there teaching but dont follow it...but some day they will go to heaven even most of the early jews and christian those they dont not associate any other creature or a person with allah will go to heaven caz allah said in quran...

004.116

Allah forgiveth not (The sin of) joining other gods with Him; but He forgiveth whom He pleaseth other sins than this: one who joins other gods with Allah, Hath strayed far, far away (from the right).

even those muslims they associate muhammed with the allah and they pray other then allah will not be forgiven....

but at last allah knows the best...........

===============================