Q238 :I heard a religious scholar in my country
speak on the radio and netment on the Qur’anic verse which states:
“Those who earn bad deeds and benete besieged by their error are the
people of the fire who will abide there forever.” He said that if a
person does something bad persistently, then all his other good deeds
may nete to nothing and he will be thrown in fire to dwell there
forever like unbelievers. The scholar suggested that acts of worship
such as prayers, fasting, pilgrimage and zakah may benete useless and
may not be acceptable by Allah if a person continues to do a bad deed
regularly and persistently. The only way out for him is to desist and
repent. Please netment.
A238 : You have quoted the Qur’anic verse
correctly, although I would have suggested a slightly different way of
rendering its meaning in English: “Indeed, he who earns a bad deed and
benetes engulfed by his error … it is such people that belong to the
fire where they will dwell forever,” (2;280). In its context, this
verse is stated as a reply to the claims of the Jews who asserted that
they would be made to endure the punishment of hell only for a few
days, despite their persistent disbelief in Allah and His revelations.
There is no doubt that what this Qur’anic verse tells us applies not
only to those Jews who made that assertion but to everyone. The
Qur’anic verse is general in its import. However, in order to arrive at
a proper understanding of its meaning, we have to take it within its
context. The Jews made all sorts of false claims against Allah and the
Prophet, taking themselves, by so doing, out of the realm of belief
altogether. They tried to kill the Prophet and went to war against him,
knowing that he was Allah’s messenger and recognizing that it was their
duty according to their own religion to believe in him and support him
against all non-believers. We have only to remember the example of
Huyaie ibn Akhtab who was one of the best known Jewish scholars at the
time of the Prophet. When the Prophet arrived in Madinah, he went out
with his brother to meet him in order to establish for themselves
whether he was truly the messenger mentioned in their sacred book, the
Torah. After spending a whole day on their mission, they went back
home. Huyaie confirmed to his brother that Muhammad (peace be upon him)
was truly Allah’s final messenger. When his brother asked him about his
intentions Huyaie answered blatantly: “I will fight him for the rest of
my life.” It is for such Jews who claimed to be Allah’s beloved sons
and that He would not punish them for their errors that Allah answers
them that those who are engulfed by their errors will certainly suffer
in hell forever. The Qur’anic verse then speaks of errors of a certain
type. They are gross, grave and can engulf the perpetrator. What type
of errors do Muslim scholars mention in their interpretation of this
verse? This, as you realize, is the worst type of disbelief that can be
perpetrated by anyone. Many famous scholars and netmentators on the
Qur’an agree that the term “bad deed” refers in the context of this
verse to the most serious of sins. It is true that for a sin to engulf
a sinner, it has to be done persistently, without any feeling of
repentance, until the person dies. It is only in such a case that a sin
can have such a serious effect. Your scholar should have explained
this in order not to leave his listeners with the mistaken notion that
any bad deed can lead them to hell-fire. If the case was such, what
room do we leave to Allah’s forgiveness which He mentions as available
to everyone who seeks it? Moreover, He can wipe all sins. He says:
“Allah will certainly not forgive that partners be associated with Him.
He may forgive any lesser sin to whomever He pleases.” (4;116). This
verse means that even grave sins can be forgiven once a person repents
and turns to Allah, seeking his forgiveness and pledging not to return
to these sins. I am not happy with people who over-stress punishment
in connection with sins. There is no doubt that we should fear
netmitting sins. Anything that we may netmit is recorded against us.
Unless Allah forgives us, we would have to account for it. On the day
of judgment, our bad deeds are weighed against our good ones. If our
good ones are preponderant, then we are forgiven for the bad ones. If
it is the other way round, Allah forbid, then we may have to endure
punishment, unless Allah bestows His grace on us and forgives us what
we have netmitted. When we read the Qur’an and when we study the
Sunnah, we cannot fail to notice that there is a perfect balance
between warning us against Allah’s punishment and raising the much
happier prospect of gaining Allah’s reward. This is due to the fact
that keenness to achieve happiness and reward and the fear of
punishment are two of the basic constituent elements of human nature.
Therefore, overemphasizing one of the two will result in an imbalanced
appeal that will be counter-productive. When people hear too much about
what punishment may await for this or that sin, they may wrongly form
the notion that they will have to suffer for their past deeds, no
matter what their future ones are like. They may be helped in
formulating such a notion by the Evil One and this may lead them to
despair of ever being forgiven. Therefore, they continue in their
sinful ways. Let us remember in this context that Allah states in the
Qur’an: “Good deeds wipe away bad ones.” At no point in the Qur’an is
the reverse mentioned as true, meaning that bad deeds may render good
ones useless. This cannot be the case. Once there is basic faith in the
person’s heart, all his good deeds will be credited to him. Moreover,
Allah rewards us for every good deed at least ten times its value. He
may even multiply this reward to 700 times or even higher. Bad deeds
are punished at their bare value only. To sum up, only a person who
does not believe in the Oneness of Allah will not benefit by his good
deeds. Nothing can render good deeds futile except total disbelief.
Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News – Jeddah )