Salaamun alaykum, dear readers!
Who does God count as disbelievers, according to the Quran? Is it simply someone who is not a Muslim?
No, the correct answer is that not all Jews, Christians, Hindus, polytheists, or atheists will be held accountable for being disbelievers according to the Quran. There are two primary factors listed in the Quran that will influence the fate of non-Muslims, both involving the mercy of God.
The Age of 40
Let’s first start with the age of accountability, the first factor. The Quran says that when a person has reached forty years of age, he should declare that he has become Muslim and repent to God for the sins committed before becoming 40 years old.
Therefore, one only starts being held accountable for their sins or for not having been Muslim until age 40, and that the first 40 years of one’s life is like a grace period to take the time to learn.
Rashad Khalifa himself, God’s Messenger of the Covenant, said in Appendix 32 of his Quran translation and in one of the Quranic study audios that the fact that everyone who dies before age 40 goes to Heaven is not his personal opinion and was a piece of information which God told him to convey.
- [46:15] And We have instructed the human being, regarding his parents, goodness. His mother carried him laboriously, and laid him down laboriously; his carriage and weaning is thirty months. Until when he reached his strength, and reached forty years, he said, “My Lord, enable me that I appreciate Your goodwill which You have bestowed upon me and upon my parents, and that I do as a righteous one that which You approve. And cause righteousness among my offspring for me. Indeed, I have repented to you, and indeed, I am among the Muslims.”
It is noted that when the Quran uses the words “until when (hatta idha) x happens, y happens” it usually means “it isn’t until x happens that y happens” or “y doesn’t happen until x happens”. That’s the Quran’s phraseology in the 25 occurrences of “until when x happens, y happens”.
One example is verse 27:84, where it said that “until when” (hatta idha) a group of people who denied God’s signs were summoned on Judgment Day, God asked them about such denial. It logically means that it wasn’t until the deniers were summoned, that God questioned them as such. Or in 23:99 where it said that until when death came to one of the disbelievers, he requested to God to give him a second chance, which logically means: it wasn’t until death came to him that he begged for a second chance.
Thus, verse 46:15 states that it isn’t until the person turns 40 years old that he is obligated to become Muslim and repent for his past deeds.
The first 40 years of one’s life is thus a trial-and-error period, or a grace period. Credit is due to the messenger of God, Rashad, for bringing this to light, and of course Muhammad, the messenger who delivered the Quran. One has until the age of 40 to both become Muslim and to start being held accountable for any sin that he or she commits; repentance and making the final decision to be Muslim becomes mandatory for those over the age 40.
God has designated the age of 40 as the age of accountability, not because people aren’t capable of consent or reason before that, but likely because it takes a long time for people (even those born in Muslim households) to escape cultural biases and make a truly informed decision to become a Muslim, rather than just following whatever their parents, relatives, and friends are doing without any solid understanding or conviction. The Quran in many places rejects the mentality of, “I just follow what my parents are doing,” and encourages people to escape their cultural and environmental biases to come to the truth. In a world where the supernatural is completely invisible and many ideologies claim different things about it, making a truly informed decision takes a lot of time, patience, and research.
Personal Capacity Rule
It also happens to be the case that passing the age of 40 and being non-Muslim alone isn’t enough to be accountable for disbelieving either, according to the Quran. God does not assign anyone except their capacity, according to the Quran in multiple instances.
- [23:62] But We do not assign any self except its capacity; with Us is a book that talks with the truth, and they will not be wronged.
- [2:286] God does not assign any self except its capacity. For it is what it earned, and against it is what it earned…
One may call this the personal capacity rule. If it is in one’s personal capacity to open up one’s heart to the religion of Islam, or have access to accurate information regarding the religion, but they still reject, then they will be punished for being non-Muslim. If it is not in one’s personal capacity to have access to the information needed to make a fully-informed decision to accept Islam, then one is not held accountable for it.
For example, if the environment that one is brought up in instills strong cultural or religious biases, or limits access to good information, maybe someone who is not familiar with the religion will be less inclined to convert.
Therefore, to be categorized as a disbeliever when one is past the age of 40 would require a rejection of Islam that could have been avoided given the strength of the impact of societal conditioning, suppression of information from the authorities, intellectual deficiencies, whether you can read and write, the quality of the information one is given about the faith, whether one lives a busy life (thus having very little time to think deeply or research about these issues), and maybe other factors.
Only God knows best about whether a person can be held responsible not for not having accepted Islam in their lifetimes given their personal circumstances, and to what degree they will be held responsible if so.
Let us think deeper about the impact of societal conditioning on one’s personal capacity to do this on a deeper level. The average person will have a difficult time understanding why or why not to change a lifelong habit that they see everyone else around them doing, unless someone or something makes them aware of a good reason to change the habit. It’s the same issue with changing religions, and here are some examples:
What do you think about vegetables? If most of your friends and family expressed a dislike for vegetables growing up, then it is very likely that you’re going to have a hard time escaping the social conditioning of disliking vegetables even if you happen to hear about their benefits from some health-conscious people “preaching” about it, or if you have an internet connection and can easily Google it.
Or the reverse, if you tell someone to stop eating vegetables and do the “carnivore diet” (eating only animal foods, no fruits and veggies) when she has been eating fruits and vegetables for her whole life, for example, you have to give her a good reason why she should stop eating vegetables, or else she will just continue to eat them.
Similarly, some cultures are perfectly comfortable eating insects as a protein source, yet our social conditioning causes us in the West to have revulsion at the thought of eating them.
What do you think about liberal democracy? I’m certain that if liberal democracies like that in the U.S. were very rare, and if the global powers were monarchies, society would be glorifying the virtues of monarchy as the most superior and advanced form of government, like we do currently with liberal democracies.
What do you think of the concept of women’s natural body hair, bald women, women wearing suits, or men wearing dresses and skirts?
We get our social conditioning from public opinion in the form of social media engagements, who gets featured in magazine covers and who doesn’t, the material success of others, and how everyday people walk, talk, clothe themselves, groom themselves, and behave.
Societal conditioning is very hard to escape, and that is true regarding religion. God does not assign any responsibility beyond one’s capacity (verse 2:286). This is why only the non-Muslims who have the mental capability to escape their societal conditioning and find Islam, but chose not to take any meaningful action towards doing so, will be held accountable for it.
But to show you how hard it is to escape one’s religious societal conditioning, let’s say someone comes from a Christian background and is currently assessing which religion they think they should be a part of. He thus far knows very little about Islam except that it is a monotheistic religion based on the Quran, the message delivered by a man named Muhammad. Maybe he is a little interested in Islam, so he googles some Muslim sites here and there to learn about it, and thinks, “Oh, it’s just some man stealing Biblical prophets and narratives or something like that” and brushes it off. Or maybe by luck, he finds some common anti-Islam sites and sees things like, “Muhammad Committed Pedophilia” or “Islam Says to Kill Apostates” (neither of them are true from).
Then he thinks to himself that there is no way a true religion would teach such things, and he moves on to the next religion, and the next religion, and the next one, until he settles down to a religion that he feels is the truth. God willing, maybe he has a change of heart and reconsiders Islam in the future. Or maybe he doesn’t even try to question his Christian faith because Christianity became so normalized and etched deep into his heart that he will find no compelling reason to convert to other religions. If all he knows about Islam is that it’s just some monotheistic religion associated with Arabs, and no one around him ever discusses anything about Islam or gives him a good reason to convert, and his heart is so attached to Christianity as a result of strong social conditioning, then he would have no reason to want to learn more about it.
Or maybe he denounces his Christian faith after coming across historical information saying that nothing about Moses is documented in Egyptian history. He wonders to himself, “How can there not be any historical information outside Bible and Quran about the man who overthrew a great Pharaoh of Egypt and upended their ruling elite? Maybe the Abrahamic religions who promote the story of Moses are false.” Then after ruling out both Christianity and Islam, he proceeds to resume his search among the many other competing religions in the world.
As a Muslim, you should ask yourselves why you aren’t Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, Sikhs, and others? Surely, you don’t find these other religions convincing because you haven’t come across any information to convince you thereof? Imagine if you were raised in a Christian household where the only thing you know as the truth is the Bible and the Trinity and other Christian doctrines? You were raised by your parents with such strong conviction that Christianity is the truth, that it will be quite hard to convince you to abandon your faith and the faith that is espoused by those around you, especially if the only information that you have heard regarding Islam is that it’s just some monotheistic Arab religion, or that it’s just one among the tens of hundreds of religions on Earth, each making different claims about what is true and what is false, etc. How likely are you to convert based on such little information, especially if you live a busy life, living paycheck to paycheck, and don’t have the time to investigate what is the truth and what isn’t, and if other religions are making opposite claims?
It’s human nature to just follow what everyone else around them are doing, so if it is in a person’s capacity (based on their environmental circumstances and their personality) to reject cultural biases and societal conditioning, and make a sincere effort to find out the truth, but they choose not to do so, then they will be held liable for not doing so.
Or if they do make a sincere effort but come across poor-quality information regarding Islam, and a lack of good-quality information, thus influencing their decision away from acceptance of Islam, it may be that they won’t be punished for rejecting Islam and choosing another faith.
Conclusion
There are two primary factors that influence the fate of a non-Muslim: whether he or she died before the age 40, and if they lived past age 40 but did not meet the personal capacity threshold to be held accountable for being non-Muslim based on their personal circumstances and intellectual capabilities.
God alone knows each individual the best, so He is the only one qualified to decide whether one has met the personal capacity threshold or not.
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