The Faqih Who Does Not Close the Door to Mercy

ʿAlī (may Allah ennoble his face) — the fourth khalīfah of Islam, the cousin of Rasūlullāh (peace be upon him) and his son-in-law, of whom Rasūlullāh (peace be upon him) said, "I am the city of knowledge, and ʿAlī is its door" — was a very learned scholar; when he spoke, he spoke with wisdom, and what he taught, people took seriously and learned from. So he continued: shall I inform you of the most learned person among human beings — the most faqīh, with the most perfect understanding of Islam? Yes, O Amīr al-Muʾminīn, please continue, they said.

The most faqīh person, he said, is the one who does not deprive human beings of the mercy of Allah (swt) — who does not paint the picture of religion in such a frightening way that people are left with no hope in Allah's mercy: that is it, we are doomed, we are sinners, we are finished. A true faqīh will never do this. He gives hope; he gives the raḥmah of Allah (swt); there are so many faḍāʾil, so many beautiful things Islam speaks of. Islam is not a religion of anger, where standing near a scholar means trembling in fear. This is not true Islam.

Second, he said, a faqīh is not a person foolish enough to tell people that Allah loves them regardless, that Allah will never put anyone in Jahannam — the opposite extreme, as with the Christians: no matter what has been done in one's life, bequeath one's wealth to the church, and the key to Jannah, to paradise, is handed over at once — no examination of what awaits above the clouds, in some puffy place nobody can describe. A true ʿālim, a true faqīh, is not a person who propagates that Allah is merciful without limit and will never punish anyone. No — true Islam sits in between.

Third, he said, such a person does not pass judgement in Allah's (swt) place: no matter how good a particular person appears, he does not declare, with certainty, that this man already has the top floor of Jannah. There is the case of one man widely admired for his generosity, said to have performed ḥajj — but such a person is never pronounced saved with one hundred per cent certainty. That is not permitted. Hope and prayer are permitted, inshāʾAllāh, but never the claim that a particular man, however pious he appeared, has for certain reached Jannah.

And lastly, he said, such a person does not condemn anyone to Jahannam^† for certain, one hundred per cent, merely because that person is a sinner. Seeing a friend drinking beer with his companions is no basis for saying, that is it, you are condemned to Hell for eternity. To say so is, in effect, to claim to be the best of creation — blaming a man for his sin, for his fall into temptation, and writing him off for good. Who is anyone to do this? He is only a human being; nobody knows the future, what Allah (swt) has appointed for him. In the last five minutes of his life he might make sincere tawbah, and Allah (swt) might accept it, and as a result he might be granted Jannah.

There is the account of a woman who was so pious that she fasted by day and prayed the whole night, and yet she shut a kitten of hers in a box and starved it — for some mischief of its own, ruining some flowers perhaps, whatever mischief kittens get into. The kitten died as a result, and Rasūlullāh (peace be upon him) says that, on this account alone, that woman was condemned to Jahannam. From outward appearances, she looked like the most pious of women; yet in the Hereafter she was condemned. Rasūlullāh (peace be upon him) gives, within the same ḥadīth, the opposite case: a woman who was a prostitute, and nothing else, was overtaken by thirst in the middle of the desert and came to a well with no bucket at hand. She climbed down slowly, using her shoe, drank as much as she wanted, and climbed out again. She then noticed a dog with its tongue hanging out — dogs, not perspiring through the skin, show their thirst this way — carrying on, alive but thirsty. She felt so sorry for the dog that she went back down, on that same difficult descent, filled her shoe with water, and gave the dog to drink. As a result, Allah (swt) forgave her every sin on the Day of Judgement.

None of this is licence to take up the life of that woman on the strength of the story, waiting on forgiveness regardless of what is done; on the contrary, the duty remains to practise Islam to the best of one's ability. But it makes the point: a good ʿālim, a good scholar, a good teacher, first of all does not cut off hope in the raḥmah of Allah (swt); he does not stand, as the Christian priests do at the pulpit, telling a congregation that they are all sinners with no hope, all bound for Jahannam — no, this is not said; all are sinners, and Allah (swt) knows it, but this is not the conclusion drawn from it. Nor, on the other side, is it said that there is no such thing as Jahannam at all, as though Allah (swt) were not capable of such severity. And thirdly, such a teacher neither guarantees any one Muslim, by name, the best place in Jannah for certain, nor condemns any Muslim to Jahannam for a single weakness. This is what ʿAlī (may Allah ennoble his face) teaches, because Allah (swt) says:

The only people who feel secure from Allah's (swt) plan — who say, we are certain Allah will never touch us, will never punish us, as some Christians did in the past and some still do, believing that acceptance of Jesus as saviour guarantees a first-class place in Jannah beside the Father in heaven — the only people who feel this security are the people in khusrān, ruin, deviated from the path of Allah (swt). By the same token, Allah (swt) says:

And the only people who throw up their hands in despair of the mercy of Allah (swt) are the true kāfirūn. In other words, no matter how sinful a person is, no matter what he has done in his life, so long as he has not committed shirk — and even where he has committed shirk, if he then makes tawbah — there remains a chance that Allah (swt) will forgive him, no matter what has been done.