Refuting the doubt about the People of the Book as a ransom for the Muslim from Hellfire

In order to discuss this doubt, we must understand the reality of the opposition between Heaven and Hell as a final destiny that encompasses all people, believers and unbelievers, whose position has settled in opposition to the other party. Opposition means opposition between two parties with a common denominator between them.
It has three levels:
the first is the opposition between Heaven and Hell. the second
is the opposition between the deeds of the people of Heaven and Hell.
the third is the opposition between the reward of the people of Heaven and Hell.
The first is the opposition between Heaven and Hell.
The opposition between Heaven and Hell is clear and does not need explanation.
The common denominator between them is the existence of a place for every person in Heaven and Hell.
The believer has a place in Heaven and Hell, and the unbeliever has a place in Heaven and Hell . The
believer inherits the place of the unbeliever in Heaven, and the unbeliever inherits the place of the believer in Hell.
Hence the saying of the Messenger of God, may God
bless him and grant him peace: “The dead person goes to the grave, and the righteous man sits in his grave, neither frightened nor anxious. Then it is said to him: : Where were you? He will say: I was in Islam. It will be said to him: Who is this man? He will say: Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah - may Allah bless him and grant him peace - He came to us with clear proofs from Allah and we believed him.
It will be said to him: Have you seen Allah? He will say: It is not befitting for anyone to see Allah. Then a space will be made for him towards the Fire, and he will look at it, some parts of it crushing others. Then it will be said to him: Look at what Allah has saved you from. Then a space will be made for him towards Paradise, and he will look at its flowers and what is in it. Then it will be said to him: This is your seat. And it will be said to him: You were upon certainty, upon it you died, and upon it you will be resurrected, Allah willing. The evil man will be made to sit in his grave, terrified and in a state of shock. It will be said to him, “What were you doing?” He will say, “I do not know.” It will be said to him, “Who is this man?” He will say, “I heard people saying something, so I said it.” Then a path will be opened for him toward Paradise, and he will look at its flowers and what is in it. It will be said to him, “Look at what Allah has turned away from you.” Then a space will be opened for him towards the Fire, and he will look at it, some parts of it crushing others. Then it will be said to him: “This is your seat, you were in doubt, you died in it, and you will be resurrected in it, God willing.” Sunan Ibn Majah - (Vol. 12 / p. 476)
We may notice that the subject of the test is belief in the prophethood of the Prophet Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace, and seeing God Almighty in this world, and these are the two decisive issues between Muslims and the People of the Book.
We also notice that the bliss will not only be entering Paradise, but also salvation from Hell
, and that the torment will not only be entering Hell, but also deprivation from Paradise
. This is the meaning of the relativity of the reward between the people of Paradise and the people of Hell.
Based on this relativity, the fate of each party is determined in relation to the other party in terms of work and in terms of reward. Thus,
everyone who enters Hell is a ransom for everyone who enters Paradise,
because as previously shown, whoever enters Paradise inherits the seat of the disbeliever in Paradise, and everyone who enters Hell inherits the seat of the believer in Hell,
so all the disbelievers are a ransom for all the believers.
This is the general meaning of the relationship between the people of Paradise and Hell
. Hence, you will not find in the Qur’an the statement of God Almighty, “the people of Paradise” and “the people of Hell,” except that you will find the relativity of the relationship between the people of Paradise and the people of Hell, which is what came in Al-A’raf,
where you will find the repetition of this expression in Surat Al-A’raf, considering that the main subject of the surah is that comparison
: “And those who deny Our signs and are arrogant toward them - those
are the companions of the Fire; they will abide therein eternally.” (Al-A’raf: 36) “And those who believe and do righteous deeds - We charge no soul except [with that within] its capacity. Those are the companions of Paradise; they will abide therein eternally.” (Al-A’raf: 42)
(And the companions of Paradise will call out to the companions of the Fire, “We have found what our Lord promised us to be true. Have you found what your Lord promised to be true?” They will say, “Yes.” Then a crier will announce between them, “The curse of Allah is upon the wrongdoers.”) (Al-A’raf: 44)
(And between them is a partition, and on the heights are men who recognize everyone by their mark. And they will call out to the companions of Paradise, “Peace be upon you.” They have not yet entered it, and they are still ignorant.) (They covet) (Al-A'raf: 46)
(And when their eyes are turned toward the companions of the Fire, they will say, "Our Lord, do not place us with the wrongdoing people." (Al-A'raf: 47)
(And the companions of Al-A'raf will call out to men whom they recognize by their mark. They will say, "Your multitude has not availed you, nor was it that you were arrogant." (Al-A'raf: 48)
(And the companions of the Fire will call out to the companions of Paradise, "Pour upon us from your bounty. "
Then it comes to the specific meaning, which is the specific relationship between the work of the people of Paradise and the people of Hell
, or the specific relationship between the Muslims, Jews, and Christians. The
Jews and Christians combine the term “People of the Book” so that the relationship is the Muslim and the People of the Book. The specific relationship between the Muslims and the People of the Book is what the relativity of the reward in Paradise and Hell is based on.
This specificity is that the Jews, Christians, and Muslims were addressed to work for God according to what was mentioned in the hadith narrated by Ibn Umar, that the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, said, “Your survival among the previous nations is like the period between the afternoon prayer and sunset. The people of the Torah were given the Torah, so they worked until noon, then they were unable to do so, so they were given a qirat (1) qirat. The Christians were given the Gospel, so they worked until the afternoon prayer, then they were unable to do so, so they were given a qirat, a qirat.” So we were given the Qur’an, and we worked from the afternoon prayer until sunset, and we were given two (2) Qirats. The Jews and Christians said: O our Lord, we were more devout than them, and You gave us Qirat by Qirat? Then Allah, the Blessed and Exalted, said: Have I wronged you in any of your rewards? They said: No. He said: It is My bounty which I give to whomever I wish.
Musnad Abi Ya’la al-Mawsili - (Vol. 11 / p. 328)
This hadith proves the relativity of the relationship in reward between the Muslims and the People of the Book.
This relativity came from Allah, the Almighty, addressing the People of the Book and the Muslims to work for Allah, the Almighty, and then the People of the Book abandoned it and the Muslims responded
. The position of the People of the Book in abandoning work for Allah resulted in the deviation from monotheism to polytheism, which is the basic issue that separates entry into Paradise and Hell.
Monotheism becomes the subject of a comparison that establishes the relativity of the reward between the Muslim monotheist and the polytheist People of the Book.
Thus, the Muslim’s entry into Paradise by his steadfastness in monotheism is the opposite of the People of the Book’s entry into Hell by changing his religion to polytheism. Thus, the polytheist People of the Book’s entry into Hell has a reciprocal relationship with the Muslim’s entry into Paradise and Hell
, for several reasons
: the doctrinal distinction between entering Paradise and Hell is the same as the doctrinal distinction
between Muslims and People of the Book, as evidenced by the statement of the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, regarding the questioning of the grave, in which it is said to him: “Have you seen God?” He says: “It is not befitting for anyone to see God.” Then a space will be made for him towards the Fire, and he will look at it, some parts of it crushing others. Then it will be said to him: Look at what Allah has saved you from. Then a space will be made for him towards Paradise, and he will look at its flowers and what is in it. Then it will be said to him: This is your seat. And it will be said to him: You were upon certainty, upon it you died, and upon it you will be resurrected, Allah willing.
The Jews and Christians claimed that God was incarnated and seen in this world, just as they said about Ezra and the Messiah (And the Jews say, “Ezra is the son of God,” and the Christians say, “The Messiah is the son of God.” That is their statement with their mouths; they imitate the statement of those who disbelieved before. God’s destruction! How are they deluded?) (At-Tawbah: 30). So
the People of the Book became a trial for the Muslims in their religion and belief, until the steadfastness of the Muslim on monotheism became related to the polytheism of the People of the Book and their temptations of the Muslim away from his religion (And many of the People of the Scripture wish they could turn you back after [your] faith, and you will surely be saved from the punishment of God.”) 109 And establish prayer and give zakah, and whatever good you send forward for yourselves, you will find it with Allah. Indeed, Allah is Seeing of what you do. 110 And they say, “None will enter Paradise except one who is a Jew or a Christian.” Christians, these are their desires. Say, "Produce your proof, if you should be truthful." 111 Yes, whoever submits his face to Allah while he is a doer of good will have his reward with his Lord. And no fear will there be concerning them, nor will they grieve. 112)
Perhaps we notice the Qur’anic connection between the People of the Book’s desire for Muslims to turn away from their religion and their request for forgiveness from the Muslims so that the matter in them will be purely for Allah,
just as we notice Allah’s command to the Muslims to remain steadfast in the religion by establishing prayer, paying zakat, and doing the deeds that will enter them into Paradise. The People of the Book claimed that no
one will enter Paradise except them,
and the governing principle for all is the saying of Allah, the Almighty:
(Yes, whoever submits his face to Allah while he is a doer of good will have his reward with his Lord. And no fear will there be concerning them, nor will they grieve. 113) So he will have his reward with his Lord, and there will be no fear concerning them, nor will they grieve. 112)
So the People of the Book, with their polytheism, distortion, war, and temptation of the Muslims, and their envy of the religion... is the position of the oppressor,
as the rule of the oppressor and the oppressed applies to them and the Muslims, which requires taking the good deeds of the oppressor and giving them to the oppressed, and placing the bad deeds of the oppressed on the oppressor,
so that every oppressor becomes a ransom for every oppressed.
Whether on an individual level, as the Messenger
of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, said on the authority of Abu Hurairah that the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: “If his good deeds are exhausted before what is due from him is fulfilled, some of their sins will be taken and placed upon him, then he will be thrown into the Fire.” Sahih Muslim - (Vol. 16 / p. 462)
Or the international level as between Muslims and People of the Book
where the People of the Book and Muslims took the ruling of the oppressor and the oppressed mentioned in the hadith
and from here came the saying of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace: “On the Day of Resurrection, people from among the Muslims will come with sins like mountains, which God will forgive them and place on the Jews and Christians.” What is meant
is that He will place on them the like of them for their sins or what is meant are sins that the infidels were the cause of by committing them, so they are dropped from the Muslims by God’s forgiveness and are placed on the infidels because they committed them. Al-Dibaj on a Muslim - (Vol. 6 / p. 108)
And his saying in a narration (And He will place on the Jews and Christians the like of them for their disbelief and sins, so He will put him in the Fire for their deeds, not for the sins of the Muslims, and it is inevitable This interpretation of the Almighty’s saying: {And no bearer of burdens shall bear the burden of another}
and his saying: ((He will hand over to every Muslim a Jew or a Christian, and he will say: This is your release from the Fire)) is interpreted as meaning what came in the hadith of Abu Hurayrah - may God be pleased with him -: ((Everyone has a home in Paradise and a home in Hell. So when the believer enters Paradise, the disbeliever will succeed him in Hell; Because he deserves it due to his disbelief. The meaning of “your release” is that you were exposed to entering the Fire, and this is your release. Because God Almighty has determined for the Fire a number that will fill it, so when the disbelievers enter it with their sins and disbelief, they will be in the sense of being freed for the Muslims, and God knows best. Riyad as-Salihin - (Vol. 1 / p. 273)
And since the Jews were the beginning of distortion, envy and strife, and the Christians were their followers in that,
the Qur’an singled them out for mention, as He, the Most High, said: “Or do they envy people for what God has given them of His bounty? But We had already given the family of Abraham the Scripture and wisdom and conferred upon them a great kingdom.” (54)
He said: Abu Ja`far: He means by His statement, may His praise be exalted: “Or do they envy people,” or do they envy those who were given a portion of the Book from among the Jews?
And from Mujahid regarding God’s statement, “Or do they envy people,” he said: Jews. And this is supported by His statement, may His praise be exalted: (And let them bear their own burdens and other burdens with their own burdens (2)). Tafsir Al-Qurtubi - (Vol. 6 / p. 137)
There was a clear Quranic example of placing evils on the Jews specifically,
which is what came in the words of God in Surat Al-Ma’idah:
“And recite to them the news of the two sons of Adam in truth, when they offered a sacrifice, and it was accepted from one of them but was not accepted from the other. He said, ‘I will surely kill you.’ He said, ‘Allah only accepts from the righteous.’” (Al-Ma’idah: 27
) “Indeed, I want you to bear my sin and your sin and be among the companions of the Fire. And that is the recompense of the wrongdoers.” (Al-Ma’idah: 29)
We must pay attention to the words of the son of Adam (for my sin and your sin) and (the companions of the Fire),
as the unjust son bears the sin of the wronged son.
The meaning of “for my sin” is that which is specific to me in what I have neglected (1), that is, some of my bad deeds will be taken and placed upon you because of your injustice towards me, and you will bear the sin of your killing me. This is supported by his saying, may the peace and blessings of God be upon him: “On the Day of Resurrection, the oppressor and the oppressed will be brought, and some of the good deeds of the oppressor will be taken and added to the good deeds of the oppressed until justice is achieved. If he has no good deeds, some of the evil deeds of the oppressed will be taken and placed upon him.”
And the sin of the one who committed his act is also proven by the saying of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace: (No soul is killed unjustly except that the first son of Adam will bear some of the burden of it, because he was the first to establish killing).
Then the verses establish an important rule in the relationship of retribution between the people of Paradise and Hell
, which is that the sin falls on the one who has the cause for which the sin occurred in the first place,
which is the saying of Allah at the end of the story: (Because of that, We decreed upon the Children of Israel that whoever kills a soul unless for a soul or for corruption in the land - it is as if he had killed mankind entirely. And whoever (Al-Ma’idah: 32)
The most dangerous secret of the psychological makeup of the Jews is the envy of the servants for their closeness to God, to the point that they could no longer bear to see a servant close to God Almighty.
Perhaps the incident of the worshipper, Jurayj, is evidence of that, and in it, “Then the Children of Israel remembered Jurayj and his worship. And there was a prostitute whose beauty was emulated. She said, ‘If you wish, I will tempt him.’ So she exposed herself to him.” (1)
And since envy was the reason that made the first son of Adam kill his brother, and the judgment was related to the reason, God’s judgment on the Jews was what was mentioned in the verse, “For that reason…” We decreed for the Children of Israel that whoever kills a soul unless for a soul or for corruption done in the land - it is as if he had slain mankind entirely. And whoever saves a life - it is as if he had saved mankind entirely. (Al-Ma'idah: 32)
Thus, the sin of misguidance falls on the People of the Book because they started misguidance and because the cause of it is present in them
. In addition to what was mentioned above, it is one of the reasons for placing sins on the People of the Book. Their call to misguidance is a general rule in accountability and recompense, as in the hadith
- on the authority of Abu Hurayrah, who said: The Messenger of Allah said: Whoever calls to guidance will have a reward like the rewards of those who follow him, without that detracting from their rewards in the slightest. And whoever calls to misguidance will have a sin like the sins of those who follow him, without that detracting from their sins in the slightest. Narrated by Muslim, Abu Dawud, and al-Tirmidhi.
This hadith is one of the principles of Islam, and it is: Whoever innovates something evil will have upon him a burden like that of everyone who follows him in that action, like his action until the Day of Judgment. Al-Qiyamah, Al-Nawawi’s commentary on Muslim - (Vol. 6 / p. 88)
Thus, the interpretation of redemption is that the sins that Muslims committed in following the People of the Book in their misguidance are upon the Muslim for the sin of following
and upon the People of the Book for the sin of calling to misguidance
, because whoever calls to misguidance bears his sin and the sin of whoever acts upon it, without diminishing anything from their sins. So God forgives the Muslim the sin of following if He wills
and leaves upon the People of the Book the sin of calling to misguidance.
This is according to the basis of the relationship of reward between the Muslim and the People of the Book, which is that the reward of the Muslim nation, considering it the owner of the complete work for God until the Day of Judgment, according to what was mentioned in the hadith: “So we were given two qirats (2) qirats. The Jews and Christians said: O our Lord, we were more deserving of work than them, and You gave us one qirat each? So the Blessed and Exalted said: Have I wronged you in any of your rewards? They said: No. He said: It is My bounty that I give to whomever I wish.”
The relativity of the reward by doubling the reward of the Muslim nation in relation to the nation of the People of the Book is a general rule upon which the detailed relationship between the individuals of the three nations is built
, and this general rule gives rise to several rulings
- that whoever converts to Islam from the People of the Book will have a double reward,
as the Messenger of God - may God bless him and grant him peace - said: “Three will have two rewards: a man from the People of the Book who believed in his Prophet, and ... By Muhammad - may God bless him and grant him peace.. » - Sahih Al-Bukhari - (Vol. 1 / p. 181)
- That whoever is killed from the Muslims at the hands of the People of the Book will have the reward of two martyrs.
A woman came to the Prophet - may God bless him and grant him peace - (her name was Umm Khallad, and she was wearing a niqab, asking about her son who had been killed. Some of the companions of the Messenger of God - may God bless him and grant him peace - 1 said to her: You have come (2) asking about your son and you are wearing a niqab. She said: If I lose my son, I will not lose my modesty. The Messenger of God - may God bless him and grant him peace - said: Your son will have the reward of two martyrs. She said: Why is that, O Messenger of God? He said, “Because the People of the Book killed him.” Al-Sunan Al-Kubra by Al-Bayhaqi (Vol. 9, p. 175)
All of that stems from the Muslims completing their work for Allah and the People of the Book turning back.
Thus, the meaning of redemption is sins that the disbelievers were the cause of by establishing them. When the sins of the believers were forgiven, the sins of the one who established that bad tradition remained, because the disbeliever will not be forgiven. Thus, the situation is a metaphor for keeping the sin that befell the disbeliever because of his bad deeds. And He removed it from the believer who did it with what Allah bestowed upon him of forgiveness
and the established principle of redemption in the relationship between the Islamic nation and the nation of the People of the Book on the one hand
and between the Islamic nation and the nation of Gog and Magog on the other hand, explains the reality of redemption, which is that Gog and Magog will also be at the end of time a ransom for the Muslims from the Fire, as the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said (Allah, the Blessed and Exalted, will say to Adam on the Day of Resurrection, “O Adam, arise and send from your descendants a group for the Fire.” He will say, “O Lord, what was sent for the Fire?” He will say, “From every thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine, and one will remain.” This was difficult for his companions, so they said, “O Messenger of Allah, from every thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine, and one will remain. So who is that one?” He entered his house and then came out to them and said, “From Gog and Magog, one thousand and from you one.”) Sunan al-Kubra by al-Nasa’i - (vol. 6 / p. 409)
and the specialization Muslims are at the mercy of the People of the Book and Gog and Magog. The existence of the People of the Book is with the beginning of the existence of the nation and its continuation, and the existence of Gog and Magog is at the end of the existence of the nation at the end of time.
The end is the most dangerous rule of punishment with God, as it was reported from the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace: “A servant may do the work of the people of Hell, but he is from the people of Paradise. He may do the work of the people of Paradise, but he is from the people of Hell. Actions are judged by their endings.” Sahih al-Bukhari (Vol. 6, p. 2436).
From here, the tribulation of Gog and Magog, in this regard, will be the most dangerous thing that the nation will face in its entire history.
Hence, Gog and Magog were a ransom for the nation from the fire, just like the People of the Book, due to their stance towards the nation, its temptation and injustice, from the beginning until the end