Answer
Wa `alaykum As-Salamu wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
1- The final fate of people in the Hereafter is a matter of the unseen (ghayb). So, no one can know for sure that this man or that is in Paradise or in the Hell; it is Allah ONLY Who knows these matters.
2- Moreover, it is the Muslim’s duty to busy himself with his own affairs well observing his deeds.
3- But, if you are concerned about a good Christian or Jew friend, you allowed to call Allah Almighty to guide him to the Right Path.
Answering your question, Dr. Wael Shehab, PhD in Islamic Studies from Al-Azhar University and currently the Imam of the Downtown Toronto Masjid in Canada, states:
People’s Fate
Muslims believe that the final judgment lies in the hands of Allah Almighty. As He is the Most Just, Most Loving, Most Merciful, and Most Compassionate to His people.
It is never for us to judge or decide people’s fate. In fact, it is not permissible in Islam to specify hell for any human being, no matter what his or her beliefs are.
Muslim scholars also say that one shouldn’t hold any human being in contempt because he or she might be closer to Allah than oneself.
Being our Creator, only Allah knows what is in our hearts, our intentions, our actions, and our speech.
He knows whether we have harmed people or whether we have sought for peace and understanding among His creation.
In Islam, even a Muslim can never be sure whether he will be going to heaven or hell.
For Muslims, Islam is the final religion that Allah has sent for all peoples. So, it is our belief, as Muslims, that Islam is the final message of Allah.
People should correctly follow the final message and apply it in order to lead a happy life in this world and in the Hereafter.
There are Quranic verses which generally indicate that the believers will enjoy the eternal blessings in Paradise while the disbelievers will be punished in hell forever.
However, a Muslim is not entitled to judge a given living person to be in hell or paradise forever.
Ibn Abbas comments on the Quranic verse {In the day (of Judgment) when He will gather them together (He will say): O you assembly of the jinn! Many of humankind did you seduce. And their adherents among humankind will say: Our Lord! We enjoyed one another, but now we have arrived at the appointed term which You appointed for us. He will say: Fire is your home. Abide therein forever, save him whom Allah wills (to deliver). Lo! Your Lord is Wise, Aware} (Al-An`am 6:128) saying, “This verse implies that we should leave the question of judging the disbelievers’ fate to Allah”. (Al-Qurtubi, Al-Jami li Ahkam Al-Quran, 7: 84)
Conveying the Message
Given the above, it is our duty, as Muslims, to deliver Islam’s message to all people through dialogue, good manners, and translating Islamic teachings into practice.
It is also the duty of every person to look and search for the truth and convincingly follow and call for it.
May Allah accept your and our good deeds!
Almighty Allah knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.