Ethics of Islam

sudden death, whereas there is no time, absolve are from the
compulsion of stating their belief with their tongue. Imitative
belief, which one has developed without understanding, is
acceptable. It is sinful not to understand, and not to think of, the
existence of Allâhu ta’âlâ. To deny any one of the tenets of belief
means to deny all of them. However, it is considered as îmân to
express belief in them as an ensemble without knowing all the
tenets individually. One of the indispensable components of îmân
is to avoid things which Islam prescribes as signs of kufr. Some
signs of kufr are: to flout any one of Islam’s principles, i.e.
commands and prohibitions, and to make fun of the Qur’ân alkerîm
or any angel or prophet ‘alaihis-salâm’. To have doubts
about things that are necessary to believe would also mean
disbelief.
There are three types of disbelief: 1)disbelief out of ignorance
(jahlî), 2) disbelief out of obstinacy (juhûdî), and 3) disbelief by
judgement (hukmî).
1– Disbelief out of ignorance (kufr-i jahlî): This is the disbelief
of those who have not heard (about a certain Islamic tenet) and
do not think about it. “Jahl” means ignorance. There are two
types of ignorance.
a) Simple ignorance. People with this ignorance know that
they are ignorant. They do not have wrong belief. They are like
animals because what differentiates humans from the animals is
knowledge and understanding. These people are even lower than
animals because every animal is advanced in the special field
which it is created for and it senses what is useful for itself and has
propensity to it. It also senses what is harmful for itself and keeps
away from it. On the other hand, these ignorant people know that
they do not know but they do not take any step away from their
ignorance and towards knowledge.
[Imâm ar-Rabbânî ‘rahimahullâhu ta’âlâ’ says the following in
the 259th letter of the first volume of his book Maktûbât: “As I
understand it, people who were raised in the mountains and
never heard of any religion and were idol worshippers will go
neither to Hell nor to Paradise. After rising from death, they will
be questioned about their deeds and after paying necessary
retribution and punishment for their wrong doings, they will be
annihilated along with other animals. They will not stay in any
station forever. It is very hard for me to say that Allâhu ta’âlâ will
punish those people in Hell fire eternally because they could not
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