Harsh Punishment For The Denial Of Truth
One thing one must remember that Allah has given innate ability for tawheed and differentiate right and wrong. Before coming here, Quran tell us that we humans declared the Allah is one and we agreed for this test. Hence, the punishment.
So are you saying God should be indifferent of what people do on Earth? If he has no interest in what we do as he is got nothing to lose why would he give us the freewill? God is indifferent to animals no matter whether they wear cloths or not or kill each other God is not going to punish them right? So are you saying God should treat humans like animals? This was possible if God has not assigned us an important mission on Earth of spending his resources on our disposal on the right things by using the freewill in a just and fair manner. God says in Quran something like “Help God”. This clearly means God has goals that are dear to His heart. If we do not cooperate he can replace us with another people which he has done many times in the history and therefore he is not dependent on us but assuming He doesn’t care about his creation goals is not right.
Imagine this scenerio: If Allah did not emphasize on this point of eternal punishment multiple times, neither you nor I can predict what worst, best or neutral outcomes could have been as a result. Therefore, we do not know why it was mentioned several times. If we do a laboratory experiment in which we start a new universe, plan everything as it is now with the exception of the mentions of eternal punishment in Quran (lets say no mentioning of eternal punishment) and everything remains same, then your objection of hyperbole passes through, but if that does not turn out to be the case, the it might be worth mentioning. Again, we don’t know! I will repeat again what you missed. You said: ‘Eternal punishment might just be a warning but perhaps never a reality.’ We both well within our sense of justice are unable to comprehend that if that happens in reality it will have to be injustice. For now, maybe you are right. But lets say when Allah is subjecting someone for eternal punishment, and He explains us why that person will have to suffer eternally, I am suggesting we will be convinced. And lets say, he never put somebody on eternal punishment, we won’t be able to raise this question. So, I think this argument I presented covers both aspects. And I think after reading what I just wrote above, it seems to me that their (non-muslim’s) question or objection has been answered.
As a Muslim, I understand and agree with you. I am willing to wait, I am willing to trust Allah, I can believe that Allah can convince me in the end about His judgments, should He choose to give eternal punishment. But I don’t think it will work for non-Muslims. They understand justice through intuition. They label Allah as not just based on their limited sense of justice now and they won’t become Muslims today just so they can find the justification of eternal punishment tomorrow, they won’t wait for Allah to justify it on Day of Judgment. They want the justification now otherwise they conclude Allah is not just and they won’t worship a god they think is not just. And suppose we say that maybe Allah won’t give the eternal punishment so no one can raise the question, in which case they see it as Allah having a chance of being just in the future and again raise objections on the possibility of injustice.
Well, I thought my answer was goint to be satisfying to everyone irrespective of whether someone is muslim or not. Anyways, lets try to think if there is such a sin for which eternal punishment is justified. Perhaps we can’t think of any sin. But, can there be a sin for which eternal punishment is justified? It is possible, I guess. Who knows! AND if we get convinced that for this or that sin eternal punishment is justified, then the act will be just. Someone can say that Allah specified eternal punishment for shirk/kufr/sarkashi. I would respond that it’s a warning. And giving warning is logical and not unjust. In order for this just warning to be called as unjust, this warning will first has to implimented in reality to be able to called unjust. Now lets say, if this warning really gets implimented in reality, we will raise objection and then if we don’t get satisfactory answer, we may call it unjust, but if we get satisfactory reply, we will have to call it just. So, warning is not unjust and nobody has to wait for anything to accept that warning for the sake of warning is justified. You said: ‘One can raise objections on the possibility of injustice.’ Lets say, even if Allah did not mention eternal punishment. By your logic, there was still the possibility of injustice. I guess it does not matter whether this warning is mentioned or not in that case. We are getting into circles.
I think that is a good answer to conclude on. Thank you.