Belief and Deeds: the Fate of the Righteous Disbeliever

Abdullah ibn Judʿān, host of Ḥilf al-Fuḍūl, was among the most generous and noble men of his age, yet he died before the call to Islam. Aisha, his distant kinswoman, asked the Prophet ﷺ whether his kindness to the poor and to the guest would avail him; he answered that it would not, for, he said:

إِنَّهُ لَمْ يَقُلْ يَوْمًا: رَبِّ ٱغْفِرْ لِي خَطِيئَتِي يَوْمَ ٱلدِّينِ

"He never once said: My Lord, forgive me my sin on the Day of Recompense."

In this is a hard but vital teaching. In our age, piety is measured only by goodness to people: open an orphanage, smile at all, and you are called righteous, whatever you believe. But Islam weighs two things together, faith and deed, as Allah pairs them throughout the Qurʾan:

ٱلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا ٱلصَّالِحَاتِ

"those who believe and do righteous deeds." Goodness to creation is good; but to deny and ignore the One who created and provided every good undoes it. Why should Allah reward one who never turned to Him, nor sought His forgiveness, nor did a single deed for His sake?

Yet the believer judges no individual's final fate, for that belongs to Allah alone. We name as people of Paradise or of the Fire only those whom Allah and His Messenger ﷺ named; for all others we speak in generalities, and hope and fear for ourselves. The lesson is not to busy ourselves with the destinies of others, "My Ummah will remain in good until they begin to ask about the children of the idolaters", but to secure our own: faith and righteousness, together.