If God Knows Everything, Why Are People Burning in Hell? - Exmuslim Vs Muslim!
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- I’m a deist. I don’t believe in religions, but I do believe in a creator. Creator knows everything about us What choices I’ll make before I’m born, will I be a good person or a bad one? I’ll be born for no reason, He will have known every one of my actions beforehand… And then I’ll be judged accordingly and sent either to Heaven or Hell. This seems silly to me. So, why did I just burn in hell for no reason? + So, it’s not a problem if we broadcast this on Youtube. - No, no problem. - No. + What are your beliefs? - I’m a deist. I don’t believe in religions, but I do believe in a creator. - I’m a Muslim, Alhamdulillah. - The thing that confuses me the most is the topic of fate.
Everything about us is known by Allah, when we are born or even before we are born, correct? Like, the creator knows everything about us, every choice I’ll make even before I’m born. Will I be a good person or a bad person? Like, we have free will, but He knows what we’ll choose according to our will I’ll live out my life and as a result, I’ll either be rewarded or punished. I’ll be born for no reason, He will have known every one of my actions beforehand.. And then I’ll be judged accordingly and sent either to Heaven or Hell. That seems silly to me. + Ok, bro. This is a really popular topic and it’s also a confusing one for many people but this confusion stems from a lack of information.
Why? Because bro, knowledge is subject to what is known. So, what does that mean? Knowing something is dependent on the thing that is known. Let me explain this with an example. Let’s say we’re atop a mountain and there are railroad tracks below. On those tracks, there are two trains heading towards each other. We see them from above and do a calculation. Like, distance equals velocity times time. We do the math and say: “They’re heading towards each other, and they’re going to collide in approximately 8 seconds” and you write this down on a piece of paper, ok? And you say, “They’re really going to collide.” And, after 8 seconds, the collision actually happens.
If people saw this piece of paper, would it be logical… if they said this?: “You had written this down. We have collided because you knew and wrote about it. That’s why you’re guilty, we’re going to take you to court.” - No, actually it still doesn’t make sense Everything I will do now, is already known. + I’m coming to that. I’m still at the example part. - Yes for this example, it wouldn’t be logical. + Why bro? Because all you did there was knowing what would happen. Right? You made a scientific calculation and even though you had a limited degree of knowledge, you only knew what was going to happen but you didn’t intervene.
So, this means that the trains didn’t collide because you knew about it. They were going to collide anyway, and you just figured it out with math. Just like this example, it is not a crime for Allah to know what we will do, our life events or whether we will go to Heaven or Hell. Just because He knows, doesn’t mean that Allah intervenes. Why? Like we said before, the trains didn’t collide because you knew they would. You knew they would collide because you did the math. So, it’s the same thing. We don’t do things because Allah knows about them. Allah knows the things we’ll do beforehand, and He writes them in our fate. Just because He writes fate, doesn’t mean He forces us to do anything.
Like, calendars, for example. They tell us when the sun will rise. It says that sunrise is at 6:10. We erase it and write 7:20 instead. Is the sun now going to rise at 7:20? - No. + No, right? The sun is going to rise at 6:10 and that’s why we’ve written that down. It’s not going to rise at that time because we wrote it that way. Just like this, the fact that He writes something in our destiny, doesn’t mean that He intervenes or forces us to do them. Since Allah has eternal knowledge, it’s normal that He would know everything. - Ok then, I’ll ask you something: Let’s say I went to Heaven or Hell. In fact, let’s say I went to Hell. I was created.
It was already known that I would be a bad person. So, why did I just burn in hell for no reason? + We can illustrate it like this, bro. We have an elevator, right? We don’t know the details of its setup… or pulley system, et cetera and we don’t determine them either. But when we are on the elevator, we determine if we will get to floor +7 or to -7. It’s up to us to get to +7 or -7 but the technicalities of the elevator system are not up to us. Just like this, we don’t intervene in the creation of us.. Are we going to be male or female? And other details… Allah determines these like the setup of the elevator.
But just as it was up to us to get to +7 or -7, it’s up to us what we do or don’t do here with our free will. If I wanted, like in the elevator example, with my free will, I could go to a casino or I could go to a mosque. So here, the responsibility is ours. Then, we can’t say, “He created me, and if He knows everything, I have no responsibility here.” No, the responsibility is ours because we have a free will. We must distinguish between Forced Fate and Voluntary Fate concepts Like in the elevator example, The responsibility is still ours. + But, you said we have freedom of choice. Does He not know what we’ll do with our free will?
+ He does but remember what we said in the beginning: “knowledge is subject to what is known.” Just because He knows everything, doesn’t mean He’ll intervene. We confuse knowledge with power, that's why it becomes complicated. Think about it like this: The sun has different colors Sometimes it’s yellow and sometimes it’s red. These colors have different features. Just like in this example, Allah has different names. For example, el-Alîm. It means He’s all-knowing, right? El-Alîm is one quality, like the color yellow. His knowledge of things that have yet come to pass is called el-Alîm. But His power to intervene is related to His name el-Kadîr.
It’s a different quality, like the different colors of the sun. You might think, “If He knows, why does He intervene?” but, no. This one is el-Alîm This one is el-Kadîr Just because Allah knows something, doesn’t mean he intervenes. Like, us writing on that piece of paper. Our writing didn’t make the trains collide. We just knew about it. Like so, Allah’s knowing something comes from the name el-Alîm, but it doesn’t mean he intervenes. Why? Because Allah’s intervention comes from the name el-Kadîr. It’s a different quality. So, fate should be considered in light of the el-Alîm quality. -You probably get questions about angels, too. Isn’t Allah powerful enough? Why does He need helpers?
+ Allah didn’t create the angels because He needs them, Allah chose to create the angels because of his excellence and his magnificence. For example, take a king. The king doesn’t go to the corner store himself, does he? - He doesn’t. + He wouldn’t, right? He’d send someone. Does the king clean the toilets or does he send someone to do it? - He sends someone else. + He sends someone else. Not because he needs to That position demands excellence and magnificence. By creating the Angels, Allah chose to use them in this type of work. So, it’s not because He needed them. I understand. Are you okay with polygamy? + Let’s put it like this: The Quran mentions having 4 spouses.
In the 3rd verse of the Nisâ Surah it says: “Marry other women of your choice—two, three, or four. But if you are afraid you will fail to maintain justice, then ˹content yourselves with˺ one” In the 129th verse, it says: You will never be able to maintain justice between your wives—no matter how keen you are. Islam accepts one spouse as the basis. but if the circumstances require Allah has left this door open for the continuation of life, the concept of family, and generations of humans. For example, there are wars. During wars, the number of men decreases, and in comparison, the number of women increases. In situations like these, having up to 4 spouses,.
enables the human race to be able to continue. Because the Quran is the last book and therefore it’s universal, what did Allah do to make it applicable to all circumstances? He sent the Quran but what is the basis? The Quran accepts 1 marriage as the basis.. - So, you said war. I don’t remember the exact verse. It says that married women except those that are prisoners of war are haram (prohibited) to you. What do you think about this verse? + Ok, so you are asking about concubinage (female slavery). Islam didn’t invent slavery, it didn’t bring about concubinage. Slavery was present in all societies before Islam. You know that. - I do.
+ When Islam arrived, the whole world, all the societies were running on slavery. Because this was the status quo, The Quran needed to integrate these people into society and give them a better life. So, actually, Islam didn’t bring about slavery, but Islam did change what it meant. For example, what was slavery like back then? A slave was seen as a property and didn’t have any value as a person, wasn't even treated like a human being, right? But what does the Quran say? You must take care of your slaves as if they were your children. You have to honor them You have to give them the same as what you eat and what you drink. The companions accepted many slaves as their children.
So, what happens to the concept of slavery after the arrival of Islam? The Prophet, peace be upon him, appointed a slave as the head of the army, as a commander. Look at how that concept has changed. They go to war and who’s the commander? The person everyone called a slave. So, what does the Quran do? It removes the reasons for slavery and concubinage to exist - except for war. It only says, if there’s a war, if someone comes to fight, then slavery can happen. But what was it like before then? If you were a pirate and you raided a town, you could take those people as slaves. For example, if you had a debt that you couldn’t pay, you could be taken as a slave, but Islam removed all these.
Only in war can there be slaves If you look at other societies, because they can take you as a slave as well, it becomes an international issue. When all the other nations can take you as a slave when they win a fight against you and use slavery as a strategy, the fact that Islam didn’t do this, would give them an advantage. Because they would look and see that Islam doesn’t use this strategy So, we can say that Islam gave permission to this only during war because the whole world was using this system. This, as I said before, is an issue that the whole world has to accept. What do we see when we look at several verses? We see a whole bunch of verses about freeing slaves.
If you sinned horribly, you must free a slave. So Islam changed the meaning of slavery. If you look at female slaves, it’s the same thing. When people were seeing women as public property, what did Islam do? Think of it like a textile company. People work there, right? When we look at female slaves, we can think of them as a working class in a society, or you can think of this concept as living a married life. Someone becomes a spouse. They get a family. The idea that they can be publicly distributed is destroyed. Islam gives them a family and the message and the beauty of Islam is communicated to them. But fundamentally, slavery already existed long before Islam.
Islam offered information that was able to change the way that societies think and function.. Slavery was abolished in America all at once. Do you know what happened? Because those people didn’t know how to earn a living, they applied to the authorities and said: “Please send us back to our masters because we don’t know how to live. You haven’t given us any skills.” And how does Islam do things? It creates a system where people can gradually be integrated into society. They receive an education. They are integrated into families and educated there. and this allows them to resettle. They are set free. So, there is actually a system. It’s important to understand this well.
- It’s logical but in this day and age, I don’t think I can practice Islam. + Why not, bro? I’m a Muslim right now, Alhamdulillah. and so are you. - Alhamdulillah + It can be practiced, there’s no such thing as can’t - Of course, all subjects can make mistakes, even the smallest things are sinful, I can’t feel like I belong there. + Sins are different from mistakes. People will make mistakes, no doubt about it. - I can’t be flawless. I don’t think I can do it. + Bro this is like the devil’s whispers. Like, “It’s too hard, it’s too hard.” Let’s say 3 of us are sitting at home and we’re living at the time of Mehmed the Conqueror.
Suddenly, a regulation is announced and Mehmed the Conqueror says: No one is allowed to leave their homes for 5 years! We wouldn’t like this, would we? Would it be logical if I said this: “Gentlemen, this is the most ridiculous decision.” apparently. I don’t know the reason, maybe there is wisdom behind this.. Like, maybe there is a war, but it sounds illogical to me, so I say: “Gentleman, this doesn’t make any sense so this means, Mehmed the Conqueror does not exist.” Would this be logical? - No + No. How about this? “The Ottoman Empire, the realm where Mehmed the Conqueror rules, doesn’t exist, there’s no such thing as the Ottomans.” -No + No. Why?
The fact that something is logical or illogical, or if it’s liked or not liked, doesn’t prove that the system is flawed. What it proves is that we didn't understand it at that moment. It seemed illogical to us then but our rationale also constantly develops, and we might not be aware of what was going on behind the scenes. But if there were Ottoman signatures everywhere, to see even 1 Ottoman signature would be enough for me to know that this place is the Ottoman Empire.
When we look at this example, when we look at the Quran, and when we look at Islam, just because I don’t like one rule, or just because I can’t make sense of it, doesn’t mean that, “Since this rule doesn’t seem logical to me, this means that Allah’s system of reign, that is Islam, is wrong” Can you draw that conclusion from this? - Not from this example but maybe my rationale is not good enough now, like you said. Maybe in the future, I’ll come back to it. + If you want to reach out again, we’re always here. You can reach us through Instagram or Youtube. We can talk whenever you want. Ok, I’m a little sad though… - And I thank you for your answers, it was great chatting with you.
+ Then see you again later, take care. Thank you We weren’t able to talk a lot with you. - No worries, take care. + Thank you, take care. You think over it again. - Ok + Ok, think over it tonight. Many friends who follow ask about the sources for the examples of proof we use in the interviews. The main source for the proof we use in the interviews are from the Risale-i Nur which is the tafseer of the Quran. If you would like to also increase your knowledge about these proofs and be in control, You could start reading the Risale-i Nur. For this, you could message our Instagram page ‘Towards Eternity Ela’ and get more information Or you can directly download our Eternal Life Academy app
Everything about us is known by Allah, when we are born or even before we are born, correct? Like, the creator knows everything about us, every choice I’ll make even before I’m born. Will I be a good person or a bad person? Like, we have free will, but He knows what we’ll choose according to our will I’ll live out my life and as a result, I’ll either be rewarded or punished. I’ll be born for no reason, He will have known every one of my actions beforehand.. And then I’ll be judged accordingly and sent either to Heaven or Hell. That seems silly to me. + Ok, bro. This is a really popular topic and it’s also a confusing one for many people but this confusion stems from a lack of information.
Why? Because bro, knowledge is subject to what is known. So, what does that mean? Knowing something is dependent on the thing that is known. Let me explain this with an example. Let’s say we’re atop a mountain and there are railroad tracks below. On those tracks, there are two trains heading towards each other. We see them from above and do a calculation. Like, distance equals velocity times time. We do the math and say: “They’re heading towards each other, and they’re going to collide in approximately 8 seconds” and you write this down on a piece of paper, ok? And you say, “They’re really going to collide.” And, after 8 seconds, the collision actually happens.
If people saw this piece of paper, would it be logical… if they said this?: “You had written this down. We have collided because you knew and wrote about it. That’s why you’re guilty, we’re going to take you to court.” - No, actually it still doesn’t make sense Everything I will do now, is already known. + I’m coming to that. I’m still at the example part. - Yes for this example, it wouldn’t be logical. + Why bro? Because all you did there was knowing what would happen. Right? You made a scientific calculation and even though you had a limited degree of knowledge, you only knew what was going to happen but you didn’t intervene.
So, this means that the trains didn’t collide because you knew about it. They were going to collide anyway, and you just figured it out with math. Just like this example, it is not a crime for Allah to know what we will do, our life events or whether we will go to Heaven or Hell. Just because He knows, doesn’t mean that Allah intervenes. Why? Like we said before, the trains didn’t collide because you knew they would. You knew they would collide because you did the math. So, it’s the same thing. We don’t do things because Allah knows about them. Allah knows the things we’ll do beforehand, and He writes them in our fate. Just because He writes fate, doesn’t mean He forces us to do anything.
Like, calendars, for example. They tell us when the sun will rise. It says that sunrise is at 6:10. We erase it and write 7:20 instead. Is the sun now going to rise at 7:20? - No. + No, right? The sun is going to rise at 6:10 and that’s why we’ve written that down. It’s not going to rise at that time because we wrote it that way. Just like this, the fact that He writes something in our destiny, doesn’t mean that He intervenes or forces us to do them. Since Allah has eternal knowledge, it’s normal that He would know everything. - Ok then, I’ll ask you something: Let’s say I went to Heaven or Hell. In fact, let’s say I went to Hell. I was created.
It was already known that I would be a bad person. So, why did I just burn in hell for no reason? + We can illustrate it like this, bro. We have an elevator, right? We don’t know the details of its setup… or pulley system, et cetera and we don’t determine them either. But when we are on the elevator, we determine if we will get to floor +7 or to -7. It’s up to us to get to +7 or -7 but the technicalities of the elevator system are not up to us. Just like this, we don’t intervene in the creation of us.. Are we going to be male or female? And other details… Allah determines these like the setup of the elevator.
But just as it was up to us to get to +7 or -7, it’s up to us what we do or don’t do here with our free will. If I wanted, like in the elevator example, with my free will, I could go to a casino or I could go to a mosque. So here, the responsibility is ours. Then, we can’t say, “He created me, and if He knows everything, I have no responsibility here.” No, the responsibility is ours because we have a free will. We must distinguish between Forced Fate and Voluntary Fate concepts Like in the elevator example, The responsibility is still ours. + But, you said we have freedom of choice. Does He not know what we’ll do with our free will?
+ He does but remember what we said in the beginning: “knowledge is subject to what is known.” Just because He knows everything, doesn’t mean He’ll intervene. We confuse knowledge with power, that's why it becomes complicated. Think about it like this: The sun has different colors Sometimes it’s yellow and sometimes it’s red. These colors have different features. Just like in this example, Allah has different names. For example, el-Alîm. It means He’s all-knowing, right? El-Alîm is one quality, like the color yellow. His knowledge of things that have yet come to pass is called el-Alîm. But His power to intervene is related to His name el-Kadîr.
It’s a different quality, like the different colors of the sun. You might think, “If He knows, why does He intervene?” but, no. This one is el-Alîm This one is el-Kadîr Just because Allah knows something, doesn’t mean he intervenes. Like, us writing on that piece of paper. Our writing didn’t make the trains collide. We just knew about it. Like so, Allah’s knowing something comes from the name el-Alîm, but it doesn’t mean he intervenes. Why? Because Allah’s intervention comes from the name el-Kadîr. It’s a different quality. So, fate should be considered in light of the el-Alîm quality. -You probably get questions about angels, too. Isn’t Allah powerful enough? Why does He need helpers?
+ Allah didn’t create the angels because He needs them, Allah chose to create the angels because of his excellence and his magnificence. For example, take a king. The king doesn’t go to the corner store himself, does he? - He doesn’t. + He wouldn’t, right? He’d send someone. Does the king clean the toilets or does he send someone to do it? - He sends someone else. + He sends someone else. Not because he needs to That position demands excellence and magnificence. By creating the Angels, Allah chose to use them in this type of work. So, it’s not because He needed them. I understand. Are you okay with polygamy? + Let’s put it like this: The Quran mentions having 4 spouses.
In the 3rd verse of the Nisâ Surah it says: “Marry other women of your choice—two, three, or four. But if you are afraid you will fail to maintain justice, then ˹content yourselves with˺ one” In the 129th verse, it says: You will never be able to maintain justice between your wives—no matter how keen you are. Islam accepts one spouse as the basis. but if the circumstances require Allah has left this door open for the continuation of life, the concept of family, and generations of humans. For example, there are wars. During wars, the number of men decreases, and in comparison, the number of women increases. In situations like these, having up to 4 spouses,.
enables the human race to be able to continue. Because the Quran is the last book and therefore it’s universal, what did Allah do to make it applicable to all circumstances? He sent the Quran but what is the basis? The Quran accepts 1 marriage as the basis.. - So, you said war. I don’t remember the exact verse. It says that married women except those that are prisoners of war are haram (prohibited) to you. What do you think about this verse? + Ok, so you are asking about concubinage (female slavery). Islam didn’t invent slavery, it didn’t bring about concubinage. Slavery was present in all societies before Islam. You know that. - I do.
+ When Islam arrived, the whole world, all the societies were running on slavery. Because this was the status quo, The Quran needed to integrate these people into society and give them a better life. So, actually, Islam didn’t bring about slavery, but Islam did change what it meant. For example, what was slavery like back then? A slave was seen as a property and didn’t have any value as a person, wasn't even treated like a human being, right? But what does the Quran say? You must take care of your slaves as if they were your children. You have to honor them You have to give them the same as what you eat and what you drink. The companions accepted many slaves as their children.
So, what happens to the concept of slavery after the arrival of Islam? The Prophet, peace be upon him, appointed a slave as the head of the army, as a commander. Look at how that concept has changed. They go to war and who’s the commander? The person everyone called a slave. So, what does the Quran do? It removes the reasons for slavery and concubinage to exist - except for war. It only says, if there’s a war, if someone comes to fight, then slavery can happen. But what was it like before then? If you were a pirate and you raided a town, you could take those people as slaves. For example, if you had a debt that you couldn’t pay, you could be taken as a slave, but Islam removed all these.
Only in war can there be slaves If you look at other societies, because they can take you as a slave as well, it becomes an international issue. When all the other nations can take you as a slave when they win a fight against you and use slavery as a strategy, the fact that Islam didn’t do this, would give them an advantage. Because they would look and see that Islam doesn’t use this strategy So, we can say that Islam gave permission to this only during war because the whole world was using this system. This, as I said before, is an issue that the whole world has to accept. What do we see when we look at several verses? We see a whole bunch of verses about freeing slaves.
If you sinned horribly, you must free a slave. So Islam changed the meaning of slavery. If you look at female slaves, it’s the same thing. When people were seeing women as public property, what did Islam do? Think of it like a textile company. People work there, right? When we look at female slaves, we can think of them as a working class in a society, or you can think of this concept as living a married life. Someone becomes a spouse. They get a family. The idea that they can be publicly distributed is destroyed. Islam gives them a family and the message and the beauty of Islam is communicated to them. But fundamentally, slavery already existed long before Islam.
Islam offered information that was able to change the way that societies think and function.. Slavery was abolished in America all at once. Do you know what happened? Because those people didn’t know how to earn a living, they applied to the authorities and said: “Please send us back to our masters because we don’t know how to live. You haven’t given us any skills.” And how does Islam do things? It creates a system where people can gradually be integrated into society. They receive an education. They are integrated into families and educated there. and this allows them to resettle. They are set free. So, there is actually a system. It’s important to understand this well.
- It’s logical but in this day and age, I don’t think I can practice Islam. + Why not, bro? I’m a Muslim right now, Alhamdulillah. and so are you. - Alhamdulillah + It can be practiced, there’s no such thing as can’t - Of course, all subjects can make mistakes, even the smallest things are sinful, I can’t feel like I belong there. + Sins are different from mistakes. People will make mistakes, no doubt about it. - I can’t be flawless. I don’t think I can do it. + Bro this is like the devil’s whispers. Like, “It’s too hard, it’s too hard.” Let’s say 3 of us are sitting at home and we’re living at the time of Mehmed the Conqueror.
Suddenly, a regulation is announced and Mehmed the Conqueror says: No one is allowed to leave their homes for 5 years! We wouldn’t like this, would we? Would it be logical if I said this: “Gentlemen, this is the most ridiculous decision.” apparently. I don’t know the reason, maybe there is wisdom behind this.. Like, maybe there is a war, but it sounds illogical to me, so I say: “Gentleman, this doesn’t make any sense so this means, Mehmed the Conqueror does not exist.” Would this be logical? - No + No. How about this? “The Ottoman Empire, the realm where Mehmed the Conqueror rules, doesn’t exist, there’s no such thing as the Ottomans.” -No + No. Why?
The fact that something is logical or illogical, or if it’s liked or not liked, doesn’t prove that the system is flawed. What it proves is that we didn't understand it at that moment. It seemed illogical to us then but our rationale also constantly develops, and we might not be aware of what was going on behind the scenes. But if there were Ottoman signatures everywhere, to see even 1 Ottoman signature would be enough for me to know that this place is the Ottoman Empire.
When we look at this example, when we look at the Quran, and when we look at Islam, just because I don’t like one rule, or just because I can’t make sense of it, doesn’t mean that, “Since this rule doesn’t seem logical to me, this means that Allah’s system of reign, that is Islam, is wrong” Can you draw that conclusion from this? - Not from this example but maybe my rationale is not good enough now, like you said. Maybe in the future, I’ll come back to it. + If you want to reach out again, we’re always here. You can reach us through Instagram or Youtube. We can talk whenever you want. Ok, I’m a little sad though… - And I thank you for your answers, it was great chatting with you.
+ Then see you again later, take care. Thank you We weren’t able to talk a lot with you. - No worries, take care. + Thank you, take care. You think over it again. - Ok + Ok, think over it tonight. Many friends who follow ask about the sources for the examples of proof we use in the interviews. The main source for the proof we use in the interviews are from the Risale-i Nur which is the tafseer of the Quran. If you would like to also increase your knowledge about these proofs and be in control, You could start reading the Risale-i Nur. For this, you could message our Instagram page ‘Towards Eternity Ela’ and get more information Or you can directly download our Eternal Life Academy app