Eternal Hell

7/25/2019 Eternal Hell

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Eternal Hell

andMerciful God

(Please feel free to distribute and publish this article in any form, provided that you will

publish it fully together with its copyright reference.)

Edip u!sel"

# $%%& yu!sel.org

's a monotheist, have compelling scientific, philosophic and spiritual reasons to believein the uran, yet have to admit that have not digested all the verses of the uran.

Some verses challenge my cultural norms or the mainstream ideology, and a few also

appear to contradict other clear verses of the scripture and*or the laws of nature. +nowing

that my culture is relative, usually handle well the first category, but those that createcontradiction among od-s signs (ayaat) of the scripture or of nature act li!e viruses

infecting my faith. hose who have no intellectual problem with any verses of the uran

are, in my opinion, either gullible people who happened to inherit*ac/uire their faith

because of peer pressure, geographic pro0imity, or any other e0traneous reason or theyare hiding their intellectual problems from others and perhaps from even their own

cognition. 2either type, however, can set a good e0ample.

3y doubt is not about the veracity of the uran, but about the veracity of myunderstanding of some verses of the uran. Since re4ected Sunni precepts that re/uire

blindly following the opinion of orthodo0 scholars and clerics, and since accepted the

uran as the only source of my religion, whenever encounter a problem with myunderstanding of a verse that puts it at cross with 568$, follow the divine advice to act

patiently in see!ing !nowledge ($%6115), as! the e0perts ($167) without following them

blindly (176&), avoid wishful thin!ing and hearsay (9&6$8), and !now that od is the one

who will ultimately provide e0planation (7961:1;). Sometimes, attain a coherentunderstanding within months, but sometimes it ta!es years and even decades. Each of my

intellectual and spiritual e0perience is a testimony to the following facts6


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efore sharing with you my observation about the duration of ?ell, would li!e to share

with you several e0amples of my intellectual struggle and their results. (f you do nothave patience with this lengthy preparatory introduction, please 4ump to the subtitle s

?ell Eternal.)

@or instance, my in/uiry on 96&8 evolving about fifteen years resulted in three

understanding,6 (a) cutting or mar!ing a thief-s hand as a means of public humiliation andidentification, (b) physically cutting off a thief-s hand, or (c) cutting off a thief-s means to

steal and burglariAe (presumably through rehabilitation or imprisonment). Bepending on

the economic and social circumstances, fre/uency of theft, its ris! to the society, and theeconomic, social and psychological cost of punishment, a society may pic! any of the

suggested punishments. n other words, am now convinced that the deliberate use of a

semantically fle0ible !ey word, aa-' is to accommodate time, mood, culture, and

circumstances of diverse populations. @reeAing the message of the uran with the

understanding and practice of the first generation (including Prophet 3uhammad and hiscompanions) is stripping the uran from its prophetic divine nature that ma!es its

message universal.

3y in/uiry on the apparent contradiction between $6$&& and 5619, within severalmonths led me to a conclusion that never wished to reach6 ta!ing the normal length of

pregnancy as $ days (or &8 wee!s), within 8 days of pregnancy abortion would not be

considered murder. n the first trimester, fetus was not considered as a person. >ecominga person is with the emergence of consciousness (that is, 2afs, which is usually wrongly

translated as Soul because of Plato-s influence on later 3uslim scholars). Personhood is

described as the stage of


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in the uran a vulnerable sub4ect to the claim of abrogation. he word


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761; 86$$ 1%65$, 1%% 11691 1$6$, 111 1&65, 1; 167 $161%, 7 $&68% $561 $;6&

&%6$8 &86$; &;6;, 18, $1 5%695 9;615). Sure, there was a danger in confusing igiyev (1875:1;5;). n that boo!let, >igiyev argued that

according to the uran and ?adith, ?ell was not eternal. =hen finished the boo!let mye0citement and hope faded the author had not dealt with many pertinent verses that led

hundreds of millions of 3uslims to believe that hell was eternal. ?e was ma!ing a radical

assertion but he had little persuasive argument to support it. ?e was utiliAing more

emotional appeal than scholarly evaluation of related verses. Bisappointed, continued inmy belief in eternal ?ell, albeit as a contradictory concept continuously irritating my faith

and intellect lur!ing in the bac!ground. could not ignore numerous uranic verses*signs

that were threatening disbelievers or mushri!s with suffering in hell for eternity. >ut also could not ignore the other fact that od-s most repeated attribute in the uran was

od-s mercy (Fa?3 115 times, Fa?3a2 97 times, etc). od had decreed mercy as

?is attribute (61$,95) and ?is mercy was immense (6157 5%67). fre/uently en4oyed

the implication of the following dialogue between Gesus and od that will ta!e place onthe day of 4udgment6


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Please note that the subtitle does not assert that aBa is used in ;685 ;61%8 $565 &&69& 9;611 $67 to mean eternity contingent withthe life of the sub4ect6

aBa) pray in such a mas4id...< (;61%8)

aBa) marry his wives after him.< (&&69&)


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Gudgment then there is possibility of another re:creation. here are indications that

Paradise will be preserved or created again. @or instance, the word +?uB (eternal,

everlasting) is not used for ?ell, but it is used as an ad4ective to describe Paradise($9619). Hn the other hand the same ad4ective is not used to describe ?ell, but to

describe the punishment 2 ?E (1%69$ 516$8).

Hell# To$ether %ith Its Inhabitants# %ill &e Annihilated

Hur language contains synonyms, antonyms, compliments, counterparts, etc. he uran

fre/uently uses pairs of words*concepts to contrast, compare, or compliment each other.

Dsually, the fre/uencies of semantically related words also demonstrate mathematicalharmony, which is another sub4ect e0tensively demonstrated in my boo!s. @or instance,

'!hirah (?ereafter) and Bunya (owly =orld) , 3ala! ('ngel) and Shaytaan (Satan),

Fahmah (3ercy) and ?uda (uidance), ul (Say) and alu (they said), +hal/(Creation) and ?elaa! ('nnihilation), ?ayat (ife) and 3awt (Beath) are semantically

and mathematically related words.

et-s reflect on verse 5%611 and 76$. he first verse refers to two creations and two

deaths and the second refers to creation of death and life. hese two verses can beunderstood better if we !now that in the uranic language death cannot e0ist without life

and vise versa. hey e0ist together, since Beath is permanent halt of brain-s conscious

activity (&;65$ 16$1) but a temporal stage to be followed by resurrection ($;697 1%69$$6). Beath is a process leading to life. ' living creature will die and a dead creature will

get a new life ($$6). Kegetation e0periences successive lives and deaths through

seasons ($65 &6$7 6;9 169 $$69: &%61;:9% &96;). 'fter t he first creation there

was no death nor life we 4ust e0isted. >ut, od decided to create death and life (76$).Creation, death, life (current), death, life (resurrection). n other words, two deaths and

two lives (5%611). he word ?aa+a, on the other hand, is occasionally used to describedeath of an individual (5%6&5), but usually irreversible destruction and annihilation, ortotal e0istential e0tinction of an entity (9617 6 657 865$ $%61$8 $16;9 $$659 $869;

&6&1 ;69 7761).


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