Who are the people of the period of silence? What is their ruling in the Hereafter, and are the people of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance considered among the people of the period of silence?

The questioner : Who are the people of the period of silence, what is their ruling in the Hereafter, and are the people of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance considered among the people of the period of silence?

The Shaykh : Yes, by the people of the period of ignorance (ahl al-fatra), we mean everyone to whom the call did not reach in the correct manner that came in the Shari'ah. However, it is not possible to identify every individual among the people of the period of ignorance, because first, this is not possible for humans, and second, no such specification has come from Allah and His Messenger. Then, this term "people of the period of ignorance" and its application to those to whom the call did not reach is a scientific convention, and there is no objection to it, because every people may agree on whatever they wish, provided that their convention does not contain any contradiction with a text from the texts of the Book or the Sunnah. We find in the Qur'an, for example, the saying of the Lord of all beings: , and to Allah belongs the conclusive argument, and if He had willed, Allah would have guided all the people. As for saying that a certain era or a certain time, all of them, individuals and groups, are from the people of the period of ignorance, this is impossible. But we say that whoever is from the people of the period of ignorance in the sense indicated by the verse, meaning that the call did not reach him, and the call of a Prophet or Messenger did not reach him, is the one about whom we can say that he will not be punished on the Day of Resurrection. As for who they are and in what time they are, there is no way to specify them. In fact, it is possible that there are people of the period of ignorance in every time, whether that time is before Islam or after Islam. As for those who were before the sending of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) from the Arabs in the pre-Islamic age of ignorance (jahiliyyah), this falls under my previous statement: it is not possible to say that all of them are not from the people of the period of ignorance to whom the call did not reach, or that all of them are from the people of the period of ignorance to whom the call did not reach. It is not possible to say either this or that with such generality and comprehensiveness. But we believe that both types existed, meaning that among the Arabs, there were those to whom the call reached, and there were those to whom the call did not reach. So if a text comes from Allah and His Messenger specifying that so-and-so did not have the call reach him, we say specifically that the call did not reach him. And the opposite is exactly the opposite: if a text comes about a specific person, either that the call did not reach him, or that the necessary implication of that is that he is from the people of the Fire, then that necessitates that the call reached him, because Allah says, as we mentioned earlier: . So before the sending of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), there was the message of Ibrahim and Isma'il, and its effects remained among the Arabs, especially in the noble and sacred Makkah, blessed by Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), by Ibrahim's building of the Ka'bah in it and worshipping Allah (Mighty and Majestic) in it, he and his son Isma'il, and those who responded to their call. Isma'il (peace be upon him) had been sent to the Arabs, and his call remained manifest and clear in the Arab lands, especially in its capital, Makkah. This call continued among the Arabs as long as Allah willed, and among them, until just before the sending of the Messenger (peace be upon him), were those who worshipped Allah alone, having no partner for Him, even though the majority of the Arabs had fallen into associating partners with Allah (shirk). This matter, meaning their falling into shirk and their worshipping other than Allah (Mighty and Majestic), does not require much research. Rather, this is the research in which we should direct our speech: is everyone who was before the Messenger (peace be upon him) to whom the call did not reach from these Arabs not held accountable and not made to abide eternally in the Fire? The answer is that this generalization is invalid (batil) and not permissible to utter. One cannot say that everyone who was before the sending of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is from the people of the period of ignorance. That is because we have many, and very many, hadiths that explicitly state that some of those who were in the pre-Islamic age of ignorance before the sending of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) are from the people of the Fire. I think that such hadiths are not hidden from anyone present, nor from any student of knowledge other than them. However, some of those referred to, other than those present, may have, if Allah wills, some doubts and questions regarding these texts I mentioned, that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) informed about some of those who were before his sending from the Arabs, and they may be, or some of them may be, from his relatives (peace and blessings be upon him), indeed from the closest people to him. And the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) testified that they are in the Fire. Here the question arises, and some people try to dismiss the question from its root by ruling on the hadiths that came as not authentic, in their claim, because they conflict with the fact that the Arabs who were before the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) are from the people of the period of ignorance. Therefore, I want to draw attention to two things, one of which I mentioned earlier: it is not possible to say absolutely that all those who were before the sending of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) from the Arabs were from the people of the period of ignorance, meaning those to whom the call did not reach. And at that time, it is not correct to argue against these hadiths I mentioned, and some of which will be specified later, by rejecting them with the previous verse , because we will say that this verse is clear and decisive (muhkam), but applying it to every individual among the individuals who were in the nation to whom a Messenger was sent, we cannot say that every individual did not have the call reach him, or the opposite of that. And the opposite is not a matter of doubt, which is that every individual had the call reach them. We do not say the call reached them individually, just as we do not say the call did not reach them individually. Whoever did not have the call reach him is from the people of the period of ignorance who are not punished for their disbelief and misguidance. So then, we stand before authentic hadiths in which the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) explicitly states that so-and-so and so-and-so are from the people of the Fire. It is not permissible to say in this case that this is not correct because he was from the people of the period of ignorance, because we will say: what makes you know that he or they are from the people of the period of ignorance? And he (peace and blessings be upon him) said about them that they are from the people of the Fire. As came in the two Sahihs, for example, that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) passed by one day riding on his mount, and the sun shone on it and it almost threw him off. He looked and found two graves, and he asked the Companions with him when these people died. They said in the pre-Islamic age of ignorance. So he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . The point of this hadith is that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) testified that these two buried people died in the pre-Islamic age of ignorance, and yet they are being punished. If he (peace be upon him) had said: , this punishment that shone on his mount out of fear of this punishment that the animal heard, this punishment was directed at two men who died in the pre-Islamic age of ignorance. So then, the necessary implication of this hadith and its like is that they died upon shirk and misguidance on one hand, and that they are not from those to whom the call did not reach, because if they were so, they would not deserve punishment by the explicit wording of the previous verse . Similarly, it came in more than one hadith that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) was asked about some of the generous and noble ones who were cited as examples of their generosity and nobility, from those who died in the pre-Islamic age of ignorance, whether any of that benefited them. He said: . Finally, we come to the problem of problems for some contemporary writers who rely on the rule that the people of the period of ignorance are not punished, and they reject this last hadith. As for the hadiths mentioned before, it concerns them to mention them negatively or positively, because they have no relation to their emotions, unlike the hadith I will mention next, which is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): . This hadith, as it relates to the mother of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), who is the master of mankind, is very difficult for many people who submit to their emotions without applying the Shari'ah of their Lord in them and submitting to it completely, to accept it as it is obligatory for every Muslim to have his stance toward a ruling from the rulings of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) as He said (Blessed and Exalted is He): . So they do not submit to this hadith as Allah (Mighty and Majestic) commanded them in the mentioned verse, because their hearts do not expand to believe that the mother of the master of mankind is from the people of the Fire, while they know that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to say in a well-known hadith in Sahih Muslim: . And Allah (Mighty and Majestic) says: . So kinship on the Day of Resurrection, for one who died upon shirk, has no benefit at all. And this hadith specifically falls under this generality that kinship does not benefit its owner if he is not a believer in Allah and His Messenger. So his saying (peace and blessings be upon him and his family): is very clear evidence that the mother of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is from the people of the Fire, even though she died before the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) grew up, let alone that she died before his sending (peace and blessings be upon him and his family). So she died in the pre-Islamic age of ignorance. Is she from the people of the period of ignorance, meaning those to whom the call did not reach? The answer is: if she were so, Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) would not have refused to permit the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to seek forgiveness for her. So she died upon shirk. And whoever dies upon shirk, the intercession of the intercessors does not benefit him. Similarly, the other hadith, which is perhaps more famous to some people, and it is also in Sahih Muslim from the hadith of Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him): . Then the man turned away, and he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . So his ruling (peace and blessings be upon him) in this hadith about his father, who was the cause of his existence, is that he is from the people of the Fire, with clear evidence that he is not from the people of the period of ignorance to whom the call did not reach, because if he were so, he would not also be from the people of the Fire. With these hadiths, it is not permissible for us to say that everyone who was before the sending of the Messenger (peace be upon him) from the polytheists is from the people of the period of ignorance, because by doing so, we would negate the hadiths of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) without any proof from ourselves, except clinging to generalities that do not benefit regarding specific texts. And at that time, it is necessary to combine what the verse indicated and what is in its meaning, that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) does not punish anyone of His servants except after sending a Messenger to him. And perhaps it is useful to mention here another doubt that confronts those who doubt in some of these hadiths, which are certain in their authenticity according to the people of knowledge, when they say that these individuals about whom the hadiths came to explicitly state that they are from the people of the Fire did not have the call reach them. So we say at that time: what is your evidence that this type of people who are punished, from those who died in the pre-Islamic age of ignorance, did not have the call reach them? What is your evidence in the negation you mention, meaning their saying "the call did not reach them"? They find no answer except to say: we know for certain that the parents of the Messenger, for example, and some of those noble ones who died in the pre-Islamic age of ignorance, we know for certain that no Messenger was sent to them. Here we must pause a little. When Allah (Mighty and Majestic) said: , is the intended meaning of the sending of the Messenger by which the argument is established against the people who denied it and disbelieved in it that a Messenger comes to them in person with the call from his Lord to them? Or is it sufficient that the call of the Messenger reaches those people, even through the companions of that Messenger or those who came after them? Here is the precision of the matter, and I think that no one can interpret the verse to mean that the intended meaning of the sending of the Messenger is only in person, or that if the Messenger dies, the call dies, and that this call, if it reaches people through the followers of the first Messenger or the followers of their followers, and so on, the argument of Allah is not established against the people except in the case of the sending of the Messenger in person only. I do not believe that anyone narrows the meaning of the verse to say: we were not to be punished until a Messenger was sent to us in person, meaning that every people must have a Messenger come to them in person with his call. That is because it is known first by the text of his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): فضّلت على الأنبياء قبلي بخمس خصال I was preferred over the prophets before me with five characteristics, and he mentioned in it (peace and blessings be upon him) his saying: وأنّه كان النّبيّ يبعث إلى قومه خاصّة وبعثت إلى النّاس كافّة Every Prophet used to be sent to his nation exclusively but I have been sent to all mankind.Sahih al-Bukhari 438. His saying (peace and blessings be upon him) "and I was sent to all people" along with his saying (Glorified and Exalted is He): وما أرسلناك إلاّ كافّة للنّاس بشيرا ونذيرا And We have not sent you except comprehensively to mankind as a bringer of good tidings and a warner[Saba 34:28] and his saying: وما أرسلناك إلاّ رحمة للعالمين And We have not sent you, [O Muhammad], except as a mercy to the worlds.[Al-Anbya 21:107], all of this and that indicates that the sending of the Messenger (peace be upon him) is not only for his person, but also for the call reaching those after his death (peace and blessings be upon him). Similarly, we say when he (peace be upon him) said: وكان النبّيّ يبعث إلى قومه خاصّة whereas the Prophets before me were sent to their own peopleSunan an-Nasa'i 432Sahih (Darussalam), it does not mean he is sent in person only, but also with his call after his death (peace and blessings be upon him). These are facts that, in my belief, no one can dispute or argue with, because it would necessitate for him.