Advice and Good News for a Christian Entering Islam, and an Explanation of the Hadith (… Three People Will Receive Their Reward Twice)

Abu Layla : Please, our Shaykh.

The Shaykh : Are you ready?
Abu Layla : Ready.

The Shaykh : I want to say regarding the brother, we said that he will receive his reward twice. This is what our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) explicitly stated in the authentic hadith narrated by Imam al-Bukhari in his Sahih: He mentioned among them: This means that he was a believer before, in the law of Jesus (peace be upon him), and then when the truth became clear to him that what Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) brought was also truth, he believed in it, and his reward was recorded for him twice. It is not so for one who was among the Christians but was an atheist, neither a Christian nor a Muslim, and then he embraced Islam; for him, his reward is once. As for the one who was truly a Christian, despite the deviation in it, if he believes, he will receive his reward twice. I say "despite the deviation in Christianity" because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), when he spoke of this hadith and said: he only meant the Christians who were in his time (peace and blessings be upon him), and the Christians about whom Allah (Mighty and Majestic) said in the clear text of the Noble Qur'an: And these are the ones whose slaughter is made lawful for us. Therefore, a Muslim should not doubt or ask about these Christians today who say that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one God. We say that they were the same in the time of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), and they are the ones whom the Lord of Mankind referred to in the previous verse: So if any man from the People of the Book embraces Islam and believes in Allah and His Messenger, he will receive his reward twice: once for his previous belief before his deviation, and once for his subsequent belief, which is entirely truth with no falsehood in it. We ask Allah for you, first, steadfastness, and then uprightness upon the truth. This obligates you, and religion is advice, to be eager to learn about the correct Islam. And I say, with regret, "the correct Islam." Why? Because what befell the Muslims before them has befallen them; what befell the Jews and Christians in terms of division in religion has befallen the Muslims. This is the fulfillment of the saying of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him): meaning those who had the power and the state at that time. This news has come true for most Muslims today: So the Muslims have divided. Therefore, if Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has bestowed upon you the great guidance, which is the first, that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) saved you from polytheistic, idolatrous Christianity to Islam, which first commands people to worship Allah alone, having no partner with Him, and then commands all Muslims to believe in all the laws that were before Islam, unlike the Jews who do not believe except in the Torah, and unlike the Christians who do not believe except in the Torah and the Gospel, despite the distortion, alteration, and change in them. The Muslims are religiously commanded to believe in everything Allah has sent down before, and in every prophet or messenger sent before. As long as our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) has guided you to this Islam in the creed of tawhid (the oneness of Allah) first, and then by testifying to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he is truly a messenger and a prophet, then it is up to you to follow the path and know what the Messenger brought, in which people differ. You know there are schools of thought: the Hanafis, the Shafi'is, the Malikis, and the Hanbalis. This is regarding the legal rulings they call the branches. There is disagreement in the creed: the Maturidi school, the Ash'ari school, and a modern school, besides the other sects you hear of: the Shi'ah, the Rafidah, the Ibadis, the Khawarij, the Mu'tazilah, etc. So you must be eager to complete the first guidance by learning the law of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) derived from the Book of Allah and the hadith of the Messenger of Allah, and what the righteous Salaf (the earliest generations) were upon, namely the first generation: the Companions, the Tabi'un (the generation after the Companions), and those who followed them. Because these three generations are the ones the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) testified to as the best in the authentic hadith: And to achieve this completing and perfecting guidance, you must realize a verse in the Noble Qur'an, which is the saying of the Lord of the Worlds: This is your duty toward us as a Muslim brother, and religion is advice.

The questioner: Peace be upon you.

The Shaykh : And upon you be peace, and Allah's mercy and blessings.