Edip-Layth Note on Hell.

Is Hell Eternal?

God, as demonstration of ultimate creation, chose to test the results of creating a being with the ability to freely choose its own destiny (18:29; 6:110; 13:11). God downloaded His revelation/commands/logic (ruh) to the prototype human that would provide him with innate rules of reasoning to distinguish falsehood from truth, bad from good (15:29; 32:9; 38:72;). Messengers and books containing ruh were only a bonus mercy, mere reminders of the facts that could be discovered by reason (2:37; 10:57; 11:17; 16:89; 21:107; 29:51; 16:2; 36:69; 37:87; 39:21; 42:52; 58:22). Though believing that we humans have freedom of will is one of the paradoxes most difficult to digest, I accept it on faith (18:29; 57:22). God, created life and death on this planet to test His ultimate creature (67:2). After a certain age, an individual is deemed accountable by God (46:15). God decided to punish those who freely choose a path contradictory to its original program as they corrupt it through false ideas and actions (2:57; 4:107; 6:12; 7:977; 59:19). The programs that are infected with viruses will experience and a regretful stage called Hell (Hell and Paradise are allegories: 13:35; 17:60; 37:62; 7:44). In this stage the corrupt programs and their chief infector (Satan) will be penalized (7:11; 38:71), and then altogether they will be annihilated. The only virus that will not be healed on the day of Judgment is the virus that creates a schizophrenic personality, a personality that submits itself to others besides God, a personality that does not free itself from false gods thereby alienating itself from its origin, that is God (4:48).

The popular belief that Hell will burn eternally bothered me for decades, but I suppressed my problem by saying "God is Merciful and Just; He knows something that I do not know." Of course, God knows many things that we do not know. But, what if we are protecting our superstitions and false beliefs through such an excuse? What if we are stopping ourselves from using God's greatest gift: reason, which distinguishes a believer from a disbeliever, a human from an animal? (2:73, 170, 171, 242, 269; 3:118, 190; 7:169; 8:22; 10:42, 100; 11:51; 12:2, 111; 13:4, 19; 16:67; 21:10, 67; 23:80; 24:61; 29:63; 30:28; 38:29; 39:9, 18, 21; 40:54; 59:14). Sure, there was a danger in confusing "reason" with my personal wishes, ignorance and cultural biases. I could distort the meaning of God's Word to appease my wishes or to conform to my limited knowledge. There was a fine line. Should I use my reason to question an understanding that I inherited from a particular sect, or should I follow everything without using my mind? Knowing that the Quran strongly admonishes us from following the crowd, the footsteps of our parents, or religious scholars blindly, (6:116; 2:170; 9:31; etc.). I rejected blind faith and chose faith based on knowledge and reason (17.36). To prefer an unorthodox understanding, I have adopted a two-pronged rule: I should be able to support it by the original language of the scripture, AND the unorthodox understanding should not create a contradiction either among the divine laws and precepts in the scripture or between scripture and divine laws in nature.

About six years ago, I read a Turkish translation of a booklet, The Universal Salvation, written by Musa Jarullah Bigiyev (1874-1949). In that booklet, Bigiyev argued that according to the Quran and Hadith, Hell was not eternal. When I finished the booklet my excitement and hope faded as the author had not dealt with the many pertinent verses that led hundreds of millions of Muslims to believe that hell was eternal. He was making a radical assertion but he had little persuasive argument to support it. He was utilizing more emotional appeal than scholarly evaluation of related verses. Disappointed, I continued in my belief in eternal Hell, albeit as a contradictory concept which continuously irritated my faith and intellect lurking in the background. I could not ignore numerous Quranic verses/signs that were threatening disbelievers or mushriks with suffering in hell for eternity. But I also could not ignore the other fact that God's most repeated attribute in the Quran was God's mercy (RaHYM 114 times, RaHMaN 57 times, etc). God had decreed mercy as His attribute (6:12) and His mercy was immense (6:147; 40:7). I frequently took solace in the implication of the following dialogue between Jesus and God that will take place on the day of judgment:

"'If you punish them, they are your creatures. If you forgive them, you are almighty, wise.' God will say: 'This is a day when their truth will benefit the truthful ones.' They have deserved gardens with flowing streams. They abide there forever. God is pleased with them and they are pleased with Him. This is the greatest achievement." (5:118)

His justice was also reminded frequently (3:182; 4:40; 8:51; 11:101; 16:33; 22:10; 41:46; 43:76; 50:29; 99:7). How can a merciful and just God torture his creatures in eternal hell for their crimes committed in a very short time, a period that is almost zero compared to eternity?! How could divine mercy and justice be challenged by my limited mercy and justice? If I had a part of God's revelation/knowledge/logic (ruh) in my genetic program, then I should be able to find a way to embrace, not necessarily comprehend, God's mercy and justice without reservation.