Question:
As-Salamu ‘alaykum wa rahmat Allah.
I have heard people say the worst Muslim is still better in the sight of God than the best of non-Muslims. Is this even true for a righteous non-Muslim who does not reject Islam out of arrogance or spite?
Answer:
Waalaykumussalam warahmatullah wabarakatuh,
Yes. It is all about divine guidance and the immense status of La ilaha illallah Muhammadun Rasulullah. Whoever is guided to that has been given boundless goodness next to which all other purported goodness is as zero. As to {Whoever wants this lower life and its ornaments, We shall repay them in full their works therein, and they shall not be defrauded therein} (Hud 11:15), i.e. the people of self-display, the hypocrites, and the unbelievers and their acts of piety. That is because the unbelievers’ highest ethics and philanthropy are as ashes in the wind: {The similitude of those that disbelieved in their nurturing Lord—their deeds are as ashes which a violent wind blew away on a day of tempest. They cannot have, of all that they have earned, anything. That is the far-gone misguidance!} Ibrahim (14:18). So “their good deeds are not counted in worthiness of reward, but what is expected to befall for them is the lessening of punishment” (Baydawi under al-Nahl 16:97).
Hajj Gibril Haddad
