Does God Love Sinners and Non-Muslims?

The basic theme of the talk was to say how Islam brings calm to our lives and our rebellious hearts, amidst all the other things in this world that are pulling at us.

The talk, attended by Muslims and non-Muslims, was well attended and well received, but there was a small group of students from one of the Evangelical Christian groups in the university, who were so keen to ask questions at the end of the talk about sin and God’s punishment.

In fact, to me they seemed obsessed with the idea of sin, although this is not an idea held in mainstream Christianity. We need to understand where this obsession with sin comes from in order to answer your question properly.

In the Biblical accounts of Creation, we read the story of Adam and Eve and how they sinned and were expelled from the Garden of Eden because of their sin and disobedience. The Bible account ends there, with Adam and Eve out in the cold.

According to this idea, the whole of humanity down through the ages inherits this sin from Adam and Eve, and no one can make up for it except a super human savior. Christians see Jesus (peace be upon him) as this savior who, according to their tradition, dies on the cross to “save mankind from sin.”

Sin and forgiveness, therefore, are directly linked in this tradition to Jesus’ death on the cross. They hold that there is nothing anyone can do to be worthy in God’s sight, except to be forgiven through the blood of Jesus.

In the Roman Catholic tradition, priests are given the power to forgive sins on God’s behalf. This whole idea of “original sin,” then, comes from the Bible.

In the Quran, the story is told quite differently. Adam and Eve sin and are punished and expelled, but they return and are forgiven by Allah Almighty.

In Islam, therefore, we do not see human beings as being born into this world as sinful and in need of a savior. No, in Islam we see people born with an innate goodness. What would they be saved from? What would a savior do for them?

This really is a massive difference in outlook between Islam and the religions which went before it. Islam is a religion of mercy. We most often call upon Almighty Allah by two of His most beautiful names: Ar-Rahman and Ar-Raheem, Most Merciful and Most Compassionate.

In the Quran, we read what means:

{Every man’s work We have fastened on his own neck, and on the Day of Judgment We shall bring out for him a book which he will see open, saying ‘Read your own book! Enough for you this day that your own soul should call you to account.’} (Al-Israa’ 17:13-14)

However, we also believe that scales of deeds will be set up on that Day of Judgment, and it will be a day of justice, when no soul shall be wronged.

{Whoever has done an atom’s weight of good shall see it.} (Az-Zalzalah 99:7-8)

In other words, those who have done wrong will be punished, and those who have done good will be rewarded, God willing:

{Those whose scales are heavy, they are the successful; but those whose scales are light, they are the ones who have lost their souls in Hell, dwelling forever. The fire will burn their faces, and there, they will be gloomy with lips displaced.} (Al-Mu’minun 23:102-104)

As for Allah loving those who are not Muslim, of course He does. He created the heavens and the earth and everything in between. Islam is a mercy to all mankind, not just to Muslims.