Although Allah loves His servants, Why does He punish them with Hell?

Dear Brother / Sister,

A lesson of reality from the Nur Collection: “ A sultan should have blessings and mercy on the right and punishment and discipline on the left. Mercy requires reward and discipline needs punishment. The place for reward and punishment is the hereafter.” (Mesnevi-i Nursiye)

Not giving rewards to those who obey and not punishing those who commit injustice do not suit the greatness of a sultan; both of them are signs of weakness and incapability. God Almighty is excluded from these deficiencies.

To want that He will not manifest His rage has two different meanings:

One is not applying any punishment against those who rebel and who are cruel and injustice. This is not in accord with Allah’s greatness, endeavor, wisdom and justice. Since this option is impossible, there is another option left: Humans’ being created in an unrebellious way and being always obedient. This is not the description of a human but an angel.

Humans have the suitable features to do deeds which will make them the people of Paradise or Hell. People can do deeds that can lead to Paradise or Hell with the partial free will they are bestowed. They have the responsibility for this.

Destiny (qadar) has two ways: One is the matters that are out of human will like their coming to this world, who their parents will be and their appointed time of death, etc. People are not held responsible for them since they do not have the chance to choose them using their own will.

They are responsible for the deeds they decide to do through their will though. Everyone knows by their conscience that their going to a mosque or to a pub is due to their own will. There is no force in this.

In a hadith of the Prophet (pbuh), the following is stated “ every person is born with Islamic nature”. One of the description of Islam is high ethics. In other words, every person has been created with a potential of high ethics and with a feature to confirm the principles of Faith. However, if a person changes this feature using his own will and believes in the things and commits the deeds which can lead to hell, they will be held responsible for them.

Questions on Islam