Know Your Deen

Q:The Quran says that Allah has sent a prophet to every community.
But many generations of people like the native americans or the australian aborigines have lived and died without the message of the prophet (PBUH).What would be the fate of these people in the herafter?
Time: Sunday September 4, 2011 at 1:31 pm

Answer: (by Br: Yassir Butt. Due to time constraints, we send questions to him for answering; we appreciate all that he does for the community.)

In the Tafsir (Exegesis) of chapter 17 (???????) verse 15 of the holy Quran by Ibn Katheer he states that anyone who has not heard of the true religion in their respective age and time will be tested by the All Mighty on the day of judgment and if they pass that test they will be saved and if they fail they will be sent to eternal damnation.

One should refer to the above mentioned chapter and verse for further details and hadith citations in Tafsir Ibn Katheer.  Imam Baihaqi and Abu Hassan Al Asharee also stated the same opinion and is the opinion of ahl us sunnah and jamaa.

Allah Knows best.

p.s. Additional note from the host of this site: Every person has a sense of Allah (SWT.) With current media efforts, every person has heard of Islam, despite it being negative. Refusing to research what a person hears would not be an excuse. Additionally, if a person was stranded on an island, later became mature (baligh) and the thought crossed his/her mind of the Supreme, even though the person did not believe in any prophet due to not being able to and died without meeting anyone due to the circumstances and finding out about Mohammad’s (SAW), the person would be insha-Allah be counted as a muslim. There is something in every human that wants to believe in One Allah (SWT) provided the individual did not resist to this emotion and also accepted that tenants that surround it. (Good question.)