01-16-2004, 03:14 AM
Q: Do we postulate that a specific person who dies upon disbelief, like, for example Stalin or Lenin, are in the hellfire, i.e. we say: al-Khumayni is in hell-fire now being punished?
A: Whoever dies upon disbelief - and he is an original disbelief [not an apostate] - then we bear witness that he is in the hell-fire.
Due to the hadeeth, 'My father, and your father are in the hell-fire'.
And the hadeeth of the visitors of Bani al-Muntafiq, we read, 'If you pass by the grave of a Qurayshi or Doosi, then say, "Have news of what will dissapoint you, being dragged by your face into the hell-fire"'
[it is permissable], particularly if he is from the Jews or Christians, due to the hadeeth, 'By the One who's hand my soul is in, no Jew or Christian from this ummah [of da'wah] hears of me, and then doesn't believe in what I have been sent with, except that he enters hell-fire'.
Ibn al-Qayyim said, in Zaad al-Ma'aad, 'In it, is evidence that whoever dies a mushrik, is in the hell-fire'.
And also, due to His saying, the Most High, 'The fire, they are exposed to it, morning and afternoon'.
If he is an apostate - and died upon apostacy - then we witness that he is in the fire aswell.
As is narrated, authenticly from Abu Bakr regarding the ones who died from the apostates, when he made peace with them on the condition that they bear witness that their killed, from the apostates are in the hell. And this is the consensus of the companions.
[Translator says: there is some difference of opinion on this, and the evidence used towards the end (Abu Bakr's incident) is questionable, since it is not talking about a specific person. And Allah knows best.]