Why does Allah create people who will end up in hell?

Question

I do realize this question has been asked before here: Why does Allah create someone whose fate is hell?

Yet I feel I should ask again and maybe in a bit of a different manner as I don't believe the answers on that post were adequate.

I'm wondering from an Islamic perspective, if Allah knew that some people will end up in hell, why go through with the creation anyway? What purpose does that serve for Allah?

Note: Some people seem to be confused and don't understand my question and they think I'm not understanding the purpose of hellfire and that it is to punish people who do wrong, when in fact all I'm asking is about the creation of those who will end up in hellfire. Please don't resort to explanations for why hell was created or why people go to hell, etc. This doesn't answer the question being asked.

Answer 1

There are a lot of assumptions you're making there, no offence meant.

Now, Allah is indeed omniscient. As for benevolence, we say He is the Most Merciful (not All Merciful). This means, more or less, Most Merciful out of all who show Mercy. No man should presume to restrict Him to complete and full ercy, and complete and full forgiveness all the time for everything. Allah has within His attributes the attribute of Most Just as well. How can it be justice to those who did serve Him to put those who did not serve Him at an equal level to them? All of His attributes are in harmony with each other and none of them conflict. Perhaps some take precedence over others, Allah knows best.

Allah created Mankind for the purpose of recognising Him, and then submitting to Him, more or less. That is by taking the Kalimah as one's creed and having at least some conviction in it. To that end and purpose, everything has been designed. All men will submit to Him eventually. Either they will submit in this world and attain Paradise within which to continue to be in reverence of Him while having attained His Pleasure, or to refuse to submit in which case He may prescribe for them Hell. In Hell, its dwellers will also be in submission.

Anas ibn Malik reported: The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “It will be said to a man among the people of Hellfire on the Day of Resurrection: If you owned all that is on the earth, would you pay it as ransom for yourself? He will say yes. It will be said: I wanted from you something easier than that, for when you were still in the loins of Adam you were told not to associate anything with Me and yet you insisted upon an associate with Me.”

– Musnad Ahmad 11880 (Source: abuaminaelias.com)

Another version:

“Would you give as ransom the world and everything in it if you owned them in order to be saved from this torture?” He says, "Yes, I would." Thereupon, Allah will say, “When you were among the descendants of Adam, I had asked you something much easier than this sacrifice: not to associate any partners with Me. However, you kept on associating partners with Me.”

– Bukhari, Muslim (Source: questionsonislam.com)

It can be posited from this following Hadith, perhaps, that the existence of people of Hell may also have the function of being one of the factors that help create people of Heaven:

Abu Huraira reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “Verily, no one will enter Paradise but a soul submissive to Allah, yet Allah may support this religion by the hands of a wicked man.”

– Bukhari 2897, Muslim 111 (Source: abuaminaelias.com)

Note: I am relying on third parties to translate these Ahadith, and cannot vouch for the complete reliability of the translations.

I testify that if this response has any truth to it, then it is by the permission of Allah. Whereas if it has any falsehood to it, it is my shortcoming, and fault, entirely, and alone.

Answer 2

(See also Qur'an 2:214, 29:2, 67:2, and 76:2, and probably other verses I haven't listed.)

Suffering is also sometimes brought on by sin, and this is mentioned in the Qur'an, e.g.:

And whatever strikes you of disaster - it is for what your hands have earned; but He pardons much. Quran 42:30

(See also Qur'an 30:41.)

Why mankind was created is explained directly in the Qur'an:

And I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me. Qur'an 51:56

Unlike humans and jinn, angels cannot choose to disobey Allah (Qur'an 66:6, 21:27, and 21:20). So indeed Allah created a being incapable of evil. However, this implies that angels don't have free will, or at least have their freedom limited (Are angels free-willed, perfectly ethical beings?).

The question Why is there hell? has been asked before: Is there clear answer to the Problem of Hell? and Why did Allah create hell?, and the short answer is "punishment and justice"

Answer 3

I have a question to ask you; will by you asking this question get you closer to Paradise in any way?

Al-Bukhari and Muslim: Al-Khattabi said, “This tradition is regarding those who ask pretentiously or stubbornly about matters in which they have no need. As for those who ask about a necessary matter, because the issue has affected them, they should ask about it and there is no sin or fault upon them.”

If by asking the question doesn't have any benefit on you or bring you closer to Paradise then it's best to stay away from such a question

Now, as to your question as to why Allah created a person He knew would ultimately enter the hell fire anyway.

He can choose to do whatever He wants; He is our creator and the creator of everything

Now, in regards to you saying in your comments about Him choosing to create a person He knew would eventually go to hell anyway; we're people. We lack knowledge. Allah is the Lord of the whole universe and His knowledge extends beyond all things. He knows what is good and bad whilst our knowledge is limited. His knowledge is unlimited. He will only share with us that what He wishes to share with us.

Surat Ta-Ha [20:98]: “Your Ilah (God) is only Allah, the One (La ilaha illa Huwa) (none has the right to be worshipped but He). He has full knowledge of all things.”

Surat al-An’am [6:59]: “And with Him are the keys of the Ghaib (all that is hidden), none knows them but He. And He knows whatever there is in (or on) the earth and in the sea; not a leaf falls, but He knows it. There is not a grain in the darkness of the earth nor anything fresh or dry, but is written in a Clear Record.”

Surah An-Nisa verse 19: ...it is quite likely that you dislike something and Allah has placed a lot of good in it. (The rest of the verse is not relevant to this topic but the point we can clearly see from this is we, including yourself, could think a thing is good for us when it's bad for us and vice versa whereas Allah has knowledge we don't)

Surah Al-Baqarah 2:2-6 This is the Book about which there is no doubt, a guidance for those conscious of Allah who believe in the Unseen, and are steadfast in Salāh (prayer), and spend out of what We have provided them; and who believe in what has been revealed to you and what has been revealed before you; and they have faith in the Hereafter. It is these who are guided by their Lord; and it is just these who are successful. Surely for those who have disbelieved, it is all the same whether you warn them or you warn them not: they do not believe.

So from this we can see that

1. we can think a thing is good for us when it's actually bad for us and vice-versa (maybe your question arises from that) but Allah knows best
2. we have choices therefore if we go to hell it's our own fault; you can't blame the creator (bearing in mind again that we are limited in our thinking) therefore we should just trust Allah. The believers are on right guidance. The disbelievers chose not to believe even when warned
3. it's disliked to question about something irrelevant unless it was to bring the questioner close to Paradise

Wouldn't it just be best to trust Allah (knowing He is true) regardless of the fact He created a person knowing that they would go to hell? Maybe by living a life in His obedience things will begin to make more sense to you and you will be a person of Paradise, God willing.

May Allah guide you

Answer 4

1. Allah created sickness, and the Medicen to cure that sickness. then he told you to cure yourself with that Medicine if you get sick, if you fail to cure yourself with that Medicine, are you going to blame Allah and asked him why did he created the sickness, or are your going to blame yourself for not cure yourself with that Medicine?

2. Allah created Good and bad, but he knew that you must make some mistake and do evil things, at the same time, he told you to repent for the evil did that you have committed, he will forgive you, and turn your evil did in to good did, so that you can go to Heaven without punishment. If you refuse to repent for your evil did and end up in Hell, are you going to blame Allah and aske Allah why did he created Hell, or are you going to blame for failing to repent, for you not to end up in Hello?

Answer 5

1)if you libertarian, then your question is invalid because Allah’s knowledge is not causative/predictive , ie Even if God knows all the facts about a situation, he cannot know what a free agent would do from those facts,He knows what free agent will do directly from agents acts (probably you didn’t understand this , but fortunately I am not libertarian, i think this view have some tension with scriptures)

2)someone has already answered your question above , people destined for hell may created for the soul building of people destined for heaven ,One May respond and say God could have created some NPCs for that purpose

3)you said you don’t have any assumptions, but you assume 1)there is some moral obligation God has follow , and creating people end up in hell is morally bad . I agree with the former , but disagree with the latter , God punishing someone Good is morally bad ,but as you have correctly said those don’t exist don’t deserve anything, neither do they have any rights , Once they are created ,they have rights , but since they are bad , God has every right to punish them , One may ask if God created them differently, they wouldn’t have done that bad deed , but if they were created differently, it wouldn’t be ‘they’ anymore

Answer 6

So I had the same question as you and I have been struggling as well but I think I cracked the code on this question.

DISCLAIMER: I would consider myself a Muslim, but I am still learning the religion and have not done the oath or creed to become a Muslim. I am still learning and answering all my questions before I do it. My father is Muslim though, but he never forced me to be a believer. I want to be a Muslim on my own accord. I cannot quote scripture or speak Arabic, but I hope I can help someone that is trying to find/strengthen their connection with God.

Quick answer:

God still carried out the process of creation because he still wanted us to use our free will. By us living our lives, this is evidence that we got to use our free will to the fullest. God functions outside the restraints of time and saw our choices before we made them. He made us with the hopes we would do good but did not force us. He let us do whatever we wanted and saw us do right/wrong.

Long answer so that you understand:

So, I was reading through these answers and was not finding a good answer that made me understand. However, someone gave a link to a lecture with Yusha Evans which I decided to watch to see if it answered my question.

In the video, he said "Can you watch a movie and see the beginning and the end at the same time? No, you can't because you have to sit and watch from the start and wait for it to finish. God can do that though."

This made me think of that in terms of us humans. So, we know he made us with the intention of giving us free will.

He makes us and automatically sees all our life choices from the age of 1 to the time of our death. From there he can see which of us did right and did wrong. Those that did wrong end up in hell fire.

It's not that he made people that would automatically end up in hell or intentionally put them in hell. It's that he made a person with free will and it just so happened that he saw the persons whole life and saw that he would not do the right things with his free will.

Other questions like "why not just create humans that he knows wont do wrong?" were already answered: because that's not the goal and then free will would not exist.

I think Gods goal was to make a being that had free will and that praised him without being forced to praise him.

With that goal in mind, he made up with free will and free will does not mean perfect. He saw what we were going to do with our free will before we used it since he is not bound by time and saw the start of our lives and the end of our lives. He made us with the hope that we would do the right thing, but he did not force us to do the right thing. That part is up to us.

I hope this helps someone. I know it's confusing but the quote from that lecture was really spot on. God is not bound by time so he knows what choices we will make in the end.

So it's not that he made us knowing that we would go to hell fire with no chance of going to heaven. He made up with the intention that we would willingly praise him but saw we choose not to but still let us use our free will. So, it's not that he made people with the intention of sending them to hell. The correct way to think of that is that he made people and saw their life choices and knows that they will end up in hell.

The justice part comes from Gods intentions which were good.

P.S. - Here is a good breakdown:

1. • God makes a human soul with free-will in hopes that that they will do the right thing but won't force them.
2. • God Functions outside the realm of time so he see the person do bad things with his free will and doesn't follow the rules the 95 years he is given on earth.

3 - Good sees all of this and writes it in his book and decides that this person must be punished for the choices he made with his free will so he writes as his final place.

4 - God takes that soul and puts it a physical body on ear so it can it least use the free will that was given (Basically, knows that the person will not do the right thing but still has to let him take the test so that the person has no excuses and can use their free will which is a gift.)

Bouns - No, God did not force you to do evil or do wrong just like he didn't force you to do good.

I HOPE I EXPLAINED GOOD. SORRY IN ADVANCE IF I SAID SOMETHING WRONG> THIS IS JUST MY UNDERSTANDING AT THE MOMENT.

Answer 7

Hope you well. This lecture might help to answer your question Why will non-Muslims go to hell if Allah made them non-Muslims

Answer 8

[As a very new to this type of site, I am apologizing at the beginning of my answer to this question if it seems harsh or fails to convey my thoughts clearly. This same question bugged me for years at a younger age. I am answering based on the 'ANSWER' given to me which I accepted (not at that moment, it took years as well when my life taught me the 'MEANING')]

If I understand correctly, the person asked the question is interested to know "WHY TO CREATE SOMETHING KNOWING THAT IT WILL EVENTUALLY GO TO ASHTRAY?". I asked the same and got an answer like the following one.

'Why we created/produced toothbrush (some are very expensive which are shown in TV commercials) knowing that it will wear and eventually we will throw them out to the bin. The tooth will be clean and white and shiny but the brush which did it all will be placed on the fire (in case recycling is attempted). The simple answer would be: "That was the purpose of the toothbrush to clean the tooth". Otherwise, how would it be possible for someone to become Shahid (martyr for his faith which is true to Allah) and go to Jannah if none (most probably a disbeliever who did not like Allah and his commands) had killed him and went to the Hell? Everything Allah created has its own purpose and Allah knows best'.

Now that I read the comments (from the questioner) on other answers, I expect to be asked a very expected question: "Then why I am guilty of serving my purpose if Allah made me in a bad way or Allah wanted me to do it or someone will do it if I have not". My answer would be "As like in Schrodinger's cat thought experiment (hope you are aware of it) until I die and face the judgment, I have an equal probability for going to the Hell or Heaven (being a by born Muslim) same as a non-believer, who could do something before death which Allah accepts dearly and I can do the worst sin in my life at the last moment". If you still cannot catch what I meant, please read this https://www.virtualmosque.com/personaldvlpt/character/the-parable-of-the-prostitute/ which satisfied my concern about 'purpose'.

Finally, there is a slim chance that you are still wondering "Why create at all? Wouldn't it be better if there was no Hell nor Heaven and no creation, no test, etc?" I will say this to the question: 'Your maid who has the right (or authority given by you) to clean up everything in your house still cannot GO to the places which you deem private or don't want to be asked about it (as you believe in privacy and don't feel an obligation to answer every question). Then why as a servant of Allah we sometimes forget our places and ask questions as if Allah is obligated to answer all things (no matter how private like what was his WISH or PLAN) in the Quran. Yet Allah answered many things in Quran when people asked about HIM and such types of questions. May Allah forgive us all, gives us knowledge and sense and guide us to paradise and protect us from the hell-fire.

For 'If Allah gives anything, there is none to take that away. If Allah takes away anything, there is none to give it back' Allah knows best.

Answer 9

The Answer is That,

1. Because They deserved to be punished. 2.Because HE HAS THE POWER TO CREATE WHATEVER HE WANTS TO CREATE.
2. He cannot be questioned about what He does, but they will ˹all˺ be questioned. Quran 21:23.

You too,Ask Yourself why would you give birth to a child after knowing that the child can will definitely die one day?

Answer 10

Allah created us and gave us free will to choose how we want to live our lives, but he also shows us how to live a better life, than we can think for ourselves.

If you choose Allah, and do good dids, you will not end up in Hell, but if you deside to abandon Allah, going up and down, doing evil things, you might end up in Hell, and that mean, you refuse to enter Paradise, by ignoring Allah, cuz he gave you option to repent, but you refuse to repent. You will not have anyone to ask or blame for your mistakes, on the day of Judgement.

Allah did not created us to ponish us in Hell fire. Allah created us to use our free will, and willingly warship him. Repentance is one of the bigest gift from Allah. Repent, read the Quran, so that you will get more understanding about how Allah is more merciful.

Answer 11

Shaytan chose to burn forever, the conversation between him and Allah when he chose to go to hell hopefully can give you some insight to the psychological nature of the things113:2 "evil creation" Allah created to burn forever because they supposed to, yes we wouldn't wish hell on our worse enemy that kills our loved one but yet they will wish it on themselves and Allah knows best.

Answer 12

This is the simple answer, I had the same question, to show us His mercy, if you're not satisfied you can ask mme which part you font understand