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Does the eternal damnation of hypocrites, disbelievers, and polytheists in Hell contradict the hadiths that mention the exit from Hell of whoever had an atom's weight of faith in their heart, or whoever said "there is no god but Allah"?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The declaration "Lā ilāha illā Allāh (There is no god but Allah)" is not accepted unless its conditions are met, which include: truthfulness that negates hypocrisy, and disbelief in whatever is worshipped besides Allah. Consequently, hypocrites, disbelievers, and polytheists are not covered by the verses and hadiths concerning entry into Paradise, due to the Almighty's saying: ﴿Indeed, those who disbelieved and died while they were disbelievers – never will the full amount of the earth in gold be accepted from one of them, even if he offered it in ransom. For those there will be a painful punishment, and they will have no helpers.﴾

As for disobedient believers, they can enter Paradise directly if they repent with sincere repentance before their death, due to the Almighty's saying: ﴿Say, "O My servants who have transgressed against themselves [by sinning], do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Indeed, Allah forgives all sins. Indeed, it is He who is the Forgiving, the Merciful."﴾, and due to the Prophet's (peace be upon him) saying: "There is no servant who says 'Lā ilāha illā Allāh' and then dies upon that, except that he will enter Paradise." Al-Bukhari explained this hadith to mean that forgiveness occurs upon repentance before death.

If the disobedient person dies before repenting, then he is under Allah's will; if He wills, He will punish him, and if He wills, He will forgive him, due to the Almighty's saying: ﴿Indeed, Allah does not forgive association with Him, but He forgives what is less than that for whom He wills.﴾

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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