What Leads One to Fire of Hell
This is according to Quran interpreter Mohammad Ali Ansari, speaking in an online Quran interpretation session, excerpts of which are as follows:
In this Surah, God tells us about all stages that human beings go through. It begins with this world and death and then talks about the Barzakh (a phase between an individual's death and their resurrection in the Hereafter) or the world of grave, and the Resurrection Day. In verse 23, God says: “Here is (his Record) ready with me!”
Then his record of all his actions are presented and God, the Almighty, makes a verdict. There are six things that make one eligible to be sent into the fire of hell.
The first one: “Throw into hell every persistent disbelievers.” (verse 24) These are the disbelievers who have left no dimension of Kufr (disbelief) untouched. First of all they pursue Kufr in all theoretical and practical terms, and second, they are persistent in Kufr.
The third comes in verse 25: “… forbidder of good, transgressor and doubter.” These are the ones who prevent good. They try to prevent people from treading on the path of God. Those who do not walk on the path of God do not achieve the purpose of creation. Thus it is an unforgivable sin to prevent others from moving on this path.
From day one there have been people who try to hinder others’ path toward faith. They use all their means they have, including wealth and power, to prevent people from accepting Islam. This is what is happening today, too. How much is spent daily to prevent people from coming to this divine faith? The second thing they do is to create obstacles for those who have accepted Islam so that they do not act in accordance with the true Islam.
What we learn from the Infallible (AS) about this verse is that we sometimes do not have wealth to spend on the path of God but we can lead other people to the path of goodness with our words. This is equal to doing good ourselves. Contrary to that is preventing others from doing good.
The other thing leading one to the fire of hell is to be a transgressor. What does that refer to? It refers to transgressing the divine laws and also the rights of people.
The fifth one is Reeb (doubt). If the root of doubt is the desire to find the truth, it is good, provided that it leads one to the truth. But Reeb is when doubt is accompanied with slander and leads to destruction.
The sixth one is mentioned in verse 26: “(One) who has set up with Allah another god. Indeed, you two, cast him into the terrible punishment.”
