Political Solidarity of Islam — Page 12
$ignificance to it as they do. We do not say that every Kafir is predestined to go to hell. We believe that. the term Kafir applie$ to a person after he has p~ssed beyoncl a prescribed limit. When a person takes Islam as his religion and accepts the Quranic injunctions and teachings as his guide of action, he is entitled to be called a Muslim. But if he denies a basic principle of the faith of Islam then although he may be called a Muslim yet in reality he is not so. We do not therefore take Kafi,'I' to mean that such a person denies the Holy Prophet Muhammad {peace be upon him). Who can say to a person who says that be believes in the Holy Prophet that in reality he has no such faith ? Nor do we take this term to mean the denial of the existence of God. One who says that he has belief in God, who can dare say that he has none? According to our definition of Kuft' the denial of a fundemental doctrine of Islam renders a person Kafit'. On the other hand only belief in all the es. sen. tials of lslam can make a person a true Muslim in the real sense of the word. But we do not at all regard a Kafi'I' to be foredoomed to hell. A Kafir according to our belief could go fo heaven. We will call a person Kafi'I' who, for instance, has throughout his. life remained unacqqainted with Islam, but God will not sel)d him to hell on that account only because through no fault of his he did not come to know of Islam and God is not so cruel as to punish an ignorant person. So when we use the term Kuf'I' we use it in the above sense only. But we never go about calling a person Kafir. It is only when we are compelled in answer to the enquiry of a person to say what we tbink of hi:rp. that we have to give expression to our belief. But with the definition of Kufr as given by the non- Ahmadi$ as our basis of judgment we would not regard as Kajirs even the Hindus, the Jews, the Christians or the other non-Muslim communities, because we believe that there exists no such community whose every mem her is foredoomed to everlasting hell. ,from among ali communities and nations-from among the Hindus, the Jews, the Christians, the Sikhs, and even from among the athiests-some individu~ls will, acco. rding to their deserts, be admitted to heaven. Q. μr beJief is that if an atheist is born and lives in a