What Does It Mean to Turn Away from Allah?
Answered by Shaykh Yusuf Weltch
Question
What does it mean to turn away from Allah? Does this only apply to disbelievers who recognize Islam as the truth and reject it?
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate.
If by turning away from the truth, you mean disbelieving/rejecting the religion of Islam, then there are specific criteria for such a person to be considered a disbeliever.
For one to be accountable for correct faith, one must meet the following conditions:
- They are mature (i.e., they have reached the age of puberty);
- They have sound intellect (i.e., they are not insane);
- They must have the faculty of hearing and/or seeing;
- The sound, unadulterated portrayal of Islam must have reached them. [Sawi, Kitab al-Sawi ala Jawhara al-Tawhid]
If, after meeting all four of these conditions, one still rejects belief in Islam – they are considered a disbeliever (kafir). Otherwise, they are considered saved, according to the Ashari scholars. [Ibid.]
Hope this helps
Allah knows best
[Shaykh] Yusuf Weltch
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Shaykh Yusuf Weltch teaches Arabic, Islamic law, and spirituality. After accepting Islam in 2008, he completed four years at the Darul Uloom Seminary in New York, where he studied Arabic and the traditional sciences.
He then traveled to Tarim, Yemen, where he studied for three years in Dar al-Mustafa under some of the most outstanding scholars of our time, including Habib Umar Bin Hafiz, Habib Kadhim al-Saqqaf, and Shaykh Umar al-Khatib.
In Tarim, Shaykh Yusuf completed the memorization of the Quran and studied beliefs, legal methodology, hadith methodology, Quranic exegesis, Islamic history, and several texts on spirituality. He joined the SeekersGuidance faculty in the summer of 2019.
