specific individuals: we seek Allah’s forgiveness for their wrongdoers, we fear for them, and we do not drive them to despair. To feel completely safe or to fall into utter despair both remove a person from the fold of Islam.

That concerns particular persons. As for people in general, we believe that the unbelievers will be in the Fire and the believers in Paradise.

With regard to any given individual, we pass no definitive judgment except on the basis of evidence; rather, we entertain hope for the doer of good and fear for the evildoer. This is the creed of the Muslims.

We ask forgiveness for the sinner because he is our brother; we pray that he may repent and be granted success even though he has sinned, for this is a duty that faith places upon us: “Ask forgiveness for your own sins and for the believing men and believing women” (Muhammad 19).

Nor do we make a sinner despair of Allah’s mercy, as the Kharijites and Muʿtazilites do. We do not cause him to despair of Allah’s mercy; rather, he is subject to the threat of punishment and under Allah’s will. If he repents, Allah will accept his repentance: “None despairs of relief from Allah except the disbelieving people” (Yusuf 87); “Who despairs of the mercy of his Lord except those who are astray?” (al-Hijr 56); “O My servants who have transgressed against themselves, do not despair of Allah’s mercy” (al-Zumar 53).

The Waʿīdiyyah—namely the Kharijites and those who follow them—are the ones who drive people to despair of Allah’s mercy and expel them from Islam because of their sins, even when those sins fall short of polytheism.

Among the fundamentals of Islamic doctrine are fear and hope; they are among its greatest pillars, and one must hold both fear and hope together, one must not