The disbelievers will not profess faith until they are staring the punishment in the face.

I said, “Then why do some people maintain that a believer will never enter the Fire?”

He replied, “No one enters the Fire except every believer.”

I asked, “And the disbeliever?”

He said, “They will come to believe on that Day.”

I said, “How can that be?”

He answered, “Because Allah, Exalted is He, says: ‘But when they beheld Our punishment they said, “We believe in Allah alone and we reject what we used to associate with Him.” Yet their faith, once they had seen Our punishment, did not benefit them.’ (Q 40:84–85).”

Abu Ḥanīfa (may Allah have mercy on him) said: “Whoever kills a soul without right, or steals, or commits highway robbery, or practices lewdness, or indulges in sin, or commits fornication, or drinks wine and becomes intoxicated—he remains a believer, though a flagrant sinner; he is not a disbeliever.”