2. How can we explain the existence of some people who were born Muslims and others who expended a great deal ofeffort to achieve that?

2.
I have gone through somedifficult times with regard to my becoming
Muslim because of my parents, because they are of different religions
and cultures, and they are divorced. My question is: why do some
people struggle to acquire knowledge of Islam, whilst others have the
good fortune to be Muslim?.
Praise be to Allaah.
Firstly:
One of the things concerning which there can be no doubt is that the
greatest blessing that Allah bestows upon His slave is to cause him to
be born to Muslim parents, tolive as a Muslim and to dieas a Muslim.
This is by the grace of Allah, may He be exalted. This is a blessing
from Allah, as the one whois so blessed does not need to seek through
different religions to find the true religion that Allahloves and is
pleased with, and does not accept any other religion. The individual
has not done anything to attain this favour; rather it is pure grace
from Allah his Lord, may He be exalted.
But this does not mean that everyone who is bornto Muslim parents
understands the extent of this blessing and acts in gratitude for it.
Rather we see many, many people who are ungrateful for this blessing
and do not benefit at all from the fact that from the moment they
opened their eyes on this world, they saw Islam and the mosque, and
the first thing they heard was the word of Tawheed. Hence these people
go astray and follow paths of misguidance and kufr, andthey are Muslim
in nothingbut name, and some of those who are seeking for the true
religion may be better than them – although it is not correct to make
such comparisons–when they come to knowthat Islam is the religion of
Allah and He does not accept any other religion from His slaves, and
they read and ponder until theyenter this religion with conviction and
adhere strongly to its rulings.
Hence the matter is nothing more than additional grace that Allah,may
He be exalted, bestows upon whomever He wills among His slaves that
they should be born Muslim. However He does not wrong others, as He
has made clear to them the paths of guidance and misguidance, and has
shown them His straight path and enjoined them tofollow it, and has
shown them the ways of the Shaytaan and warned them against following
them. And you see some of those who were born toMuslim parents yet
they go astray, and you see some of those who were born to kaafir
parents following true guidance.
One of the clear examples concerning this matter which will dispel
your confusion is what you know about the situation of some of the
Messengersand their call and the response to it. We see Nooh (peace be
upon him); what did it benefit his son and his wife, whenhe was the
Prophet sent by Allah who called them night and day, but they did not
respond and they died in kufr. What did it benefit the father of
Ibraaheem (peace be uponhim) when his son persisted in calling him,
advising him and exhorting him, but he rejected that and even played a
role in throwing him into the fire? What did it benefit the wife of
Loot, even though she wasthe wife of a Prophet sent by Allah and he
called her to the truth, but she insisted on following kufr?Yet at the
same time we see Pharaoh, who was oneof the greatest tyrants on earth,
yet his wife declared her Islam and disbelieved in her husband. This
is how human beings are; either Allah bestows upon some of them the
blessing of Islam, and they are grateful for it and strive toadhere to
it, and some are deprived of this blessing but they put a great deal
of effort into seeking until they arrive at the truth that Allah, may
He be exalted, revealed and commanded His slaves to follow His path.
And both parties must always say (interpretation of the meaning): "All
the praises and thanks be to Allah, Who has guided us to this,never
could we have found guidance, were it not that Allah had guided us"
[al-A 'raaf 7:43], and say as the Companions of Muhammad (blessings
andpeace of Allah be upon him) used to say: By Allah, were it not for
Allah, we would not have been guided and we would not have given
charity or prayed.
For the one who used to follow a different religion, believing in it
and following its Prophet, thenAllah, may He be exalted, guided him to
the light of Islam and he believed in the Seal of the Prophets, the
glad tidings from the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon
him) are sufficient for him:
:->2a.

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