The Deprivation of the Polytheist from Paradise

The prohibition of Paradise in “God has forbidden Paradise for him”, unlike the prohibition of usury (ribā): “[God] has forbidden usury”,(15) is not a legal and legislative ruling (ḥukm taklīfī wa-tashrīʿī), but rather similar to the prohibition of the food and water of Paradise for the disbelievers: “Indeed, God has forbidden them both to the disbelievers”,(16) which means the absolute deprivation of the disbelievers from those two things. It is only existential (takwīnī) and means that the polytheist is deprived of Paradise.

The polytheist is not only deprived of Paradise, but is also prevented from going to the Heights (aʿrāf) or a place like it. Consequently, his definite abode is Hell: “and his refuge is the Fire.”

This sentence invalidates another notion of the Christians: the notion that “polytheism (shirk) is sin and corruption, but a polytheist person can go to Paradise; Jesus Christ was hung on the cross to be a ransom for the sinners of his community and to intercede for them” is false, because Jesus Christ himself has called the polytheist deprived of Paradise.

It should be said that the verse under discussion does not prove that sinful and transgressing monotheists (muwaḥḥidūn) do not go to Paradise through the intercession of Jesus Christ, because what has come in this verse from the tongue of Jesus Christ is the deprivation of the polytheist from Paradise and his being destined for Hell, and there is no mention of the ruling regarding other sinners. Therefore, proving the deprivation of the sinful monotheist from intercession and Paradise would require other evidence.