The importance of deeds versus the notion of unconditional clean slate

The notion of unconditional clean slate is often associated with accepting Islam.  Meaning all you have to do is accept Islam and all your previous sins will be forgiven in an instant. We as Muslims have the responsibility to not oversell our Deen. Islam is not a sect in need of members. In fact Islam is the truth and doesn't need gimmicks to be bought into. The roots of this strange notion can be found in the secondary reports ascribed to the Prophet Mohammad Pbuh. Needless to say the actual number of reports that fulfill the Quranic standard of minimum four eye witnesses before a claim can be declared true, easily fit on a two pager with large fonts. This particular report is not on the two pager.

The actual Quranic verses on the matter clearly point to sins associated with the belief in One God. Hence issues related to shirk, issues related to associating false notions to God or His messengers. Issues of not believing in the Judgment Day etc are all collectively forgiven by God through the act of accepting Islam. Similarly we see that some social practices like marrying two sisters at the same times or marrying more than four women simultaneously were forgiven when the related injunctions were Reveled. Similarly any financial transactions in place without the required witnesses were not annulled. But accepting Islam in no way absolves one from the bad deeds one may have done throughout his/her life before becoming a Muslim. There are provision where the bad deeds will be forgiven in exchange for good deeds but there is a catch, you will have to actually do the good deeds first that will make the switch possible. Not to forget repentance, hence the unconditional wiping clean goes out the proverbial window.

So how will this transition in practice take place, if we were to speculate. The key is in what was a person before He/she became a Muslim. Let us for argument sake assume that everybody had same or similar upbringing in a similar economic bracket with similar education background in order to compare apples to apples. Let us list the different permutations where we already have a pretty good idea of the resolution in light of God's message;

1. Those who never heard the message, any message.
2. There are those who did hear a message but not the Quranic message and acted on it.
3. Then there is the group that heard  a message and did not act on it because they didn't have the time to do it in.
4.  Yet there are those who had the time but decided not to act on it.
5. Then there are those who heard the message of the Quran but decided not to act on it even though they had the time to do so.
6.  And then there were those who had the time and acted on it.
7.  Finally there are those who heard the message, accepted it and didn't have time to act on it.

If we put the groups in a  sequence of related things from not hearing any message and work towards hearing the Quranic message and not having the time to act on it then we can safely assume that each group belong to one or more of the previous groups, with the exception of the first of course. Hence it would be logical to conclude that we will be judged in conjunction with what we had done when a person was part of the previous group, as far as actual deeds go. Each group is dealt with in the Quran and the relevant rulings will apply.

When you throw back in the education level, economic bracket, family situation or even a geographical location, we can then appreciate the real life permutations. The permutations can run into thousands. To pretend that we can predict God's decision on the eligibility of a person for forgiveness is absurd.

Let us refrain from false advertising, there is no need for it.

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