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Fatwa CenterMisconception about Hellfire
Question
Assalamualaikum , I have a question about Jahannam.I watched a video in which a guy claimed that Islam was man-made because Jahannam was man-made, because it is a Christian invention. He claims that the christian invention was based off the Gehinnom, which is apparently a valley in ancient Israel in Jerusalem. It was apparently a place where evil kings sacrificed their children to pagan gods by fire, and many people left corpses of criminals in that place.Can i please get a good answer?
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
It has been confirmed and established by rational and Islamic evidence that Islam is the true religion, and we have mentioned many of them in the following Fataawa: 86091, 16595, 88906, 173389, and 9263; so please refer to them.
The case of someone who tries to challenge and refute Islam is like a bull who butts a rock trying to break it, but he will never be able to do so.
If that person has nothing else to challenge Islam except a matter which is related to the Hellfire, then this is the greatest evidence that he has no proof to repudiate this religion.
Formerly, his predecessors who were liars said, as Allah relates about them Saying (what means): {And they say, "Legends of the former peoples which he has written down, and they are dictated to him morning and afternoon.".} [Quran 25:5]
Allah replied to them by Saying (what means): {Say, [O Muhammad], "It has been revealed by He who knows [every] secret within the heavens and the earth. Indeed, He is ever Forgiving and Merciful.".} [Quran 25:6]
We do not know much about the valley in the question. However, if we assume that this is its name, and that what is meant by it is Hellfire where Allah will torture the disbelievers, because this valley was a place where the unjust evil kings used to offer their children as sacrifice to pagan gods by fire; even if this is all true, then why can’t the opposite be true? Meaning, why can’t the case be that the one who gave it this name, took it from the divine books in which it was established that Hellfire already existed?
The Quran, just like other divine books, has established the existence of Hellfire, and this is evidence that the Quran is true, and that it confirms the books that were revealed before it. This issue should not be taken as a means to refute the Quran; this misconception is weaker than the spider’s web.
Finally, we warn our Muslim brothers, who do not have deep Islamic knowledge, against exposing themselves to misconceptions, because a misconception may affect their heart and they will not find a way to get rid of it. Thereby, they will doubt their religion instead of doubting their understanding, and this is a very serious matter.
Here, we deem that it is important and appropriate to remind of the advice of Ibn Taymiyyah to his student Ibn Al-Qayyim, may Allaah have mercy upon both of them, who said that he benefited much from it.
Ibn Al-Qayyim 
wrote in his book Miftaah Daar As-Sa‘aadah: “Shaykh Al-Islam (Ibn Taymiyyah) 
said to me when I started to report one misconception after another to him, ‘Do not let your heart, when exposed to such misconceptions, absorb it like a sponge that soaks up water. Rather, let your heart be like an impermeable glass vessel; misconceptions pass over its surface but do not remain in it. Such a vessel sees the misconception as clear as the transparency of the glass, but repels it as tough as the hardness of the glass. Otherwise, if your heart absorbs every misconception that passes by it, your heart becomes a settling place for misconceptions,’ [..] I do not see that I have ever benefited from any advice in repelling misconceptions more than I benefited from this advice. A misconception is called as such because the truth is confused with falsehood in it, as it puts the garment of truthfulness over the body of falsehood.” [End of quote]
Allah knows best.
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