section_path: Pillars of iman/Eschatology/Release of the monotheists from hell and intercession
section_name: Release of the monotheists from hell and intercession
paragraph_text: Release of the monotheists from hell and intercession
  
  According to the Ibn Taimīya's creed, the Umma of Muhammad is the first religious community to enter Paradise, Other religious communities also have the opportunity to get to paradise, because God leads whole peoples through the grace of his mercy (aqwām) out of hellfire. Ahmad ibn Hanbal and al-Ghazālī declare in their creeds that the monotheist en (al-muwaḥḥidūn) after being punished. Al-Ghazālī adds that through the grace (faḍl) of God no monotheist remains in hell for all eternity.
  
  According to at-Tahāwī's creed, this only applies to the serious sinners from Muhammad's ummah: They are in hell, but not forever if they were monotheists at the time of death. What happens to them lies within God: if he wants, he forgives them through his grace (faḍl), and if he wants, he punishes them in his justice (ʿadl) and then brings them through His mercy (raḥma) and through the intercession of those who obey him out of hell and make them enter the Paradise Garden.
  
  The intercession (šafāʿa) of the Messenger of God and its effect on those of his ummah who have committed serious sins is a fixed teaching point of the Sunni faith. Muhammad reserved the intercession especially for them. According to al-Ghazālī, the Sunni believer has a total of the intercession of the prophets, then the scholars, then the martyrs, then to believe the other believers in accordance with their dignity and their rank in God. Those of the believers who have no advocate will be brought out of hell by the grace of God.