Will non-Muslims also enter Paradise?

1. A Muslim is someone who unconditionally submits himself to God. This definition comes from the Arabic verb 'Aslama' and its meaning. Therefore, my understanding is that a person, who is not known as a Muslim to us or does not call himself a Muslim in this world, can still be a 'Muslim' if he completely submitted to God's will and believed in Him. What we refer to a Muslim today is the noun that has become associated with all those who accept Muhammad (pbuh) as the last messenger of God. I see a difference between the two terms.

2. Given the above understanding, it is possible that we may know someone to be a Muslim, but he may be one of those who enter Hell-fire. Such was the case of some of the Munafiqeen at the time of Muhammad (pbuh) who became a part of Muslims, called themselves Muslims and were known by the same title, yet Quran very clearly called out that they will end up in Fire and live therein forever. At the same time, there are many who were not called Muslims, but they, because of their love for God and submission to Him, may end up in Paradise.

3. Each of us is in their own test of this life. God, being an Ultimate Judge, is going to settle the accounts with absolute Justice, something that we do not find in this World.

Whether born Muslims, or non-Muslims, everyone is going through a test of the life in which they must find and submit to the truth. A non-Muslim who does not submit to God and a Muslim who does not submit to God may turn to be the same.

There are those known as Muslims, but do shirk and there are those known as non-Muslims who do shirk. The punishment of the crime is the same for both.

There are those non-Muslims who do not submit to the will of God, but the same applies for many known as Muslims to us.

There are non-Muslims, who close their eyes when truth is presented to them, but many Muslims do the same too.

In essence, we are all going through a similar test, where we must overcome our emotions and must decide whether our loyalties lie with God or with ourselves or what we are born in etc.

On top of that, definitely everyone's circumstances are different from others. Those who are born in Muslim families but have no idea of God's law or do not follow it, i.e. who do not submit to Him are not the successful ones.

One may argue that there are those who are born in families where they were bred into the correct belief systems and followed religion correctly. However, it must be kept in mind that such people also have an important responsibility of striving to follow that right path, and then spreading the message that they believe to be the truth to others. In addition, it must not be thought that they will not have any issues at all in finding the truth, in fact everyone will have to go through that because after all the prophets passed away, no one can claim to have an absolute knowledge of religion.

In short, we will be held accountable for the blessings of God that we were given in this world, and everyone will be held accountable for their deeds. Only those who unconditionally submit to God are going to be the successful ones, the rest shall be dealt with fairly by Him on the Day of Judgement.