“Allah will surely ascertain who are the believers and who are the hypocrites. The unbelievers say to the believers: ‘Follow our way and we will carry the burden of your sins.’ (They say so even though) they are not going to carry any part of their sins. Surely they are lying.”
(Al Qur’ān – 29:11-12)
God regularly provides occasions for such trials so that the true faith of Muslims and the insincerity of hypocrites become manifest. In this way, everyone reveals their true colours. Āl ’Imrān 3:179 reiterates the same truth: “Allah will not let the believers stay in the state they are: He will set the wicked apart from the good.”
The Makkan unbelievers’ contention was that doctrines such as Life after Death, Resurrection, the Grand Assembly and Reckoning were all farce. They also asserted that if the Afterlife did turn out to be a reality and people were indeed subjected to a Reckoning, then they would be ready to bear the burden of others’ sins. They asked the reverts to recant their faith and return to their ancestral one for they, the unbelievers, would assume all responsibility for the consequences that might ensue. Traditions mention several Quraysh chiefs saying the kind of things mentioned here to those who had reverted to Islam. AbūSufyān and Ḥarbibn Umayyahsaid the same to Umar when he embraced Islam.
It is out of question that anyone will bear the burden of others’ sins in the Hereafter, or that a sinner will be exonerated because some other person owns the latter’s sins.