Assume that it were to be announced in a country that there will be no punishment for such and such a crime and no records will be kept, that people can, with a clear conscience, live the day as they so desire. They lock the doors of the courts and until the next day when life will begin as normal, no crimes will be punished. How do you think that society will spend that day?
Assume that it were to be announced in a country that there will be no punishment for such and such a crime and no records will be kept, that people can, with a clear conscience, live the day as they so desire. They lock the doors of the courts and until the next day when life will begin as normal, no crimes will be punished. How do you think that society will spend that day?
Belief in the resurrection, faith in the Day of Judgment, a day in which all men will be resurrected and presented before God, who will decide their fate according to their deeds, and Good-doers will be rewarded and will live eternally in paradise, while evil-doers will be punished and live in hell, is in no way comparable to this world.
Faith in such a court takes a person to the point that Imam Ali says,
“I swear to God that if I were to spend from night to the morning upon thorns and if my hands and feet were to be chained in the day and I were to be pulled through the streets and the bazaars, I am more willing to have this happen than to present myself to God’s Court if I have committed an oppression against one of God’s creatures or if I have usurped the rights of another.”[1]
It is faith in this Judgment that makes a human being (Imam Ali) place his brother’s hand near the fire to burn when he has extended it into the public treasury. And when the brother screams in pain, he advises him,
“You are screaming from the flame of a toy fire which is in the hands of human beings whereas you take your brother to a fire which is extremely frightening and which is lit by the wrath of the Creator?”[2]
faith in the Day of Judgment, a day in which all men will be resurrected and presented before God, who will decide their fate according to their deeds, and Good-doers will be rewarded and will live eternally in paradise, while evil-doers will be punished and live in hell
Can a person with such faith, with encouragement of threats, be made to deviate from the way of truth to the way of oppression? Or act upon his wrong inclinations?
The Holy Qur’an says when the scroll of deeds is shown to sinners, they cry out:
"And the record [of deeds] will be placed [open], and you will see the criminals fearful of that within it, and they will say, "Oh, woe to us! What is this book that leaves nothing small or great except that it has enumerated it?" And they will find what they did present [before them]. And your Lord does injustice to no one." [3]
And with regard to good doers it says:
"But those who feared their Lord will be driven to Paradise in groups until, when they reach it while its gates have been opened and its keepers say, "Peace be upon you; you have become pure; so enter it to abide eternally therein," .[4]
In this way, powerful waves of the sense of responsibility grows towards the spirit of the human being which controls the human being from deviating, going astray, committing oppression and aggression.[5]
1) (Nahj al-Balaghah, Sermon 224)
وَ اللَّهِ لَأَنْ أَبِيتَ عَلَى حَسَكِ السَّعْدَانِ مُسَهَّداً أَوْ أُجَرَّ فِي الْأَغْلَالِ مُصَفَّداً أَحَبُّ إِلَيَّ مِنْ أَنْ أَلْقَى اللَّهَ وَ رَسُولَهُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ ظَالِماً لِبَعْضِ الْعِبَادِ وَ غَاصِباً لِشَيْءٍ مِنَ الْحُطَامِ
2) (Nahj al-Balaghah, Sermon 224)
يَا عَقِيلُ أَ تَئِنُّ مِنْ حَدِيدَةٍ أَحْمَاهَا إِنْسَانُهَا لِلَعِبِهِ وَ تَجُرُّنِي إِلَى نَارٍ سَجَرَهَا جَبَّارُهَا لِغَضَبِهِ أَ تَئِنُّ مِنَ الْأَذَى
3) وَوُضِعَ الْكِتَابُ فَتَرَى الْمُجْرِمِينَ مُشْفِقِينَ مِمَّا فِيهِ وَيَقُولُونَ يَا وَيْلَتَنَا مَالِ هَـٰذَا الْكِتَابِ لَا يُغَادِرُ صَغِيرَةً وَلَا كَبِيرَةً إِلَّا أَحْصَاهَا ۚ وَوَجَدُوا مَا عَمِلُوا حَاضِرًا ۗ وَلَا يَظْلِمُ رَبُّكَ أَحَدًا
[18:49]
4) وَسِيقَ الَّذِينَ اتَّقَوْا رَبَّهُمْ إِلَى الْجَنَّةِ زُمَرًا ۖ حَتَّىٰ إِذَا جَاءُوهَا وَفُتِحَتْ أَبْوَابُهَا وَقَالَ لَهُمْ خَزَنَتُهَا سَلَامٌ عَلَيْكُمْ طِبْتُمْ فَادْخُلُوهَا خَالِدِينَ
[39:73]
5)Fifty Lessons on Principles of Belief for Youths, written by Ayatullah Naser Makarem Shirazi.
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