In the introduction to the tradition and its first section...

In the introduction to the tradition and its first section, the Prophet (S) made two statements: “The material world has ceased to exist, has been left aside and is now gone, while the next life is inexhaustible and is in front (of you).” It is possible that the two statements used in this section of the tradition (ارتحال and احتمال) which mean, 'even though the life of this world has not yet passed us by' and 'the life of the next world has not yet come', respectively, may have be mentioned in this fashion since in ‘Arabic, anything which is imminent and is bound to occur is occasionally mentioned in the past tense.

This is exactly what is mentioned in this tradition that this world is finished and the life of the next world (already) came. What is meant by such an expression is that the opportunity to perform good deeds in this world is very short, while the coming of the life of the next world is certain.

The second part of the tradition states, “We are living in an age which is solely for the performance of deeds while there is no accountability (at this juncture).” This is a very important issue as the nature of the transient world and the life of the next world are completely different from one another. In this world, we can only perform actions and plant the seeds (of our reward), while it is in the next world that we shall see the fruits of our labour and reap our harvest!

Sometimes a person sees the retribution of his deeds in this world however this is something insignificant, a minor issue and something unique which may not always occur. This is in no way a general rule or a universal issue - and this is the most important difference between this world and the next world.

We know that in this world, there is no accountability or reckoning for the deeds we perform and thus we see that people do not give much attention to the outcome of their actions since they do not see the product of their deeds. However, when they see the outcome in the next life, then they will definitely wish that they could make up for the bad deeds done in the world! Obviously, at that time, they would have lost the opportunity as there is no way to return back to the world!

From the verses of the Noble Qur`an, we can deduce that one of the most regretful states which those who committed sins will find themselves in is when they realize that they had actually done a bad deeds and wish that they could offer some recompense for them.