ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Resurrection Judgement and the Hereafter Lesson Seventeen: The Criteria by Which Our Deeds will be Judged Let us now examine how our deeds will be judged and weighed after resurrection. As we have previously remarked, the mental pictures we form of scenes that have no precedent in our lives nor bear any similarity to it will necessarily be imaginary; they will be unable to advance us to the direct perception of the reality in question.

It would be futile were one to expect to trace out in his mind something of the nature and characteristics of the hereafter. For we are now confined in the prison of the world and a clear boundary has been drawn between us and the next world; how might we perceive the splendor and profundity and the perfection of the life that awaits us there? A finite being subject to change cannot possibly conceive an accurate notion of the eternal.

When, therefore, we speak of accounting and judgement in the hereafter, it should not be imagined that this corresponds precisely to the drawing up of dossiers and the investigations and trials that take place in this world. The true nature of the matter is hidden in obscurity, and whatever image we form of it ought to be forgotten.

Those who follow the path of truth know that when we speak of a world which is utterly different from the present one and the means that will be applied there to judge men's deeds with respect to good and evil, it should not be thought that men will be faced with some prosecutor who carefully weighs their deeds in some huge scale, and that then they are given the opportunity to defend themselves before the court issues its verdict for implementation by the executive branch.

The concept of the scale or the balance presented in the Qur'an is infinitely more comprehensive than what is implied by this picture. Thus God says: “He raised the heavens and He placed in all things a balance and means of accounting” (55:7) . “At the time of resurrection, We shall set up the scales of justice, and none will be wronged on that day. Everyone will be requited in accordance with his deeds.

We shall take into reckoning the smallest of deeds, even if it be no greater than a mustard grain, for it is We Who shall call them to account” (21:47). “The day of resurrection is in truth the day on which deeds shall be weighed.