A knowledge and appreciation of this concept is one of the most powerful incitements towards good action and greatest deterrents from injustice and sin…
It is an unchanging Universal Law, from Allāh’s Justice and Wisdom, that the outcome of an action follows the nature of the action itself. To see that an action is divorced from its inevitable consequence is to purposely pull the wool over one’s eyes. Those who commit enormities in the name of ‘Liberty’ are thus either deluded or purposely telling themselves a lie. Whether or not it is admitted, the consequences of misdeeds will inevitably come back to haunt their perpetrators and man is never entirely ‘free’ from the outcome of their doings.
Often, the outcome of an action appears in a person’s lifetime. Mistreating parents is a good example of this. One can bet that if they scold their parents or throw them neglectfully into a care home, their children will treat them in very much the same way. Similarly, how often do tyrants and oppressors suffer the same fate as their victims and how often are murderers found killed and abandoned, left to suffer the fate of their crimes?
One also notices that hardly a generation or two of extravagance, materialism and wastefulness passes except that it is followed by another of poverty and destitution.
“The first generation earns the money, the second manages the wealth, the third studies history of art, and the fourth degenerates completely.”[1]
The Hereafter, being a continuation of the existence of one’s soul and its ultimate accountability, is where this meaning is most clearly exhibited. A knowledge and appreciation of this concept is one of the most powerful incitements towards good action and deterrents from injustice and sin, and the ultimate solace for the oppressed.
The Prophet ﷺ informs that withholding a Muslim’s yearly charity, the ‘Zakāt’, for instance, prompts droughts and the cessation of one’s own fortunes.
“For their withholding the Zakāt of their wealth, rain will be withheld from the sky, and were it not for the animals, no rain would fall on them.”[2]
The Zakāt is an absolute right to the poor and withholding such a right is a grievous injustice. In fact, withholding such wealth is akin to holding onto a misfortune that one would rather part with. Consider when Allah says:
“As for those who hoard up gold and silver and do not spend it in the Way of Allah, give them the news of a painful punishment.”[3]
Notice the matching consequence of that hoarding. When asked for their Zakāt, many will frown in irritation, turn their face or walk away. Correspondingly, their punishment will be very fitting of that exact behaviour, when their foreheads, sides and backs are branded by the heat of the hellfire:
“On the Day (this gold and silver) is heated up in the fire of Hell and their foreheads, sides and backs are branded with it: ‘This is what you hoarded for yourselves, so taste what you were hoarding!’”[4]
References:
[1] A quote from Otto von Bismarck
[2] Sunan b. Mājah on the authority of ‘Abdullāh b. ‘Umar raḍy Allāh ʾanh
[3] al-Qur’ān 9:35
[4] Ibid
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