There are a number of questions that needs to be answered in this context.
1. What is the purpose of the punishments mentioned in the Qur’an?
2. What is the nature of these punishments?
3. How is punishment reconciled with God’s love?
1. What is the purpose of the punishments mentioned in the Qur’an?
Why are there consequences for the way we live? Could it be that God is taking revenge on people? For instance, if someone slaps another person, the latter might slap back to feel vindicated. This cannot be further from the truth as God is not impacted by our actions so there is no feeling of revenge, hurt, or anger within Him.
The following verse is an example of how our actions or states do not impact God:
إِن تَكْفُرُوا فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ غَنِيٌّ عَنكُمْ وَلَا يَرْضَىٰ لِعِبَادِهِ الْكُفْرَ وَإِن تَشْكُرُوا يَرْضَهُ لَكُمْ
If you disbelieve—indeed, Allah is Free of Need of you. (Zumar : 7)
Another verse explains how even if we strive towards God, it doesn’t benefit God:
وَمَنْ جَاهَدَ فَإِنَّمَا يُجَاهِدُ لِنَفْسِهِ ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَغَنِيٌّ عَنِ الْعَالَمِينَ
And whoever strives only strives for himself. Indeed, Allah is Free of Need of the worlds. (Ankabut : 6)
So our mistakes don’t harm God and our efforts do not benefit Him. God is completely independant from His creation and in no need of them. So punishments cannot be out of revenge or retribution or for God’s satisfaction. Furthermore, even if God had an issue with His creation, (which he does not), He would still not use punishment to address the issue, He would just get rid of them.
أَلَمْ تَرَ أَنَّ اللَّهَ يَخْلُقُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ بِالْحَقِّ ۗ إِنْ يَشَأْ يُذْهِبْكُمْ وَيَأْتِ بِخَلْقٍ جَدِيدٍ
Do you not see that Allah creates the heavens and the earth in truth? If He wills, He can remove you and replace you with a new creation. (Ibrahim : 19)
When an artist who creates art, for example a person who draws paintings, creates a work of art that is not satisfactory, they don’t punish that work. They just get rid of it, bring another canvas and start drawing again. So if God was disappointed in His creation, He says in the verse, He would just get rid of them and bring new creation. But He does not do that which means God is not disappointed in His creation even Hell is not a sign of that. So we need to find another reason for the punishments mentioned in the Qur’an. What is hell for? What are the punishments?
The punishments mentioned are not arbitrary penalties rather the direct consequences of our actions. Let’s elaborate on this using two examples. One is the example of a parent who say to their children, ‘if you do not do your homework, we will not let you use your phone’.
If you don’t do your homework —–> No Phone.
This is a penalty decided by the parents. It could have been anything else:
If you don’t do your homework —-> No holiday on the weekend
If you don’t do your homework —-> You have to clean the dishes
and many other alternatives. Or even no penalty at all. There are many families in which when a child doesn’t do the homework there are no penalties put by the parents. This means there is no real link between doing homework and usage of phone. But in order to motivate their child, they decided to choose a penalty. This is one form of penalties. And this is not what Qur’an is talking about!
What is Qur’an saying then? Let’s use another example to get closer. Imagine if you go to your dentist and he says, ‘if you don’t brush your teeth, you will have more cavities’.
If you don’t brush your teeth ——> more cavities
The difference between this and the previous example is that we can’t really change this. It is not arbitrary. The dentist has not chosen this. He is just informing the patient. The dentist can change it to something else, like: if you don’t brush your teeth, you can’t use your phone!
Also, even when the person fails to follow through, it is not the dentist who administers the penalty. It is not like if the patient doesn’t brush, then one night the dentist will secretly go to their house and adds cavities on their teeth!
If you brush your teeth, that’ll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don’t, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will add cavitiy to your teeth.
This is unlike the previous example. In the first example, if the child didn’t do their homework, he would still be able to use his phone, unless the parents administered and took the phone away. The penalty needs intervention. The parents have to do it. And the child will feel upset with the parents. But a patient with cavity cannot get mad at the dentist!
Similarly, in the verses of the Quran, it is stated that God does not wrong anyone, and every action taken by an individual is a result of their own doing. In Surah Al-Kahf, it is mentioned:
Your Lord does not do injustice to anyone. (18 : 18)
And in Surah Ya-Sin, it says:
On this Day no soul shall be wronged in the least. (36 : 36)
So we are saying a deeper reading of the Qur’an shows that those outcomes mentioned in the Qur’an are a direct and inherent consequence of one’s actions in this world, and not a matter of convention.
Now let’s go through a number of verses that show the outcomes in the hereafter are the manifestations of one’s own actions and no arbitrary penalties:
یومئذ یصدر الناس اشتاتاً لیروا اعمالهم فمن یعمل مثقال ذرة خیراً یره من یعمل مثقال ذرة شراً یره
On that Day, people will come forward in separate groups to be shown their deeds. So whoever does an atom’s weight of good will see it, and whoever does an atom’s weight of evil will see it. (99 – 6-8)
As you can see it is “their deeds” that people will “be shown”.
The next verse:
يوم تجد كل نفس ما عملت من خير محضراً وما عملت من سوء تود لو أن بينها وبينه أمداً بعيداً
On the Day when every soul will see whatever good it has done present before it, and whatever evil it has done, it will wish that there were a great distance between it and that evil. (3 : 20)
The verse is clear that what the person will see that day is the action itself. Not that God is harming them or imposing a penalty on them. The next verse makes it even clearer:
و وجدوا ما عملوا حاضراً و لا یظلم ربک احداً
And they will find what they did present [before them]. And your Lord does injustice to no one. (18 : 49)
Leave a Reply