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ʾillā man tāba wa-ʾāmana wa-ʿamila ʿamalan ṣāliḥan fa-ʾulāʾika yubaddilu llāhu sayyiʾātihim ḥasanātin wa-kāna llāhu ghafūran raḥīman
except those who repent, attain faith, and act righteously. For such, Allah will replace their misdeeds with good deeds, and Allah is all-forgiving, all-merciful.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah al-Furqan - Verses 69-70
69. “On the Day of Judgment, the chastisement will be doubled to him, and he shall abide therein in abasement.”
70. “Unless he repents, believes, and works righteous deeds, then these are they who, Allah changes their evil deeds to good ones, And Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.”
Multiplication of wrongdoers’ punishment which is cited in the phrase ‘will be doubled’ is not against divine justice, for double punishment happens when sin or wrong action has got multiplied evil and gloomy effects. For example, an adulterer not only commits sin, but also he forces other one to commit sin, and an illegitimate issue may get born, who has negative tendencies. In homicide, a murderer kills someone, but some persons will get bereaved, orphaned and he makes society insecure.
Each of the above items has individually a separate punishment, as one who forms and creates a bad tradition or custom in society will be punished each time that someone practices this custom during the course of history and its fonder has a share of its sin. Since all commentators believe that fornication by itself brings no perpetuity of chastisement in the Hell, therefore, only those polytheists who commit adultery will remain in the Hell forever. Yes, false and true belief and paganism and polytheism have effect on punishments.
Since these three sins (polytheism, homicide, and adultery) are extremely important, again this verse puts emphasis on them and says;
Questions
Here, there arise a few questions: Why is the punishment of theirs doubled? Why are not they punished as much as they have committed sin? Is this consistent with the principles of justice? Another matter is that the verse speaks about perpetuity of chastisement and abiding in the Hell, while we know that abiding in the Hell is only for pagans. Only the first sin of three sins mentioned in the verse is paganism, and murder and adultery cannot bring perpetual chastisement.
About the first question, commentators have discussed a lot and what seems more correct is that the purpose of doubling of chastisement is that for each of these three sins there are separate punishments that on the whole the punishment gets doubled. Moreover, sometimes a sin will be the source of other sins, such as paganism that causes the obligations to be left and commitment of illegal things to be done, and this makes the Divine punishment double.
Therefore, some of commentators say that this verse is the reason of this famous principle which says:
“As pagans are responsible for fundamentals of religion, they are responsible for positive laws, too.” 27
About the second question, we can say that some of sins are so great and bad that cause a person to die while having no faith, as we said about homicide in verse 93 of Surah An-Nisa’. It may also be true about fornication especially when it is adultery. Another possibility is that the Qur’anic word /xulūd/ (abide for ever) is about persons who commit all of these three sins (polytheism, homicide, fornication) together. The next verse testifies to this meaning.
It says:
Thus there will be no problem. Some of commentators say that ‘khulūd’ here means to abide for a long time not perpetually, but the first and the second commentaries seem more correct. It is interesting mat in addition to the issue of common and general punishment, there is another punishment which is to get offended and insulted and this is psychological. It also can be a commentary on the issue of punishment to be double, for they have both physical and spiritual punishments.
But, in view of the fact that the holy Qur’an does not close the path of return to the wrongdoers and invites and encourages them to repent their sins, it says in the next verse:
As we said, three sins of the greatest sins were mentioned in the previous verse and opportunity is provided for returning and repenting of these persons, for every regretful wrongdoer can return to Allah on the condition that his repentance is real and its sign is doing righteous deeds which is brought up in the verse, otherwise, to merely repent verbally or having passing regret in the heart is not the reason of repentance. The important issue about the above verse is how Allah changes their sins to good deeds.
Changing Evil Deeds to Good Deeds
Here are a few commentaries all of which can be acceptable:
1. When man repents and acquires faith in Allah, deep transformation happens throughout his whole entity. And because of this inward revolution, later all his evil deeds will change to good deeds.
If formerly he committed homicide in future defending the oppressed and fighting with oppressors would take its place. If he was adulterer, he would later become pure and modest. This divine aid and success is achieved under the light of faith and repentance.
2. Allah removes all his evil deeds out of His grace, favour, and bestowal, and replaces them by good deeds.
’Abūthar narrated that the Prophet (S) said that on the day of Resurrection some persons are called to come and Allah commands to remind him his small sins and to hide his greater sins. It is said to him that he has done such and such small sin that day. He will confess to it and his heart is frightened and shakes because of greater sins. Here, if Allah wants to do him a favour, He commands to give him a good deed, in stead of each evil deed and he will say that he has some important sins which he does not see. Abūzar says that at this time the Prophet (S) smiled in a way that his teeth appeared.
Then he recited this verse:
3. The third commentary is that the purpose of evil deeds is not the nature of deeds man does, but it is the gloomy effects that they have on the soul and spirit of man. When man repents and believes, these gloomy effects will be removed from his soul and they will be changed to good effects. This is the meaning of changing evil deeds to good deeds.
Of course, these three commentaries are not inconsistent and it is likely that all of them are included in the concept of the verse. Imam Rida (as) said that the Prophet (S) was told that that person was a miserable man, for he had done many sins. The Prophet (S) said:
“It is not at all as you say, but he has been freed and his destiny has become good, his sins are vanished and changed to good deeds. For when he was passing a way, he saw a believer whose pudendum was visible but he was not aware of it, (it seems that he was sleeping). This person covered that believer’s body and, for not making him ashamed, he did not tell him about this matter.
When the believer found out, he prayed for him in this way:
‘May Allah bestow you a lot of reward and make your resurrection peaceful and get easy with your reckoning!’
Allah fulfilled his prayer about that person and made his destiny good.”
When this good tiding of the Prophet (S) came to that wrongdoer, he repented of all his sins and became a worshipper of Allah. After one week a group of Islam enemies attacked Medina and the holy Prophet (S) issued the command of defense. That person went with other Muslims to holy war and when fighting he got martyred and his destiny became good and happy.29 Yes, real repentance changes man’s deeds and reforms his improper behaviour. As in the world of creation Allah creates flowers from soil and manure, He changes man’s evil deeds to good deeds.
Footnotes