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man jāʾa bi-l-ḥasanati fa-lahū khayrun minhā wa-man jāʾa bi-s-sayyiʾati fa-lā yujzā lladhīna ʿamilū s-sayyiʾāti ʾillā mā kānū yaʿmalūna
Whoever brings virtue shall receive [a reward] better than it, but whoever brings vice—those who commit misdeeds shall not be requited except for what they used to do.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah Al-Qasas - Verse 84
84. “Whoever brings good, he shall have (reward) better than it, and whoever brings evil, then those who commit misdeeds shall not be requited except for what they used to do.”
After mentioning this fact that the good abode of Hereafter and its bounties are specific to the humble, pious truth-seekers, in this verse the Qur’an refers to stating a general law which is a complex of ‘justice’ and ‘favour’ concerning both reward and retribution. It says:
This is the stage of favour or kindness. That is, Allah is not ill-liberate, as some people are, that they try to pay the wage or reward of someone so just and exact in order to observe justice. Sometimes, He gives the reward of a deed tenfold and sometimes one hundred fold out of His unending grace, and at least He pays ten fold of it, as Surah Al-’An‘am, No. 6, verse 160 says:
And only Allah knows its maximum, a part of which concerning the payment of the alms-tax in the way of Allah is mentioned in Surah Al-Baqarah, No. 2, verse 61. Of course, this is not an additional or undue reward. It depends on the level of purity of the deed, sincerity, good intention and serenity of the heart, and this is the stage of Divine favour for the righteous. Then the Qur’an points to the punishment of the wrong doers. It announces:
This is the stage of Divine Justice, because, according to the verses of the Qur’an, they will not be punished more than what they have done, even as an atom. It is interesting that it implies that their own deeds are their retribution. That is, their deed, that according to the law of permanence of beings in the world of existence, the effect of which remains in this world, whether inside of the soul or outside of it, and on the Day of Hereafter, which is the day of manifestation of what is hidden, will be depicted in an appropriate form and will accompany the sinners and will torture them.