al-Shūrā

وَمَا أَصَابَكُمْ مِنْ مُصِيبَةٍ فَبِمَا كَسَبَتْ أَيْدِيكُمْ وَيَعْفُو عَنْ كَثِيرٍ

30. And whatever of misfortune befalls you, it is because of what your hands have earned. And He pardons many [of your sins].

There exists a nexus between man’s conduct and the vicissitudes of life;

His problems are the consequences of some of his vicious deeds rather than all of them, since God Almighty forgives many sins committed by man;

The blessed Verse is a warning to sinners that whatever hardship or misfortune befalling on them is the consequence of their deeds. It is a reference to the fact that vicious deeds breed undesirable consequences which are different from the recompense of wrong doing to inferiors whose venomous fruits are reaped in a brief period of time, as it is imagined by the short-sighted that the recompense to which sinners are warned is not solely restricted to their recompense in this world but it is far less than the one to be measured at the Divine Tribunal on the Day of Resurrection.

indicates that many a sin will be forgiven by God Almighty since He is the Glorious, of permanent Bounties, and Pre-Eternal of Beneficence (qadim al-ihsan), such that He pardons many a sin committed in a number of years with one single repentance. It should not be imagined that whoever is afflicted with some affliction or hardship is paying for his evil deeds, since the blessed Verse in question addresses sinners who are afflicted by misfortunes as the consequences of their sins.

It is even out of Divine Mercy that worldly afflictions alleviate their torments in the Hereafter. According to a Prophetic tradition narrated on the authority of Imam ‘Ali (as), the Messenger of God (S) is reported as saying:

“It is the best of Verses revealed in the Divine Book. O ‘Ali (as), there is no scratch nor falling down unless it is the consequence of committing sins and God is Greater than chastising those who have committed sins in this world but they were forgiven by Him. He is so Just that He never again chastises sinners who have been chastised in this world.” ³

It is however worthy of note that the infallible Prophets and Imams (as) suffer from afflictions in this world and thereby their exalted state shall be promoted and such afflictions are not the consequences of their evil deeds. In this vein, the blessed Imam (as) is quoted as saying as per a tradition cited in the book titled Wafi, the Chapter on believers’ afflictions, that the more believer’s faith grows, the more his afflictions will be. Thus, whoever is nearer to God Almighty is afflicted with more afflictions.