The Reward for the Seekers of the Worldly Life and the Seekers of the Hereafter
(Whoever desires the worldly life, We shall give him what We want therein - for whomever We want. Then We shall make Hellfire for him, wherein he will be burned, censured, accursed.
And whoever desires the Hereafter, and endeavors for it the due endeavor, being a believer. Those – their endeavors shall be accepted.
Each group, We shall continuously give from the bounty of your Lord. The bounty of your Lord is never prevented from anyone.
Contemplate, how We favor some of them over others! And the Hereafter has greater ranks, and greater favoring.)
[Quran Surah al-Isra:18 - 21]
Relationship with the Previous Part
In the previous part, Allah, Exalted is He, clarified that every man is responsible for the results of his deeds. Then He divided men into two types:
1) Those who only seek the worldly life, and strive to get its reward and their final abode will be Hellfire.
2) Those who seek the Hereafter, and strive to get its reward and their final abode will be Paradise.
Allah, Exalted is He, will provide for both parties in the worldly life as His sustenance is not prevented from anyone. Their sustenance varies. However, the variance of the degrees among people in Hereafter is greater than its variance in the worldly life.
Tafsir
(Whoever desires the worldly life, We shall give him what We want therein - for whomever We want. Then We shall make Hellfire for him, wherein he will be burned, censured, accursed. [18]
Whoever seeks to attain only the reward of the worldly life by his endeavors, in preference to the reward of the hereafter, Allah, out of His wisdom, will give him what he wants of pleasures of the worldly life that He wants to give him.
(Then We shall make Hellfire for him, wherein he will be burned, censured, accursed.)
The end of those who only seek the reward of the worldly life by their efforts will be loss. Whoever seeks only the pleasures of the worldly life by his strive, Allah will give him whatever portion of its enjoyment that He wants to give him. In the Hereafter, his final abode will be Hellfire, which he will enter, and suffer its torment. He will also be censured, and accursed therein.
The punishment of those who only seek the reward of the worldly life by their endeavors is permanent, and humiliating. They will be cursed because of their evil deeds and sins that they did in the worldly life.
This punishment is a threat to the disbelievers since they only occupy themselves with attaining the pleasures of the worldly life to the exclusion of the hereafter.
Contemplating the style of the Quran, one notices that it mentions a description, and then it mentions its opposite. That is because the reality of something becomes clearer by contrasting it with its opposite.
The following ayah mentions the happy end of the truthful believers after showing the evil end of those who favor the worldly life over the hereafter.
(And whoever desires the Hereafter, and endeavors for it the due endeavor, being a believer. Those – their endeavors shall be accepted.) [19]
Allah will accept the endeavors of those who seek to attain the reward of the Hereafter while believing in Allah and whatever thing that must be believed in. Allah will reward them immensely.
The scholars say that this ayah is a proof that righteous deeds are not beneficial without believing in Allah, Exalted is He, since disbelief in Allah is a sin, with which no good deed will benefit its doer.
The understood meaning of this ayah and other ayat of the Quran refer to the fact that if a disbeliever performs righteous deeds, he will not benefit from them in the Hereafter because of the absence of an essential condition, that is to say, believing in Allah, Exalted is He.
Anas bin Mãlik, may Allah be pleased with him, reported that the Messengerﷺ said, ‘Indeed, Allah is never unjust to the believer regarding his righteous deeds. He will reward him for them in the worldly life, and recompense him for them in the Hereafter. As for the disbeliever, he will be given in return for what he did for the sake of Allah in the worldly life, but he will not find any righteous deed for which he will be rewarded in the Hereafter.’
Then, Allah mentions what denotes His Omnipotent and limitless bounty.
(Each group, We shall continuously give from the bounty of your Lord. The bounty of your Lord is never prevented from anyone.) [20]
Allah, Exalted is He, will grant each group, i.e. the seekers of the worldly life, and the seekers of the Hereafter, from His bounty until their life span ends.
Then their conditions will be different in the Hereafter. The final abode of the seekers of the worldly life will be Hellfire, whereas the final abode of the seekers of the Hereafter will be Paradise.
(The bounty of your Lord is never prevented from anyone.)
The bounty of Allah will not be prevented from anyone in the worldly life and no one can deprive any person of it. Allah, Exalted is He, has divided the provisions of the worldly life between the believers and the disbelievers. However, the provisions of the Hereafter are only for the believers.
Then Allah, Exalted is He, commands His slaves to contemplate and think about the conditions of people so that they will learn more lessons.
(Contemplate, how We favor some of them over others! And the Hereafter has greater ranks, and greater favoring.)[21]
Contemplate and consider carefully – O you who are endowed with sound intellect – the conditions of people so that you will see how Allah, Exalted is He, favors some people over others in the worldly life. Some are rich while others are poor, some are powerful, while others are weak, and some are smart while others are slow-witted, etc. This indicates that the ranks and conditions of people vary in the worldly life in accordance with what the wisdom and will of Allah necessitate.
(…and the Hereafter has greater ranks, and greater favoring.)
The difference between people’s ranks in the Hereafter vary more than their variance in the worldly life. Therefore, the Hereafter must be given more attention as real honor and distinction are therein.
Ibn Kathîr said, ‘(Contemplate, how We favor some of them over others!). In the worldly life, some people are rich, others are poor, and others are in-between. Some people are beautiful, others are ugly, and others are in-between. Some people die in young age, others die in old age, and others die in-between. (…and the Hereafter has greater ranks, and greater favoring.). Differences between people’s ranks in the Hereafter is greater than their differences in the worldly life. Some people will be in the lowest part of Hellfire, suffering from its chains and shackles. Other people will enjoy the greatest enjoyment in the different ranks of Paradise. Moreover, those who suffer from the torment of Hellfire will have different ranks, just as the people of Paradise will have different ranks. In fact, Paradise has a hundred ranks, and the distance between each rank equals the distance between the heaven and the earth.’
The following story is a significant one. It clearly illustrates the purport of the meaning of the previous ayah. Sufyãn ath-Thawry reported, ‘A group of those who participated in the battle of conquering Mecca went to meet Umar, may Allah be pleased with him. Some of them belonged to the noble of the Arab, such as Suhayl bin Amrû, Uyyana bin Hisan, and al-Aqra’ bin Hãbs. A permission then was received, and it said, ‘Where is Suhayb? Where is Ammãr? Where is Salman? They were given permission to enter to meet Umar. The noble of the Arab were extremely angry. Umar said, ‘Why are you angry? They had been invited to believe in Islam, and so you had been. They swiftly accepted Islam, and you did so slowly. If you envy them for being given permission to meet Umar before you, envying them for what Allah has prepared for them in Paradise will be greater.’’
Learned Lessons
• Regarding endeavors in the worldly life, people are two types. A group that only seeks the reward of the worldly life, and a group that seeks the reward of the Hereafter. Allah, out of His wisdom, will give to whomever He wants of the first group what He wants of the pleasures of the worldly life. In the Hereafter, they will be requited for their deeds. Their end will be Hellfire as they favored what is impermanent over what is permanent. As for the seekers of the reward of the Hereafter, who perform righteous deeds, believing in Allah, their endeavors will be accepted. They will be rewarded with great reward in Paradise.
• Allah, out of His wisdom, provides for both the believers and the disbelievers in the worldly life. His bounty is not prevented from anyone in this world. However, the degree of provisions that people have varies. Some people are rich, others are poor, and others are in-between. This difference of the amount of provisions is not related to belief or disbelief in Allah. A believer may be rich, and another one may be poor. Similarly, a disbeliever may be rich, and another one may be poor. However, in the Hereafter, differences among the ranks of the believers are greater.
• Even if the disbeliever may enjoy comfortable life in the worldly life, and the believer may suffer from hardness, the pleasures and enjoyments of the Hereafter are only for the believers. The abode of the disbelievers will be Hellfire.
• Allah accepts righteous deeds if the following three conditions are present: 1) Sound belief in Allah. 2) Good and sincere intention. 3) Allah is pleased with the deed.
• Having great amount of wealth, or being poor has nothing to do with belief or disbelief in Allah, rather, Allah has divided His provisions in this world among His slaves according to His wisdom.
English Translation of Surah al-Isra
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