2.9 Al-Baqarah — Through Islam’s Concept of Recompense: Why Islam Is Superior

السلام عليكم و رحمة الله و بركاته

All praise is due to Allah, the Most High and Great. May countless blessings be upon our Seal of the Prophets, Muḥammad ﷺ, and may Allah be pleased with all the Companions.

Today we are sharing a topic: recognizing Islam’s view of recompense, and through the view of recompense contained in Islam, understanding why it is superior to any other religion. Our Lord has clearly told us in His preserved Book that the religion He is pleased with — دين الإسلام (dīn al-islām — “the religion of Islam”) — is our religion, and it is also our blessing.

When introducing Islam, the word دين (dīn — “religion / way of life / judgment”) is placed in front, and within it there is the content of recompense. Therefore, we combine the content of recompense to recognize Islam’s superiority and to see how it becomes the truly unique religion that can lead us to happiness.

1) Human Beings Already Carry the Idea of Recompense

First, let us recognize the content of recompense. For example, every religion — whether polytheists, idol-worshippers, the People of the Book, and Islam — speaks about recompense. Even complete atheists also have a view of recompense.

In atheist countries, people emphasize conscience and morality. Among Chinese people there is a saying that is most explicit: “It is not that retribution does not come; the time has not yet arrived.” For example, if one is not filial to parents, one will face retribution by giving birth to an unfilial child. This shows that humanity has the concept of recompense: even if someone does not truly pay attention to its details, deep inside, people know there is recompense.

For example, in atheist countries, when something bad happens to a person, he will feel it is retribution. Even in customs and everyday speech, one can sense the existence of recompense. For instance, if something bad happens in a neighbor’s home, and he previously treated another family badly, people nearby will say he has “met his retribution.” Living on Chinese soil, this is the most obvious. All of this proves that deep in the human soul — even if he does not believe in the soul — he still knows there is recompense. Although people can easily know there is a cause-and-effect relationship of recompense, not everyone can reach perfect recognition of who bears responsibility and with whom there is a responsibility relationship.

2) The Atheist View of Recompense

Now we begin with atheists. The most obvious atheist form of recompense is that whoever has a responsibility relationship with him will be involved in recompense. When something bad happens, it may be because he wronged someone, or because he was not good in some matter and retribution appeared. Even when one sees someone with a good ending, it is taken to be because he once did a kind deed and accumulated virtue; after accumulating various virtues, the good recompense appears upon his children. These are all very real: they define recompense relationships through one’s actions and social relationships.

This recompense is purely a kind of recompense relationship between a person and creation. While a person is alive, through experience and perception he can recognize that there is indeed a causal recompense of good and evil, and that within this generation, the next generation, and within his social relationships, recompense relationships will appear. Therefore, many people’s view of recompense is limited to this: they try their best to follow conscience and morality, to do more good deeds and accumulate virtue in order to obtain good recompense, and they may even think of accumulating virtue for their children.

Of course, as a view of recompense that human nature needs to satisfy, it has its blessing. Because the Creator of the worlds is the Most Merciful Lord: He made humankind as vicegerents on earth, with cause-and-effect recompense in the material world; nature and human society also involve responsibility; and humans, as representatives, have responsibilities toward nature and the created world, so these recompenses necessarily exist.

Human beings seek blessings and avoid various calamities. This view — accumulating virtue through good deeds — driven by conscience and morality, doing good out of fear of evil recompense and in hope of good recompense: this itself is also a content of recompense that is a mercy from the Most Merciful. This is the most basic thing a person should fulfill.

3) Polytheists and Idol-Worshippers: Linking Recompense to the Soul

Second, idol-worshippers and polytheists believe there is a soul, so their recognition of recompense theory rises somewhat. They do not limit recompense relationships to the living physical-material world; they will use doctrines of the soul and spirit to understand recompense.

For example, by their standards of good and evil they do good to seek goodness and blessings, believing these will accumulate in their soul and spiritual state. When a person “returns to the truth,” when the soul leaves the body, they believe the soul can leave the body; goodness remains within the state of the soul and spirit.

At the same time, they believe that when a person does evil — while the soul is joined to the body and commits evil — the marks of evil remain in the spirit. When the soul leaves the body, the person in the soul-state is evil. Because polytheists do not have a perfect understanding of the soul, their understanding is conjectural. They believe in recompense, and especially in the soul, so they combine recompense theory and soul theory, believing in reincarnation.

They say that a soul that did good will have a good reincarnation in the next life — for example, spiritual reincarnation may reach, by their standards, “good” outcomes such as becoming a Buddha or becoming an immortal. Even if it is “reborn into another body,” when returning again to this living world, it is to guide others to become Buddhas or immortals. As for a soul-state that is evil — unable, as they say, to possess “Buddha-nature,” unable to have the traits of becoming an immortal or Buddha — when that soul is “reborn into another body,” it will suffer punishment; and whoever had a recompense relationship with him before will be manifested in sayings like “becoming an ox or a horse.”

Regarding these polytheists and idol-worshippers, the blessing they obtain is also from Allah’s universal mercy to humankind: this causal view of recompense, believing people have souls, and that the evil and good one does affects the state of the soul and the spiritual content.

But polytheists and idol-worshippers do not have a perfect understanding of the soul and spirit at this point. Why? Because for humans to do good, the standards of good and evil must be based on the good-and-evil standards set by the Lord of the Day of Recompense, through His causal recompense.

Yet for polytheists, the good they do carries human rational standards and emotional-sensory standards that define good and evil, so the soul cannot ascend with purity like the “celestial beings.” Polytheists’ understanding of the soul can never be like that, with complete sound rationality. Although they believe in the soul and have various ascetic practices, distancing themselves from desires and preventing desires from manifesting, restraining themselves to become immortals or Buddhas — they can never reach recognition like the “celestial beings.”

They know there is a creation nobler than them — that is the human being. Why? Because human spiritual attributes can be shown from several angles: first, after inclinations toward the material world and bodily desires are restrained, they can still be satisfied lawfully. The human spiritual هوى (hawā — “inclination / desire”) for power, reputation, and honor must be restrained, yet it can still be satisfied — restraining hypocrisy and using truth to satisfy one’s spiritual interest and to support truth.

Moreover, humans have نفس (nafs — “self / lower self / ego”): human nature and the self can manifest. When one restrains the private ego well, one displays a self that conforms to the Creator’s standards of good deeds for humanity. Therefore, the human self can still manifest; it is not only through asceticism and restraint that spiritual content appears.

To remain always in a state of restraint is not the attribute of the human being — that is the “celestial beings.” The “celestial beings” themselves do not have these desires, so restraint is not difficult. But as a human being has these needs, to restrain them without being able to satisfy them shows the spiritual state is not perfect. The “celestial beings’” recognition is sound: they know human nobility is not only that one can restrain desires and elevate the soul — it is also that one can finally achieve the satisfaction of various desires. How? By being a servant of the Creator — a servant of the true Lord of recompense. At that time, the spiritual state of the soul is sound.

This is what idol-worshippers cannot reach in recompense: although they possess a blessing, it is the universal mercy given to humankind — making people believe there is a soul and a spiritual state. But without thorough recognition, many of their views of recompense are incomplete.

4) The People of the Book: Resurrection, and Deviations in Understanding

The third group, the People of the Book — Jews and Christians — believe in the Last Day and resurrection. The human body and soul can be separated, and after resurrection the body and soul can be joined again, because they possess revelation directly from Allah, the True God.

Because after death — or returning to the truth — there is the Last Day and then resurrection: these are matters of the unseen. Not everyone’s eyes can see the final abode of Paradise and the Fire. Therefore, these are taught directly to humanity through our Lord’s revelation, or conveyed to humanity through “celestial beings,” because “celestial beings” directly manage the gates of Paradise and the Fire, and messengers learned these matters through them. Thus among humanity there are chosen people who become prophets and messengers to report those matters: how to seek recompense — good recompense — and how to avoid the evil recompense of the Fire, and how to do good deeds. These are explained very clearly in their scriptures.

Because our Lord chooses certain prophets and messengers, when a prophet and messenger is selected from a nation, deviant People of the Book think they are the noblest and the chosen. They think these noblest and most chosen people can enter Paradise directly, while other nations are lowly, because no one among other nations was chosen as a prophet and messenger. Even if one is chosen, they do not acknowledge it. This is a deviant way of thinking among some Jews.

Of course, among Jews who accept the guidance of their scripture, there is no such deviant thought. They will say that when the Lord sends messengers, He has His wisdom — whether the prophets and messengers guide the people of their time, or whether they are signs for the worlds, and the sending of the Seal Prophet as a sign of mercy to the worlds, as a guide: they will recognize all of this correctly.

Our Lord guides us to do good deeds in order to seek good recompense. Those without deviant thinking are surely people who accept scripture. They will never judge through personal desire that “they are the noble nation while others are lowly.” Whoever has such thinking has an incomplete view of recompense.

Among Christians, some have another deviant thought. Because among the chosen prophets and messengers, some were given direct blessings — such as the family of ʿImrān — especially Yaḥyā and ʿĪsā (peace be upon them) and the mother of ʿĪsā (may Allah be pleased with her). They were chosen as signs, and many extraordinary signs appeared.

From them people can see endless blessings in what humans regard as beautiful and desirable. For example, ʿĪsā (peace be upon him) was born without a father, and his mother also displayed the Most High and Great Allah’s endless blessings upon her — miracles. Yaḥyā (peace be upon him) was the same.

Why do people seek recompense and seek a good end in both abodes? Because human nature inclines toward these beautiful blessings. The family of ʿImrān can cause people to be detached from this world and to strive in doing good deeds seeking the reward of Paradise after resurrection.

When people with deviant thinking see these signs, they deify them. How do they deify them? They believe these people can pull them into Paradise. They even raise them to a position comparable with the Creator, believing that through the saving of ʿĪsā (peace be upon him), a person can enter Paradise — forgetting that he is only a prophet and messenger, and that is his position.

When people cannot perfectly recognize the unseen world, they make many conjectures. Even if scripture describes many subtle passages, those with deviation in their hearts will pursue only the subtle passages, abandoning the clear texts and not acting according to the clear texts. At that point, the more they pursue mysteries of the unseen, the more they envy those who can uncover them. At first it is only basic envy; in the end they will deify them, believing they can obtain those blessings — thus claiming that such a person’s relationship with the Most High and Great Allah is extraordinary. They may even speculate that those who possess such blessings — those with a holy spirit who interpret subtle unseen meanings — are “sons of the Lord,” completely abandoning the clear texts.

In the clear texts of scripture, it is mentioned that the Most High and Great Allah created the first human, Ādam (peace be upon him), and breathed into him روح (rūḥ — “spirit”), so that he possessed a perfected spiritual nature and became the vicegerent on earth, and so that he and his descendants would find blessings in both abodes. When seeking blessings, if his descendants follow desires and follow Satan’s footsteps, they will deviate — they will not praise the Lord, not acknowledge the Lord, not worship the Lord, not believe in the Lord.

Our Lord continues to send prophets and messengers among Ādam’s (peace be upon him) descendants, continuously guiding people to the straight path so that they can still seek blessings in both abodes and reach acknowledging the Lord, believing in the Lord, and worshipping the Lord.

Thus this روح (rūḥ — “spirit”) entering the human body gives humans a spiritual nature. This spiritual nature enables us in this world to seek blessings and also to seek the blessings of the Hereafter. It makes us in this world acknowledge the Lord and worship the Lord, and it grants us good recompense in the Hereafter. If human nature follows its desires — the human نفس (nafs — “self / lower self / ego”) — then the روح (rūḥ — “spirit”) does not display holiness, and such a person will have evil recompense in the Hereafter.

In essence, our Lord granted us the روح (rūḥ — “spirit”) so that we would have these attributes. If we worship Him, affirm His oneness, believe in His oneness, and worship Him alone, we can enter Paradise in the Hereafter and can see Him. This is what we can clearly learn from the explicit texts of scripture.

Therefore, anyone who associates partners with ʿĪsā (peace be upon him) — whom the Most High and Great Allah called a creation of spirit — without correctly recognizing that he is only one prophet and messenger among the descendants of Ādam (peace be upon him), abandons the clear text and strives to “understand” the spirit he possessed, even fabricating the lie of the Trinity, trying to uncover hidden meanings: such people have a deviated view of recompense.

Because they set him up as their savior and believe that whoever does not draw near to him and does not testify that he has attributes deserving worship is then fuel for the Fire — these are their deviant speculative ideas. They wrongly abandoned the clear texts and did not worship the Lord according to the clear texts, and thus these erroneous views appeared.

5) Islam: A Complete View of Recompense that Enters Life

Finally, let us read the religion our Lord gave humanity — Islam. First, we must know that Islam’s view of recompense does not only believe that there is recompense in this world of matter. The Most High and Great Allah is the Most Merciful Lord: there is also recompense in the world of souls.

After a person returns to the truth, in the grave there are various recompenses; for those with sins there is punishment in the grave. The questioning in the grave being easy shows the soul is pure; the grave is easy, and the person can give testimony. If a person’s spiritual state is poor, when the soul is extracted it cannot give testimony — that is difficult.

We also believe that after resurrection there is the final abode of Paradise and the Fire. And the Lord of the Day of Recompense has both human accounting and Lordly accounting. If one enters Paradise, one can also see Him.

He gave us Islam as a religion integrated into life. For example, there is a special act of worship to remember Him and elevate our souls: our prayer. There is also a special act of worship: zakāh, so that we ourselves, facing the living environment, seek provision, and learn how to interact with those with whom we have responsibility relationships.

He gave us fasting. Fasting is not only restraining desires, but also how the tongue deals with people and society: whether to speak the truth, whether to speak honest words or hypocritical words. And in Ramaḍān, He lets us recite the Scripture — the Noble Scripture. The Noble Scripture contains His various Sharīʿah laws.

Whether regarding the needs of our physical bodies, or the satisfaction of our various spiritual interests, or the manifestation of emotional selfhood, the Scripture explains clearly the standards of lawful and unlawful, true and false, good and evil. For example, being filial to parents is also a recompense in this world; but when our intention is to seek His pleasure, it becomes recompense for both abodes. Our Lord revealed the Scripture in Ramaḍān, within which are acts of worship in Islam, making our view of recompense perfect in this respect.

He also gave us the act of worship of ḥajj. Humanity is a community and cannot exist alone. From material needs, humans do good to one another, and human society pursues civilization. But because people have different perspectives, “good” is also not the same: some become scientists, some become political scholars, some become literary scholars, some become religious scholars, and people display ranks.

Our Lord gave us a standard: whoever has taqwā of Him is the most noble. And He lets us offer our good deeds as قربان (qurbān — “an offering / sacrificial gift”). Because a person remembers Him, nobility appears; at that time a person puts aside standards of nobility based on lineage, family background, wealth, power, and honor. At that time, one is noble through remembering the Lord, worshipping Him, and doing good deeds.

A scientist, because he remembers the Lord, certainly is not arrogant and certainly will not regard only himself as worthy; he will greatly respect others — even the person who cleans his laboratory — because he knows that without that person and their joint effort, he cannot complete the good deed. Thus from the act of worship of ḥajj, humanity can not only resolve many disputes of understanding, but also coordinate behaviors such as self-arrogance. This is what is shown when Islam’s recompense runs through life: people seek the Lord’s good through acts of worship, and in facing creation, they carry a good heart.

Islam has the Two Testimonies. The first testimony makes us face our Lord: we bear witness that He alone is worthy of worship; we can abandon attachment to all creation and worship only the Lord. The second testimony: we bear witness that our Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ is the Seal Prophet and Messenger sent by the Lord to humanity; by following his path in doing good, we then face creation — in every aspect — and do good comprehensively.

This achieves: not holding creation in the heart, yet because the Lord sent a messenger to teach us, we can also, in a perfect way, hold creation in the heart to seek what is lawful and to satisfy what human nature needs.

This is a blessing in humanity’s pursuit of recompense: not only can one find satisfying content of recompense in the material world of creation, the world of souls, and the unseen world — one can also pursue the recompense Allah gives us, the True God who created the worlds: seeing Him.

Islam not only guides us through our life; it also contains worship of the Lord. For His worship, He gives us recompense — seeing Him — achieving that within creation we pursue the needs that satisfy us through His creation, and also leaving creation aside: through worshipping Him, without associating any creation as a partner with Him, we attain the satisfaction of seeing Him.

Can the religions analyzed earlier achieve this? Of course, it is impossible. Only by comparison does the perfection of Islam become clear.

Closing

We ask our Lord to keep us firm upon His religion, to grant us the satisfaction of blessings in both abodes, and to grant us the good recompense in both abodes. That is all I will share today. If I misspoke or explained unclearly, I ask the Most High and Great Allah to forgive, and I ask the reader to excuse me. Thank you everyone for sharing.

السلام عليكم و رحمة الله و بركاته

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