An-Naml (The Ant)

89. “Whoever brings good, for him shall be better than it, and they shall be secure from terror on that Day.”

90. “And whoever brings evil, those shall be cast down on their faces, in the (Hell) Fire; ‘Are you rewarded (for) anything except what you used to do?’”

One of the bounties of the Qur’an is that it has let the way open to all people for development and happiness.

The holy verse says:

“Whoever brings good, for him shall be better than it, and they shall be secure from terror on that Day.”

This merit is for all people without considering their age, race, and sex. The word ‘good’ is used in general meaning /al hsanah/, in order that it concludes all favours, including: accepting the leadership of the Truth, the way of the Truth, the word of the Truth, the job of the Truth, and the choice of the Truth, the examples of some of which have been referred to in Islamic narrations.

But if the good deed, from whoever it is, is not destroyed because of hypocrisy, pride, haughtiness, and sin and comes to its destination safely, will deserve some additional rewards:

(Whoever brings good…).

But pleasures, insolence, and contumacies which come into being in the world as the result of sin, by burning in Hereafter, will be changed into disgrace and degradation.

The verse says:

“Whoever brings good, for him shall be better than it, and they shall be secure from terror on that Day.”

Upon the objective meaning of the Qur’anic word /hasanah/ commentators have offered different beliefs. Some of them have rendered it into the term ‘Unity’ and the holy phrase of: ‘There is no god but Allah’, and also into ‘having faith in Allah’.

Some of them believe that it refers to the mastership of Amir-ul-Mu’mineen Ali (as) and immaculate Imams (as). This meaning has been emphasized in many traditions narrated from Ahl-ul-Bayt (as).

For example: in a tradition Imam Baqir (as) says that one of the followers of Ali (as) who was called ’Abu-‘Abdullah Jabali came to him (as) and Imam asked him whether he might inform him of the meaning of the word of Allah that says:

“Whoever brings good, for him shall be better than it, and they shall be secure from terror on that Day.”

He answered:

“Yes, may I be your ransom, O’ Amir-ul-Mu’minin!”

Imam said:

“Good is cognition of mastership and the love of us, Ahl-ul-Bayt; and sin is the denial of mastership and enmity against us, Ahl-ul-Bayt.”1

Of course, as we have said repeatedly, the scope of the meaning of the verses is vast and the Arabic words /hasanah/ and /sayyi’ah/ have also here such a vast concept that envelops all the good deeds, including: faith in Allah, the Messenger of Islam, and the mastership of the Immaculate Imams (as), that are at the top of every good deed, and do not hinder that other righteous deeds be involved in the meaning of the verse.

And that some persons have become worried because of this generality concerning the word ‘good’ and said whether there can be found anything better than the Faith in Allah to be its reward. Its answer is clear because the pleasure of Allah is also higher than Faith. In other words, all of these things are the preliminaries for that and the consequence is prior to the preliminary.

Another question here is that the apparent of some verses (like Surah Al-Hajj, No. 22, verse 2) shows that the terror of Resurrection will cover all, then how are the possessors of good as an exception from it?

Surah Al-’Anbiya’, No. 21, verse 103 answers this question, where it says:

“The Great Terror (of that Day) shall not grieve them…”

And we know that the ‘Great terror’ is the terror of the Hereafter Day, and the Terror of arriving into Hell, not the horror which will appear at the time of the Blast.

By the way, the Arabic word /kubbat/, mentioned in the verse, means: ‘to be cast down’.

Then, the next verse refers to those who are situated in a place opposite to this group.

The verse says:

“And whoever brings evil, those shall be cast down on their faces, in the (Hell) Fire…”

Such people cannot expect anything except this.

The verse continues saying:

“…‘Are you rewarded (for) anything except what you used to do?’”

The Arabic term /kubbat/ is derived from /kabb/ which originally means ‘casting something on face down’, and, therefore, mentioning the word ‘faces’ in the above verse is for emphasis.

As the worst kind of punishment is said that this group shall be cast down on their faces in the (Hell) Fire. In addition, since they used to turn their faces away when they confronted the Truth, and they used to go toward sins with the same faces, now they should meet such a punishment.

The sentence:

“…‘Are you rewarded (for) anything except what you used to do?’”

may be the answer to the question that someone may say this punishment is a grievous punishment. They will be answered that those are the same deeds of theirs that have seized them and they have not any reward except their own deeds.