running before them and behind them on the Day of Resurrection: “Is he who was dead, then We raised him to life and made for him a light by which he walks among the people, like him whose likeness is that of one in darkness whence he cannot come forth?” (6:123); “On that day thou wilt see the faithful men and the faithful women, their light gleaming before them and on their right hand” (57:12), and the fruits of good deeds are spoken of as fruits of Paradise: “And give good news to those who believe and do good deeds, that for them are Gardens in which rivers flow. Whenever they are given a portion of the fruit thereof, they will say: This is what was given to us before; and they are given the like of it” (2:25). Similarly the fire which burns within the heart of man in this life, by reason of inordinate love of wealth, becomes the fire of Hell in the next life: “It is the Fire kindled by Allāh, which rises over the hearts” (104:6, 7). And the spiritual blindness of this life turns into blindness in the next life: “And whoever is blind in this (world), he will be blind in the Hereafter” (17:72). The seventy years of evil-doing — seventy being the average span of human life — are turned into a chain of seventy cubits (69:32). The man who acts according to the Book of God, or takes it in his right hand here, shall be given his book in the right hand on the Resurrection Day, and the man who will have none of it, and throws it behind his back, shall be given his book behind his back or in his left hand (69:19, 25; 84:7, 10). Ḥadīth also is full of examples of this. The spiritualities of this life take an actual shape in the Hereafter. This is the truth underlying all the blessings of Paradise and the torments of Hell.

The book of deeds

It will have been noticed that the guarding of the good and evil deeds of man, which form the basis of the higher life, is spoken of as writing them down; and a book of good and evil deeds is repeatedly mentioned. To quote further: “Or do they think that We hear not their secrets and their private counsels? Aye! and Our messengers with them write down” (43:80). “This is Our record that speaks against you with truth. Surely We wrote what you did” (45:29). “And the book is placed, then thou seest the guilty fearing for what is in it, and they say: O woe to us! What a book is this! It leaves out neither a small