I was reading Fefe’s thread in Life 1 and it brought to mind something that a colleague had told me a long time ago. She said that Allah will judge a person individually because the same scale won’t apply to everyone. The example she gave was that Allah knows a person’s weakness. So, a particular good deed may be easy to do for person A than for person B because of weakness in character. Therefore although the effort that B puts in is “lesser” than A…it’s still “good” for B.
Do you agree with this?
It makes more sense in the case of let’s say a physical disability or perhaps financial instability…both of which limit a person. But do you think it applies to character weaknesses too?
Fefe’s thread raised another question that sometimes comes to mind. Considering that we’re living in more challenging times…times of great fitna and temptation…will Allah take that into account when judging us? Would that bring about more leniency in judgment? Of course it is still incumbent upon one to make their best effort in following deen. But I was wondering if the differences in each era will lead to differences in judgment…as some things may have been easier/harder for one era than another.
Circumstances will also be taken into consideration. So a person who does what he has to do when it is against the norm, then they will have a greater reward for the same action than someone who does it when there is more ease. On the flip side, a person who does not do something despite the greater ease for it in his circumstances, I'd expect that he would have a greater punishment for it as well.
I don't know how well you feel this relates to your question, but I've heard that when Allah will question people why they didn't obey Him, they will present their excuses, such as poverty, being busy in earning wealth, sickness etc. Then Allah will present them with examples of prophets who also had circumstances of a similar nature (or at least of a similar name). So the peoples' excuses will be neutralized by those examples.
Allah's Messenger (peace be upon him) said: (You are living) in an age that when he who abandons even one-tenth of that which he is prescribed, courts destruction. After this there will come a time when he who observes one-tenth of what is now prescribed will be saved.
^Wow. Thanks Psya Bhai. That answers the question I asked. I have never seen this hadith before. It sure gives us food for thought about the era we're in.
^Wow. Thanks Psya Bhai. That answers the question I asked. I have never seen this hadith before. It sure gives us food for thought about the era we're in.
BarakAllahuFik Sister redvelvet
That Hadith about the 1/10th to be saved should be read in conjunction with this Hadith:
The Prophet Muhammad (SAW) said:"There will come a time when holding on to your Iman (belief) will be like holding on to hot coals" {Tirmidhi}
This Hadith indicates that effort must be there if not the achievement, or the intention must be there if not the effort. That certain things beyond us will prevent us from adherent states, but if we keep returning to that state ... Then that is what is praiseworthy. In other words we must keep going back to God, after we fall away, seek forgiveness over and over again, never be in a state where we lose hope ... For we cannot let the hot coal go for it could burn everything and cause a fire, but we cannot continue to hold it either ... So we juggle it like a hot potato as we say in English.
Together these indicate that greater fitna, or more time distance away from the radiance of RasoolAllah (SAW) renders us handicapped ... So we are given some relief on matters that previous generation will not be given ... All in the aid to preserve that Divine Justice that all we receive on the Day of Judgement.
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