FRIDAY LEARNING ZONE FROM WESSEX JAMAAT
8th Jamadi al-Awwal 1428 AH / 25th May 2007
No. 21
NAAMA-E-A’MAAL (SCROLL OF DEEDS) – CON’T
There are three kinds of people who will be free from accounting on that day when the Naama-e-A’maal ‘the scroll of deeds’ shall be given to us.
The first kind is of those believers who had strived hard to remain on the path of Allah (SWT) and did many good deeds but sometimes fell into the trap of Shaytan and committed sins. Imam Ja’ffar as-Sadiq (as) has said, “When Allah will wish to take the account of a believer, He will give his scroll of deeds in his right hand and take his account personally in privacy such that nobody will come to know of his affairs. Allah will ask him, ‘My valuable slave! Have you committed such and such acts also?’ The believer will answer (in repentance): ‘Yes my Lord! I have committed them’. So Allah will say to him: ‘I have forgiven your sins and have replaced them with good deeds’. People will look at him with awe in Paradise and say: ‘Glory be to Allah! Verily this person is free from all sins’”.
(Haqqul-Yaqeen)
The second kind is of those who had forgiving nature towards others in life. Some people have the tendency of bearing grudge against others and this continues generation after generation. Islam is telling us that if you want Allah (SWT) to forgive your evil deeds and rub them off from your scroll of deeds then you must also inculcate the nature of forgiving others for their wrong doings. It is related about our fourth Imam, Imam Zaynul-’Aabideen (as) that when the holy month of Ramadhan would commence, he (as) would stop punishing his male and female slaves for their faults. But he (as) would note their names and faults, which they committed in a book. On the last night of holy Ramadhan, he would call them, open the book and tell each one of them about the crimes they had committed. Once they had admitted their mistakes, he (as) would then tell them that he (as) had forgiven them and ask them to repeat in his presence: “O Allah! Forgive Ali ibn al-Husayn just as he has forgiven us. O Allah! Save him from the fire of hell just as he has freed us from our bondage”. (Manazil al-Aakhirah) It is also reported about him that every year on the last night of Ramadhan, he (as) would free 20 slaves in the way of Allah (SWT) and say: “Verily on every night of Ramadhan, at the time of Iftaar, Allah grants amnesty to 700000 people from the fire of hell each one of whom is worthy of punishment. And on the last night, He grants liberty to the amount of people He freed in the whole month. May Allah be my witness that I have freed people in this world so that He too delivers me from the fire of hell”.
(Manazil al-Aakhirah)
And the thing is the Ziyaarah of Imam Husayn (as) in Karbala and the Ziyaarah of Imam Ridha (as) in Toos. Imam Ja’ffar as-Sadiq (as) has said, “In the month of Ramadhan, whoever goes for the Ziyaarah to the shrine of Imam Husayn (as), or dies on the way while going there, there will be no accounting and reckoning for him on the day of Qiyamah and he shall enter into Paradise without fear or anxiety”. (Manazil al-Aakhirah) It is reported from Imam ar-Ridha (as) that, “Whoever comes to visit my grave from far and near, on the day of Qiyamah, we shall save him from three calamities: We shall give him refuge from the terrors of Qiyamah when the scrolls of good doers are given in their right hands and evil ones in their left hands; He will be safe from the punishment of Siraat; and we will help him during weighing of scales”.
(Bihar al-Anwaar)