The disparity between the sins and their punishment is the main issue of doubt about eternal damnation. It is said “ How can we accept a person nearly a hundred years old spends all his life in sins but is damned for million of years for it?”

This issue does not affect the eternal bounties of Paradise because it is not surprising that a benign and merciful entity like God bestows greats bounties as rewards but there should be a parity between the crime and punishment if it is destroyed then it will not be according to the divine justice. In short, the punishment for a sinful life of a hundred should be a hundred years and not more.

The complexity of this doubt became the reason for some people’s invalid excuses like explaining it with a great period of time or with collective damnation rather than the individual one. They some times say that the sinner will get accustomed to the punishment of the fire and give other excuses mentioned above. As we have said earlier these are very weak and invalid excuses and explanations, unacceptable because they do not confirm from the literal meanings of the verses.

The Answer.

The people who make such presumptions are ignorant of the basic point that there is a difference between the declared punishments and the natural ones which is about the nature of the deeds and the spending of life with them.

We can explain that sometimes the jurists make laws that define the incarceration of person for a certain period according to the nature of the crime and parity will be maintained between the crime and its punishment. No one will be hanged to death for a petty crime. But the incarceration of a single day is not enough for a grave crime like murder. Wisdom demands that there should be equality between them.

But the punishments that are natural and are regarded as a natural outcome or which are evident to the person himself will not be included in this whether the effects are in this world or the hereafter e.g. We can say that a person who breaks the traffic rules and drives in a prohibited zone may meet an accident and break his limbs and disabled for a long time. No one in this instance can say that this is a long period of disability for a very small infringement of rules and is not justice. This evidently is not as per the rules prescribing punishments of the traffic department where the infringement is penalized with an equal fine. This is the natural outcome of his deed for he did this intentionally and so he suffered. If the intoxicants are prohibited because they disable our hearts, stomachs brains, and limbs but if some one does it and suffers from heart attacks or ulcers ( for just a few years of heeding the lustful desires) then as a consequence he will feel the torment of the diseases till his last breath. He may suffer for millions of years for a sinful life of a thousand years. No one will raise the question of disparity between his crime and his suffering which is a natural punishment.

The matter is more important when related to the punishments of the hereafter and it is possible that the natural outcomes may afflict the person for ever and the deeds are evident before him ( as we have discussed previously about the manifestation of deeds). Since that world is eternal, the good and bad deeds will remain with the person forever and will be cause of his pleasure or torment.

We have said earlier that the punishments in the hereafter are mostly natural and have a great reflection about the deeds done by a person.

In verse 33 of Surah Jaasiya the Qura’n says:

“And the evil of what they did will appear to them and they will be completely encircled by that which they used to mock.”

Verse 54 of Surah Yasin says:

“Nor will you be requited anything but that which you used to do.”

So there is no scope for us to the object about the absence of any parity between the crime and punishment.

Man should strive to soar into the heavens with the help of the two wings of true belief and good deeds and enjoy the eternal bounties from God. But if he loses both these wings because of a few moments of years of sins and lust then he should suffer disgrace for ever. There is no problem about the place and time of the crime but it is the issue of causes and affects and the issue of a long term effect of a moment’s deed. A simple matchstick may burn an entire city and a small cactus plant may turn into a large desert full of it giving nothing but pain to mankind. A few seeds from some flowers may turn a barren land into a garden full of fragrance in bloom after a few years and become the cause of pleasing the soul and eyes. Will we consider it logical if some one questions the parity between a matchstick and the burning of a city or the parity between a few seeds of plants of cactus with the barren land? Absolutely not.

Our good and bad deeds are like the same and may have a very wide effect. (Reflect)

The important fact is that the apostle of God, the great Messengers and saints have always warned us about that these sins may result in eternal incarceration and these good deeds will result in eternal rewards. This is like the gardener telling us about the benefits from flowers and the damages from weeds and we choose what we like. Who can we criticize and what can we dispute about and which laws can we doubt?

This is the end of the discussion about rewards and punishments.