The Way to Get Life and Hereafter Goodness

It is known that life is a permanent place where we don’t settle. It is like a farm that we should plant to get its fruits in the hereafter. Hence, the most important benefit a person can get from helping others is the hereafter benefit. So, what is the benefit of helping others? Many stories have shown the impacts of helping others in the hereafter.

 

Abu Abdallah Al Sadek said: “ On the day of Resurrection, when a believer passes beside a man whom he knew from Al Dunya (life) after God commands the angel to dip him in the Hellfire, the believer says to that man: Hey you, I helped you in life and I answered you when you called for me, so will you reward me today? The man then says to the angel entrusted to the believer: sit him free. So God hears the call of the believer, accepts it, and sits the believer free!” 1

 

He (pbuh) also says:” He who facilitates a believer’s way to someone in authority to benefit from him or solves his problem, will be helped to pass on Al Sirat (the Right Path) on the day when people’s feet slip off it”. 2

 

He (pbuh) also says:” A man who helps his muslim brother to fulfill his need and consults him, God will make 7 trenches between him and the hell; each trench is between the sky and the land”. 3

 

He (pbuh) also says:” Any muslim who strives for other muslim’s need, God will call him saying: I will reward you and I accept no reward for you less than being dipped in Paradise”. 4

 

It is the paradise that no eye has ever seen, nor an ear has ever heard nor a human heart can ever think of. This story reported by the prophet Mohammad (pbuh) shows the great rewards there for the people who strive for helping others.

 

He (pbuh) says:” God rewards some of our supporters with high paradise ranks, houses and blessings that life’s and its blessings look like one sand in the loose desert. It is when a believer sees a poor brother, behaves with him in humbleness, honors him, helps him, supplies him, and prevents him from losing his dignity when asking for his need, he will find angels who are entrusted to those houses and palaces increasing in number and houses increasing in space and area. The angels then say: Oh God, we have no ability to serve in these big houses so please provide us with more angels to help us. God answers: I will not carry you beyond your capacity, how many angels do you want? So the angels answer: thousand times of angels, including believers whom angels are helped by them thousand thousand doubles of our abilities, as much as their belief power and the increase in their help for their muslim brother. Then, God provides them with those possessions. God almighty remains, increasing the believers' possessions and servants in paradise whenever He sees this believer helping his brothers”. 5

 

It is narrated in some stories that the hellfire is forbidden to burn them!.

 

It is reported that Al Imam Al Sadek (pbuh) says:” He who provides his muslim brother with rest, food, clothes, and peace (which are all called together Al Tuhfa in Arabic), will be rewarded with being dipped in Paradise. God almighty reveals to the Paradise that I forbidden your food to the people of life except a prophet or a prophet’s guardian. Then on the Day of Resurrection, He almighty reveals for the Paradise to reward His guardians because of their Tuhaf (the help they provided for others in their lives), so bond women get out of the Paradise holding dishes covered with pearl napkins. When God’s guardians look at Hell and its horrors and at Paradise and what it includes, they wonder and prevent themselves from eating. Meanwhile, a herald shouts from under the throne that God almighty forbiddens the hell to everyone who eats from His Paradise’s food, so they start eating”. 6

 

This is in case a believer helps his muslim brother in a certain occasion, but he who spends his life striving for his brother's needs will be rewarded with special honor by God almighty in the hereafter.

 

The prophet Mohammad says:” There are some servants whom God almighty has created to strive for people’s needs; He almighty swear not to let them touch hellfire. He will reward them on the Day of Judgement with platforms of lights, talking with God and people on the Day of Resurrection". 7

 

This reality is reflected in the words of Al Imam Al Khomaini (may God sanctify his secret) when he says: “The most simple services that you provide for those people who live in cabins will benefit you a lot with God Almighty ''.

 

He (may God sanctify his secret) says:” Do all your best to serve them because it is the best supply and the best good deeds in the eyes of God”.

 

Before the hereafter, the honor of serving people will be shown before people in Al Barzakh (a place separating the living from the hereafter) also! So wait for great happiness!

 

The story of Al Imam Al Sadek (pbuh) explains this case:” When a believer comes out from his grave, an example gets out with him. So, whenever the believer sees a horror of the horrors of the Day of Judgement, the example tells him: don’t feel afraid or be sad, be happy at the dignity you will get from God almighty. It remains giving him the good tidings about happiness and dignity from God almighty until he stands in the hands of God who will account him simple judgement, and give the command to be dipped the paradise with the example before him, so the believer says: May God provide you with His mercy, you are the best of whom comes out with me of my grave! You are still giving me the good tidings and dignity from God almighty, so who are you? The example then tells him: ``I am the happiness that you enter into your believer brother's heart; God has created me in life to give you the good tidings”. 8

 

The best happiness we can enter into a believer’s heart is fulfilling his need to feel happy with.

 

Despite that the reward is shown in the hereafter, God almighty hastens life’s reward before the hereafter for those who serve people. He promises them by His mercy before His reward and blessings in the hereafter. There are many stories that talk about this.

 

Al Imam Al Sadek says:” He who helps a believer while suffering from hardship, God will facilitate his needs in life and the hereafter. He also says: he who hides a fault that a believer fears to show, God will hide 70 faults of the faults he fears to show, in life and the hereafter. He says: God almighty remains helping a believer as long as he helps his muslim brother”. 9

 

The honorable prophet Mohammad (pbuh) says:” God almighty remains helping a believer as long as he helps his brother”.10

This small service that a man provides will be a part of God’s almighty group of mercy and generosity until it is doubled and transformed into gardens of his mercy that God only knows their reality; we haven’t got from their news except some signs. We ask God almighty to help us see their blessings in life and the hereafter.

 

Al Imam Al Sadek (pbuh) says:” He who helps his faithful brother who is yearning and breathless, relieves his grieve, and helps him to fulfill his need, God enjoins on him 72 mercies: one that makes his livelihood better, and reserves 71 mercies of them to face the horrors of the Day of Resurrection”. 11

 

Al Imam Al Khomaini (may God sanctify his secret) encourages helping others for the sake of God because of the goodness it carries for a believer in life and the hereafter. He also says: “They should all work for the sake of God and help the needy people because of the reward they will take in life and the hereafter”.

 

([1]) The Reward of Deeds, by Sheikh Al-Saduq, p. 172.

([2]) Mustadrak Al-Wasail, vol. 31, p. 132.

([3]) Awali Al-Layali, Part 1, p. 375

([4]) Al-Kafi, Volume 2, pg. 194.

([5]) Bihar Al-Anwar, Part 8, pg. 147.

([6]) Al-Kafi, Part 2, pg. 207.

([7]) Awali Al-Laali, Part 1, p. 373.

([8]) The reward of deeds, by Sheikh Al-Saduq, pg. 200.

([9]) Bihar Al-Anwar, Part 72, pg. 1.20

([10]) Bihar al-Anwar, vol. 71, pg. 312.

([11]) Al-Kafi, Volume 2, pg. 199.