A Present to Kings — Page 25
( 25 ) is its necessary consequence. It is for this reason that in the traditions, the consequences of good works and piety have been described as exaltation. Again the words "exalt me," in which the Mussalmans have been taught to pray, bear the same significance, that is, " may the scale of my good deeds prove heavy so that I may be exalted. " On the other hand, if the scale containing the animal nature of man should prove heavy the scale of good deeds would be lighter and would rise in the air and would prove of no benefit to the man, who would sink even deeper. To the same purport also points the following verse of the Holy Quran ناما من تقلب موازينه فهو فى عيشة راضية . و اما من خفت موا زينه نامه ها وية meaning "Of whomsoever the scale of good deeds will be heavy, he will attain an elevated life, but of whomsoever the scale of good deeds will be light and will not outweigh his animal qualities, he will fall into Huvia by which is meant a deep pit which sinks ever lower and lower in depth. The same is the sense of also the following verse: و لو شئنا لرفعناه بها و لكنه اخاد الى الارض meaning "If We wished We might have raised him by means of. Our signs, but he contracted such an attachment with the earth that he would not leave it. " Again the traditions which speak of paradise as a height and of hell as a depth point to the same idea that when the good deeds of a man bacome heavy, then his errors lose their weight and man inspite of his animal nature begins to be elevated and his virtues prevail over his vices and make them extinct, and man ultimately attaine paradise which is on high. On the other hand, the man whose good deeds are few and insufficient to elevate him, will have the scale containing his good deeds gone up and the scale containing his self will sink deeper and deeper in proportion to his sins and will have its place in hell which is beneath. . From this proposition may also be derived the fact of their being degrees in beaven and hell, because in proportion as a man's good deeds increase in weight will the man rise higher