The Essence of Islam – Volume II — Page 367
14. PUNISHMENT IN THIS WORLD. It is the eternal way of God that until a disbeliever or a denier of truth becomes so bold and daring as to create the causes of his ruin with his own hands God Almighty does not destroy him by way of punishment. When the time of punishment approaches, He generates causes on account of which the decree of his destruction is recorded. This alone is the eternal law of the punishment from God and this is the way of God and unchangeable law laid down in the Book of God. [Anwār-ul-Islām, Rūḥānī Khazā'in, vol. 9, p. 3]. The Holy Qur'ān and other Divine scriptures disclose that the ruin and destruction imposed in this life on people as punishment are not afflicted because those people follow a wrong doctrine, for instance, because they worship idols, or planets, or fire, or some other created things or person; inasmuch as accounting for religious errors is postponed till the Judgement Day and no one is punished in this life merely on account of doctrinal errors or disbelief. The punishment for such defaults is postponed till the hereafter. Indeed this world is a paradise for the disbelievers and it is mostly the believers who suffer pain and torment in this world. 150 الدُّنْيَا جَنَّةُ الْكَافِرِ وَسِجُنُ الْمُؤْمِنِ 150 This world is the paradise of the disbeliever and the prison of the believer. [Publisher] 367