Ahmadiyyat or The True Islam — Page 333
333 Will Reward and Punishment be Everlasting? Another question with regard to the life after death is whether reward and punishment will be everlasting. The answer which Islam gives to this question is that reward will but punishment will not be everlasting. The Holy Quran says that man has been created so that he might become a perfect manifestation of Divine attributes. If people continue to burn in hell-fire for ever and ever, how, and when will they become such manifestations? The Holy Quran tells us that the blessings of heaven will be unending, but this will not be the case with the punishment of hell which, under the will of God and through His mercy and grace, will at last come to an end. The Holy Quran says that the mercy of God excels His wrath. When the wicked will have experi- enced the wrath of God during a period long enough to be called everlasting in view of the limited vision of man, the mercy of God will come into operation. The Holy Prophet sa says, 'There will come a time over hell when there will remain none in it, and the easterly breeze will shake its gates. ' The idea that the inmates of hell will undergo ev- erlasting punishment is due to ignorance of the purpose for which God punishes the sinful. God, being Merciful, has no desire to inflict punishment on anyone; a man brings punishment on himself on account of his own wickedness. As man corrupts his own spiritual faculties, he will not be able to experience the blessings of God to be awarded in the next world, and so he will experience pain. God, out of His mercy, has ordained that diseases should find a cure. Hence, just as physical diseases are