The Essence of Islam – Volume II — Page 445
Heaven and Hell 445 steeped in heedlessness, may not feel it. In that condition the affected soul is disabled from performing spiritual service. If this condition lasts for a time the soul becomes useless and becomes dangerous for its neighbours. The torment with which it is afflicted does not come from outside, but is generated by its diseased condition. No doubt it is the act of God, but it is like the case when a person takes a fatal dose of arsenic, God Almighty kills him. Or when a person shuts all the windows of his room, God Almighty makes the room dark, or if a person were to cut off his tongue, God Almighty would deprive him of the power of speech. These are all the acts of God which follow upon the acts of man. In the same way, spiritual torment is the act of God Almighty which follows upon a person's own action. This is indicated in the verse: 219 تارُ اللهِ الْمُوْقَدَةُه الَّتِي تَطَّلِعُ عَلَى الأَفْئِدَةِ 90. Chastisement of God is a torment inflicted by God. Its first flame rises from the heart of man himself. . This means that the root of the torment is in the heart of man and that the impure thoughts of the heart are the fuel of this hell. As the seed of the torment is the foulness of one's being which becomes personified as torment, it follows that that which removes this torment is righteousness and purity. [Kitāb-ul-Bariyyah, Rūḥānī Khazā'in, vol. 13, pp. 81-82]. The roots of torment are the mistaken beliefs and wrong actions of a person. They will be personified by the wrath of God in the form of fire. As striking a stone hard 219 Al-Humazah, 104:7-8 [Publisher]