Ma'ad (the Day of Judgement)

Like all Muslims, the Shi'as believe that Almighty God will bring all people to life again for accountability, punishment and reward on the Day of Judgement. Ma'ad involves the appearance of every person before his Lord in exactly the same human bodily from he had while on earth. It is not necessary to know in what way the return will be effected; suffice it to say that whatever has been stated about final requital and accountability in the Book of God and the authentic traditions is a part of our faith, namely, belief in hell or paradise, comfort or pain in "al-barzakh" (i.e. purgatory), "al-mizan" (the balance), "as-sirat" (the path), "al-a'raf" ("the heights", a place situated between paradise and hell), and "kitabu 'l-a'mal" (the record of deeds) which will show all the deeds one has done in one's life.

The Shi'as therefore finally believe that every one shall be entiltled to receive punishment or reward according to his deeds. Good actions shall be rewarded and bad actions shall etail punishment: God says in the glorious Qur'an: "Whoever does at atoms weight of goodness will see it on the last day, and whoever does and atom's weight of bad will see it on the last day."

Adopted from the book: "The Origin of the Shi'ite Islam and its Principles (Asl ash-Shi'ah wa Usuluh" by: "Allamah Kashiful Ghita"