Episode 3
Episode 3: The Requital of the Torturers and the Victory of Faith
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The Qur'an affirms the requital awaiting those torturers if they do not repent. Allah said, "Indeed, those who have tortured the believing men and believing women and then have not repented will have the punishment of Hell, and they will have the punishment of the Burning Fire" (Qur'an 85:10). There is perfect justice here: they burned the believers with the fire of this world, so they are threatened with the fire of Hell in the Hereafter โ unless they repent. The door of repentance stays open even for the perpetrators of so great a crime, so long as they are willing to return to Allah. This shows the vastness of Allah's mercy together with the firmness of His justice. As for the believers who fell in the fire of this world, they are in truth the victors. They lost a perishable body but attained an everlasting Paradise. The fire of this world hurts only for a moment, while they traded it for eternal bliss with Allah. Reflection: true victory is not always visible in this world. Sometimes the believers lose physically but win in reality before Allah. The story of Ashabul Ukhdud teaches that steadfastness of faith, even if it ends in martyrdom, is the most magnificent victory. Source & Note: evidence from the Qur'an, 85:10. The background of this story is famously narrated in an authentic hadith about "the boy and the king" โ a young believer whose steadfastness led many to believe and were then burned in the trench (Sahih Muslim no. 3005). We mention it with its source as background, while the core lesson rests on the ayat.