The "Reward" of Those Who Mock

Those who turn their religion into a game and a subject of entertainment, in addition to unwisely mocking the religious values will receive their "reward" in both this world and the next. As in the Qur'an Allah states, their real "reward" is waiting for them in the hereafter. Just as Allah brings the believers the good news of paradise, so does He threatens the unbelievers with hell.

On the Day of Judgment, when everybody is called to account for their actions, all of the unbelievers will definitely feel great remorse and, just as definitely, will be punished. On that day, they will become the real subject of mockery because they will face a situation for which their obstinate unbelief had not prepared them. There will be no way to escape the demeaning punishment waiting for them, for in this world they mocked Allah's revelation and therefore earned their place in hell. Thus, they have turned themselves into the real subject of mockery:

When he learns something of Our signs, he mocks them. Such people will have a humiliating punishment. Hell is right at their heels. Nothing they have earned will be of any use to them, and neither will those they took as protectors besides Allah. They will have a terrible punishment. (Surat al-Jathiyya, 9-10)

As we can see, people who dare to mock religion flagrantly fall into a very great trap. Allah has prepared a serious punishment for them and turns all of their deeds against them. Their evil behavior now comes back home to roost. While up until that time they had believed themselves superior and had made exaggerated claims about their superiority, they are now brought down to a very inferior position. In the Qur'an Allah reveals their bitter end:

What confronts them will be the evil actions that they earned, and what they used to mock will engulf them. (Surat az-Zumar, 48)

Their evil actions assailed them. They were engulfed by what they mocked. (Surat an-Nahl, 34)

Those who chose to mock Allah's verses, His prophets and the believers will enter the fires of hell, where they will suffer their bitter "reward" for mocking His religion. Moreover, the hell prepared for such people is everlasting, because after the Day of Judgment they will be ignored and kept far from Allah's mercy, just as they had ignored and forgotten that Day and the hereafter. Without a doubt, this is the most terrible end anybody can meet, for:

Their evil deeds will appear before them, and the things they mocked will engulf them. They will be told: "Today We have forgotten you, just as you forgot the meeting of this your Day. Your refuge is the Fire and you have no helpers, because you mocked Allah's signs and the life of this world deluded you." Therefore, today they will not get out of it and will be unable to appease Allah. (Surat al-Jathiyya, 33-35)

In the Hereafter the Believers Will Mock the Unbelievers

So far, we have seen that all of the unbelievers, pagans, hypocrites, and people who are far from religious moral values have arrogantly and habitually mocked Allah's religion and verses, as well as His prophets and those who follow them. Throughout history, such people who do not know the truth have deliberately resorted to mockery in order to trouble the believers, destroy their joy, and affect them negatively in every possible way according to their foolish minds. But there is a great truth that they do not take into account: When the time comes, the believers will mock them.

Allah declares that the Day of Judgment will come and that all people will be called to account for their actions on that day. Nobody will be able to turn back, and everybody will receive exactly what they deserve. Those who are devoted to Allah and His prophets, who have followed the true path they showed, will enter paradise, a realm filled with Allah's blessings that He has created for them. They will remain therein for all eternity, unless Allah wills otherwise. As for those who revolt against Allah, mock His religion and prophets, and try to undermine believers through mockery and insults, they will be thrown into hell containing every kind of torment and will remain therein forever. Now the believers, seeing their belief and patience vindicated, will mock the unbelievers, who never thought that they would be called to account for their acts and suffer eternal punishment for them. Believing only in this life and denying the resurrection, they either rejected the hereafter or thought that it would take place only in a far distant future, and never thought that they would be punished for their actions. Not stopping there, they joined together in order to continually mock those people who lived by the Qur'an's morality, surrendered to Allah, and adopted His superior moral system. But on the Day of Judgment, they will realize that the believers were on the right path and that they were not. Therefore, the unbelievers will become the real subject of mockery, since their evil deeds will have harmed only them and, moreover, have caused them to wreck their eternal life.

Once they enter hell, which is an extremely violent realm, they will discover that trouble and suffering, both of which are on a scale that they could not previously imagine or experience, are lying in wait for them. In contrast, the believers will be rewarded with unimaginable degrees of beauty and blessings and will exist forever in paradise. Both groups of people will see each other and witness Allah's justice:

So today those who believe are laughing at the unbelievers, on couches, gazing in wonder. Have the unbelievers been rewarded for what they did? (Surat al-Mutaffifin, 34-36)

Remember that Allah's justice will be carried out in full, because He granted all people enough time to pay attention to His revelation and understand that the hereafter and the Day of Judgment were not events that would happen in the far distant future. Despite this, however, the unbelievers made a conscious decision not to abandon their mockery:

We established them far more firmly than We have established you, and gave them hearing, sight, and hearts. But their hearing, sight, and hearts were of no use to them at all when they renounced Allah's signs, and what they mocked engulfed them. (Surat al-Ahqaf, 26)

In other words, everyone is given many opportunities to accept the Qur'an's morality. Those who refuse to do so are condemned to suffer the punishment for their lack of conscience, because they rejected all of these opportunities so that they could continue to mock the believers.

These people will be very surprised when they are resurrected, along with the believers, and then sentenced to hell. They will want to see those who they believed to be on the wrong path enter hell with them. But at that very moment will they realize just how badly they have been deceived. While they were laughing at and mocking the believers, they were bringing themselves closer to a situation in which they themselves would be belittled and mocked. Their bitter condition is described in the following verses:

They will ask: "How is it that we do not see some people whom we used to count among the worst of people? Did we turn them into figures of fun? Did our eyes disdain to look at them?" All of this is certainly true – the bickering of the people of the Fire. (Surah Sâd, 62-64)

Seeing the believers go to paradise will be a great blow for the unbelievers, because Allah has prepared paradise for the believers, where they enjoy a wonderful environment, full of every type of blessing, for all eternity. When the unbelievers are shown this extraordinary realm, they will be astonished by what the believers have earned. In fact, each person receives only what he has earned. Allah describes the great Day when the believers will be separated from the unbelievers:

You will see the wrongdoers afraid of what they have earned, when it is about to land right on top of them, whereas those who believe and do right actions will be in the lush meadows of the Gardens. They will have whatever they wish for with their Lord. That is the great favor. (Surat ash-Shura, 22)

So when the time comes, Allah both pays back those who mocked the believers and rewards the believers for their patience:

Those whose scales are light are the losers of their selves and will remain in hell timelessly, forever. The Fire will sear their faces, making them grimace horribly, their lips drawn back from their teeth. "Were My signs not recited to you, and did you not deny them?" They will reply: "Our Lord, our miserable destiny overpowered us. We were a misguided people. Our Lord, remove us from it! Then if we revert again, we will definitely be wrongdoers." He will say: "Slink away into it [the Fire] and do not speak to Me. A group of My servants said: ‘Our Lord, we believe, so forgive us and have mercy on us. You are the Best of the Merciful.' But you mocked them so that they made you forget to remember Me while you were laughing at them. Today I have rewarded them for being steadfast. They are the ones who are victorious." (Surat al-Mu'minun, 103-111)

Our Prophet (saas) said in one of his hadiths that "whoever remains patient, Allah will make him patient. Nobody can be given a blessing better and greater than patience." (Sahih al-Bukhari, volume 2, book 24, hadith no. 548.)