Helping a Believer – 2

Imam Ja’far As-Sadiq (as) says, “One person was brought back to life from the grave by angels and told him,’ We shall inflict on you a thousand blows of the whip of Allah’s Punishment!’ The person said, ‘I don’t have the strength to bear so much flogging.’ The angels said, ‘All right! We shall reduce one blow!’ He said, ‘I don’t have the strength to bear this severe punishment.’ In this way the angels kept reducing the number of blows they wanted to give the person and he kept on peading that he didn’t have sufficient strength to bear the flogging. In the end the angels said, ‘Atleast, we shall flog you once!’ the man asked, ‘You have not told me for what fault of mine you want to punish me?’ The angels said,’ Once you had prayed without doing the mandatory ablution and on another occasion you passed by an old man who needed help, but you didn’t help him.’ Saying this the angels flogged him once, The blow was so intense that a small fire started in the grave.”  Reference :Ain-Al Hayat, The Essence of Life