Thursday, March 6, 2008

Purgatory alluded to in the Qur'an

Many Protestants and non-denominationals are annoyed with Catholics for believing that God has to purify in purgatory even those who are good and who believe. I wonder if most people know a little known quote from the Qur'an that alludes to purgatory too.

Surah LXIV 8-9

Therefore believe in Allah and His Apostle and the Light which We have revealed; and Allah is Aware of what you do.

On the day that He will gather you for the day of gathering. that is the day of loss and gain; and whoever believes in Allah and does good, He will remove from him his evil and cause him to enter gardens beneath which rivers flow, to abide therein forever; that is the great achievement.

So you will notice that it is stated that even those who believe in Allah, does good things (and thus will go to heaven) must have Allah "remove from him his evil." By the word "whoever" you know that the passage is refering to each individual, not the group judgment of the bunch of believers from the bunch of sinners, with one group going to heaven and the other to hell. The phrasing is very specific that the believer in Allah who does good will have before he enters the eternal garden Allah to "remove from him his evil." All humans, even those with goodness and belief, are stained by sin of the world; it just cannot be avoided. No one stained with evil, even if they are not the evildoer him or herself, can enter the garden that is heaven without being purified by God first, and that is the removal of "his evil," which is his personal stain of sin or being in the company of sinners, as so much of the world requires.