…as two clouds, yet he misunderstood the report. In all these hadiths the phrases “the Quran comes,” “al-Baqarah comes,” “prayer comes,” “fasting comes,” etc., simply mean that the reward of those acts comes, and this is clarified in both the Quran and the Sunnah. God the Exalted says: “Whoever does an atom’s weight of good shall see it, and whoever does an atom’s weight of evil shall see it” (Surat al-Zalzala 7–8). The surface wording suggests that one actually sees the good and the evil, but what is really seen is their recompense—reward or punishment. He likewise says: “On the Day when every soul will find present whatever good it did and whatever evil it did; it will wish that there were a great distance between it and that [evil]” (Surat Al-Imran 30). This does not mean that the deeds themselves appear in the very form in which they were committed; rather, the person finds the requital for them, whether reward or punishment, as in His saying: “Whoever does evil shall be requited for it” (Surat al-Nisa 123). Accordingly, it is idiomatic Arabic to say: the Quran comes, prayer comes, zakat comes, patience comes, gratitude comes—the intention is that the reward for all of these comes. Similarly, one who commits an act of evil will receive its requital. When God says, “Whoever does an atom’s weight of evil shall see it,” do you imagine he will literally see theft, adultery, drinking wine and the like? Rather, he will see the punishment and torment due for those sins, and the Quran contains many parallels to this usage. As for the Sunnah, the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—said: “A believer’s shade is his charity,” and nothing could be plainer. He also said: “Every act of kindness is charity: guiding a lost person is charity; greeting your brother with peace is charity; meeting him with a cheerful face is charity; commanding what is right is charity; forbidding what is wrong is charity; and intimacy with your spouse is charity.” How, then, could a person be shaded on the Day of Resurrection by his intimacy with his wife? What is meant in every case is the reward of his charity. Did not the Prophet—peace be upon him—also say: “Whoever would like God to shade him in the shade of His Throne on a Day when there is no shade but His, let him ease a debtor’s burden or remit it”? This shows clearly that the shade is part of the recompense for one’s deeds.