—the blessed are those whose scales of good deeds come down heavy, outweighing their sins. They win Allah’s good pleasure and the everlasting bliss of Paradise, wherein they will dwell for all eternity.

The wretched, on the other hand, are those whose scales are light—meaning that their sins outweigh their good deeds, Allah forbid. Such people are disappointed, ruined, and end up with the worst possible fate: Hell is their abode and final destination for ever and ever.

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Exegesis of Sura al-Maʿūn

Question: What is the meaning of Allah’s words in Sura al-Maʿūn, In the name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Very-Merciful: “So woe to those who pray, yet who are heedless of their prayer, those who make a show of it, and withhold simple assistance” (al-Maʿūn 4–7)?

Answer: The term “woe” is a word of severe threat, punishment, and reprimand. Some scholars have said it is the name of a valley in Hell prepared for those who pray yet are heedless of their prayer—that is, those who delay the prayer beyond its appointed time: praying Fajr after the sun has risen, Ẓuhr during the time of ʿAṣr, ʿAṣr during Maghrib, and so on.

Whoever takes a prayer out of its prescribed time without a valid Sharīʿah-approved excuse is considered heedless of it and negligent toward it, as in the other verse: “Then came after them successors who neglected the prayer and followed their desires; so they will meet with ruin” (Maryam 59). Thus, the neglect and heedlessness for which a severe warning is issued in these two verses consist of performing the prayer outside its time without legitimate excuse, for Allah the Exalted says: “The prayer is enjoined on the believers at fixed times” (al-Nisāʾ 103), meaning it is stipulated for particular times and may not be taken out of them except for a lawful reason.

His words, “those who make a show of it,” mean that they perform their deeds only to be seen by people,