CHAPTER 8 Why Religious Obligation Necessitates Requital You should know that people are requited on the basis of their actions, if good then with good, and if bad then with bad, from four aspects. 1) One of them is the natural requirement of the specific form. Just as when livestock feed on grass and predators eat meat, both remain in good health, and if livestock were to eat meat and the predators, grass, their health would be spoiled—so it is with man. If he performs acts whose spirits are submission to God, purity, magnanimity, and justice;' his angelic nature thrives. If he per- forms acts whose spirits are opposed to these qualities, then his angelic nature is harmed. At the time when he is relieved of the weight of the body, he feels the suitability and incompatibility (of his actions) as one of us would feel the pain of burning. 2) The second of them is from the direction of the Highest Coun- cil. Just as one of us has perceptual faculties placed in his brain with which he feels whatever his foot treads on, whether a live coal or a piece of ice, likewise there are angelic attendants with the form of humanity? represented in Malakit. The providence of God brought them into being together with the human species be- cause the human species could not thrive without them, just as ‘one of us would not be sound without the faculties of perception. Whenever an individual human performs an act which would lead to salvation these angels emit beams of delight and happi- ness, and whenever he commits a destructive act, beams of repug- nance and anger are emitted by them. These beams penetrate the soul of that person causing him joy or gloom, or they may pene- trate the souls of certain angels or persons so that inspiration will occur for them to love him and do good to him, or conversely to ' The four cardinal virtues, according to Shah Wali Allah, discussed in detail in Chapter 32. ? By the form of humanity (siirat al-insan), Shah Wali Allah is referring to the ideal prototype or model for the human species.