Four Steps of Self-Assessment
According to the principle of Ma’ad, man will see his deeds and will be judged according to them.
Judging one’s own deeds is among the issues that have been discussed in the Quran and Hadiths. The Holy Quran notes in several places that man’s deeds will be assessed and judged after death and that humans will be awarded or punished for the very small ones. “Whoever has done an atom's weight of good will see it and whoever has done an atom's weight of evil, will also see it.” [99:7-8]
But this can happen before death and even in this world as individuals can have a self-assessment of their behavior and deeds. “We will tell him, ‘Read it and judge for yourself.’” [17:14]
It is a privilege for humans that they have this opportunity to compensate for their mistakes, however, not all people use this privilege.
Those who want to take control of their deeds in this world can follow four steps:
1) Setting conditions: it means that one should promise to not commit a sin at the start of the day
2) Taking care: he/she should take care of actions so as not to commit any sin.
3) Assessing: one should assess actions at the end of each day and see how much he/she has managed to adhere to defined duties
4) Punishing: one should define a punishment in case of committing a mistake. The punishment can be fasting, helping the needy, or asking for forgiveness from the one whose rights have been violated.
Hereby, individuals can assess their behavior and actions before the divine assessment and this leads to compensating the bad deeds as well as preventing their repetition.
