56 JUDAISM AND ISLAM.
day gains also a greater importance from the fact that not only individuals and nations appear at it, but also those beings who have been honoured as gods by the nations, and they too receive punishment with their worshippers. In Sukkah XXIX we find this statement : J "As often as a nation (on account of idolatry) receives its punishment, those beings honoured by it as gods shall also be punished ; for, it is written : 2 ' Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment.' " That this general sentence admits of a reference to the punishment of the last day is not expressly stated, but it is worthy of acceptation. Muhammad expresses himself still more clearly about it: 3 " Yerily both ye and the idols which ye worship besides God shall be cast as fuel into hell fire."
A view closely interwoven with Judaism and Islam is that retributive punishment is entirely confined to the state after death, and that any single merit which a sinner has gained will be rewarded in this world, to the end that nothing may impede the course of judgment in the next. The same view, only reversed, holds good in the case of the righteous. It is a view which was thought to explain the course of destiny upon earth, which so often seems to run .contrary to the merits and demerits of men.
The Rabbinical view is expressed in the following passage : 4 " Whereunto are the pious in this world to be
? rraai nm Va f
8 Exodus, xii. 12.
3 Sura XXI. 98.
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'3tz? wan dbl2?n -la
