What Is the Scale for Fetal Health, and How Does the World Judge the Fetus?

Everything in the world has a certain measure and scale; that is why the “scale” is a widely-used concept in our lives. In order to succeed in anything, we must always align ourselves with its relevant scales, or in other words, fill its scales. In this article, we want to investigate, “What is the relation between the scale for fetal health and the way he is born? Does this standard and criterion only apply to our worldly life?” To answer these questions, we first need to determine

• What is the scale for fetal health, and what criteria does the world use to judge it?
• What does filling the scale by the fetus mean, and what is the relation between the scale for fetal health and his well-being in the world?
• How is the scale defined in the relationship between the world and the hereafter, and what is the scale for judging people in the hereafter?

When we go to the doctor because we are in pain, feel weak, or have physical problems, the doctor looks at the test results to figure out what illness we have, how bad it is, and what medicine we need. The doctor first prescribes a blood test and then compares the level of our blood factors with the standards and criteria necessary for a normal life. For example, to diagnose diabetes, the doctor compares our blood sugar level with the standard level, or to diagnose anemia, he compares the level of iron in our blood with the normal level. These standards and criteria used by a doctor to determine whether our health condition is compatible with normal conditions or not are called the “scale.”

For instance, most universities have set a passing grade of ten in exams. According to them, a student who achieves a grade of ten or higher has acceptable knowledge in that subject and has the necessary qualifications to move on to the next stage. Otherwise, he has not understood the course material and must take part in the course again. Of course, the grade of ten is the minimum scale required to continue education, and naturally, anyone whose grade is above ten is more successful in pursuing their education. In other words, a student who gets a grade of eleven and a student who gets a grade of nineteen have both filled the grade scale and can continue their education without difficulty. However, someone who gets a grade of nineteen has a higher and heavier scale of achievement than someone who gets a grade of eleven and is, therefore, more successful in completing and reaching higher levels.

The concept of the “scale,” as important as it is in worldly life, is many times more important in the hereafter because it relates to our eternity, and eternity is no joke! We will only live comfortably and without trouble in the hereafter if, in this world, we fill the scales that are compatible with the living conditions of the hereafter. Otherwise, we will be condemned to suffer depending on the lightness of our scales, just like a fetus that has not filled the necessary scales in the womb and is born with various inborn defects and diseases into the world and suffers throughout his life.

What Is the Scale for Fetal Health, and How Does the World Examine the Fetus?

Once the fetus is born from its mother’s womb, the world immediately questions and judges him and weighs the scale for fetal health with various standards. However, this does not mean that the world brings the fetus to a court and interrogates him. Questions of the world are not presented in a written or verbal form to the fetus to answer. These questions are “existential” ones; it means that the fetus responds to them with his existential structure or assets.

The assets of a fetus are the organs that he brings into the world: eyes, ears, hands, feet, heart, lungs, kidneys, and other organs that the fetus has worked hard to acquire in his mother’s womb. These are the assets of the fetus and the world weighs the scale for fetal health by means of these assets.

According to the laws of the world, the fetus must be born with two healthy hands and two healthy feet in order to live comfortably with no problem for the rest of his life. In fact, having two healthy hands and feet is just one of the many scales that the world demands from the fetus. If a fetus fills these scales, he will live happily! He can use these organs for years and enjoy life. However, if he does not bring one of these organs with him, it means that he has not filled the related scales, and he will be doomed to suffer for the rest of his life. This is because the world cannot make a hand or foot for him, not that it does not want to, but it simply cannot. Even if a fetus is missing just one finger, the world still cannot make it for him.

The same goes for other organs. Each organ has its own specific scales. For example, the scales for a healthy eye are iris, retina, cornea, lens, etc. The scales for a healthy ear include the tympanic membrane, the auditory ossicles (malleus, incus, and stapes), the oval window, and more. If a fetus has a deficiency in the eye or ear, it means that the scale for the corresponding organ is light and it is not ready enough for life in this world.

What Is the Scale in the Hereafter, and What Does Hell Mean?

Just like a fetus moving from the mother’s womb into the world, there is a series of scales on our journey towards the hereafter. Our soul will be judged by these scales as soon as we enter the hereafter. In fact, just like a newborn baby, we will be questioned and judged. As we mentioned, these questions are not written or verbal, but they are existential. It means the actions we do in the womb of the world and the assets we acquire testify to our being sound or not.

In the hereafter, the scale for judging people is the ‘truth,’[1] just like in the world. The world weighs the scale for fetal health with truth. In the world, the truth means the compatibility of the fetus with all the scales and micro-scales necessary for life in the world. When a newborn enters the world, his health or defects make it clear whether he has spent his fetal period in accordance with the truth or not. If he spends his fetal period in accordance with the truth and is aligned with the scales of the world, he can naturally use the world’s resources easily and without any suffering. Otherwise, he must endure the pain of treatment in proportion to the defects and illnesses he has brought into the world, and many of them are incurable.

The same rule applies to the hereafter. When we enter the hereafter, we will be judged with the truth. The truth means the harmony of our souls with the qualities and living conditions of the heaven. In this world, the more we become compatible with the necessary scales of living in the heaven, in other words, the heavier our scales become, the more beautiful and vaster our heaven will be, and we will enjoy living there more.[2] The lighter our scales, the more limited our heaven will be.

Hell does not exist in itself, but rather it is the result of not being compatible with the heaven. In other words, the realm of the hereafter is the heaven itself, and there is no hell there. However, when someone is unable to take advantage of the resources of the heaven, that same heaven will turn into the hell for them. It is like the world, with its resources and beauties turning into a hell for a sick and defective fetus.

In this lesson, we discussed the concept of the scale for a fetus. We learned that the scale for fetal health is determined by the organs he brings into the world. Then we used this concept and went from the scale for fetal health to the scale for judging individuals in the hereafter. In future lessons, we will refer to this concept and examine its various aspects.

[1]. Quran, 7:8

[2]. Ibid.