100 The phrase "What their hands have sent on before them" frequently occurs in the Qur'an. Here and in many places, it refers to sins. In such passages as
78:40 or
81:14, it is implied that both good and bad deeds go before us to the Judgement Seat of Allah before we do ourselves. In
2:110, it is the good that goes before us. Our deeds are personified. They are witnesses for or against us, and they always go before us. Their good or bad influence begins to operate before we even know it. This is more general than the New Testament idea in the First Epistle of St. Paul to Timothy,
5:24 : "Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgement; and some men they follow after." (Cf.
3:182 and n. 225)