As described in the 9th century Zoroastrian text Dadestan-i Denig ("Religious Decisions"), hamistagan is a neutral place or state for the departed souls of those whose good deeds and bad deeds were equal in life. Here these souls await Judgment Day. Meanwhile, those who did mostly good experience bliss and those who did mostly evil suffer torment. Religious Decisions was written in Persia (modern day Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

) when Islam was replacing Zoroastrianism as the majority religion.

Hamistagan can be compared to Roman Catholic purgatory

Purgatory

Purgatory is the condition or process of purification or temporary punishment in which, it is believed, the souls of those who die in a state of grace are made ready for Heaven...

 because it occupies a position between heaven

Heaven

Heaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit...

 and hell

Hell

In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...

, but hamistagan is a place of waiting, not punishment and purification. As a neutral place, hamistagan is more like the Roman Catholic limbo

Limbo

In the theology of the Catholic Church, Limbo is a speculative idea about the afterlife condition of those who die in original sin without being assigned to the Hell of the damned. Limbo is not an official doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church or any other...

.

Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

 does not have a similar neutral place where some await Judgment Day. The angels Nakir and Munkar

Nakir and Munkar

Munkar and Nakir, in Islamic eschatology, are angels who test the faith of the dead in their graves....

interrogate a recently deceased soul, which then remains in its grave in a state of bliss or torment until Judgment Day.