The chapter of Al-Waaqi'ah openswith a booming clarion cry, a crashing
epiphany, that ushers itswitness's mind to the edge of creation's
cataclysmic fate and onto the near shores of his or herown swift
passage into undisputed reality, when this earth has been leveled into
mere strewn dust. Quickly dispensing with a world left utterly
shattered, it instantly sorts us into three diverse groups: One to the
right; one to the left; and the third—the illustrious
forerunners—nearest Allaah Almighty Himself, up ahead.
The defiant unbelievers, grey with terror, utterly disoriented,
mumbling in confusion, shall throng, exposed on the left. They shall
be turned toward torment and eternally divided from the righteous, who
are gathered on the right and shaded by the blessing of Allaah
Almighty, behind the forerunners in goodness.
These are the consequences of earthly human life, graphically and
factually sorted out. There is no fourth prospect. Such are the
judgments that Allaah Almighty shall issue. The chapter of Al-Waaqi'ah
now expends nearly half its 96 verses reading out the only three
eventualities in the Hereafter that one shall face (7-56).
Next, the chapter's closing argument ensues—its presentation
impassioned, its logic unimpeachable.
Therewith is one cautioned to take a considered approach to the
decision that must now be made as to the authenticity of this Heavenly
Revelation and howto live the rest of life with it in full view.
If facts are to be asserted, it contends, and events verified—and
specifically those for whichthe chapter itself shall make a case—let
them be demonstrable in creation, not conjectured, withtangible
evidence provided, not abstractions. Moreover, one is to duly reflect
on them as such, whether they be near or far, great or small.
Thereafter, one should have the intellectual courage to affirm the
truths to which his own mind has led him, and the moral sense to act
in his own highest and best interest.
In other words, one ought to trust his own contemplation of the
physical exhibits of creation that the chapter has placed before him,
rather than surrender his or her thought to the unverified
speculations that others have elevated to sacred assumptions in the
culture on no higher authority than a sneering peer pressure.
The Arguments of the Indisputable Event
The Chapter of Al-Waaqi'ah produces five concrete exhibits:
1. Men and women emit fertile fluids that in intimacy mingle into new
human life. Yet they are incapable of manufacturing theseprolific
secretions. Thus, it is only Allaah Almighty who has created this and,
by implication, made death, and who is, therefore, manifestly able to
bring one to life again in a new creation (58-59).
2. Human beings till plants that then sprout and bear fruit of every
kind, color, and benefit. Yet they themselves are unable to cause them
to flourish. Thus, it is none other than Allaah Almighty who makes
them grow – and should He so will, He Almighty shall make them wither,
until one is sorrowfully desolated, or all humanity becomes destitute
(63-67).
3. People must drink water to live. Through a wondrous cycle from
rivulet to ocean, and liquid to vapor, clouds suspended in heaven and
driven through its spheres shower countless droplets of water over a
spaciousearth, quenching an ever-thirsty creation, drenching a soil
endlessly in need, and filling lakesand streams that team into the
seas. Without it man dies. Yet he is powerless to form it or pull it
down from the clouds. Thus, Allaah Almighty alone generates
life-giving water then sends it down from the clouds. And should He
Almighty turn it bitter, who then shall make it sweet (68-70)?
4. Humanity kindles fire from teesor their remnants. Its heat energy
is a vital resource – without which human survival and development
would have been impossible. Yet human beings do not themselves produce
it. Only Allaah, The Most High, has brought its living woods forth
from the earth. Moreover, the fact that its energy exists in ready,
latent, transportable form in either living or dead trees and plants,
and those that have been reduced to coal, oil, or other forms, has
been a great provisionof mercy from Him, The Most High, for our
security and continued existence. Fire's value for man lies not only
in its practical uses, however; it inheres also in its imaginative,
metaphorical, and comparative dimension. For it ever speaks its
forewarning to humankind aboutthe ultimate reality of Hell that awaits
unbelief and wrongdoing in the Hereafter [71:53].
5. Man has life. From where did it come? Then he dies. Where did it
go, and who took it? If man is not to be brought back in a new life,
as the beliers of Allaah, The Most High, and Judgment in the Hereafter
contend, then why are human beings unable to retrieve these souls from
death? We still have possession of their bodies. This can only mean
that life comes into our physical forms from a Giver of Life who
withdraws it whenever he deemsfit—and we are helpless to stop Him,
even if we are present whena soul escapes its human housing—rather,
when its Maker summons it from a place so near we cannot even see it.
Surely, the One who makes and takes life canreplace it, put it into a
new form, or restore it in its old one, remade anew (6, 61, 82-87).
Necessary Conclusions
To contemplate these phenomena is rationally to conclude that the
world we inhabit—something of the substance of which we have tested
and the reality of which we have observed—is provisional,and that, as
such, it cannot even provide for itself.
Indeed, the human being, its most capacitated and creative creature,
is reduced to a mere steward, to caring for and conserving all that it
has been provided with or else it will itself die; for it has no way
to achieve genesis, even for its own survival,of its most basic needs,
let alone for the urgencies of others. We must, therefore, conclude
that man and all his world lives by theprovision, and therefore, at
the mercy, of a Provider—One apart who does, and who has, brought both
man and his provision into existence, and who sustains them both. This
is Allaah The Most High.
At this point, one is expected to have the insight to recognize
thatthe words of Chapter of Al-Waaqi'ah are those of one's Creator,
and to have the wisdom to listen attentively as He divulges to him the
mystery of his own fateful eternity, the perilous purpose of this
earthly journey, and the plan for safe passage to a destiny after this
lifethat shall end in his or her inclusion in only one of the three
ranked classes—an indisputable event that shall happen inevitably. -
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