Al-Kahf 18:32–62

Take the example of a lush green garden which, due to a sudden natural calamity, is completely destroyed. This, figuratively speaking, will be the fate of one who achieves wealth and position in this world and becomes proud as a result. Whatever share of wealth and position a man receives in this world is, in fact, a test from God. But an unjust and transgressing man takes it to be the result of his own efforts. Consequently he develops an attitude of arrogance. He looks down upon a person whose share of wealth and position in this world is comparatively inferior. He develops a certain type of mindset by which he thinks that his world will never come to an end, and that even if this world ends and another world comes into existence, there is no reason why he should not enjoy the same comfortable conditions as he is enjoying here. He fails to differentiate between the world of trial and the world of reward.

If God showers His blessings on a man, he should always remain grateful to Him. But, if he does not possess the right mentality, prosperity becomes the cause of arrogance and vanity developing in him. On the contrary, one who possesses the right mentality does not forget God, even in poverty. He is content with whatever he has, while entertaining the hope that God will give him more. A man who lives in this world with open eyes will never indulge in impudence or arrogance. Man is brought up as a humble creature. He is subject to accidents, disease and old age. Neither the water nor the other things with the help of which he cultivates his ‘Garden’ in this world personally belong to him. All this is in order to ensure that man should live in this world with humility and modesty. But the transgressor does not learn any lesson from any of these things. He does not come to his senses until he loses everything and only after being deprived of everything does he come to realise—after seeing it with his own eyes—that he possessed nothing but total helplessness.

An individual may invest his money in a venture and also apply his talents to it, hoping that his investment and his talents will lead to a successful result and will bring him good returns. But, different types of untoward incidents occur and his hopes are dashed to pieces. No human device or human talent is able to save him. In this world, time and time again God creates such situations, so that people should learn a lesson from them and should not commit the mistake of giving importance to anything except God.

Things in this present world make the world hereafter understandable to us. When the earth, after getting water, becomes fresh and green, it appears as if it will remain like this for ever. But thereafter the weather changes and all the greenery dries up and withers away. The glamour of this world is no different. The charms of the world attract a man, but they are all quite ephemeral. Doomsday (the Day of Judgement) will soon destroy them in such a manner that it will appear as if they never existed. The attraction of the world will not last, but here there is one thing that is going to endure forever and that is the good and pious deeds of a man. Just as plants in the garden grow by seeds being sown in the earth, so also there is a garden which flourishes by God being remembered and obeyed. This garden never has a winter season. Unlike the garden of the world, this garden grows in the life hereafter but it will be available there only to the sower of seeds.

The conditions made available by God in the present world exist merely for the purpose of trying and testing mankind. The moment the period fixed for this trial is over, these conditions will not remain as they are. After this, all the life-giving properties of the earth will be taken away. It will become so barren and lifeless that it will have nothing for anyone to boast about or be proud of. The freedom man enjoys in this world is given to him due to the conditions of trial. But, Doomsday will suddenly bring all this favourable environment to an end. On that Day, in a state of helplessness, people will be gathered before their Lord. All of them will stand before Him to hear His Judgement. God will have with Him a complete record of the life of every person, according to which He will reward some, and punish others. In the present world, there are two aspects of man’s life. In one he is free, while in another he is helpless. If a man were to look at the helpless and humble side of his life, he would turn towards God and develop in himself feelings of devotion towards Him. But, in reality, he looks only at his freedom, and the result is that he becomes negligent towards God and develops an arrogant attitude.

Whatever a man does is put on record by God’s arrangement. Man’s intentions, his sayings and his deeds are all imprinted on the screen of the universe. Today this arrangement or system is not visible, but on the Day of Judgement a curtain will be raised. At that time man will be terrified to see that whatever he had been doing in the world under the impression that nobody knew about it, is so clearly recorded here that neither the smallest nor the greatest thing has been left out. On the Day of Judgement, the treatment meted out to a man by God will be based on thoroughly established facts, so much so that on that Day when he receives his reward or punishment for his deeds, he will know, beyond a shadow of doubt, that he is getting what he really deserves—nothing more and nothing less.

By tradition, Satan (Iblis) was a God-worshipping jinn. Apparently he posed as being pious. But when God commanded him to kneel before Adam, he was not prepared to do so because of his vanity or pride. Now, those who under the influence of false pride refuse to kneel before ‘Reality’ or ‘Truth’, are all kith and kin of Satan, though they apparently seem to be God-worshipping people. To kneel before God is, in fact, admitting one’s own humbleness. If somebody is a kneeler before God in the real sense, then whenever he comes face to face with the Truth, he will immediately kneel down. Unlike him is the person who is only outwardly pious, because at the same time he nurses a sense of pride or egoism within himself. Such a person will readily kneel down on the occasions when his ego is not hurt. But, where his kneeling down is at the cost of surrendering his ego, he will suddenly become arrogant and refuse to kneel. When the call of Truth is given and certain people, under the influence of Satan and his kin, do not respond to that call, they are in fact substituting Satan and his kin for God. When they are required to bow before the Truth for fear of God, they refuse to bow for fear of false gods. Such people are the worst transgressors. Soon they will come to know that those other than God on whom they relied will not be of any avail to them.

Those who are regarded as powerful and as objects of worship by men, are in fact so powerless that they have no say either in the creation of the universe or in their own creation. Further, by playing the role of the one who misleads people (‘mudil’), they prove themselves absolutely unworthy of trust. In a world where Truth reigns supreme, how can such personalities hold sway when their only goal is to dissuade the people from Truth?

The leaders on whose backing man denies the Truth in this world will not be helpful to him on Doomsday. Today, they are each other’s companions, but when realities are revealed, they will start hating each other. It will appear as if a deadly barrier has come between them. In the present world they consider themselves safe and secure, but on Doomsday they are fated to find themselves standing on the threshold of Hell, unable to find an escape from it.

In the present world, the freedom given for the purposes of human trial allows man to find some excuse or the other for not admitting the Truth. He will find some word or the other to reject any proposition put to him. Sometimes it happens that an individual will try to counter convincing arguments by meaningless pleadings. At other times he simply ignores the argument given and demands something entirely different which, for some reason, has not so far been presented. An extreme example of this is the Prophet presenting his message supported by clear arguments to his audience, their not paying any attention to it and, completely ignoring it, saying, ‘Where is the punishment—in case of our refusal— about which you informed us? Bring it on us and let us see it.’

God’s words are supported by sound arguments, that is why those who do not want to accept this truth cannot find any real counter arguments. They entertain baseless notions by which they make unsuccessful attempts to suppress the Truth. They counter solid arguments with false objections, so that serious matters may be lost in ridicule. The propaganda is aimed at discrediting the preacher in the eyes of the people. But they are oblivious of the fact that it is they themselves who are discredited in the eyes of God by such a campaign. Man has been endowed with the capacity to think, so that he should be able to distinguish between Truth and falsehood. But, when he uses his thinking capacity in the wrong direction, it becomes impossible for him to see a thing in its right perspective and to grasp its true significance. He becomes ‘eyeless’, though having eyes and ‘earless’, though having ears.

When a man flouts the Truth, but does not immediately receive the punishment for this, it makes him arrogant. The fact of his going scot free is only due to the latitude given to him during the period of trial, and not because of any real freedom. If the individual is keen to learn a lesson, he must consider the fate of his predecessors, from which he may learn how to conduct his present life. On the face of this earth, different nations and different cultures have risen from time to time and have subsequently been destroyed. When earlier generations were punished for their disobedience, why should later generations not meet the same fate?

God continuously manages the affairs of this world through His angels. Since this system is not visible to man, he does not fully grasp its secrets. He harbours different types of doubts due to his deficient knowledge. To remedy this, God has given the opportunity for indirect observation to certain of His selected subjects. He has arranged for them to observe His invisible world, so that they should see with their own eyes its wisdom and make others aware of it. Here, the incident relating to Moses is a similar type of exceptional event, by means of which he was given a glimpse of God’s invisible system. Moses is said to have undertaken this journey between Egypt and Sudan along with one young disciple Yusha‘ bin Nun (Joshua). By way of a sign, God had asked him to proceed on his journey until he reached a place where two seas came together. He was told that there he would find somebody (perhaps an angel in the shape of a human being), whom he was asked to accompany.