Az-Zukhruf 43:63–89

Here ‘wisdom’ means the spirit of religion and ‘straight path’ means the upholding of the virtues that are mentioned in the verse, namely, fear and worship of God, prayer to Him and obedience to the Prophet. This is the real religion. What the Jews did at a later stage was to lose the spirit of religion and indulge in hair-splitting over the basic principles of religion. Due to these totally contrived additions, differing sects developed among them. One sect laid stress on one controversial issue, another laid stress elsewhere. In this way, with them, one religion turned into several religions. Jesus Christ was sent to the Jews to tell them that the really important aspect of religion was its spirit and not form; and also to inform them that they would achieve salvation on following the true religion sent by God and not that religion which they had themselves devised. Jesus told them that the real religion was based on the fear of God, and that they should become worshippers of the one and only God and follow the example of the Prophet in everyday affairs. Beyond this, whatever innumerable problems they had created by their futile discussions and hair-splitting arguments were their own self-made additions. They were advised to give up all these additions and be steadfast in their adherence to the real religion. All these exhortations made by Jesus exist in the Bible even today.

Man is not free. At all events, he has to humbly accept reality. If he does not defer to the reasoning of the preacher of Truth, he shall have to submit to godly power. But godly power comes into play only at the time of the Final Judgement. Therefore, doing obeisance only at that time and not before will be of no avail to anybody. In this world, when a man adopts any course which is opposed to the Truth, he finds many friends to support him. Man becomes bolder and bolder on the strength of such friendship. But all these friends will abandon him on the Day of Judgement. On that Day, only that friendship will last which has been established on the basis of the fear of God. A life which is dedicated to the Truth is fraught with dangers. But in the Hereafter, it will be permanently relieved of every type of fear or trouble. Only those who firmly believe in this godly assurance will remain steadfastly on the path of Truth in this world. In the life Hereafter, God will bestow on them much more than they lost in this world for His sake.

Hope always alleviates feelings of distress. Man’s afflictions are many, but if, as he undergoes them, he entertains the hope that his troubles will some day come to an end, that very thought infuses him with the courage to bear with things. But the scourge of Hell will be so grievous that there will be no hope of relief from it. The appeal made by the people in Hell to the angels will be an expression of their helplessness; otherwise anyone making such an appeal must know that God’s decision was final and that it could not be evaded. The descent of anybody into Hell will be entirely as a consequence of his own shortcomings. God gave man a high degree of understanding and opened up for him the paths of Truth. But man knowingly and deliberately ignored the Truth. His arrogance so increased that he became bent upon the elimination of the preacher of Truth. In view of this, how could he escape being subjected to eternal punishment?

This statement indicates that the belief declared by the Prophet was considered by him to be the absolute Truth. His stand was not on the ground of national tradition or group prejudice but on that of sound reasoning. He was the preacher of that Faith: all facts corroborated its truth. It can be imagined from this that what is vital to the caller to the truth is consciousness of reality and not the blind following of national tradition. The vast creative system of God, which is spread out in the shape of heaven and earth, indicates that its Lord is the one and only God. The extensiveness of the system of the universe rules out the possibility of there being more than one God.

Heaven and earth are continuously at work in perfect harmony. Perfect unity of wisdom and unity of knowledge are found in them. This proves that there is only one God Who is alone running the systems of both heaven and earth. The universe introduces us to God’s unlimited power and at the same time His unlimited mercy. These facts call for man to fear God most of all, and at the same time, entertain the greatest hopes of Him. Those who prove to have this consciousness and this character in this world are the only individuals upon whom—when they reach God—He will shower His infinite Mercy.

In the Hereafter, on the Day of Judgement, human beings will stand in the divine court to be judged. Some will have accepted and supported the divine message conveyed to them, while others, having rejected it, will have stood in opposition to it. Whatever their condition, and knowing full well that God is omniscient, they will ask their erstwhile contemporaries to bear witness in their favour. All to no avail. The prophets and the preachers, on the other hand will be there—just as if in a court of law—to bear witness to matters of which they have first-hand knowledge, having personally observed and experienced them. It will not be their role to intercede for or condemn their fellow men. They will simply be required to present the facts. On the Day of Judgement, nobody will have any power to recommend or intervene on behalf of any guilty person in order to change the Divine Judgement which had to be made on the basis of the facts. God is too High and Great for anybody to venture to do this before Him. The task relating to the call for the Truth consists purely of giving advice and guidance. Even at the last stage, when the preacher is convinced that his hearers are going to reject his words outright, he prays to God for the people. Tolerating their torture, he remains their well-wisher.