" master of the day of
judgement."
commentary
:
` faith in the resurrection
', the second principle
in this verse, attention is
paid to the second important principle in
islam, i.e. resurrection and
the hereafter when it says:
" master of the day of judgement
".
thus, the focus of the idea
of the origin and end, which is the
main foundation of all ethical
and social improvements in man, reaches
the peak of perfection.
it is noteworthy, here, that
the mastership of allah, or his
ownership, is pointed out, which
illustrates his sovereignty and
domination over everything and
everyone on that day, when all human
beings will attend that great
court for reckoning, before their real and
genuine master. they will see
all their deeds and even their thoughts
present without there being
aught less than the original or anything
forgotten. they will even have
to accept their share of responsibility
for any customs for which they
have merely been the founders of, not
necessarily the doers of them.
allah's ownership, on that day,
is not similar to our imaginary
ownership of that which belongs
to us from the things of this world. his
ownership, regarding the world
of existence, is the real ownership. it is
the special dependence of creatures
on the lord and their being in
need of him. if the flow of
his blessings ceased even for a single
moment, it would cause them
to perish altogether.
in other words, this ownership
is the consequence of his
creatorship and divinity. he,
who creates beings, gives them life
every moment and cherishes them,
protects them and guides them, is
the real master of all creatures.
as a matter of fact, he is the only
ruler of all powers in the world
of existence.
there is no doubt that allah
is ` the lord of the worlds '. the
question to be raised here is
this : ` is not allah the absolute owner
of this world ? ' versus our
statement to this effect that ` he is the
master of the day of judgement
'. the answer to this question lies in
the fact that the ` ownership
of allah ', though it comprises both worlds,
enjoys further manifestation
in the hereafter. this is because all
material ties and imaginary
ownerships are cut off (in the hereafter),
and no one has anything of his
or her own on that day. even
intercession, if ever achieved,
is by allah's command, as the qur'an
says about the reckoning day:
" the day on which no soul shall have
aught for (another) soul, and
the command that day shall be (wholly)
allah's ", (sura al-infitar,
no. 82, verse 19).
in other words, occasions arise,
in this world, when one helps
another through his or her speech,
money, power, advocates, plans,
designs, and so on. on that
day (the hereafter), however, certainly
not a single trace of such affairs
will exist. therefore, when people are
asked: " whose will be the domination
this day ?...", they answer: "... that
of allah, the one, the almighty!
", (sura al-mu'min, no. 40, verse16).
this is also an answer
to those who reject the idea that when
allah is the owner of everything
why, then, he is called the ` master of
the day of judgement '.
man, with no belief in the hereafter
and the day of reckoning,
would have the potential to
be the most immoral of beings, the biggest
tyrant committing the worst
and the most hideous crimes, for, in his
view, there is not any one to
question or punish him if he is clever
enough not to get caught and,
with such characteristics, sometimes, it
would be so terrible or impossible
for other fellow-creatures to
continue their lives in this
world. therefore, faith in life after death and
the day of judgement, which
is an essential part of islam, like prayer, is
very helpful in controlling
men against committing sins.
emphasizing the ownership of
allah on the day of judgement
has this effect, too, that it
stands against the disbelief of disbelievers in
the hereafter. it is understood
from the verses of the holy qur'an that
faith in allah has been a common
belief even among disbelievers in
the age of ignorance. sura luqman,
no. 31, verse 25 says about
them: " if thou ask them, who
it is that created the heavens and the earth,
they will certainly say: ` allah
'...", while they did not accept the speech
of the prophet (p.b.u.h.) about
the resurrection: " the unbelievers say
(in ridicule): `shall we point
to you a man that will tell you, when ye are all
scattered to pieces in disintegration,
that ye shall (then be raised) in a new
creation ? " " has he invented
a falsehood against allah, or has a spirit
(seized) him ?...", (sura saba,
no. 34, verses 7,8).
a tradition about imam sajjad
(a.s.) says: " when ali-ibn-il-husayn
(a.s.) began reciting `master
of the day of judgement', he repeated it so
many times that he was at the
point of losing his life ". 1
the phrase / yaum-id-din /,
is repeated more than ten times in the
qur'an, exclusively with the
meaning of `the hereafter': " and what
makes you know what the day
of reckoning is ? " " again, what makes you
know what the day of reckoning
is ? " " the day on which no soul shall
have aught for (another) soul,
and the command that day shall be (wholly)
allah's ", (sura al-infitar,
no. 82, verses 17-19).
the phrase /yaum-id-din/ is
used in the sense of ` the day of
judgement ', for ` that day
' is the day of rewards; and /din/ in arabic
philology means: `reward, recompense'.
the most evident procedure
fulfilled in the hereafter is
the procedure of paying rewards or
inflicting punishments. on that
day, the curtains will be removed and
the deeds of all will be reckoned,
precisely, and everyone shall reap the
fruit of his own actions, be
they good or evil.
imam sadiq (a.s.) said in a
tradition that the day of judgement is
` the reckoning day '.
2
it is also noteworthy to mention
that some commentators believe
that `resurrection'
is called
/yaum-ud-din/ because on that
day,everyone is recompensed
for his own religion, if he has followed it
accordingly.
* * * *
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1
nur-uth-thaqalayn, commentary, vol. 1, p. 19
2 majma`-ul-bayan,
vol. 1, p. 24 ; &, manhaj-us-sadiqin, vol. 1, p. 24
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