Surah Adh-Dhariyat, Ayah 22

Qualities of Those Who have Taqwa and Their Reward

Allah the Exalted informs about those who have Taqwa, that on the Day of their Return they will be amidst gardens and springs. To the contrary the miserable ones will be amidst torment, punishment, fire and chains. Allah said,

ءَاخِذِينَ مَآ ءَاتَـهُمْ رَبُّهُمْ

(Taking joy in the things which their Lord has given them.) His statement;

ءَاخِذِينَ

(Taking) describes the state of the people of Taqwa in the midst of gardens and springs. They will receive what their Lord gives them, meaning, delight, happiness and favors. Allah the Exalted and Most Honored said,

إِنَّهُمْ كَانُواْ قَبْلَ ذَلِكَ

(Verily, they were before that), in the life of the world,

وَفِي السَّمَاءِ رِ‌زْقُكُمْ وَمَا تُوعَدُونَ (And in the heavens, there is your sustenance and all that you have been promised.... 51:22). The plain and simple interpretation of this is that 'in heaven' here means what has been written in the Preserved Tablet (Al-Lauh-ul-Mahfuz). It is clear that man's sustenance, what has been promised to him and whatever its consequences will be - are all preserved in the Preserved Tablet. Sayyidna Abu Said Khudri ؓ reports that the Holy Messenger ﷺ said: "Even if someone tries to avoid and run away from his designated sustenance, he will not succeed, because his sustenance will pursue him just as he cannot run away from his death". (Qurtubi) Some scholars say that 'sustenance' here signifies "rain". In this case 'heaven' will not refer to the body, arch or vault of the sky. It refers to anything that hangs overhead and covers things in its shade, including the celestial atmosphere and clouds from where the rain falls. The expression 'all that you have been promised' refers to Paradise and its delights. Allah, the Pure and Exalted, knows best.

Almighty God has created this known world in such a manner that it has become the indicator of the coming unknown world. The material incidents taking shape in this world and the feelings latent in man give information, albeit indirectly about the events that will directly confront man after his death. Among these signs is the capacity to speak. It has been mentioned in a tradition of the Prophet Muhammad, that whatever one receives in the Hereafter will be his own deeds which will be returned to him (‘Indeed, these are your deeds that are returned to you’). In other words, the world of the Hereafter is the double or duplicate of the present world. The capacity of a man to speak is the partial manifestation of this possibility. If a man’s voice is recorded on a tape and if this tape is then played, a voice like the original one may be heard, i.e. the voice of the tape is the double or duplicate of the original. In this way, the phenomenon of voice demonstrates to us on a partial level that event which is going to occur in the Hereafter on a full-scale level.