Surah Al-Jathiyah, Ayah 32

Allah states to us His judgement in His creation on the Day of Resurrection,

فَأَمَّا الَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ وَعَمِلُواْ الصَّـلِحَـتِ

(Then, as for those who believed and did good deeds,) Those whose hearts believed and their limbs performed good deeds, in sincerity to Allah and conforming with Islamic legislation;

فَيُدْخِلُهُمْ رَبُّهُمْ فِى رَحْمَتِهِ

(their Lord will admit them to His mercy. ) and that is Paradise. In the Sahih, Allah said to Paradise;

«أَنْتِ رَحْمَتِي، أَرْحَمُ بِكِ مَنْ أَشَاء»

("You are My mercy, with which I grant mercy to whom I will,") Allah said;

ذَلِكَ هُوَ الْفَوْزُ الْمُبِينُ

(That will be the evident success.) clear and apparent. Allah said,

وَأَمَّا الَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ أَفَلَمْ تَكُنْ ءَايَـتِى تُتْلَى عَلَيْكُمْ فَاسْتَكْبَرْتُمْ

Commentary

وَتَرَ‌ىٰ كُلَّ أُمَّةٍ جَاثِيَةً ("And you will see every community kneeling down...45:28" ). The word jathiyah is derived from جُثُو juthuww. It means ` to sit with knees upon the ground'. Sayyidna Sufyan ؓ says that the word means ` to sit in such a way that only the knees and the toes of the feet rest on the ground'. The latter type of sitting will be on account of awe, horror and fear. The words, كُلُّ أُمَّةٍ "every community" means that horrors of Resurrection will be felt by all on the plain - believers, non-believers, and righteous and unrighteous, all of them. There are other verses and traditions that exclude the Prophets and the righteous from experiencing the horrors of the Plains of Resurrection. The present verse is not in conflict with them. It is possible that the Prophets (علیہم السلام) and the righteous will experience the horrors of the Plains of Resurrection for a short period of time - the period of time will be so short as if it never existed. It is also possible that the word hull is not used in the sense of "every" but in the sense of ` most' - as is used occasionally. From this point of view, the phrase would mean not all the people on the Plain of Resurrection but ` most people' will experience horror, thus the prophets and the righteous are excluded. Some of the scholars take the position that the word jathiyah means ` to sit like the sitting posture in salah'. If this be taken for granted, the difficulty automatically disappears because such a sitting is not out of fear or horror. It is out of respect and honour.

Here arrogance does not imply contempt for God, it is directed rather against the messenger of God. In the present world, accepting God’s word is, in effect, synonymous with acceptance of the word of the messenger of Truth. Now, those who suffer from overweening pride consider it beneath their dignity to accept the word of a man like themselves. So they ignore it. Unlike them, those who are free of pride immediately bow down before it. While the wrath of God will descend upon the former, the latter will be blessed by the grace of God. One who denies the Truth makes different types of statements in order to justify his stand. Sometimes he tries to prove the preacher untrustworthy and sometimes he tries to cast doubts upon his message. But it will be clear on the Day of Judgement that these attempts stemmed from a sinful mentality and not from a Truth-loving mind.