Surah Al-Qalam, Ayah 43

The Terror of the Day of Judgement

After Allah mentions that those who have Taqwa, will have Gardens of Delight with their Lord, He explains when this will be, and its actual occurrence. He says,

يَوْمَ يُكْشَفُ عَن سَاقٍ وَيُدْعَوْنَ إِلَى السُّجُودِ فَلاَ يَسْتَطِيعُونَ

(The Day when the Shin shall be laid bare and they shall be called to prostrate themselves, but they shall not be able to do so.) meaning, the Day of Judgement and the horrors, earthquakes, trials, tests and great matters that will occur during it. Al-Bukhari recorded that Abu Sa`id Al-Khudri said that he heard the Prophet saying,

«يَكْشِفُ رَبُّنَا عَنْ سَاقِهِ، فَيَسْجُدُ لَهُ كُلُّ مُؤْمِنٍ وَمُؤْمِنَةٍ، وَيَبْقَى مَنْ كَانَ يَسْجُدُ فِي الدُّنْيَا رِيَاءً وَسُمْعَةً، فَيَذْهَبُ لِيَسْجُدَ، فَيَعُودُ ظَهْرُهُ طَبَقًا وَاحِدًا»

This verse: أَفَنَجْعَلُ الْمُسْلِمِينَ كَالْمُجْرِ‌مِينَ (Otherwise, shall We make the obedient like the sinners?... 68:35). Clarifies that it is rationally necessary that there should come a time when people will have to give account of their deeds, a place where the guilty ones will find no escape routes, an ideal world where there will be absolute justice and fair play, where good and evil will be clearly distinguished. If this is not the state of affairs in the Hereafter, then no evil should be evil, and no sin should be sin in this mortal world. Divine justice would thus be rendered meaningless.

Since it is established that Resurrection is a reality and inevitable, the reward of good deeds is a reality and the punishment of evil deeds is a reality, the verses that follow describe the horrors of the Day of Judgment and the punishment of the evil ones, including the description of the exposure of the Shin [ kashf-us-saq ] in Verse 42 (the explanation of which may be seen in the foot-note given in the translation of that verse.)

A man who is not God-fearing gives importance only to visible material things, whereas the God-fearing person is one who is serious about the unseen reality. Such entirely different characters cannot have an identical fate.