Surah Ar-Rum, Ayah 57

The Ignorance of the Disbelievers in this World and in the Hereafter

Here Allah tells us of the ignorance of the disbelievers in this world and in the Hereafter. In this world they worship idols, and in the Hereafter they will also display great ignorance. They will swear by Allah that they did not even stay for one hour in this world. They will mean that there was not enough time given to establish proof against them which would leave them with no excuse. Allah says:

كَذَلِكَ كَانُواْ يُؤْفَكُونَوَقَالَ الَّذِينَ أُوتُواْ الْعِلْمَ وَالإِيمَـنَ لَقَدْ لَبِثْتُمْ فِى كِتَـبِ اللَّهِ إِلَى يَوْمِ الْبَعْثِ

(thus were they ever deluded. And those who have been bestowed with knowledge and Faith will say: "Indeed you have stayed according to the decree of Allah, until the Day of Resurrection...") The believers who have knowledge of the Hereafter will respond to them, just as they established the proof of Allah against them in this world. When they swear that they did not stay even one hour in this world, they will say to them:

After this, the falsehood and ignorance of the deniers of the Dooms Day is mentioned وَيَوْمَ تَقُومُ السَّاعَةُ يُقْسِمُ الْمُجْرِ‌مُونَ مَا لَبِثُوا غَيْرَ‌ سَاعَةٍ that is, ‘When the Dooms Day will come, these deniers of the Dooms Day will start swearing by losing senses after looking at the horrid scenes, that their stay was not more than one hour'. It is probable that the stay referred to here is the stay in this world, because they spent the time in this world in comfort and ease. And when they will encounter troubles in the Hereafter, they, by way of a natural habit of man to regard the comfortable period of his life very short, will swear that they lived in the world hardly for one hour.

When a man is born, he is but a weak child. Then after experiencing the strength of youth, followed by middle age, he again faces the weakness of old age. This means that a man’s strength is not his own. He receives it when it is given to him. It is in the power of the Giver to give when He likes and take away when He likes. In the life of this world, man cares nothing for the Hereafter, because the Day of Judgement appears to be very far away. But, this is only due to his ignorance. When the Day of Judgement arrives, —the stage for the next world—he will feel as if he had lived in the previous world for only a moment.