Surah Az-Zumar, Ayah 70

The Blast of the Trumpet, the Judgement and the Recompense

Allah tells us about the terrors of the Day of Judgement, with its mighty signs and terrifying upheaval.

وَنُفِخَ فِى الصُّورِ فَصَعِقَ مَن فِى السَّمَـوَتِ وَمَن فِى الاٌّرْضِ إِلاَّ مَن شَآءَ اللَّهُ

(And the Trumpet will be blown and all who are in the heavens and all who are on the earth will swoon away, except him whom Allah wills.) This will be the second trumpet-blast, which will cause people to die. By this trumpet-blast, everyone who is alive in the heavens and on earth will be caused to die, except for him whom Allah wills. Then the souls of the remaining creatures will be taken, until the last one to die will be the Angel of Death, and there will be left only the Ever Living, Eternal One, Who was there in the beginning and will be at the end, forever. He will say three times,

In verse 69, it was said: وَجِيءَ بِالنَّبِيِّينَ وَالشُّهَدَاءِ (and the prophets and the witnesses will be brought,) It means that, at the time of reckoning on the plains of Resurrection, present there will be all prophets as well as all other witnesses. The prophets themselves will also be among the witnesses as said in the Qur'an: جِئْنَا مِن كُلِّ أُمَّةٍ بِشَهِيدٍ (We shall bring a witness from every community - An-Nisa', 4:41). And angels too will be among the witnesses, as in the Qur'an: مَّعَهَا سَائِقٌ وَشَهِيدٌ (with each someone [ meaning an angel ] to drive and someone [ meaning an angel ] to bear witness - Qaf, 50:21) where the identity of the driver and the witness has been clearly established as being the angels (Tafsir Ad-Durr-ul-Manthur). And among the witnesses, there will be the followers of the prophet of Islam as in the Qur'an: لِّتَكُونُوا شُهَدَاءَ عَلَى النَّاسِ (and [ so that ] you become witnesses to [ other ] people - Al-Hajj, 22:78). And, for that matter, even one's own body limbs will appear as witnesses as said in the Qur'an تُكَلِّمُنَا أَيْدِيهِمْ وَتَشْهَدُ أَرْ‌جُلُهُم (their hands will speak to Us and their feet will bear witness - Sin, 36:65).

The root of many deviations is, in fact, the underestimation of God. Man is lost in admiration of other kinds of greatness, because he is unaware of God’s unlimited Greatness. He considers attachment to great men the means of his salvation. When Doomsday removes the veils over people’s eyes, they will come to know that God was and still is so great that the world could be enclosed in His fist like a small coin and the sky could be wrapped around His hand like an ordinary piece of paper. Just as a bell rings as soon as an examination is over, similarly as soon as the time of the world is over, a trumpet will be blown. After that, the whole system will change. Thereafter, a new world will come into existence. This present world of ours is illuminated by the light of the sun, which is able to show us only tangible things. The world of the Hereafter will be directly illuminated by God’s light (nur). So even the intangible realities of the world will become visible to man’s eyes. At that time, people will be brought in to the Court of God. In the present world, people ignored the prophets and the preachers operating under their guidance. But, in the Hereafter, people will be wonderstruck to find that their future is decided on the basis of the support or rejection of these prophets and preachers.