Surah Fatir, Ayah 20

The Believer and the Disbeliever are not equal

Allah says that these antonyms are clearly not equal, the blind and the seeing are not equal, there is a difference and a huge gap between them. Darkness and light are not equal, neither are shade and the sun's heat. By the same token, the living and the dead are not equal. This is the parable Allah makes of the believers who are the living, and the disbelievers who are the dead. This is like the Ayat:

أَوَمَن كَانَ مَيْتًا فَأَحْيَيْنَـهُ وَجَعَلْنَا لَهُ نُورًا يَمْشِي بِهِ فِى النَّاسِ كَمَن مَّثَلُهُ فِي الظُّلُمَـتِ لَيْسَ بِخَارِجٍ مِّنْهَا كَذَلِكَ

(Is he who was dead and We gave him life and set for him a light (of belief) whereby he can walk amongst men -- like him who is in the (depths of) darkness from which he can never come out) (6:122),

Commentary

Verse 18: وَلَا تَزِرُ‌ وَازِرَ‌ةٌ وِزْرَ‌ أُخْرَ‌ىٰ (And no bearer will bear the burden of any other person) means that, on the Day of Judgment, no one will be able to bear the burden of another person's sins. Everyone will have to bear his or her burden. As for what appears in Surah Al-` Ankabut (29:13): وَأَثْقَالًا مَّعَ أَثْقَالِهِمْ , which means that people who make others go astray will not only bear the burden of going astray personally, but will also bear the burden of having made others go astray. it does not mean that they will somehow lighten the burden of those they had caused to go astray. Instead, their burden will weigh on them as it was in its own place and because of the crime of those who made people go astray, being twofold, their burden too will become twofold, one: that of being astray and two: that of making others go astray. Therefore, there is no contradiction in these two verses. (Ruh-ul-Ma’ ani)

Man is an extremely vulnerable creation. His whole existence depends on a particular balance of natural factors. If this balance were to be disturbed, the very existence of man would be threatened. If, for instance, the sun reduced its distance from the earth and came near it, then all human beings would be burnt and reduced to ashes. Also, a large part of the inside of the earth consists of an extremely hot, semi-liquid material. If this hot matter moved upwards, the surface of the earth would experience terrible earthquakes which would reduce all human settlements to ruins. Moreover, meteors constantly fall upon Earth from outer space, but the atmosphere shields us against their effects. If the present balanced arrangement of this phenomenon were to be disrupted, the shower of meteors might turn into such a terrible barrage of stones that it would be impossible to save humanity from it. Man is surrounded by innumerable deadly possibilities of this kind; being totally dependent explains why man needs God and not vice versa. The burden of Doomsday will be that of one’s sins. Were it only a question of a physical burden, any individual could share another’s burden. But, the denigration and pain one suffers due to one’s bad deeds are of an extremely personal nature and there is no question of anybody else sharing them. The Truth is very clear, but it is understood only by one who wants to understand. One who is not serious about knowing what is Truth and what is Untruth, cannot be made to understand anything.