Surah al-An`am (The Cattle) 6 : 27

Overview (Verse 27 - 30)

A Wish Availing Nothing
 
If we want to know the ultimate end of their efforts, we need only look at the result: “If you could but see them when they will be made to stand before the Fire! They will say: ‘Would that we could return! Then we would not deny our Lord’s revelations, but would be among the believers.’“ (Verse 27)
 
This is the scene which contrasts with their situation in this life. Now they are in a state of regret, humility and total loss. This is compared with their attitude when they turned away from guidance, using their power to force others to also turn away, and boasting about their own strength and influence.
 
“If you could but see them when they will be made to stand before the Fire!” (Verse 27) Now they cannot turn away, use their argumentation, or repeat their falsehoods. If we were to see them ourselves in such a position, we would be sure to see something fearful. Their dearest wish would be: “Would that we could return! Then we would not deny our Lord’s revelations, but would be among the believers.” (Verse 27) They know that the Qur’ān is God’s revelation, and their desire to return to earth is such that they may have a second chance when they no longer deny these revelations. They claim that they would make sure that they would be among the believers.
 
All these are wishes that have no way of coming true. They do not know their own nature, which will always reject the faith. When they say that if they could return they would be believers is nothing but a lie, because it does not match with what they would do if their wishes were answered. They only make these assertions because they have come to realize how wicked and evil they are. What they used to conceal from their followers in order to portray an image of themselves as successful and prosperous is now laid bare: “Indeed, that which in the past they used to conceal will manifest itself to them; and if they were to return to life they would go back to that which they have been forbidden. They are indeed liars.” (Verse 28)
 
God knows their nature very well and He is fully aware that they will stubbornly continue in their falsehood. He is also fully aware that it is only the fearsome situation in which they find themselves as they stand by the fire that causes them to utter such wishes and to make these promises. But the real situation is this: “If they were to return to life, they would go back to that which they have been forbidden. They are indeed liars.” (Verse 28) They are, thus, left to their miserable destiny. This answer confronts them with the truth as they endure their humiliation.
 
Contrasting Concepts and Values
 
The sūrah now opens two new pages to draw two contrasting scenes. The first looks at this present life where the unbelievers make their assertions that there will be no resurrection, accountability or reward. The other is in the hereafter when they are stood before their Lord, and He asks them about the positions they adopted in their first life: “Is this not the truth?” (Verse 30) The very question jolts them violently.
 
They answer in complete humility: “Yes, indeed, by our Lord!” (Verse 30) They are then put face to face with what awaits them of painful suffering. The sūrah goes on to portray how overwhelmed they are in the Last Hour, caught unawares, after they disbelieved in the meeting with their Lord. They are full of sorrow, carrying their burdens on their backs. This is concluded with a statement showing the real value of this life as opposed to the life to come, according to God’s true measure.
 
They say: “There is nothing beyond our life in this world, and we shall never be raised to life again.” If you could but see them when they are made to stand before their Lord! He will say: “Is this not the truth?” They will say: “Yes, indeed, by our Lord!” He will then say, “Taste, then, the suffering in consequence of your having refused to believe.” Lost indeed are they who deny that they will have to meet God". (Verses 29-30)
 
The concept of resurrection, reward and retribution in the life to come is central to the Islamic faith. Indeed, it ranks second only to the concept of Godhead as the foundation upon which the structure of Islam as a faith, law, system and code of conduct is built. God tells the believers in the Qur’ān that He has perfected their religion for them and completed with it the grace He has bestowed on them and has chosen it for them as a faith. It is then, a complete and coherent way of life in which the ideological concept is in perfect harmony with the moral values it upholds, as well as the laws and regulations it proclaims. All these are based on the same basic foundation: the Islamic concept of Godhead and the life hereafter.
 
According to Islam, life is not the short period of time which an individual lives, nor is it the limited period which represents the lifespan of a nation. Indeed, it is not even the longer period of time which represents the duration of human existence in this world. Life, in the Islamic view, has a much longer time span, much wider horizons and a much deeper and varied context than the period of time which is assigned to it by those who overlook the next world and do not believe in it.
 
According to Islam, life stretches out to include this present life of ours and the life to come, which is of a duration unknown to anyone but God. Compared to it, human life on earth is no longer than an hour in a day’s work. It also stretches out in space to include this earth on which we live and added to it a paradise which is as vast as the heavens and the earth, as well as a hell which can accommodate the majority of people across all the generations that have existed and will exist on earth.
 
It stretches out further to add to this world’s existence which we know another about which we know nothing except what God has told us. Its true nature is only known to God. This latter existence starts from the moment of our birth and reaches its fullness in the abode of the hereafter. When we speak of death and the hereafter, we are actually speaking of things the nature of which God has kept to Himself. Human existence continues in these worlds in forms and patterns known only to God alone.
 
Life has a further extension in its essence: it includes the type familiar to us in our world and other types which will be experienced in the next world, in heaven and hell. These types will have tastes and sensations that are different from what we know now. Compared to it, this present life is less than even the span of a mosquito’s wings.
 
In the Islamic concept, humanity extends into these dimensions of time and place and into these deeper levels of worlds and existences. It is in proportion to its understanding of this fact that its appreciation of all existence, life, bonds, values and concerns becomes more profound. By contrast, the people who do not believe in the hereafter continue to have a very narrow and limited concept of the universe and human existence. They continue to confine their concepts, values and struggle to their very narrow corner in this world.
 
This difference in outlook leads to the adoption of different values and systems. It tells us clearly that this religion of Islam is a complete and coherent way of life. We can appreciate the importance of belief in a second life to its conceptual, ideological, moral, behavioural and legal structure. A man who lives in such a vast expanse of time, place, world and feelings is totally different from one who lives in a narrow corner and has to fight others for it, awaiting no compensation for that from which he is deprived and no reward for what he does in this present world, apart from his life on earth and what he receives during it from his fellow human beings.
 
A profound and varied concept will, by nature, elevate human concerns and refine human aspirations. This will, by itself, lead to the adoption of moral values and behaviour different from those which are characteristic of people living in their own narrow corners. When we adopt this profound concept, based on absolute justice in the life to come, and when we realize that a much larger compensation awaits us than what is here missed out on, then those who adopt this concept work hard to establish the truth and ensure that goodness prevails. They know that this is what God wants them to do and that reward and compensation are based on the fulfilment of God’s bidding. When any human being believes in the hereafter as Islam views it, his manners and behaviour are set on the right footing. Similarly, all systems and laws acquire the right orientation; and what is more is that people will not allow them to be abused or corrupted. This is because people realise that if they keep quiet when they see corruption around them, they not only miss out on the benefits and goodness of this life, but they are deprived of reward in the hereafter. Thus, they lose in both worlds.
 
Some people are quick to speak against belief in the hereafter, claiming that it causes people to adopt a negative attitude towards this life, exerting no effort to improve it. They abandon it to dictators and their corrupt regimes, because they prefer to aspire to the blessings of the hereafter. This is an unfair criticism, one which combines injustice with ignorance. They group belief in the hereafter as advocated in Church concepts that have deviated from Christianity under the same classification as its Islamic concept. In the Islamic view, this life is where you place your investment in order to reap the benefits in the hereafter. To strive to put this life on the right course, to purge it from evil and corruption, to repel all assaults on God’s authority, to smash tyrants and ensure justice and goodness to all people are the keys to the hereafter. It opens, for those who so strive, the gates to heaven and compensates them for everything they sacrifice during their struggle against evil and for the harm they may suffer.
 
How is it possible that the followers of such a faith could abandon this life and allow it to stagnate, deviate or become corrupt? How could they allow injustice and tyranny to establish their roots and spread? How could they allow it to remain backward, undeveloped when they aspire to receive reward from God in the hereafter? That reward is not given for a negative attitude.
 
The Only Faith Worthy of Man
 
There were periods of time when people adopted a negative attitude allowing corruption, evil, injustice, tyranny, ignorance and backwardness to prevail in their life while claiming at the same time that they were Muslims. They did this only because their understanding of Islam was faulty and their belief in the hereafter was shaken and weakened. Their negative attitude could not be the result of a true understanding of this faith or the belief that they have to face God on the Day of Judgement. No one who believes in this inevitable meeting with God and understands the nature of this religion can adopt a negative attitude towards life or allow himself to remain backward or to accept evil, corruption and tyranny.
 
While going through life, a true Muslim feels that he is bigger and more sublime than life itself. He may enjoy its comforts or ignore them, knowing that they are lawful and permissible to him in this life, placed at his disposal on the Day of Judgement when no one else can claim them. He strives to promote and improve this life and to use its potentials and abilities, happy in the knowledge that this is the duty assigned to him by God when He placed him in charge of the earth. He fights evil, corruption and injustice willingly, bearing any hardship and making every sacrifice, including his own life, knowing that he is simply adding to his credit in the hereafter. Understanding his religion well, he knows that this life is the one in which the seeds are planted, for the fruits to be reaped in the hereafter. There is simply no way to success in the life to come which does not go through this world of ours. True, this life is very small and cheap, but it is part of God’s grace which makes it a stage towards the greatest blessings and grace He bestows on man.
 
Every detail in the Islamic system takes due account of the life to come, and the broadness, beauty and elevation it imparts to people’s visions and concepts. It also adds to the refinement, purity and forbearance which are inherent in the Islamic moral code. It enhances its followers’ determination to establish what is right and to prevent evil and avoid disobedience to God. It helps set human activities on the right course. For all that, Islamic life is not properly achieved without a firm belief in the hereafter. Hence, the great emphasis placed in the Qur’ān on the fact that we will be raised up for our next life.
 
In their ignorance, as much as because of it, the pagan Arabs could not conceive of a second life or believe in it. They could not simply imagine another world, different from this present one of ours. They could not conceive how a human being could aspire to horizons beyond the physical world. Their concepts and feelings were not much different from those of animals. It is the same situation we witness today in the modern type of jāhiliyyah, whose exponents describe as ‘scientific’.
 
“They say: ‘There is nothing beyond our life in this world, and we shall never be raised to life again’.” (Verse 29) God knows very well that beliefs of this type do not allow the emergence of a noble type of human life. The limited scope of beliefs makes man strongly attached to the earth and to that which is physical and tangible in it, just like animals. Our limited time span and area tend to loosen a forceful desire to seek a self-aggrandisement which enslaves man to worldly pleasures. His physical desires are set loose without restraint. He feels that unless he satisfies his profane desires, which can hardly be elevated above those of animals, he misses out on his pleasure without hope of compensation. Systems and regimes are established on earth based on a very selfish and narrow view of time and space. This leads to a life devoid of justice and compassion. War becomes the order of the day with individuals, classes and races fighting one another. It is a jungle type of life, not that much different from the world of wild animals and brutal beasts. All this is there for us to see in the world of modern `civilization’! It is evident everywhere.
 
God has been aware all along of these facts. Hence why He wanted to assign to a certain community the role of leading mankind to the summit where human dignity can be seen in full play in real life. God knows that this community cannot fulfil its task unless it brings its concepts and values out of its hole in that narrow corner, the earth, and places them over a vast horizon. That community must move out of the narrowness of this world to the expanse which combines this life with the life to come. Hence, the emphasis is placed by Islam on the future life; firstly because it is real — for God always tells the truth; and secondly because believing in it is essential for the completeness of man’s existence, in ideology, morality, behaviour, systems and legal code.
 
This accounts for the strong and deep rhythm which we notice in this part of the sūrah which runs like a very fast river. God knows well that it is within human nature to respond to such a strong and deep rhythm. It opens up its receptive elements, awaiting instructions, in order to respond to them. We must not forget, however, that everything that is mentioned about the hereafter is simply the truth.
 
If you could but see them when they are made to stand before their Lord! He will say: “Is this not the truth?” They will say: “Yes, indeed, by our Lord!” He will then say, “Taste, then, the suffering in consequence of your having refused to believe.” (Verse 30)
 
This is the eventual destiny of those who claimed that there was nothing beyond our present life and that they would never be raised up again. It is a miserable, shameful, humiliating destiny as they are brought before their Lord, having persistently denied that they would face Him. They cannot stir. They are depicted as if they were led by the neck until they are stood in that awesome surrounding, facing the questioning: “Is this not the truth?” (Verse 30) What a humiliating question! There is only one possible reply: “Yes indeed, by our Lord!” (Verse 30) Now they are face to face with their Lord, on the occasion that they most stubbornly refused to believe in.
 
In a summary way, which most befits the awesome scene, the divine order is given, sealing their fate: “He will then say: Taste, then, the suffering in consequence of your having refused to believe.’“ (Verse 30) This is the most suitable destiny for those who denied themselves the comfort of a wider human concept, following instead an exceedingly narrow material concept. They have refused to raise themselves to the level that fits a noble humanity. They conducted their lives on the basis of their profane, hollow concept. By so doing, they actually earned their own punishment and this fits with the nature of those who deny the hereafter.