Tafheem ul Quran

Surah 10 Yunus, Ayat 4-6

اِلَيۡهِ مَرۡجِعُكُمۡ جَمِيۡعًا ​ؕ وَعۡدَ اللّٰهِ حَقًّا​ ؕ اِنَّهٗ يَـبۡدَؤُا الۡخَـلۡقَ ثُمَّ يُعِيۡدُهٗ لِيَجۡزِىَ الَّذِيۡنَ اٰمَنُوۡا وَعَمِلُوا الصّٰلِحٰتِ بِالۡقِسۡطِ​ؕ وَالَّذِيۡنَ كَفَرُوۡا لَهُمۡ شَرَابٌ مِّنۡ حَمِيۡمٍ وَّعَذَابٌ اَلِيۡمٌۢ بِمَا كَانُوۡا يَكۡفُرُوۡنَ‏ ﴿10:4﴾ هُوَ الَّذِىۡ جَعَلَ الشَّمۡسَ ضِيَآءً وَّالۡقَمَرَ نُوۡرًا وَّقَدَّرَهٗ مَنَازِلَ لِتَعۡلَمُوۡا عَدَدَ السِّنِيۡنَ وَالۡحِسَابَ​ؕ مَا خَلَقَ اللّٰهُ ذٰلِكَ اِلَّا بِالۡحَـقِّ​ۚ يُفَصِّلُ الۡاٰيٰتِ لِقَوۡمٍ يَّعۡلَمُوۡنَ‏ ﴿10:5﴾ اِنَّ فِى اخۡتِلَافِ الَّيۡلِ وَالنَّهَارِ وَمَا خَلَقَ اللّٰهُ فِى السَّمٰوٰتِ وَالۡاَرۡضِ لَاٰيٰتٍ لِّـقَوۡمٍ يَّتَّقُوۡنَ‏ ﴿10:6﴾

(10:4) To Him is your return.8 This is Allah's promise that will certainly come true. Surely it is He Who brings about the creation of all and He will repeat it9 so that He may justly reward those who believe and do righteous deeds; and that those who disbelieve may have a draught of boiling water and suffer a painful chastisement for their denying the truth.10 (10:5) He it is Who gave the sun radiance and the moon light, and determined the stages (for the waxing and waning of the moon) that you may learn the calculation of years and the reckoning of time. Allah has created all this with a rightful purpose (rather than out of play). He expounds His signs for the people who know. (10:6) Surely in the alternation of the night and the day and in all that Allah has created in the heavens and the earth there are signs for the people who seek to avoid (error of outlook and conduct).11


Notes

8. This is the second basic principle of the teachings of every prophet; “You shall have to return to your Lord and render an account of all you did in this world.” The first principle has been stated in the preceding verse: Allah alone is your Lord: therefore worship only Him.

9. This sentence contains both a statement and its proof. The statement is, “Allah will again bring to life all human beings,” and the proof is, “This is as easy for Allah as it was to create them the first time.” The one who acknowledges that Allah has originated all creation (and who can deny this except those atheists who accepted the absurd theory of “creation without a creator” merely to get a plea for discarding the religion of the Christian clergy?) cannot consider this as impossible or irrational.

10. The reason why Allah will again bring the whole mankind to life is to reward the believers and to punish the disbelievers. After showing that this is possible to raise the dead, it is stated that it is absolutely necessary to fulfill the demands of common sense and justice, for full justice cannot be done without this. Common sense and justice demand that those who believe and do righteous deeds should be given their full rewards, and those who disbelieve and reject the truth and do evil deeds, should be duly punished. As every sensible and just person knows that this demand of justice is not fulfilled in its entirety, and cannot be fulfilled, in this world. It is absolutely essential that the entire mankind should again be brought to life for this purpose. See also (E.N. 30, Surah Al-Aaraf )and (E.N. 105, Surah Hud).

11. This is the third argument in proof of the doctrine of the life in the Hereafter. It is based on Allah’s manifestations in the heavens and on the earth. The greatest and most manifest of these are the sun the moon and the alternation of the night and day, for these are ever present before each and every human being. All these clearly show that the Creator of this great and vast universe is not a child who has made all this for mere fun and will break it up when he is satiated with it. These manifestations of His are a clear proof of the fact that the Creator is All-Wise, for there is a system, a wisdom, a design and a serious object in each and every particle of His creation. These seem, as it were, to say: When you yourselves learn from the signs and manifestations of His wisdom that He is All-Wise, how can you, then, expect that He will not call man to account after granting him common sense, moral feelings, independent responsibility and authority to exploit His endless resources, and that He will not reward those who make the right use of these and punish those who abuse them?

Thus, it has become obvious that in (Ayats 4-6), three arguments have been given in their logical order to present the doctrine of the Hereafter:

(1) The fact of the origination of life in this world is a proof that life in the next world is also possible.

(2) There must be life in the Hereafter, because it is essential for the recompense of the deeds that one does, and of the use or abuse one makes of the moral responsibilities that have been entrusted to man. Therefore, it is the demand of common sense and justice that there must be another world in which one should bear the consequences of his deeds, for this is not possible in this world.

(3) When common sense and justice demand that there must be life in the Hereafter, this need will surely be satisfied, for the Creator of man and the universe is All- Wise, and it cannot be conceived that the All-Wise will not satisfy the demands of common sense and justice.

A serious thinking will show that these are the only possible arguments for the proof of the life in the Hereafter and these suffice, too. After this the only thing that might be demanded in this connection is that it should be actually demonstrated before man to convince him that this thing is possible, necessary and demanded by the Wisdom of Allah. But it is obvious that this will not be done in this world for this is for the trial of man and not for recompense, and Allah wills to test whether man believes in the Hereafter without seeing it, merely by his reasoning on the right lines.

Besides this, the words, “He explains in detail the signs for a people who have knowledge” and “Are indeed signs for a people who fear Allah” are worthy of serious consideration. These words imply this: Allah has in His wisdom spread such signs in each and every manifestation of His as clearly point to the realities that are hidden behind them; but only those people can reach to those realities, who (a) free themselves from the prejudices of ignorance and acquire knowledge from the sources with which Allah has provided man for this purpose, and (b) have the intention of avoiding wrong ways and following the right way.