that some people have gone to sleep in their beds in full health and well-being, only to be carried from their beds to the table on which their bodies would be washed?! Do you not know that some people have sat working in their chairs, only to be carried from those chairs to the washing table?! All of this does indeed occur. You must therefore hasten to repent before the doors are closed.
The second circumstance is when the sun rises from the west. When it rises from the west and people see it, they will believe, for Allah says:
﴿On the Day when some of your Lord’s signs come, believing will be of no benefit to any soul that had not believed before or earned some good through its faith.﴾ [al-Anām: part of verse 158].
What is meant by “some of the signs” is the sun rising from the west.
﴿Indeed, those who believe and perform righteous deeds will have gardens beneath which rivers flow. That is the great triumph. Your Lord’s grip is indeed severe. He alone originates creation and restores it. He is the All-Forgiving, the All-Loving, Possessor of the Throne, the All-Glorious, the Doer of whatever He wills. Has the account of the hosts reached you—of Pharaoh and Thamūd? Yet those who disbelieve persist in denial, while Allah encompasses them from behind. Rather, it is a glorious Quran, in a Preserved Tablet.﴾
After mentioning the punishment of the criminals, He mentions the reward of the believers. This is the Quran’s method of presenting encouragement and warning. The Noble Quran presents themes in pairs, mentioning contrasting meanings: the punishment of the inhabitants of the Fire and the bliss of the inhabitants of Paradise, and the qualities of the believers and those of the disbelievers. This is so that a person may journey toward Allah Almighty between fear and hope, recognize Allah’s blessing upon him through Islam, recognize Allah Almighty’s wisdom in the existence of these disbelieving criminals, and become increasingly wary of falling into that. ﴿Indeed, those who believe﴾ are those who believe in Allah,