crookedness or elevation can be seen upon it. The mountains will be crushed, and there will be no buildings or trees. The earth will be stretched out as leather is stretched, and all people will be gathered upon it in one place: the caller will make them all hear him, and the eye will take them all in. On that Day, ﴿man will remember, but how will remembrance avail him? He will say, “If only I had sent something ahead for my life!”﴾ But the opportunity will already have passed. In this world, we have the opportunity to act during the period of respite, when a person can earn provisions for his final abode. As the believer from Pharaoh’s household said, ﴿O my people! This worldly life is only a fleeting enjoyment, while the Hereafter is truly the permanent abode.﴾ [Ghāfir: 39]

It is an enjoyment from which a person benefits, just as a traveler benefits from his provisions until his journey ends. Judge what lies ahead by what has already passed. Everything that has passed seems like no more than an hour of the day, as though we had only just been created. Likewise, all that lies ahead will swiftly pass us by and come to an end. The journey will end at another place that is not a permanent abode: the tombs, the graves. Yet even they are not a place of permanent residence, as Allah Most High says, ﴿The pursuit of ever more distracts you, until you visit the graves.﴾ [al-Takāthur: 1, 2]

A Bedouin heard a man reciting this verse and said, “By Allah, a visitor does not remain permanently; he must inevitably depart from this place.” This is a powerful inference and sound understanding, supported by the many verses that state this explicitly, such as the words of Allah Most High: ﴿Then, after that, you will surely die. Then, on the Day of Resurrection, you will surely be raised.﴾ [al-Muminūn: 15, 16]

Allah—Glorified and Exalted is He—then mentions what will occur on that Day: ﴿And your Lord comes, and the angels rank upon rank﴾—that is, one rank after another. ﴿And your Lord comes﴾: this coming is His own—Mighty and Majestic is He—because the verb is predicated of Allah, and every action predicated of Allah pertains to Him, not to another. This is the rule in the Arabic language. The rule concerning the Names and Attributes of Allah is likewise that everything Allah ascribes to Himself is truly His and not another’s. Thus, it is Allah Himself—Mighty and Majestic is He—who comes. It is not as those who negate the divine attributes have distorted it by claiming that what comes is Allah’s command. This diverts the statement from its apparent meaning without any evidence. Accordingly, it is part of our creed that—