“This is Allah’s promise. Allah never fails in His promise. But most people do not know. They know only the outward aspects of this worldly life, while of the Hereafter they are utterly heedless.”
⦗637⦘
“This is Allah’s promise. Allah never fails in His promise.” Therefore, be certain of it, affirm it without hesitation, and know that it must inevitably come to pass.
When these verses containing this promise were revealed, the Muslims believed them, while the polytheists rejected them. Some Muslims and polytheists even wagered on a specified number of years. When the term fixed by Allah arrived, the Romans defeated the Persians and drove them out of the Roman lands they had seized, and Allah’s promise was fulfilled.
This was one of the matters of the unseen that Allah foretold before it occurred, and it came to pass during the lifetime of the Muslims and polytheists whom Allah had informed of it. “But most people do not know” that what Allah has promised is true. Consequently, some of them deny Allah’s promise and reject His signs.
These people lack knowledge—that is, they do not understand the inner realities of things or their ultimate consequences. They “know only the outward aspects of this worldly life.” They consider apparent causes and confidently expect whatever they believe has all the causes necessary for it to occur, while they are certain that whatever has no visible cause capable of bringing it about will not occur. They remain fixated on causes without considering the One who brings them about and governs them.
“While of the Hereafter they are utterly heedless.” Their hearts, passions, and desires are directed toward this world, its pleasures, and its fleeting goods. They labor and strive for it, making it the focus of all their comings and goings, while remaining heedless of the Hereafter. They neither yearn for Paradise nor fear and dread the Fire; nor does standing before Allah and meeting Him terrify or disturb them. This is a sign of wretchedness and a hallmark of heedlessness concerning the Hereafter.
It is astonishing that the intelligence and ingenuity of many people in this category, concerning the outward aspects of worldly life, have reached a level that bewilders minds and astounds intellects.
They have produced atomic (1) and electrical marvels and vehicles for land, sea, and air through which they have surpassed others and distinguished themselves. They have become impressed by their own intellects and regard others as incapable of accomplishing what Allah enabled them to achieve, so they look upon them with contempt and scorn. Yet despite this, they are the most obtuse of people concerning their religion, the most heedless of their Hereafter, and the least aware of ultimate consequences. Those possessed of penetrating insight see them floundering in ignorance, wandering blindly in misguidance, and wavering amid falsehood (2). “They forgot Allah, so He made them forget themselves. It is they who are the defiantly disobedient.”
Then (3) those possessed of penetrating insight considered what Allah had granted these people and enabled them to achieve in subtle thought concerning this world and its outward aspects, as well as [what] they had been denied of higher reason. They thus realized (4) that all command belongs to Allah and that judgment over His servants is His alone; everything rests upon His granting success or His forsaking. They therefore feared (5) their Lord and asked Him to perfect the light of reason and faith He had bestowed upon them, until they reach Him and enter His presence. [Had these achievements been accompanied by faith and founded upon it, they would have produced lofty advancement and a wholesome life. But because many of them were founded upon atheism, they produced nothing but moral decline and the means of annihilation and destruction] (6).