(27–37) “To Allah belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth. On the Day when the Hour comes, the followers of falsehood will be the losers. * You will see every community kneeling. Every community will be summoned to its book: ‘Today you will be recompensed for what you used to do. * This Book of Ours speaks against you with the truth. We had all that you did recorded.’ * As for those who believed and performed righteous deeds, their Lord will admit them into His mercy. That is the manifest triumph. * But as for those who disbelieved: ‘Were My verses not recited to you? Yet you grew arrogant and were a sinful people. * When it was said, “Allah’s promise is true, and there is no doubt about the Hour,” you said, “We do not know what the Hour is. We can only conjecture, and we are by no means certain.”’”
Allah Most High informs us of the vastness of His dominion and that He alone governs and directs all affairs at all times. He tells us that “on the Day when the Hour comes,” when all creatures are gathered to stand for Judgment, the followers of falsehood will suffer loss. They brought falsehood in order to refute the truth, and their deeds were themselves false because they were bound to falsehood. Thus, on the Day of Resurrection—the Day when realities become clear—their deeds will prove void and vanish, reward will pass them by, and they will receive a painful punishment.
Allah Most High then describes the severity and terror of the Day of Resurrection so that His servants may beware of it and prepare for it. He says: “You will see,” O one who beholds that Day, “every community kneeling” on its knees in fear and dread, awaiting the judgment of the Sovereign, the Most Merciful.
“Every community will be summoned to its book”—that is, to the law of the prophet sent to them by Allah. Did they uphold it, thereby earning reward and deliverance, or did they neglect it, thereby suffering loss? The community of Moses will be summoned to the law of Moses, the community of Jesus likewise, and the community of Muhammad likewise. The same applies to all others: every community will be summoned to the law with which it was charged. This is one possible interpretation of the verse, and in itself it is unquestionably sound.
It is also possible that “Every community will be summoned to its book” means that it will be summoned to the record of its deeds and to all the good and evil written therein, and that every individual will be recompensed for what he personally did, as Allah Most High says: “Whoever does good does so for his own benefit, and whoever does evil does so to his own detriment.”
Both meanings may also be intended by the verse. This is indicated by His words: “This Book of Ours speaks against you with the truth.” That is, this is Our Book, which We sent down to you; it judges between you according to the truth, which is justice. “We had all that you did recorded.” This, then, is the book of deeds.
Allah therefore sets out distinctly what He will do with the two groups. He says: “As for those who believed and performed righteous deeds”—with true faith, confirming the truth of their faith through righteous deeds, both obligatory and recommended—“their Lord will admit them into His mercy,” the abode of which is Paradise, with its everlasting bliss and untroubled life. “That is the manifest triumph”—the evident attainment, deliverance, gain, and success. When a servant obtains it, he obtains every good and every evil is averted from him.
“But as for those who disbelieved” in Allah, they will be addressed in rebuke and censure: “Were My verses not recited to you?” They showed you what would bring about your well-being and forbade you what would harm you. They were the greatest blessing to reach you, if only you had been enabled to accept them. Yet you were too arrogant to accept them, turned away, and disbelieved in them. You thereby committed the gravest offense and the most heinous crime; today, therefore, you are recompensed for what you used to do.
They will also be rebuked by His words: “When it was said, ‘Allah’s promise is true, and there is no doubt about the Hour,’ you said,” denying it, “‘We do not know what the Hour is. We can only conjecture, and we are by no means certain.’”
Such was their condition in this world: their stance toward the Resurrection was to deny it and reject the words of those who proclaimed it. Allah Most High says: