was revealed about the measure and the balance, its ruling extends to every other transaction. A laborer—indeed, any employee—who wants his salary paid in full yet turns up late or leaves work early is one of the short-measurers whom Allah has threatened with woe. There is no difference between someone who dispenses goods by volume or weight and someone whose job contract requires him to arrive at a set hour and not depart before a set hour, yet he is habitually late in coming and early in going. Such a man is a short-measurer. Let a single riyal be deducted from his ten-thousand-riyals pay and he will protest, “Why have you taken that?” That is the very sort of person addressed by the divine warning: “Woe to those who give short measure—those who, when they take a measure from people, demand it in full, but when they measure or weigh for them, give less” (83:1-3).

Next the Exalted rebukes them: “Do they not think that they will be resurrected for a tremendous Day?” (83:4). Have they forgotten the Day of Reckoning, the Day of Resurrection—how near it is!

In this life no one has any guarantee of living even a single moment longer. A person may die while eating lunch or dinner, while asleep, at his desk, on the way to fulfil a need or on the way back. Then comes that momentous Day: “Do they not think that they will be resurrected for a tremendous Day?” Allah, exalted is He, has magnified that Day; He has described it in many verses that jolt, alarm, and strike fear. On that Day such short-measurers will face Allah’s punishment—yes, on that Day they will face it: “the Day when all people will stand before the Lord of the worlds” (83:6).

All mankind, from the east and the west, will be raised upon one level plain; the summoner’s call will reach every one of them and every eye will behold them. The caller will be heard by all because the earth will be spread out flat, no longer spherical so that some people are hidden from others; rather, it is—