Escape, Fire, and Divine Justice on Judgment Day

The Nature of Divine Authority and Escape

Last time in this Surah Ar-Rahman series, the Qur'an uses humor, the Qur'an uses sarcasm, the Qur'an expresses emotion, and we cannot look at the Qur'an all the time literally, we can't. Allah, for example, will say hearts became hard like rocks. You cannot look at that literally. Allah says the sun was sinking into muddy water.

The sun was not sinking into muddy water, that's how it looked. Like the, you know, I love watching the sun drown into the Pacific coast, the west coast, the sun is not drowning into the coast, that's how it looks. This is the language of literature, not the language of science.

To help you follow along and reflect more deeply, we've created a companion workbook for this series. Download it at bayyinah.com forward slash rahman. These ayahs we're about to study are progressive development. So what I mean by that is, first Allah said, you know, you think I'm too busy? I'll show you how free I can be. I'll free myself from the maintenance of the entire universe and put all the focus on you. Then he says, go ahead and escape if you can. And then he adds, You're not escaping anywhere except by way of sultan.

Understanding Sultan - Authority and Power

Sultan means ability, but it's a special kind of ability. Sultan is actually used for a long spear. Have you ever heard the phrase, the long arm of the law? That's actually very close to the classical meaning of sultan. The police officer that stops you actually doesn't have inherent power in and of himself. He is given power by the state. So defying him can be considered defiance of the state. So his power is actually an extension of the state. And he becomes a representative of the state. His uniform actually represents the state. His badge represents the state.

If that same police officer is retired, is no longer in uniform, it's the same human being, he no longer has that power. Why? Because he's no longer representative of the state. So he no longer has sultan.

Similarly, a passport. A passport is a document that is powered by a government. So it's a piece of paper, just like any piece of paper, but because it represents authorization from a government, it can allow you to cross a border. Because that government has an agreement with that government and now this piece of paper that came directly authorizing from the highest echelons of power now allows you to enter into this other country because of this piece of paper. So that piece of paper, because it has that authority, can be called a what? A sultan.

So actually power is quwwa, but power by proxy, like this thing has power because something else has empowered it, that's actually called a sultan. Similarly, sultan is used for evidence and argument. If your argument is backed by something very strong, then it's called sultan. So here, when he says you're not going to cross except if you have sultan, it means you're going to hit the border and there's going to be border check? Oh, you'd like to escape? Based on what authority? Let's see your paperwork. What's going to be the paperwork, by the way? Our deeds? Let's see. Oh, you know what? I'm going to try a different post.

You're not getting anywhere except with the ability. You don't have the power to do so. You don't have the authority to do so. You don't have the authorization to do so. And that's what Allah is now letting them know.

The Divine Firestorm

So now, there's an additional problem. First Allah said, go ahead and run. Then He said:

There shall be shu'aẓ, which means a heavy kind of fire. Shu'aẓ is a unique kind of fire that has... It's a mix of flame and fire together. Flame and smoke together. Some say that it has flame and no smoke. Some say that it has flame and smoke together. But it's actually just pure fire. It's not even something burning. It's just fire itself. It's like pieces of flame themselves are now being shot at you.

Now, where are they being shot from? If He's saying, they're going to be unleashed on you, they're coming from the sky. The jinn were trying to escape where? Into the sky. And now, as they're escaping into the sky, what's coming down from the sky? You can't go towards where the fire power is coming from. So the previous ayah said, run if you want. See how that works out for you. As they make their plan to run, they notice what's coming towards them. Fire is coming towards them.

And they were made of fire. You know, Allah mentioned already, وَخَلَقَ الْجَانَّ مِن مَّارِجٍ مِّن نَّارٍ. So they're like, oh, naar, that's our cousin. We should be okay. No, this is not maarij min naar. This is shu'aẓ min naar. It's a different kind of fire, different kind of temperature, different kind of intensity.

And it's another kind of fire we don't know yet because naarin is nakira. So another kind of fire is now being introduced that is especially designed for Judgment Day that will come towards the earth. And it will be unleashed on both of you. Meaning the kuma goes back to فَبِأَيِّ آلَاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ.

So what does that mean? That actually means the deniers are being shot at. This does not mean that believers are being shot at. Even Razi says, لِأَنَّ جَمِيعَ الْإِنسِ وَالْجِنِّ لَا يُرْسَلُ عَلَيْهِمُ الْعَذَابُ وَالنَّارُ - It's not the rest of humanity that's going to be shot. This is referring to those that were deniers. They're being shot on Judgment Day.

So you know sometimes when we don't pay attention to that, you're like, should a believer be worried that they're going to be shot? We should be worried because we shouldn't be disobedient to Allah. Nobody's completely safe. But you shouldn't also be in anxiety that we're going to be part of this. These are describing those who denied Allah completely. And may Allah not make us from them. And may Allah make us people of legitimate hope.

The Nature of Divine Fire

So a little bit about Shu'aẓ. لَهَبٌ لَا دُخَانَ فِيهِ - So one meaning of it from a lexical point of view is fire that has no smoke in it. Basically what you can call pure energy. Pure heat energy is coming down.

They use this phrase figuratively. They say, جَمَلٌ بِهِ شُوَاظ - A camel has Shu'aẓ because it's dying of thirst. It's got the fire of thirst inside. It's burning up on the inside. So they say it has Shu'aẓ.

Now this is because one of our students, our study group is a chemist. So they threw this in. Fuel with high octane gives the best combustion, has higher heat temperature, doesn't produce noise. When octane is low, unburnt carbon comes out in the form of smoke and it makes noise. The reason that's important is, nuhas. The next word is actually something that has smoke but no fire. And Shu'aẓ has fire but no smoke. It's the two opposite things.

So one way you can think of it is one attack is an attack of energy, heat energy, and the others actually matter. And nuhas is actually used for brass also. So you can think of it as a meteor shower. The meteor, molten brass is falling from the sky. It's heading towards the earth. It's not even on fire but there's a trail of smoke behind it and it's just smoke headed your way. And it's just exploding on the land.

The Inability to Retaliate

So now the problem is the jinn tried to escape into the sky, fire is being shot. Human beings are trying to escape where? In the ground. They're trying to find a building, a cave, somewhere to go. And every time they turn somewhere a bomb drops here, a bomb drops there. And they're running away from the bomb shelling. Because the nuhas is falling on the earth everywhere. So فَلَا تَنتَصِرَانِ and you're not going to be able to retaliate.

They say Shu'aẓ is also like a red flame. So you start seeing red flames coming from the sky that are being shot towards you. The word nuhas actually comes from tyranny. Nahas or nuhus is also tyranny. And a difficult year is called nuhas but it's also used for brass.

So here's a note from me. Perhaps Shu'aẓ is a reference to energy and nuhas to matter. Fumes, embers, smoke are distinct forms of torture separate. Like they emanate from heat energy. Like you don't have to get burned but the heat can actually torture you. And then a few drops of certain compounds whose smell can cause death or melting of internal organs. In chemistry there are actually some chemicals that if they get through your glove and they just touch you a drop of them touches you, your internal organs melt. Like that's how serious heat energy can be.

It can start combusting you like that and we don't know what's coming down from the sky. وَنُحَاسٌ - some kind of fire. We know some dangerous kinds of things that can make us even there are chemicals that if they're in the air and your eye gets exposed to them, you can go blind immediately and permanently. They're that dangerous. And those materials are found in the world.

So now فَلَا تَنتَصِرَانِ - You're not going to be able to retaliate. Tantasirani also means you're not going to be able to help yourselves. And also means you can't find some have interpreted this as tastansirani also meaning you're not going to be able to find anybody to help you.

You know when a great nation is attacked, what do they do? They retaliate. We're not going to take that lying down. We're gonna fight back. فَمَا اسْتَطَاعُوا مِن قِيَامٍ وَمَا كَانُوا مُنتَصِرِينَ - The same word. They weren't able to stand against the attack from Allah and they couldn't take revenge or retaliate against it either. Here Allah says, you're not going to be in a position to retaliate anymore. You're not going to be able to help yourselves anymore. You're going to be completely helpless as this firestorm comes your way.

Targeted Divine Justice

So this is bad, but there's something specific here. What is that? Where are the firepower? Where's the firepower being shot? Is it being shot everywhere or is it being shot directly towards the criminals? It's actually directly towards them because يُرْسَلُ عَلَيْكُمَا - It's not just a little earth. It's alaykuma. So it's targeted attacks if the crowd is running that way the attack comes right there if the jinns are going that way. That's where the attack comes. So this is targeted fire.

So this is going on for the ayah. فَبِأَيِّ آلَاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ. Perhaps this question for the ayah might be heard over the divine microphone on Judgment Day. Like as they're escaping and running فَبِأَيِّ آلَاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ. Can you imagine what they're hearing and what they're supposed to imagine happening? You still feel as defiant as you did?

When the Sky is Torn Open

And he says when the sky itself shall be torn open, then it shall become like the reddish texture of a lion's skin. Wardatan is the reddish texture of a lion's skin. Wardatan also can mean a flower but it comes from ancient Persian it's actually even pre-Iranian pre-Farsi and came its way into Arabic. Actually the word rose comes from the same origin lexically as the word wardatan. And the R and the S and the D got interchanged the interesting history to the word.

But anyway, so the sky is gonna start turning this orange reddish tone. So now it's not just you're being shot at with red flames. Now the whole sky is torn open. It's getting even worse. The entire sky is ripping open and how do you describe sky ripping open at least now? We have some concepts concept of like black holes tearing through the you know our antimatter tearing through the physical universe as we know it. We don't know what that this thing means. But one thing that it can mean is a sama means whatever is up above so there are planets you know the moon the Sun stars if you ever seen like a picture of planets collapsing or stars exploding and if all of the stars and all of the planets and all of the heavenly bodies that are there start exploding then the entire sky is gonna look like it's torn open.

So فَإِذَا انشَقَّتِ السَّمَاءُ, this is one of the hardest parts that I had to study today. I hope I can do some justice to it because it's it's loaded. Allah is going to compare this this analogy that I gave you with the lion skin. There's more going on with that analogy. So wardatan does mean blood red or it means orangish red lion skin red? But then the skin that that's the analogy, but then there's a further analogy. There's an analogy on top of the analogy and he says كَالدِّهَانِ like oil so dihan is basically oil and that's where the analogy got complicated first, it's referring to skin now it's referring to oil. So, how do you put those two together?

It's the wa-bu-ha wa-karbu-ha. Basically, you remember how Allah was describing copper falling down. Then Allah is describing the entire sky is gonna look like the skin. Imagine the skin of an animal peeled off like a lion skinned and the flesh is exposed and it's being roasted and its fat is melting off and it's falling into the fire and basically planets are exploding and then the pieces and the debris from those planets and those stars and those galaxies are falling like drops of oil onto the earth. كَالدِّهَانِ like oil.

So it's red and it's just dripping the sky is dripping and instead of drizzling with rain it's drizzling with these melted like melted metals. Melted brass is just falling onto the sky. فَكَانَتْ وَرْدَةً كَالدِّهَانِ. This is actually the dihan is when you squeeze the inside of a tree and extract oil so perhaps even in it there's a reference to how planets and heavenly bodies are going to be squeezed and crushed and burned and then those things are gonna start falling down towards us.

So this is actually a picture that was taken from NASA of the destruction of a star and it actually looks like a rose. Wardatan. So some tried to make a correlation with this ayah because wardatan is also word for a rose. So maybe it'll look like that like the whole sky just turning blood-red and then these drops coming down.

On that day. So now what's happened then? Well, the conversation began with escape if you want go ahead and and at first there was some initial firing and then it got so bad that forget the firing the entire sky is torn open actually Islahi argued about this ayah that it that it refers to the like the sky is being compared to an animal that's been skinned. Like Allah slaughters the sky exposing its redness. And now when that's happened and those drops are falling where are they falling they're falling on earth, so this is the most terrifying scene.

And that will lead us to the last ayah that we that I wanted to talk to you about today. And by the way, Lucy also mentions that dihan that it's different colors which is understandable that it's different because the oil is different colors the skin was breath red, but the debris that's falling is all kinds of colors because all kinds of heavenly bodies are melting and they're starting to fall. So that's alwan alminan.

When No Questions Need to Be Asked

Now فَبِأَيِّ آلَاءِ رَبِّكُمَا تُكَذِّبَانِ and this is what we're gonna start tomorrow. But I'll give you a taste of it now.

On that day no human being nor any jinn is going to be asked about any of their sins. That sounds confusing no human being or jinn will be asked about any of their sins wait, I thought the whole point of judgment day was what? Ask about the sins and now he's saying on that day. None shall be asked about their sins. No human. No jinn what in the world? How does that make any sense?

Let me explain. You ever take a test and you know, you messed up you ever do that? If you ever take a test and you know, you messed up and the teacher walks in with a stack of papers and he slams them on the desk. If I as a teacher just look at the room I can tell your your grade is on your face? I mean it's on the paper, but it's already on your face, isn't it? I don't have to ask you. In fact forget the grading when I ask you to hand me your exam and I haven't even looked at your exam yet when I ask you to hand me your exam and you're handing me your paper I can see your grade where I don't have to ask.

Judgment day comes people are brought back to life. They see firepower coming straight at them. They see the sky melting and they're like, oh it was real. Oh that was that was that was true. Do they have to be asked at this stage? No they don't have to be asked. Why not? Their face is telling the whole story, isn't it? And by the way, you're gonna see in the next ayah I was gonna say criminals shall be recognized by the marks of their faces. يُعْرَفُ الْمُجْرِمُونَ بِسِيمَاهُمْ - there's a there's a there's gonna dawn on every human being what they did.

The Book of Deeds hasn't even been opened yet you're not even being held to account. Nothing's happened yet you're just seeing the world the universe collapse as before you and melt before your eyes and you're like, oh no the balance. Remember Allah started this surah with the sky and the the sky was in balance. Well the al-mizan. Oh no, that whole balance is destroyed, isn't it? When that scale is destroyed a new scale shall be erected and that is the scale of my deeds. And so when this scale is being destroyed, I realize oh, no it's time for my scale to be erected. It's come. It's happening and that the just that that realization means nobody even has to be asked.

Now you said لَّا يُسْأَلُ عَن ذَنبِهِ إِنسٌ وَلَا جَانٌّ. Another meaning of this is actually you don't have to be asked you'll confess yourself. You don't even have to be asked you're just gonna say we were wrong ya Rabb we did wrong we messed up. You don't have to be asked because your limbs are gonna do all the telling anyway without even being asked. You don't have to be asked because your Book of Deeds is open. You don't have to be you know, we don't need any answers from you. We have the whole thing on tape. You don't have to be asked. But you might be like you said لَّا يُسْأَلُ عَن ذَنبِهِ إِنسٌ وَلَا جَانٌّ. Don't see how the jinn were also terrified in this ayah. You know so this this is where inshallah we're gonna wrap up our discussion of this scary conclusion.

The Path to Paradise

We're not there yet we're almost there but there there's some couple of heavy ayat that I want to leave off until tomorrow inshallah and then we're gonna start walking into Jannah inshallah, but we have to get through this dirty first and then get there.

As I leave you I just want to discuss one more thing with you and then I'll leave you guys. The question of salvation and the question of well, you know who's gonna go to Jannah and who's not gonna go to Jannah and all of that. So this is a debated subject. There's lots of different views on it. There's the traditional view on it. There are some variations in our tradition on this view. I can share with you what I find the most convincing answer to this question.

Our Responsibility to Share the Message

Allah gave the Prophets guidance for their nations, but our Prophet was not given guidance for just one nation. He was given guidance for humanity, it was given guidance for all of humanity. And then he made this ummah responsible to share that guidance with the rest of humanity. He put that on our shoulders. So we have to do what the best to the best of our ability we have to clarify this message to humanity.

Our job is not to convert people but our job is to actually clarify this message so they have we have no excuse before Allah that we didn't clarify it and they have no excuse before Allah that they it wasn't clear to them. That's the basic point. Once it becomes clear to someone then they have to make that decision. But what happens to people to whom we never if we didn't do our job clarifying and therefore they never received the message clearly? What about those people? So this conversation does not relieve me and you from the responsibility of delivering the message but there is possibility of people that never knew. They never got to hear and they were born Hindu and they died Hindu could happen. They were born Buddhists they died it was that could happen.

From my understanding allahu ta'ala alam. Allah does not explicitly comment on those people. Allah has not explicitly commented on those people. The people on whom the truth was never made clear. They Allah comments on when Allah is talking about Jahannam. He's talking about mukadhibin look at the ban people who came in contact with the truth and then called it a lie. Kafir people who denied the truth. What happens to those people Allah did not explicitly say? So I can't explicitly say.

Now there are some places in the Quran that go one way or the other so it remains ambiguous. For example, Allah says إِنَّ الدِّينَ عِندَ اللَّهِ الْإِسْلَامُ The only religion acceptable to Allah is Islam. وَمَن يَبْتَغِ غَيْرَ الْإِسْلَامِ دِينًا فَلَن يُقْبَلَ مِنْهُ whoever pursues a religion other than Islam it will not be accepted from them. That's Allah said that clearly explicitly, however, he said that in the context of talking to priests that came to visit the Prophet. Even though it's a universal statement but what's interesting is in the same surah Ali Imran he later on mentions among the people of the book there are upright people who you know يَتْلُونَ آيَاتِ اللَّهِ آنَاءَ اللَّيْلِ وَهُمْ يَسْجُدُونَ ۞ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ they believe in Allah in the last day. They command the good forbid the evil they try to do good deeds and they're among good people and whatever they do shall not be denied of them وَاللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ بِالْمُتَّقِينَ Allah knows those who are with the taqeen.

Another place in the in the Quran Allah says, you know in alladhina amanu اللَّهُ أَعْلَمُ بِمَن ضَلَّ عَن سَبِيلِهِ وَهُوَ أَعْلَمُ بِالْمُهْتَدِينَ Allah knows better Who is guided? Who's lost his who's lost away from his path and Allah knows better who is you know headed towards the right guidance?

The way I think about it also is like Salman al-Farisi. Or the other one who who was Zoroastrian became Christian eventually found Islam. So he was on the journey. And he heard that there's someone claiming to be a prophet and he's on that journey now. Imagine someone like a Salman al-Farisi who's on a journey. They being on a journey. I think seems to be a condition in the Quran somebody seeking guidance now imagine someone like a Salman al-Farisi who never made it to Medina and then they died. So they never got to the the start line of Shahada but they were kind of they were heading in that direction and then they died. There's no way for me to know How Allah will judge that? There's there's no way for me to comment on that. So I don't think it's an overly simplistic answer in the text. I don't think we should have broad stroke judgments on the subject.

But one thing is for sure if we say well anybody can go to Jannah. It's okay then the problem with that becomes that means that you don't have to give any dawah to anybody this message is not supposed to be shared because it's just easier if we don't share it and people don't know and they can just go to heaven easily. And if that's the case then the Prophet didn't even have to give us the Quran because we would have been fine without it. So then if you just start saying everything's okay. Allah will just forgive everything then you basically say this revelation is irrelevant you understand what that can't be the case.

But are can there be cases of people that were finding their path to guidance and then they didn't they didn't make it to the finish line, however, Allah deals with them. Allah will deal with them but but the Quran did not explicitly comment on that sort of thing. It gives hints here and there so we should have a nuanced view of the subject which is something that actually it's not just something I'm suggesting. Classically also there was a nuanced view of this subject. There were there were there were intricacies and we didn't make black and white kinds of statements.

That's one of the most beautiful things about our religion. It doesn't lead us into these down these wormholes where we run into a problem. It doesn't negate Allah's rahma Allah's hikmah Allah's guidance. You know, none of those things are negated and yet we can live with with this profound beautiful message. So that's just some things about at least about Jahannam that I wanted you to know and about salvation on Judgment Day that I think are important for us to think about also.

With that inshallah conclude today's session barakallahu li walakum assalamualaikum warahmatullahi ta'ala wabarakatuh.

A Preview of What's to Come

Coming up next time in this surah ar-rahman series. But on Judgment Day Allah says that there's light coming from the believers chest and light coming from their right hand. So it used to be our good deeds you know has no effect on ourselves but on Judgment Day those good deeds and our good intentions get converted into what they converted into light and actually conversely people who do bad deeds. Every bad deed like in this life the hadith describes the Prophet describes a stain on the heart. But on Judgment Day, it actually becomes layers and layers of actual darkness the actual darkness so here in in this life Allah says he takes believers out of darknesses into light يُخْرِجُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مِنَ الظُّلُمَاتِ إِلَى النُّورِ and the taghut مِنَ النُّورِ إِلَى الظُّلُمَاتِ from light into darknesses. That's in this life it's a it's a spiritual image and spiritual light and spiritual darkness.

But actually that spiritual reality that unseen reality becomes a seen reality on Judgment Day. It's a different kind of reality that day. So now people it's not just the expression on the face of someone who's like, oh my god I know what I did, but actually physically a darkness takes over them.