10. Yunus

When the people of Makkah persisted in their rejections of the Truth, God caused them to be plagued by a famine which went on for seven years. At last it ended, but only after the the Prophet Muhammad had prayed for this. This was a sign from God from which they should have learned the lesson that on rejecting the Prophet, they would come within the ambit of God’s scourge. But their mindset was such that, as long as the famine continued, they kept lamenting and beseeching, but when the famine ended, they started saying, ‘These are the vagaries of the times which occur now and then to everybody. This has nothing to do with the acceptance or rejection of the Prophet.’ People make demands for signs or miracles from the Prophet. But the real question is not that of the occurrence of miracles, but that of learning the lesson that a sign is there for observation and not for compulsion. Even after the appearance of a sign, a man has the option of either accepting it or rejecting it. However, when God’s last sign appears, man will have no power against it. This last sign will appear as God’s retribution after the conclusive phase of the process of dawah and it will appear in different forms for different prophets. In the case of the last of the prophets, the Prophet Muhammad, on the basis of various considerations, this sign took the form of those who deny the truth being overcome and the believers being made to dominate them. When a man indulges in arrogance and this does not seem to cause any harm to him, he becomes more insolent. He thinks that he is beyond God’s grasp, though this is in accordance with God’s plan. God gives an arrogant man a long rope so that he may indulge in extremes of arrogance without any fear; and during this period, God’s agents, in concealment and silence, go on recording his utterances and deeds, until his time is up and the angel of death suddenly appears and catches hold of him in order to present him before God to be judged by Him.

Man is an extremely sensitive being. He cannot bear trouble. This is why he immediately becomes serious as soon as he faces a moment of difficulty. At that time, all artificial veils are removed from his mind. In times of adversity a man readily admits truths which he was reluctant to admit at a time when he had no worries. An example of this is a voyage by sea. When the sea is calm and the boat is sailing towards its destination, it is most pleasant at that moment for its passengers. This develops a false confidence in them. They think that everything is all right and nobody can cause any disturbance. Thereafter, strong sea-winds arise. High, mountain-like waves surround the boat from every side. In such conditions, even the biggest ship is tossed about like an ordinary plank of wood. To all appearances it seems that there is no alternative but destruction. At this point, those who deny the truth in God admit His existence, worshippers of false gods start calling on the one and only God, while those who rely on their own strength and devices leave aside everything else and also start remembering the one and only God. This is empirical proof based on experience that belief in the unity of God is the only natural belief. This experience shows that whatever philosophy a man might present for not accepting God, it is simply theorising born of a carefree atmosphere. If a man realises that opportunities have been given to him in the world only for the time being for the purpose of testing him, he will immediately become serious; all the artificial walls erected in his mind will fall down; and he will have no option left but to accept the one and only God. That time is fast approaching when man will start trembling on witnessing the majesty of God, and he will be compelled to admit the veracity of all godly matters. But, the wise man is one who is able to see in the experiences of his present life the realities of the coming life, and who will, of his own free will, accept today what he will be forced to accept tomorrow: accepting tomorrow under compulsion will be of no avail to him.

The life of this world is for the purpose of putting man to the test. Therefore, here man has been given complete freedom and all sorts of opportunities. Apparently, a man is free to do whatever he likes and to shape his own future in whatever way he likes. But in the midst of these preoccupations, certain events unfold which teach lessons to thoughtful persons and which indicate the fact that all this is temporary and will very soon be taken away from them. One such example is that of green vegetation on the earth. When there is rain, the earth becomes lush green with different kinds of vegetation. Man is pleased with this; he starts thinking that things are completely under his control and very soon he will be the owner of a rich crop. Exactly at the same time, some calamity suddenly befalls him, for example, a tornado strikes, there is snowfall or there is a plague of locusts and in this way the whole crop is destroyed in a moment. The same is true of man’s life. Man is born with a fine body. The worldly factors are in his favour and he shapes for himself a very successful and glorious life. Now he develops confidence in himself; he thinks that his affairs are under his control. But one day, or one night, he suddenly meets with death. A person who considers himself powerful, suddenly finds himself in a condition of total helplessness and powerlessness. If man keeps this reality in view, he will never be arrogant in this world; he will never be guilty of oppression or injustice.

Man is deceived by the apparent conditions of the world. He considers a transient thing as a permanent one. He begins to think that a life of happiness and the comforts which he likes to have are within his reach in this present world itself. In reality, the world of human wishes is going to take shape in the Hereafter, but it will be available only to those who try to attain it in accordance with the method shown by God. Even supposing that a man manages to obtain everything he wants in the world, he still has no power to keep his life free of trouble and sorrow. Here some fear is attached to every happiness: every success here soon falls prey to some trouble; a life free of trouble and sorrow is that unique life which would be available to man only in the atmosphere of Paradise. Those who are able to discover this secret will be the ones who will follow the path to Paradise and ultimately reach the eternal heaven of God.

Man is deceived by the apparent conditions of the world. He considers a transient thing as a permanent one. He begins to think that a life of happiness and the comforts which he likes to have are within his reach in this present world itself. In reality, the world of human wishes is going to take shape in the Hereafter, but it will be available only to those who try to attain it in accordance with the method shown by God. Even supposing that a man manages to obtain everything he wants in the world, he still has no power to keep his life free of trouble and sorrow. Here some fear is attached to every happiness: every success here soon falls prey to some trouble; a life free of trouble and sorrow is that unique life which would be available to man only in the atmosphere of Paradise. Those who are able to discover this secret will be the ones who will follow the path to Paradise and ultimately reach the eternal heaven of God.

The life of comfort and happiness which is so favoured by man will be available to God’s loyal subjects in a perfect form in Paradise. But there is a still higher grade of comfort and happiness which is much higher than that commonly acknowledged; and that is the glimpse of the Lord of the Universe which will specially be available to the people of Paradise. God, Who is the Creator of comforts and pleasure is certainly the greatest treasure of all comforts and pleasure. It has been handed down in a hadith that when the people of Paradise have entered Paradise and when the people of Hell have entered Hell, a call-giver will give the call: ‘O, people of Paradise! There is one promise of God which remains to be fulfilled, and He wants to fulfil it now.’ On hearing this, the people of Paradise will say, ‘What is it? Haven’t our scales of virtue been made heavier? Haven’t our faces been brightened? Has not God admitted us to Paradise and saved us from the fire?’ Thereafter, the veil will be lifted away from them, and they will be able to see their Lord. So, by God! No bounty that had been granted them will be more pleasant or more favourable to them than the sight of God, and nothing else will cool their eyes more than this. (Tafsir ibn Kathir). There is no worse position that man can find himself in than being in a state of helplessness which is destined to be eternal; it is the equivalent of being plunged into a failure so absolute that it can never be turned back into success. Those who are condemned to be the inhabitants of hell in the Hereafter, shall have to face this condition. Man will be given punishment commensurate with his evil deeds, and his desperation at his eternal deprivation will be so severe that even his face will be blackened on account of it, as if immersed in layers of darkness.

All of the observances of shirk (attributing partners to God) are based on false hopes. Events which occur by God’s will are attributed by man to false gods, which in his self-delusion he makes the centre of his obeisance and worship. He depends so much on these false gods of his that he thinks that even in the Hereafter they will come to his help against God and save him from God’s scourge. These are but false hopes, but in the world their falsehood does not become clear, because due to the conditions of man’s trial here, a veil of secrecy covers every reality. Here man has the opportunity to attribute the various events to his imaginary gods and thus be satisfied with their ‘godliness.’ But in the Hereafter all realities will be laid bare. There, it will become clear that in this universe nobody has power except the one and only God. In the present world, man is living under the misunderstanding that, with the help of his leaders and false gods, he will be successful in the stages of the Hereafter, but in the Hereafter it will suddenly be clear to him that this confidence of his was absolutely false. Here, everybody will be requited according to what he himself has done and all imaginary supports will disappear as if they had never existed.

All of the observances of shirk (attributing partners to God) are based on false hopes. Events which occur by God’s will are attributed by man to false gods, which in his self-delusion he makes the centre of his obeisance and worship. He depends so much on these false gods of his that he thinks that even in the Hereafter they will come to his help against God and save him from God’s scourge. These are but false hopes, but in the world their falsehood does not become clear, because due to the conditions of man’s trial here, a veil of secrecy covers every reality. Here man has the opportunity to attribute the various events to his imaginary gods and thus be satisfied with their ‘godliness.’ But in the Hereafter all realities will be laid bare. There, it will become clear that in this universe nobody has power except the one and only God. In the present world, man is living under the misunderstanding that, with the help of his leaders and false gods, he will be successful in the stages of the Hereafter, but in the Hereafter it will suddenly be clear to him that this confidence of his was absolutely false. Here, everybody will be requited according to what he himself has done and all imaginary supports will disappear as if they had never existed.

All of the observances of shirk (attributing partners to God) are based on false hopes. Events which occur by God’s will are attributed by man to false gods, which in his self-delusion he makes the centre of his obeisance and worship. He depends so much on these false gods of his that he thinks that even in the Hereafter they will come to his help against God and save him from God’s scourge. These are but false hopes, but in the world their falsehood does not become clear, because due to the conditions of man’s trial here, a veil of secrecy covers every reality. Here man has the opportunity to attribute the various events to his imaginary gods and thus be satisfied with their ‘godliness.’ But in the Hereafter all realities will be laid bare. There, it will become clear that in this universe nobody has power except the one and only God. In the present world, man is living under the misunderstanding that, with the help of his leaders and false gods, he will be successful in the stages of the Hereafter, but in the Hereafter it will suddenly be clear to him that this confidence of his was absolutely false. Here, everybody will be requited according to what he himself has done and all imaginary supports will disappear as if they had never existed.