The Day of Defeat and Victory

gave no heed. But God was in no need of them: He is Selfsufficient and Glorious. The unbelievers think that they will not be raised from the dead. Say: ‘By the Lord, you shall assuredly be raised to life! Then you shall be told of all that you have done. That is easy enough for God.’ Believe then in God and His Apostle and in the light which We have revealed. God has knowledge of all your actions. The day on which He will assemble you, the day on which you shall all be gathered—that shall be a day of mutual loss and gain. Those who believe in God and do what is right shall be forgiven their sins and admitted to gardens watered by running streams, where they shall dwell forever. That is the supreme triumph. (Quran, 64:2-9) Those who achieve success in this world are happy, while those who suffer failure become small and insignificant in the eyes of others. But the truth is that although both defeat and victory in this world have their value, the actual place of defeat and victory is the Hereafter. The loser is one who loses in the Hereafter and the victor is one who is victorious there. The standard of both loss and gain there is totally different from what it is in the present world. Victory and gain in this world are based on patently material things, while victory and defeat in the Hereafter will be measured on a divine standard. At that time people will be astonished to see that here matters have been completely reversed. What people had considered gain was actually loss, and what people had considered loss by worldly standards was, in actual fact, gain by the standards of the Hereafter. □