FROM MAULANA’S DESK

blown’, all these protective shells will be broken and man will stand exposed and bare. With the Prime Minister’s announcement of demonetisation, all the ‘black money’ hoards were exposed and laid bare. In a similar manner, with the ‘blowing of the trumpet’, all the hidden qualities of people will be exposed and their true personalities laid bare. Tomorrow, in the world of the Hereafter that is sure to come, mankind will be separated into two types of personalities; a purified personality and a ‘blackened personality’. (3: 106) It is negative thinking that leads to the ‘blackening’ of one’s personality. Negativity gradually obscures man’s personality and just as a dye colours water, negative thinking blackens the personality. The Quran mentions that there will be two ‘trumpet signals’ for the Day of Judgement. I believe that the first ‘warning signal’ is a symbolic one which can, therefore, be of more than one type. The second ‘warning signal’ will be the final one, that will usher man into the world of the Hereafter. Looking at it from this perspective, the Prime Minister’s declaration of 8th November is a symbolic ‘warning signal’ that will reveal glimpses of the Hereafter to the man who has the vision to see it. Today, the more wealth that one has, the more is one distraught and stressed. Today, there are piles of money but their value is nothing. In a similar manner, in the Hereafter, people will have their ‘pile’ of deeds that they have accumulated in the world, but it will be of no use to them. Just as today, man lives in a self-centered world and does not come to the aid of his fellow human beings, on the Day of Judgment ‘he will have no friend’ (69: 35), and ‘no friend will ask about his friend’. (70: 10). After the announcement by the Prime Minister, people were in a position to protest and condemn the decision. There have been many debates and demonstrations against the decision. But in the Hereafter, there will be no one to raise their voice against the declaration of God. (20: 108). Such incidents that occur in our lives are equivalent to the ‘first warning trumpet’ of the impending Day of Judgement. Similarly, every There are many people whom others, consider their 'whole and soul' in life; but suddenly in the world of the Hereafter they will be deserted by these very same people.