THE WORD OF GOD

in God and His Messenger, and in the light which We have sent down. God is fully aware of all that you do. (64: 5-8) The history made by the prophets in ancient times is an eternal source of admonition. For example, prophets appeared among the ‘Ad, the Thamud, the people of Madyan, and the community of Lot. These prophets did not possess any supernatural powers to prove their veracity. They had only reasoning in their favour. Rejection of the Truth in spite of its being backed by reasoning made the doubters liable for punishment. This shows that in this world a man is tested by his ability to recognize the Truth on the basis of reasoning. One who fails to do so will always remain deprived of the Truth. When He shall gather you all for the Day of Gathering, that will be the Day of loss and gain; and whoever believes in God and does good deeds shall be forgiven their sins and admitted to Gardens through which rivers flow, where they shall dwell forever. That is the supreme triumph. But those who denied the truth and rejected Our signs shall be the inmates of the Fire, there to remain—what an evil destination! No affliction can befall man but by God’s permission—He guides the hearts of those who believe in Him: God has knowledge of all things— Obey God and obey the Messenger; but if you turn away, remember that Our Messenger is only responsible for clearly conveying the message. God! There is no god but He, so let the faithful put their trust in Him. (64: 9-13) People take the world to be a place of winning or losing (taghabun). One who is successful here becomes very happy, but one who meets with failure is looked upon with contempt. In this world, however, success is as valueless as failure is. The place of true success or failure is the Hereafter. One is a failure if he fails in the Hereafter and successful if he is successful in the Hereafter, and the criterion of success or failure there is entirely different from that of this world, where it is based on outward materialism: success or failure in the Hereafter will be on the basis of divine moral values. At that time, people will be surprised to see that the whole complexion of things has completely changed. Gaining, which was considered as such will actually turn out to be losing, while what was considered as losing will turn out to be gaining in the real sense. Failure on that Day is real failure and success on that Day will be real success.