Surah 101. Al-Qariah

The (Day) of Noise and Clamor: ⁶²⁵¹

The Day of Noise and Clamour is the Day of Judgment, when the whole of the present order of things will be overthrown with a tremendous convulsion. Cf. n. 6235 to xcix. 1, and n. 6096 to lxxxviii. All our present landmarks will be lost. It will be a stunning experience to begin with, but it will inaugurate a new world of true and permanent values, in which every human deed will have its true and just consequences, as if weighed in the balance. See verses 6-11 below.

What is the (Day) of Noise and Clamor?

And what will explain to thee what the (Day) of Noise and Clamor is?

(It is) a Day whereon Men will be like moths Scattered about ⁶²⁵²

Moths are frail light things. To see them scattered about in a violent storm gives some idea of the confusion, distress, and helplessness in which men will be at first overwhelmed on the Day of Account. Old memories will be like a book almost blotted out. New hopes will be vague in a new world just rising on the horizon. But it will be a perfectly just world, and no good action will be lost and no evil one but will have its compensating value estimated.

And the mountains will be like carded wool. ⁶²⁵³

Cf. n. 5682 to lxx 9. The mountains are solid things, which seem as if nothing could move them. But in that tremendous cataclysm they will be scattered about like flakes of leased or carded wool. This is a metaphor to show that what we consider very substantial in this life will be as an airy nothing in the next world.

Then he whose balance (of good deeds) will be (found) heavy ⁶²⁵⁴

The Good Deeds will be weighed and appraised. This appraisement will be of the nicest and justest kind: for it will take into account motives, temptations, provocations, surrounding conditions, antecedents, subsequent amends, and all possible connected circumstances. Against them, presumably, will be deeds of the opposite kind, appraised in the same way. If the good predominates, the judgment will be in the man's favour, and he will be ushered into a life of good pleasure and satisfaction. This will of course be on another plane.

Will be in a life of good pleasure and satisfaction. ⁶²⁵⁵

Cf. xcviii. 8, and n. 6233, but perhaps the Bliss is not of the same grade for all men. In every case it is bliss, but bliss suited to the particular nature of the individual concerned.

But he whose balance (of good deeds) will be (found) light

Will have his home in a (bottomless) pit. ⁶²⁵⁶

Just as grades of bliss are indicated for the righteous, so apparently we are to understand grades of punishment suited to the sins of the individual sinners concerned.

And what will explain to thee what this is?

(It is) a Fire Blazing fiercely!