Surah Al-Qiyamah

سُوْرَةُ الْقِیٰمَة

Selected Footnotes from Tafheem ul-Quran

Sayyid Abul Ala Mawdudi

 

Footnote 5 — The First Reason for Denying the Hereafter

حاشیہ نمبر 5

In this brief sentence, the root disease of those who deny the Hereafter has been diagnosed with complete clarity. What drives these people to reject the Hereafter is not, in reality, that they genuinely consider the Day of Resurrection and the life to come to be impossible. Rather, the true reason for their denial is that accepting the Hereafter necessarily imposes certain moral obligations upon them — and these obligations are disagreeable to them.

They wish to continue roaming the earth as they always have, like an unbridled bull, with no restraint. The oppression, the dishonesty, the wickedness, the immorality, and the corruption they have indulged in until now — they want to remain free to continue all of it going forward. And they do not want the thought to ever restrain them from these unlawful liberties: that one day they will have to appear before their Lord and be held accountable for all their deeds.

So in truth, it is not their intellect that prevents them from believing in the Hereafter — it is the desires of their lower self (nafs) that stand in the way.

Footnote 15 — The Second Reason for Denying the Hereafter

حاشیہ نمبر 15

This is the second reason for the denial of the Hereafter. The first reason was stated in verse 5 — that since man desires unrestrained freedom to indulge in wickedness and wishes to escape the moral obligations that necessarily come with accepting the Hereafter, it is in fact the desires of his lower self (nafs) that drive him toward this denial, after which he then brandishes intellectual arguments to make his rejection appear rational.

Now the second reason is being stated: the deniers of the Hereafter are narrow-minded and short-sighted. As a result, the only outcomes that hold any significance in their eyes are those that manifest in this present world — and they attach no importance whatsoever to the outcomes that are yet to appear in the Hereafter. They believe that whatever benefit, pleasure, or happiness can be obtained here and now is what all effort and striving should be devoted to — for if that is attained, everything is attained, regardless of how grave its consequences in the Hereafter may be.

Similarly, they hold that whatever loss, pain, or sorrow befalls one in this world is what truly deserves to be avoided — regardless of how great a reward enduring it might earn in the Hereafter. They want an immediate transaction. For something as distant as the Hereafter, they can neither forgo any present-day gain nor willingly accept any present-day loss.

When, with this mindset, they engage in intellectual debates about the question of the Hereafter, what they offer is not pure rational inquiry at all — rather, this very mode of thinking operates beneath the surface, ensuring that their conclusion is predetermined: the Hereafter is not to be accepted. And this remains their verdict even when, deep within, their own conscience cries out that the arguments presented in the Quran for the possibility, occurrence, and necessity of the Hereafter are entirely sound and reasonable — while the counter-arguments they put forward are thoroughly hollow.

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