Major Resurrection – The day of Reckoning

II.3 Major Resurrection – The day of Reckoning:

“Nay, I swear by the Day of Resurrection.”
Quran (75:1)

Believing in this day is one of the foundations of the Islamic faith. The Noble Quran makes very many references to it. All the prophets of Allah reminded their peoples about this monumental day. Disbelievers normally deny the day of resurrection, claming that their existence in this temporal life is purposeless. It is only the time (age) which turns a newborn to a young and then to an elder person – who eventually perishes upon death. No spirit. No life after death. How a dead person who turns to dust and decayed bones can be brought back to life? They wonder.

In Islam, this day has many names. The Quran gives a number of characteristics to it. It comes suddenly, making the disbelievers really wonder.. A nursing mother will be bewildered from her newborn. On that day, a man will flee from his brother, wife, and sons. Every body will be regretful then. The believers would regret for not doing enough good to shield them from the horrors of that day. The disbelievers will be regretful for being caught in a surprise.

Some 4000 years ago, Abraham once asked Allah to show him how He resurrects the dead. Demonstrating His Power to His close friend, Allah told him to do a little experiment. The Quran cites the story of cutting four birds into pieces, placing their flesh onto four mountains, then summoning them back.. All the four birds flew hastily back to Abraham, by the leave of Allah.

As a prophet, Abraham was naturally a believer. Developing spiritually, he became a Messenger. The Quran lists him among the five envoys of Allah who delivered universal messages. By conducting above experiment, he wanted to elevate his certainty (about Allah’s Power in resurrecting the dead). After completing Allah’s trials, Abraham attained the status of an Imam.

Like Moses and Jesus, Abraham foretold the coming of Muhammad. The Prophet Muhammad, in turn, foretold about the coming of the Mahdi. This will occur just before the day of resurrection. The seal of the Prophet’s certainty about the coming of Imam Mahdi was no less than that of Abraham’s certainty about the Judgment day.


III. The Sun and the Moon:

“He it is Who appointed the Sun a splendour and the Moon a light, and measured for her stages, that ye might know the number of the years, and the reckoning. Allah created not (all) that save in truth. He detaileth the revelations for people who have knowledge.”
Quran (10:5)

“And We appoint the night and the day two portents. Then We make dark the portent of the night, and We make the portent of the day sight-giving, that ye may seek bounty from your Lord, and that ye may know the computation of the years, and the reckoning; and everything have We expounded with a clear expounding.”

Quran (17:12)

The Universality of Islam can be established by referring to the Quran, as it speaks about heavenly bodies. Focusing on the Solar system, the Creator tells in the Quran that:

“He created the Sun and the Moon, so we learn how to enumerate the years and reckoning.”

Thus, the alteration of the day and the night and the seasons of the year must all be in conformity with Allah’s plan. In nature, the light that is reflected on the Moon depends on the rays of the Sun’s light. Right. Mathematically, there must be a linear correlation between the Lunar and the Solar years, or:

y = mx + b

where: y: dependent variable – Lunar (Hijri) year,
x: independent variable – Solar (Gregorian) year, and,
b, m : constants.

In the chapter of the Cave, Allah gives m = 309/300 = 1.03 (the slope).

Quran’s chapter of the Elephant marked the birthday of the Prophet – which corresponded to 571 A.D (the intercept).

Knowing that the Prophet migrated from Mecca to Madinah at the age of 53, one can determine b = - 639. Thus:

y = 1.03x – 639

Example: put x = 2008 into this equation to get 1429.

Proof: The author of the Quran is none but Allah – the exalted Creator.

The Prophet Muhammad could never make such a discovery, given the fact that illiteracy was prevailing in the Arabia Peninsula at his time. In the city of Mecca, where he was born, people were either wood cutters, or shepherd, or merchants. A few were poets. But, none was expert in Physics or Astrology. It was only in the past century when man put his step on the Moon, and learned that its mean distance from the planet Earth is 384,400 Km.

It is pertinent to cite another wondrous revelation that captured the attention of a number of disbelievers and made them return to Islam. Here is the verse:

“The hour drew nigh and the moon was rent in twain.”
Quran (54:1)

Therefore it is important to stress that the Muslims are not Moon worshippers. Unfortunately, this is a stereotype which is very prevalent in the Western media to portray Islam with a negative brush. Islam is the true religion which the Creator has sent to the entire humanity. The Muslims’ motto is: the One Creator Who has sent the One true message to the One human family.

According to some tradition5, Lunar and Solar eclipses in the month of Ramadhan may herald the coming of the Mahdi. Leaving aside the birth of the tailed comet Helley for other studies, the 1981 and 1982 Lunar and Solar Eclipses in the month Ramadhan have already occurred. But, their occurrence was in the reverse order of what another more authentic Hadith stipulates:
The author of \'eqdud-durar\' in section one, chapter four narrates from \'al-fatan\' of hafiz abu-abdullah na\'eem-ibn-hemmad and he, from yazid-ibn-khalil asadi who said: \'I was in the presence of Imam Muhammad Baqir (a.s.). He mentioned two of the signs which would occur before the emergence of Mahdi and which has not yet been witnessed (right from the time of fall of Adam till now). One sign is this that there shall occur an eclipse of the Sun on 15th of Ramadhan and the Moon too shall be eclipsed at the end of Ramadhan.

A person said: \'O son of messenger of Allah! It is not as you say. Rather the Sun will be eclipsed at the end of the month of Ramadhan and the Moon will be eclipsed during the middle of the month. Imam Baqir (a.s.) said: the One who says these words is knowing better (than you) that right from the time of Adam\'s fall till today these two signs have not occurred.

The author of es\'aaf-ul-raghaben\' too has narrated the same tradition.


IV. Light and Darkness:

The Quran declares that we categorically have two worlds: the Seen; and, the Unseen. When light projects on material objects, man’s naked eyes can see them. It is probably for this reason that Allah breathed His spirit (or essence which can be construed as an invisible light) into the clay upon Adam’s creation. Reasonably, the Prophet set a requirement for the Moon sighting: witnessing the Crescent by the naked eyes. Thus witnessing becomes a source of certainty – not the speculative computational models.

Distinguishing different kinds of light, the Quran calls the Sun as Siraj (i.e. a lamp which usually generates the light that is familiar to us). The Moon, on the other hand, is called Noor – which is a mere indication of the reflected light on its surface to the planet Earth. Remember the dependency of the Moon’s light on the Sun’s.

“And for the moon We have appointed mansions till she return like an old shrivelled palm-leaf..”
Quran (36:39)

In this verse, Allah says that He is the One Who has predestined the Moon’s (monthly) stations, changing it from a full Moon until it looks like an old arch of a palm-tree leaf. Removing the barrier between the two worlds and demonstrating His control of everything in existence, Allah also states that He manages the affairs on Earth from the Heaven, in a day which is equivalent to 1000 years of that you count (enumerate). Ironically, the Quran had spoken about the relativity (theory) some 1200 years before the birth of Albert Einstein. Historically, the Arabs used to use the units of time to indicate to long distances travelled. Here, if you substitute the 1000 years by the intended distance travelled by the Moon as it revolves around the Earth 12,000 times and divide that distance by 1 day converted to seconds, you get:

Speed of light = distance travelled by the Moon in 1000 years/(24x3600) = 299748 Km/s.

This speed of light was adopted in a Scientific Conference in Paris, in 1984.

Similar to the concept of minor, middle, and major resurrections, here I submit: Physics (realm of the Physical world); and, Metaphysics I, Metaphysics II to refer to two worlds in the Unseen. The Physical world, for being material in nature, is being experienced by the majority of the children of Adam. For man’s ignorance about the other worlds (which are spiritual in nature), very many generations of human beings do not know what they have missed. Seeing is believing, the adage goes. But with what eyes? True: the naked eyes only see the material objects. For investigating tiny particulate matters (or distant heavenly planets), the scientists have utilized powerful microscopes. High resolution cameras can picture even the nuclei of living and pathological cells. One is not sure where to place the lie detectors, when the occupants of the Oval office lie with impunity.

After the recent technological breakthroughs, we started believing many things which we can not normally see by our naked eyes. Wireless communication was a dream a few decades ago. The Quran talks about Joseph’s dream in seeing the Sun, the Moon, and 11 stars bowing down to him. A dream which came true a few decades later, as the Quran reports.

Other points in Metaphysics I can be derived from Joseph’s chapter and other chapters in the Quran. Here, I only state the strong sense of smelling of Israel (Jacob – Joseph’s father) and recovering his sight after throwing Joseph’s shirt on his face.

To the materialistic Children of Israel who out of envy threw their half-brother Joseph in a deep well and caused too much anguish for their old father, Jacob said:

“I expose my distress and anguish only unto Allah, and I know from Allah that which ye know not.”
Quran (12:86)

“Then, when the bearer of glad tidings came, he laid it on his face and he became a seer once more.. He said: Said I not unto you that I know from Allah that which ye know not?”
Quran (12:96)

The Quran exhorts mankind to believe in the Day of Judgment. This day is equivalent to 50,000 Earthy years! Once again, Allah’s words can be viewed on three levels: lower (worldly, for the majority to understand); higher (Metaphysics I, for the prophets to know); and, Superior (Metaphysics II, for the Imams to relate to).

This categorization is an oversimplification to express spiritual experiences in layman’s language. In other words, a tiny object loses its gross material nature when it moves at the speed of light. Thus, we can examine the various kinds of waves, including the electromagnetic waves which constitute the rays of light. This light is visible to our eyes.