On That Day, the Event Shall Occur
I returned once during my student days, in the month of Shawwal, to Darul Uloom Nadwat al-Ulama. The director’s office was crowded with those seeking admission. Suddenly, a young boy approached me and said: “I am your neighbour from Jaunpur; fulfil the right of neighbourliness and help me.” I asked, “What is your situation?” He replied, “I arrived here some nights ago, but two Shaykhs examined me and failed me.” I assured him, “Your issue is easy to resolve and your goal within reach. Bring a new application form.” He brought it, and I filled it in for him, then confidently entered the director’s office, relying on my good relationship with him. I said, “Here is a new student; if tested again, he will surely pass and gain admission to this respected institute.” Beside the director sat an alert and insightful Shaykh, who immediately said, “I examined this student previously and failed him.” The director became furious and scolded me, “Do you deceive me, being who you are?” My confidence instantly collapsed, plunging me into humiliation and dismay. He ordered my meals stopped for ten days.
Another time, I left Nadwat al-Ulama to go to Lucknow railway station to purchase a ticket for Jaunpur. While I was heading to the ticket office, I met a student from Lucknow University, also from my hometown. He asked me, “Are you buying a ticket? I’ve never bought a ticket in my life; I only travel by train for free.” I was greatly astonished by his remark. Shortly afterwards, I heard he had been arrested by the police and was now humbled and humiliated in prison.
Yet another time, I was riding my bicycle in Oxford. I approached traffic lights, and seeing a red signal, stopped along with the other cyclists. Behind me was a cheerful, carefree friend, who laughed at me and said, “Are you afraid of the police?” He crossed without regard for the signal, and immediately two policemen seized him from either side, leaving him humbled, diminished, and deeply embarrassed.
Whenever I read the words of Allah Almighty:
“On that Day, the Event shall occur,” (Qur’an, 69:15)
I am seized by trembling, my heart quivers and surges, and these incidents I’ve narrated—and others similar to them—pass vividly before my eyes due to the similarity in their suddenness, surprise, and inevitability of the humiliating scene. This verse fills my heart with indescribable awe and terror. It speaks of a grim and forbidding Day in which the entire cosmos will witness unprecedented events, containing such horror and gravity that would leave even the calm bewildered and the sober intoxicated.
Allah portrays the Hour with stark precision and truth, saying:
“Then when the Trumpet is blown with a single blast, and the earth and the mountains are lifted and crushed with a single blow; on that Day, the Event shall occur.” (Qur’an, 69:13-15)
How terrifying is that single blast, followed by destruction in earth and heaven and disruption of the higher and lower orders, which no mind or imagination can comprehend. Who can conceive of the earth and mountains being lifted together and crushed at once, levelling the highest parts with the lowest, the earth flying like dust, and the firm mountains crumbling like scattered wool? This is the event the deniers rejected, the disbelievers disbelieved, and the mockers ridiculed. Had they used their intellect and adhered to sound measures, they would never persist in ignorance or wander in blindness. Woe to those deniers who call truth falsehood and daylight night—they have been blinded, and with them, those who claim knowledge yet fail to see clearly.
This is the terror about which Surah al-Haqqah warns in powerful verses, culminating in the heart-shaking declaration:
“On that Day, the Event shall occur.”
Indeed, it is the Event, the inevitable happening—the Reality, the Striking Calamity, the Resurrection—an event so horrifying that livers will be torn apart, hearts will tremble, ears deafened, eyes blinded. On that day, every nursing mother will neglect her infant, every pregnant woman will miscarry, and you will see people appearing drunk though they are not drunk; rather, the punishment of Allah is severe.
This verse makes me pause, overwhelmed by the shocking suddenness, inevitability of the event, and profound brilliance that defies description.
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Disclaimer: This article was translated by AI.
Original article: https://t.me/DrAkramNadwi/5923
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