Texts of Islam

Islam: Chapter One: The Qur’ān: The Word of God: 5. He Rewards and Punishes

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These are two eschatological passages from the Quran — Surah Al-Waqi'ah (56:1–56) and Surah Al-Mursalat (77:1–50) — belonging to the tradition of Islamic sacred scripture, composed in Arabic and here rendered in English translation. Both passages describe the Day of Judgment (the "Terror" or "Day of Decision"): a cataclysmic event in which the physical world is destroyed, all humanity is resurrected and exposed, and each person is assigned to one of three groups based on their deeds. The righteous ("Companions of the Right" and the "Outstrippers") are rewarded with lush gardens, eternal youth, fine food, and peace, while the wicked ("Companions of the Left") face scorching winds, boiling water, and the bitter tree Zakkoum. A distinctive structural feature of Surah Al-Waqi'ah is its tripartite division of humanity — unusually, an elite vanguard ("Outstrippers") is distinguished above even the generically righteous — while Surah Al-Mursalat achieves rhetorical intensity through the sevenfold refrain "Woe that day unto those who cry it lies," hammering the certainty of judgment for disbelievers. Both surahs use vivid sensory imagery and rhetorical questions challenging skeptics who doubt resurrection, grounding the cosmic drama in physical details of creation (human conception, mountains, water) as evidence of God's power to recreate.

Islam: Chapter One: The Qur’ān: The Word of God: 5. He Rewards and Punishes

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