When the earth is shaken with its earthquake and the earth yields up its burdens, and man says: "What is the matter with it?" That day it will proclaim its tidings because your Lord inspired it. That day mankind will come forth in scattered groups to be shown their deeds. Whoever does good an atom's weight will see it then. And whoever does ill an atom's weight will see it then⁴
The Clatterer! What is the Clatterer? Would that you knew what the Clatterer is! A day when men will become like scattered moths, and the mountains will become like carded wool. Then, as for him whose scales are heavy [with good deeds], he will be in a pleasing life. But as for him whose scales are light, the bottomless pit will be his home. What will convey to you what that is like! It is raging Fire.⁵


He gives tidings of a future, compared to which this world's future is like a drop from a mirage of water as compared to a limitless ocean. He brings good tidings of contentment compared to which worldly contentment is but a flash of lightning as compared to an ever-shining sun.

Beneath the veil of this universe of wonders there await us events wholly out of the ordinary, wholly beyond what we are used to. In order for us to be informed of those events there must surely be an extraordinary one who will witness them and then inform us about them. Indeed, we observe what that being does and how he lives and conclude that he witnesses them, and so either warns us [against them] or brings us good tidings [of the happy future awaiting us beyond them]. That being also informs us of the things pleasing to the Lord of the Worlds and the things He wants us to do, and of some awesome affairs we cannot escape, some strange realities which we are bound to face and without which happiness is impossible.

Woe to the heedless! Woe to the misguided! How amazing are the attitudes of some towards these realities! How can they blind themselves to truth and become deaf to these realities?

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4. al-Zilzal 99.1-8.
5. al-Qari'a, 101.1-11.