Quran Garden

Session 314

Chapter 2

Verse 284

To God belongs all that is in the heavens and the earth; and whether you reveal what is in your heart or conceal it, you will have to account for it to God who will pardon whom He please and punish whom He will, for God has the power over all things.

(Chapter 2: Verse 284)

The verse starts with “To God belongs all that is in the heavens and the earth.”  But aren’t many things in the skies and the earth owned by people?  Don’t countries own space satellites in orbit?  Don’t you and your relatives own pieces of land? We answer that Allah has allowed His creation to own land and property.  However, this ownership is temporary and can be taken away at any time.  Your property could be stolen or taken by force.  You may die or decide to sell what you have.    

So the phrase “To God belongs all”iHis creation crea”” indicates ultimate control because Allah is the true owner that no one can overcome.  As for us humans, we may claim to own a piece of land today, but we cannot assure that we will own it tomorrow.  In fact, none of us can guarantee him or herself to be alive an hour from now.  Everything in existence belongs to God.

Since we are subject to change by circumstances outside our control, we must welcome the fact that God wants us to help one another.  Allah informs us: to Me belongs whatever is in heavens and on earth, and I make matters of hardship and ease rotate among people.  He says:

If you have suffered a blow, they too have suffered one like it. We deal out such days among people in turn, for God to find out who truly believes, for Him to choose martyrs from among you- God does not love evildoers- (3:140)

Thus, we say to those who have gained power, wealth, or status: beware when you feel that you have reached the top because humans are always subject to change.  If you have all the wealth that you wanted, the children you desired, and a job you like, then watch out! You are a human being, and you are bound to change.  A poet says:

When something is just right, it starts to decline

You see it vanishing the moment it is said: it is complete

Once a woman came to the caliph Haroon Alrasheed and said to him: ‘May God complete His bounty upon you.  May He make you rejoice with all that you have.  Indeed you knew justice when you ruled.’  The caliph asked, ‘Where you are from?’ She answered: ‘I am from the tribe of Barmak’ and left.  The caliph knew that his army had defeated Barmak, killed most of its men, and ransacked its property.  He asked those around him.  Do you know what this woman has just said? They answered: ‘She sang your praises; she loves you as all people love you.’  The Caliph said to them: ‘By God, you did not understand a word of what she said.’  When she said: ‘May God complete His bounty upon you,’ she was referring to the poet who said:

When something is just right, it starts to decline

You see it vanishing the moment it is said: it is complete

When she supplicated: ‘May God make you rejoice with all that you have,’ she was referring to this verse: ‘When they forgot what they had been reminded of, We opened up for them the doors to everything, until, when they rejoiced in the bounty they had been given, We suddenly seized them and at once they were in despair.’ (6:44)

And when she said: ‘Indeed you knew justice when you ruled,’ she was referring to this verse in the Quran: ‘as for the unjust - they are the fuel of hell.’ (77:15)

This brings us back to the verse.  Take note that the phrase “To God belongs all that is in the heavens and the earth” includes God owning each one of us.  A poet said:

My soul which owns things is itself going to depart

Then why should I grieve over any possessions that depart me?

There is one thing, however, that will always belong to you, and never depart: Your deeds.  God says: ‘and whether you reveal what is in your heart or conceal it, you will have to account for it to God.’  When your soul departs, you lose all your material possessions, and you are only left with your deeds.  Allah will hold you accountable for what has been recorded in your register.  He says:

‘We have bound each human being’s destiny to his neck. On the Day of Resurrection, We shall bring out a record for each of them, which they will find spread wide open.  "Read your ledger; this day, you are sufficient to take your own account.” (17: 13, 14)

Your account will have a balance of faith and good deeds for you on one side and a balance of ungratefulness and bad deeds against you on the other.  This is further explained with the ‘scale’ in the following verse:

On that Day the weighing of deeds will be true and just: those whose good deeds are heavy on the scales will be the ones to prosper.  And those whose scales are light, it is they who have made their souls suffer losses because they have been unjust with regard to Our Messages. (07:8-9)

God is just. Those whose scale of faith and good deeds is heavy will enter paradise, but those who disbelieved, sold themselves for worldly pleasures, and wronged others are destined to hellfire.

This leaves out one possibility.  How about those whose good and bad deeds are in balance? We answer that such people will be the companions of Al-A’raf -a boundary between hell and heaven-.  God says:

A barrier divides the two groups with men on its heights recognizing each group by their marks: they will call out to the people of the Garden, ‘Peace be with you!’- they will not have entered, but they will be hoping, And when their eyes are turned towards the fellows of the Fire, they will say, `Our Lord! place us not with these wrong-doing people.' (4:46,47)

Scholars say that the people of A’raf will be pardoned by God because His forgiveness precedes His wrath.

Allah reassures you that whatever good you did will be multiplied in the balance pan.  He also reassures you that He will compensate you for what you have suffered from evil and injustice.  Good deeds are the currency of the Hereafter.  God says:

and do not disgrace me on the Day when all people are resurrected: the Day when neither wealth nor children can help, except for him who comes to God with a pure heart. (26:87-89)

And in another chapter:

Those who disbelieve and die disbelievers will not be saved even if each offers enough gold to fill the entire earth. Agonizing torment is in store for them, and there will be no one to help them. (3:91)

Anyone who wronged a fellow human –regardless of their faith- will have to pay out of his or her good deeds to the one he or she wronged.  In essence, if you wrong your neighbor, he or she will take from your scale and add to theirs.  Thus, God guarantee comes from two angles: assurance that any good deed, regardless how small, will be accounted for, and assurance that any injustice, regardless of how insignificant, will also be accounted and compensated for.  God says:

When the earth is shaken violently in its last quake; when the earth disgorges its burdens; when man cries, ‘What is wrong with it?’; On that day it will relate its chronicles, for your Lord will have commanded it.  On that Day, people will come forward in separate groups to be shown their deeds: whoever has done an atom’s-weight of good will see it, and whoever has done an atom’s-weight of evil will see that. (chapter 99)