“l believe the day of reckoning is here on earth but my experience of life shows it may not be for everyone. Some do get away with it here on earth. As to getting this judgement somewhere else am not too sure. Yes that may be the position of the scriptures and a very difficult position to verify.” Akin Uwaifor
It is understandable for some to hold this position, but judging from the philosophy of justice, the concept of retribution, judgement and reckoning is as old as the dawn of man’s realization of his position in the scheme of things. Our concept of moral values are intricately dependent on this core concept of justice and judgement. All the religions of the world have this common thread that runs through their belief systems; that is, the idea of accountability for actions of man. We must reap whatever we sow: It has become an immutable fact of human life. Without the concept of reckoning, the powerful will ride roughshod over the weak and the world will have no regard for the concept of right and wrong or what is acceptable conduct and behaviour. Society will be devoid of rules of human engagement and there will be no respite for the weak and powerless. It would be a situation of ‘dog eat dog’, of anything goes and ‘no one can question me’. The whole essence of morality would become none existent and the world will be in a Hobbesian state of nature, where life would ‘be nasty, brutish and short’.
Oskar Ernst Bernhardt said: “You who are yearning for understanding, do not let yourselves be deceived. Each one of you in his thoughts and works has heaped up a heavy burden of wrong-doing for which each one of you must individually atone, for no part of it can be laid on the shoulders of another. Such is the law, otherwise Divine justice would be but an empty word, and without Divine justice all would crumble to ruins.”
The realm of Day of Reckoning and Resurrection is more of a spiritual proposition than physical. It is this that explains why some of the wicked seem to be getting away with their iniquities while on earth. It is often said that the hypocrites could be rich and wealthy, have many children and live a good life; but their end is never good. That end is usually in the Hereafter. In the non-Abrahamic religions, they talk of ‘karma’. Our conducts are to a large extent regulated, modified and subject to the possibility of the truth in that future state referred to as the day of reckoning. Our whole belief system has as its bedrock the possibility of that day when we will be held to account for our actions and inactions while on this part of the divide. This is the more reason why people want to be on the right side of morality.
“There is no partition between this life and life in the next world. All is an immense entirety. Like an extraordinarily ingenious, never failing mechanism, the whole mighty Creation, visible and invisible to us, interacts on itself. Uniform laws bear the whole, permeating it and connecting it like strands of nerves, in constant action and reaction.” Abdrushin:5 Responsibility.
Even the laws of physics recognise this simple principle of action and reaction which according to Newton’s 3rd law: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. It is inescapable. If you sow good, you will reap good, if you sow evil, you will surely reap evil. Those who sow the wind must for sure reap the whirlwind.
Our evil men are therefore warned again. There will be no escape from the judgement and the attendant punishment. “God's justice remains austere and severe in His eternal laws. What a man sows, that will he reap: Divine justice does not allow that one farthing be remitted”.
In some cases, those who are seemingly wealthy from perpetrating evil could look as if they have escaped, but their names in the end are obliterated from the annals of history. Both they and their offspring’s are never remembered; as if they never existed. Why labour, for all the fruits of our work to be destroyed at the close of day. This brings to mind the story of the People of the Garden in the Quran:
Indeed we have tested them just as We tested the People of the Garden when they vowed they would gather its fruit at dawn. (Quran 68:17)
“The separation of spirit from matter, the perfectly natural consequence of the working of the law, is the so-called Day of Judgment — a day that will bring great disturbances, convulsions and upheavals. Everyone will easily understand that this disintegration cannot take place in one earth-day, for it is written: “One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” 2 Peter 3:8
Those who have ears, let them listen now!
Barka Juma’at and a happy weekend
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