How do the Doomed Receive Their
Record on the Judgment Day?
A Response to a
Criticism on the Qur'an
by
In one of his brief writings titled:
“How do we
Receive the Record on the Judgment Day?“, Mr. Jochen Katz has pointed
out a contradiction in two verses of the Qur'an. The contradiction, according to
Mr. Katz is:
Sura 84:10 says that
the lost people are given the Record (of their bad deeds) behind their back,
but in Sura 69:25 it is given in their left hand.
Mr. Katz has also commented on Yusuf
Ali's explanation of the two verses. Mr. Katz writes:
Yusuf Ali's commentary
states that their hands are tied behind their backs [where does he get that
from?] and it is given into their left hand, behind their back … but that's
not what the Quran says, and a “harmonizing assumption” has to be
made to resolve the problem.
In this article, we shall consider the
stated contradiction pointed out by Mr. Katz.
Let us begin with a look at the two cited
verses of the Qur'an. Al-Haaqqah 69: 25 reads as:
“And as to him
[i.e. the sinner], who shall be given his record in his left hand, he shall
cry out: 'I wish my record was never given to me'”.
Al-Inshiqaaq 84: 10 reads as:
“And
as to him [i.e. the sinner], who shall be given his record behind his
back…”
But where is the contradiction?
If this is a contradiction, then I must
submit that I have remained unaware of the correct implication of the word
“contradiction” throughout my life. But then, I am quite hopeful that
I would be excused for my ignorance of this common English word, for English is
not my native language. The blame should obviously rest with the so-called
authentic dictionaries of the English language that had (incorrectly) taught me
that a “contradiction” implied 'a proposition, statement, or phrase
that asserts or implies both the truth and falsity of something'; 'a logical
incongruity'; 'a fact or condition incompatible with another'; 'a pair of
opposites'; 'a proposition so related to another that though both may be false
they cannot both be true'.
I would request Mr. Katz to guide me to
the correct implication of the word “contradiction”, for unfortunately
the cited verses of the Qur'an, do not meet any of the criteria of
“contradiction” specified in any dictionary of the English language.
One of the verses says that 'on the Day
of Judgment, the sinners shall be given their record in their left hands', while
the other says that 'on the Day of Judgment, the sinners shall be given their
record behind their backs'. Now, the question is why is it impossible/logically
incongruous/incompatible etc. for a person to receive his record in his left
hand, behind his back? Does Mr. Katz truly thinks that a person cannot be given
anything in his left hand behind his back? or is it that to receive some thing
in the left, a person must have his hands in front of him? I am sure there must
be some mistake in my understanding of the word 'contradiction', otherwise I
would have known, what 'contradiction' existed between the two cited verses of
the Qur'an.
Maybe, the word 'contradiction' is
synonymous with the word 'different'. If that is truly the case, then all
statements that give 'different' (even additional) information are indeed
contradictory. Thus,
- (On 10th February 2000) my friend came
in a blue car; - (On 10th February 2000) my friend
jumped out of his Mercedes convertible; - (On 10th February 2000) my friend took
out a handkerchief from the dash-board; and - (On 10th February 2000) my friend said
that he did not know the meaning of the word 'contradiction'.
are all 'contradictory statements - for
they are all different (even though all can be true).
I really do not think I can add anything
further to this discussion, for I feel that unless Mr. Katz would be kind enough
to explain what a 'contradiction' really is, all further additions would be
useless - and probably contradictory too.
As regards the explanation of Yusuf Ali,
termed as a 'harmonizing assumption' by Mr. Katz, I really do not think there is
any need to defend it. It is only Yusuf Ali's mental picture that he seems to
have derived from the various verses of the Qur'an. Any other reader may develop
a different picture.
However, it seems pertinent to give a few
hints from the Qur'an regarding the physical condition of the sinners based on
which the readers may develop their own mental pictures of these sinners as they
would appear on the Day of Judgment. The Qur'an tells us that:
- The sinners shall be treated like
criminals and like criminals they shall be brought shackled into the court
of the Ultimate Justice (Ibraheem 14: 49); - the sinners shall be given their
record in their left hands (Al-Haaqqah 69: 25); - the sinners shall be given their
records behind their backs (Al-Inshiqaaq 84: 10).
In the light of these three points, and
also the general information given by the Qur'an that the sinners on that Day,
shall be in a disgraceful condition, Yusuf Ali gets the impression that the
sinners shall be given their records, in their left hands, while their hands are
shackled behind their backs. However, in the light of the information given
above, we may form our own picture of the sinners, as they shall appear on the
Day of Judgment. So, let us put our
imaginations at work and see if we can develop a 'harmonizing assumption'
which is significantly different from Yusuf Ali's.
But then, the “contradiction”
remains.
© Copyright February 2000.
All Rights Reserved with the Author