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man kāna yarjū liqāʾa llāhi fa-ʾinna ʾajala llāhi la-ʾātin wa-huwa s-samīʿu l-ʿalīmu
Whoever expects to encounter Allah [should know that] Allah’s [appointed] time will indeed come, and He is the All-hearing, the All-knowing.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah Al-‘Ankabut - Verses 4-5
4. “Or do those who practise evil imagine that they will outstrip Us? Evil is it that they judge!”
5. “Whoever hopes to meet Allah, (knows that) the term (appointed) by Allah is surely coming; and He is the Hearing, the Knowing.”
Imam Amir-ul-Mu’minin Ali (as) said:
“The purpose of /liqa’allah/ is the Hereafter Day”. 3
We must cure our delusions with the remembrance of death and Resurrection. Both the believers, who are in the course of examination, and the disbelievers must know that opportunities are not durable, and mercy and punishment of Allah will encompass them. The former verses spoke of the general examination of the believers, and here the first verse under discussion is a severe threat against the disbelievers and sinful ones, so that they should not think that if they put the believers under pressure and the Divine punishments does not promptly seize them, it is because Allah is neglectful of them or He has not the power of punishing them.
It says:
Allah’s respite must not cause them to be proud, because this is also an examination for them as well as a chance for repentance and their return. Some commentators have taken this verse as referring to the sinful believers, but this belief is never consistent with the context of the verses, and the frame of references testify that the purpose is polytheists and pagans. Then, in the next verse, the Qur’an says:
Yes, this promise of Allah is certain and it is a way which must finally be paved. Moreover, Allah hears all the words and is aware of all deeds and intentions, as the verse continues:
According to the above traditions from Ali (as), the purpose of /liqa’allah/ (to meet Allah) is the Hereafter Day. It is for being quickened and reaching the recompense from the side of Allah by reckoning the deeds on the Day of Hereafter. It should be said that the meeting Allah on the Hereafter Day is not a sensible meeting, but it is a spiritual meeting and a kind of inner intuition, because in that place the thick curtains of the world of matter will be removed from before the eye of man’s soul and man will get into an intuition.
As ‘Allamah Tabataba’i has cited in Al-Mizan, the objective of /liqa’allah/ is that the servants of Allah will be set in a state that there will be no curtain between them and their Lord, because the nature of the Hereafter Day is the manifestation of the facts as the Qur’an says:
Footnotes