God is the Most Merciful and the Most Beneficent. It is out of His Utmost Mercy and Beneficence that He has revealed the Qur’ān to Prophet Muhammad ﷺ for our guidance. The Qur’ān invites man to obey his Lord and Master. This invitation is both direct and indirect. Direct invitation to the Truth consists of straightforward statements wherein God addresses man, saying that He is the Lord, therefore man should obey and worship Him. Indirect invitation of the Qur’ān to the Truth comprises the verses wherein the Book of God presents the Signs of God, or the bounties of the Paradise,asserting that these bounties are for believers, or the divine chastisement of the Hell for unbelievers who pay no attention to the Divine Message and reject it outright. It is the beauty of the Qur’ān that in all cases, it opens the way for success provided the approach of the reader is not that of denial.
Let’s see here how warning of Divine Chastisement servesor doesn’t serve as a deterrent. Again this warning can prove a deterrent only for those who care to listen to the Divine Message, reflect thereon and are ready to submit to the Truth. And to one who persists in his pride and continues to be in denial mode, the Qur’ān announces a grievous chastisement: “Woe to every guilty impostor.” (The Qur’ān, 45:7)
There are a multitude of human beings on earth but not a single person will fall victim to His oppression, for God is not an oppressor: “Every human being shall be fully repaid for whatever (good or evil) he has done, and none shall be wronged.” (The Qur’ān, 2:281)
This is why whenever God declares a grievous chastisement for a person, He gives sufficient argument for why He has decided to punish one of His servants. “(One) who hears Allah’s Signs being rehearsed to him, and yet persists in his pride, as though he had not heard it. Announce to him, then, the tidings of a grievous chastisement.” (The Qur’ān, 45:8)This is the chargesheet.
Here is a question of our response to God’s Message. One response is that the person listens to God’s Message sincerely with an open mind, reflects on it seriously and decides to accept the Message. While the other response is that of a proud manwho listens to God’s Messageand resolves that he would deny it, and then persists in the resolve already made without giving any serious thought to it. There is a marked difference between the two. And this difference may be called a question of attitude. It is our attitude that makes or mars our life. Thus, we should develop the habit of having correct attitude towards everything, especially towards the question that is related to life hereafter.