Bounties of the Gracious God — Page 24
24 BOUNTIES OF THE GRACIOUS GOD year to come. It is also said that this tribulation continues for as many as seventy years. Indeed, it is the same fire that was men- tioned by Khātamun-Nabiyyīn [the Seal of the Prophets] and in the Holy Quran from the Lord of all the worlds. It appeared from the east, as was foretold by the Best of the Prophets sas and it will soon engulf all the habitations of this land. The same has been mentioned in the previous scriptures. Hence, you ought to wait until you attain certainty. Raise not any question about it, for it is a time of great torment, and the divine wrath is intense; screams and cries are being heard everywhere. The [plague] is not just an epidemic; rather it is a blazing fire. This indeed is, دَابَةً مِّنَ الْأَرْضِ That will bite the people causing them to be injured, and its bite is extremely severe. It will attack the people all of a sudden leav- ing them dead on the spot, for they do not believe in the signs of Allah, as God the Lord of Honour and Glory says: وَإِنْ مِن قَرْيَةٍ إِلَّا نَحْنُ مُهْلِكُوهَا قَبْلَ يَوْمِ الْقِيمَةِ أَوْ مُعَذِّبُوهَا عَذَابًا شَدِيدًا And, this is what you observe. And the reason for this is that the people were not righteous and were spreading evil in Allah's earth 1. A creature out of the earth. (Sūrah an-Naml, 27:83) [Publisher] 2. There is not a township but We shall destroy it before the Day of Resurrection, or punish it with a severe punishment. (Sūrah Bani Isrā'īl, 17:59) [Publisher]