Fazl-e-Umar — Page 291
Fazle Umar 291 Different meanings of the root word “Nohaasun” (smoke) are: the fire had much smoke, molten copper; fire; sparks that fall from brass or iron when it is beaten with the hammer; smoke; smoke in which there is no flame (Lane, Aqrab and Mufradat). The verse points to the most destructive and dreadful punishment that might overtake the two hostile camps, if they did not desist from defying Divine command- ments. God’s wrath has become excited for “what man has wrought with his hands” (Ch. 30:V. 42), and the world seems to stand on the brink of a terrible conflagration which threatens to consume in its flames the entire human race and to make life extinct. Man had a foretaste of Divine punishment in the last two World Wars but what is yet in store for him staggers the imagination. The verse gives a clear picture of the coming catastrophe in the form of nuclear and cosmic horrors. The words “falaa tantasayraan” signify that the two hostile camps will not be able to escape God’s pun- ishment, try as they might. 7) The End of Christian Civilisation “And We shall make all that is thereon a barren soil. ” (Ch. 18:V. 9) The verse means to say that all things of this world are transitory. Their acquire- ment is not the end and object of human life. On the contrary, they have been created to serve higher and sublimer purposes — to be used for the service of humanity. But Christian nations of the West, after having acquired wealth, power and dominion and after having made great discoveries and inventions, have not turned their scientific achievements to the service of mankind, but instead have employed them generally to add to human misery. As these scientific discoveries and inventions have not fulfilled the purpose of making human life more peaceful and beautiful, all the works of these peoples would be brought to naught and entirely obliterated. The expression And We shall make all that is thereon a barren soil, does not mean that the whole world will be destroyed. It only refers to the destruction of the works of Christian nations to whom