The Contribution of Islam to the Solution of World Problems — Page 41
41 patience. They see it to be far off. But We see it to be nigh. The day when the heaven will become like molten copper. And the mountains will become like flakes of wool; and a friend will not inquire after a friend. They will be placed in sight of one another, and the guilty one would fain ransom himself from the torment of that day by offering his children. And his wife, and his brother. And his kinsfolk who sheltered him. And by offering all those who are on the earth, if only thus he might save himself. But no! Surely, it is a flame of fire, stripping off the skin even to the extremities of the body. It will call him who turned his back and retreated. And hoarded wealth and withheld it. (Ch. 70: Vs. 1 - 19) Here again, a severe chastisement is announced which would proceed from God, Lord of great ascents. It is characteristic of the Quran that wherever an attribute of God is mentioned, it has reference to the subject matter of the context. It is not without s ignificance that the attribute ‘Lord of great ascent’ is mentioned in connection with this warning of a severe chastisement. The nature of the chastisement is sufficiently described in the succeeding verses, but the mention of this attribute shows that the chastisement will have an element of great heights, or graduated ascents about it. The skies becoming like ‘molten copper’ would indicate, among other things, the generation of intense heat. Mountains becoming like ‘flakes of wool’ would