Eventually, however, the inhabitants of Hell will learn, and on GOD’s terms, not theirs. This is why AL-LAH, after referring to those who are most misguided –
Say, “Have you considered that if it were from AL-LAH, then you rejected it, who would be more astray than one who is the most extreme in schism?” (Q41:52)
قُلْ أَرَأَيْتُمْ إِنْ كَانَ مِنْ عِنْدِ اللَّهِ ثُمَّ كَفَرْتُمْ بِهِ مَنْ أَضَلُّ مِمَّنْ هُوَ فِي شِقَاقٍ بَعِيدٍ
– goes on to render His response in a verse we encountered in Chapter 1: We shall manifest to them Our signs on the horizons and within themselves until it is apparent to them that it is the Truth. Is it not sufficient that your Lord is Witness over everything? (Q41:53) In other words, the progress of Truth as the replacement of our ego-centred narrative with the GOD-centred outlook of the Final Witness will continue until we affirm that
Truly He encompasses all things. (Q41:54)
إِنَّهُ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ مُحِيطٌ
The three things needed for this process to take place in the heart of the tormented soul are mentioned in the verses following the hapless request for a ‘return ticket’ from Hell (Q32:12).
If We so willed, We could have given every soul its guidance, but the Word from Me has proven true: “I shall indeed fill Hell with jinn and men together.” (Q32:13)
وَلَوْ شِئْنَا لَآتَيْنَا كُلَّ نَفْسٍ هُدَاهَا وَلَكِنْ حَقَّ الْقَوْلُ مِنِّي لَأَمْلَأَنَّ جَهَنَّمَ مِنْ الْجِنَّةِ وَالنَّاسِ أَجْمَعِينَ
(1) Sense of Responsibility: Giving every soul its guidance is the spiritual equivalent of 24-hour enlightenment or the coddled-baby universe I mentioned in Chapter 6. Guaranteed success is no success at all, as it would result in the whole spiritual adventure losing its meaning and purpose. Real success requires the possibility of real failure, and real failure means an actual encounter with an outcome whose harm is proportionate to the benefit of success. AL-LAH did not create robots, but complex beings whose wills feel free and whose choices can have dire consequences. The mature soul accepts this risk and grows accordingly. And those who think that the universe lacks a moral core – the Divine, in other words – shirk this responsibility and pay the price when they find that their lives were never free in the way they imagined.
(2) Rule of Law: Several ahadith confirm that AL-LAH is also committed to filling Paradise, but that will not be the main concern of those whose crimes or lack of faith have brought them to the gates of Hell. When we reject GOD, we reject His Mercy, and that leaves us with His Word. Without His personalized promise of Forgiveness, we must face His impersonal promise of rigorous Justice. When we treat GOD as merely one more item or an idea in our heads, we cannot complain if He does likewise with us. When we abandon the Living GOD, we adopt the default processes of the unliving – entropy, destruction, and death. Human negligence is reflected back as Divine Neglect.
Taste the fact that you forgot the rendezvous of this your day. We have forgotten you, and taste the punishment of permanence for what you used to do. (Q32:14)
فَذُوقُوا بِمَا نَسِيتُمْ لِقَاءَ يَوْمِكُمْ هَذَا إِنَّا نَسِينَاكُمْ وَذُوقُوا عَذَابَ الْخُلْدِ بِمَا كُنْتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ
(3) Intensity of Feeling: I referred to the Light of GOD in Chapter 2 as being too strong for human faculties to bear. This world has, consequently, been designed to soften the impact of Truth: space diffuses its intensity for us to see discrete parts of it, and time parcels it out that we might hear it at our own pace. But when we fail to use our sight and hearing in the pursuit of Truth, GOD resorts to other senses to drive His Message home, namely taste and touch. The full force of GOD with the gloves off, as it were, concentrates a process that penetrates to the core of who we are, searching for what is truly GOD’s amid all that we considered to belong to us alone.
Reversing the order of verses in Q32:12-14, the Fire begins with our feelings, teaches us law and justice, and works to brand responsibility upon our soul. What could we possibly know of that? Almost all of us have felt it, of course. We call it conscience.
And what will make you realize what the Wrecker is? / The kindled Fire of GOD, / That searches, from above, the hearts. (Q104:5-7)
وَمَا أَدْرَاكَ مَا الْحُطَمَةُ
نَارُ اللَّهِ الْمُوقَدَةُ
الَّتِي تَطَّلِعُ عَلَى الأَفْئِدَةِ
The Fire of GOD is Conscience, reified and released into the material realm at the end of time to do its proper work.*
* Critics may think that I am dismissing the descriptions of Hell in the Qur’an as not objectively real. My point, however, is that searing flames and disgusting fluids are terrifying enough for those who believe in physical reality, but the spiritual agony those images represent is actually far more compelling and genuine. Just think of the real, immeasurable pain that causes so many healthy adolescents to commit suicide. Or, conversely, think of the mental fortitude of so many martyrs who calmly endured physical pain because they were sustained by their inner peace and power. The anguish of Hell will be more than what we can imagine because there will no longer be a refuge for us in ‘mind over matter’.
The GOD You Already Know 