My Thoughts on Surah Al-Naml — Part III
The Hereafter
Motivation
This article is an attempt to share the things I find absolutely mind-blowing about this one Surah. I have tried to present these thoughts of mine only to motivate other students of the Book so that we return back to the appreciation of the Book, and be seekers of the never-ending treasures of the word of God.
After the stories of the Prophets, and The Five Questions — The last section of this Surah is dedicated to the events of the hereafter. We can further divide this section into four sub-sections.
1. Execution of Justice & Humbled
2. Magic Like
3. Good Deeds and Bad Deeds
4. Blessed Land
5. Number of Times the Prophet is Commanded
The word commanded (أُمِرْتُ) comes twice in the above-mentioned ayah.
1st Story of the 4 Prophets — Moses
These four topics can also be found in the first story of Moses.
1. Number of Times the Prophet is Commanded
2. Blessed Land
3. Good Deeds and Bad Deeds
4. Magic Like
5. Injustice and Arrogance/Haughtiness
Section III — Hereafter
The third section can be broken into five sub-sections
1. Believers — ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ
2. Language — مَنطِقَ
3. Man and Jin in rows — يُوزَعُونَ
4. Action without knowledge
“O ants, enter your dwellings that you not be crushed by Solomon and his soldiers while they perceive not.” — 27:18
5. Creatures from the earth speak!
2nd Story of the 4 Prophets — Solomen
1. Creatures from the earth speak!
2. Actions despite knowledge
Until, when they arrive [at the place of Judgement], He will say, “Did you deny My signs while you encompassed them not in knowledge, or what [was it that] you were doing?” — 7:84
3. Every nation in rows — يُوزَعُونَ
4. Speech — يَنطِقُونَ
5. Believers — يُؤْمِنُونَ
3rd Story of the 4 Prophets — Salih
1. Go in the land
2. See the Outcome — فَٱنظُرُوا۟
3. They Plan — يَمْكُرُونَ
4. Seek to Hasten — تَسْتَعْجِلُونَ
5. He sent the prophet to their brothers
Section II — Hereafter
1. Seek to Hasten — تَسْتَعْجِلُونَ
2. Allah Plans — وَمَكَرْنَا
3. See the outcome
4. These are their Homes
5. Allah is the Possessor of the Bounty for the people
Section IV — Story of the Prophets
Vision
Section I — Hereafter
Blindness
The Most Awesome Teacher
A great teacher doesn’t tell the student everything — but helps the student in understanding and explore the lesson on his own.
In the Section of the Hereafter, we see that descriptions of the hereafter — all connect to the four Prophets, however, they don’t seem to give that out as there is no mention of the names of the prophets, at first glance.
Allah helps the reader of the book:
All prophets mentioned in this Surah are children of Isreal with the exception of the Prophet Muhammad SAW
Amazingly enough, this Ayah comes in the middle 4 sections of the Hereafter — maintaining the style of symmetry and hinting away that these descriptions of the Hereafter have a common theme with the prophets.
