" . . . when the pages are spread, and when Heaven is laid bare; when Hellfire is kindled, and when the Garden is brought nigh, each soul shall know what it has made ready."
Quran 81:10-14
I think this is the first time I've drawn anything from al-Takwir, the 81st surah, here rendered as "The Enfolding." It seems that we've touched upon heaven and hell a bit lately, which gave me the opportunity to, clumsily, always clumsily, on my belief that so much of that description is metaphoric. If, as we've been discussing, heaven and hell are just metaphors to describe your nearness or distance from God, then what does all the discussion of a final judgment mean? Yes, there may be a day when the moon is cleaved and the stars are shattered, but to me it's all a grand reminder of the fact that your actions, every single one of them, carries a weight and has a meaning. Not because I think that God is a great accountant, adding and subtracting with every act (we're not Buddhists, after all) but rather that we should understand that we are adding and subtracting with every act, and we should be mindful of the weight and meaning of every action.
Quran 81:10-14
I think this is the first time I've drawn anything from al-Takwir, the 81st surah, here rendered as "The Enfolding." It seems that we've touched upon heaven and hell a bit lately, which gave me the opportunity to, clumsily, always clumsily, on my belief that so much of that description is metaphoric. If, as we've been discussing, heaven and hell are just metaphors to describe your nearness or distance from God, then what does all the discussion of a final judgment mean? Yes, there may be a day when the moon is cleaved and the stars are shattered, but to me it's all a grand reminder of the fact that your actions, every single one of them, carries a weight and has a meaning. Not because I think that God is a great accountant, adding and subtracting with every act (we're not Buddhists, after all) but rather that we should understand that we are adding and subtracting with every act, and we should be mindful of the weight and meaning of every action.
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