وَنُخْرِجُ لَهُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ كِتَابًا يَلْقَاهُ مَنشُورًا   

and We shall bring forth for him on the Day of Judgment

a book he finds wide open.

    The Day of Judgment is when we stand helplessly in front of the Almighty, to face our accounts and to acknowledge them.  It is all about what we did during our earthly life.

Ø When we are judged, our actions, the circumstances leading to them, our decisions and the motives behind them, will all show up clearly in front of us.  They will show up vividly and plainly, as if happening at that moment.  They will look as if registered in a wide open book.

Ø No person can ever hide anything from Allah, no matter how secret the matter was before.  All our actions, merits and demerits will be visible to us and we will have to confess.  The mantle of secrecy we used to will disappear and vanish on the Day of Judgment.  In other words we will stand bare, everything revealed in front of us, and the truth has to be uttered, no matter how painful it is.  This is judgment in its true sense, and this is the way we will have to face it on the Day of Judgment.

اقْرَأْ كَتَابَكَ كَفَى بِنَفْسِكَ الْيَوْمَ عَلَيْكَ حَسِيبًا   

 (It will be said to him) Read your record;

 Today, suffice it that you will be your own prosecutor.

     Man will be made to go through every action, to explain it, be it that of merit or demerit, a good one or a bad one, a small one or a large one.  He is to admit and concede.

    When we are exposed so totally, and when we have reviewed all our decisions, actions, intentions, and thoughts, Allah (swt) will even ask for us to be the judges ourselves!  After all, the verdict and the judgment will be so obvious that it may even be enough for us to be the prosecutors of ourselves.

Whoever is guided aright,

verily he is guided aright for his own benefit;

    The Holy Quran is easily available to all, Islam is available to all, and he who chooses to study it will reap the benefit from it.

    Having faith and following the Islamic Directives will make man a righteous person, one of virtue and goodness.  Such persons are valued assets to their community.  They will be men and women of integrity.

    These same persons will stand to gain handsomely in the Hereafter as Allah (swt) has promised, reaping the abundant rewards of Paradise.

and whosoever goes astray,

verily goes astray to his own loss.

    On the other hand, there are people who reject the Guidance of Islam and its teachings.  The Holy Quran calls them the wanderers or the ones who lost the way.  These people are the ones who would rather live as they please, who want to go without the Islamic guidance, who sometimes or often fight religion and influence others to do likewise.

    These ignorant people are depriving themselves far more than they realize.  They are the losers for sure and stand to be at a great disadvantage in the Hereafter.  They may gain temporarily now and be influential, wealthy, and respected, but none of this is of value during the Day of Judgment, and they will have to account for their actions and behavior one by one, as mentioned before, and carry the awesome responsibility of their misdeeds on their shoulders, and they will get exactly what they deserve.

وَلاَ تَزِرُ وَازِرَةٌ وِزْرَ أُخْرَى   

No one who carries a burden shall bear the burden of any other.

    This emphasizes the first Ayah in this Quranic selection because of the importance of this point that:

·        each and every individual is strictly and purely responsible for his own actions and no one else's.

·        none can ever lighten the load of these actions for someone else.

·        forgiveness will only be granted by Allah Almighty and of His own wish and desire.

·      all of us stand equal in our rights in the eyes of Allah, be it poor or rich, black or white, important men or the weak, respectable or otherwise.

Unlike Christianity (where it is believed Jesus went to Hell for the sins of his believers and forefathers), Islam states persons will bear their own sins and account for their sins.  Such is Allah's justice, and such is He; fair is fair.

    وَمَا كُنَّا مُعَذِّبِينَ حَتَّى نَبْعَثَ رَسُولاً

We do not chastise (a people) until We had

Sent a Messenger first (to inform them).

    Allah is compassionate in the true sense, and extreme­ly fair.  If people are ignorant, and if they have not been informed or warned by a Prophet, these people will not be as accountable or be asked in the same manner as people who have been informed in the religion.

    Fair is fair, and the ignorant people who have not had the opportunity to find religious enlightenment, they will be asked differently, and probably according to their own understanding and beliefs.

    The more learned a person is in religious enlightenment the heavier his responsibility will be, and the more he will be accoun­table for his deeds in the Day of Judgment.  That is why people of high religious knowledge or high position in the community are the ones who carry an extremely heavy load on their shoulders.  Theirs will be a more demanding accountability and a more stringent one.