سورة ابراهيم

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): Zurara narrates from Imam Baqir (peace be upon him) and says: Abrash al-Kalbi asked Imam Baqir (peace be upon him) about this word of Allah: یَوْمَ تُبَدَّلُ الْأَرْضُ غَیْرَ الْأَرْضِ [On the day when the earth shall be changed into a different earth]. The Imam (peace be upon him) said: "The earth will be changed into pure bread from which the people will eat until the reckoning is finished." Abrash said: I said to the Imam (peace be upon him): "On the Day of Resurrection, the people will be so preoccupied with their own affairs and troubled in heart that no one will be thinking of eating!" The Imam (peace be upon him) said: "Even when the people are in Hell being punished, they are not distracted from eating al-dari' (a bitter thorn) and drinking al-hamim (boiling water), so how could it be possible that on the Day of Reckoning they would be distracted from it?"

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): Zurarah said: I asked Imam Baqir (peace be upon him) about the words of Allah the Mighty and Majestic, یَوْمَ تُبَدَّلُ الْأَرْضُ غَیْرَ الْأَرْضِ [On the day when the earth shall be changed into a different earth]. The Imam (peace be upon him) said: "The earth will be changed into pure bread from which people will eat, until the reckoning of the Day of Resurrection is completed." A person said: "On the Day of Reckoning, people are so preoccupied with their own affairs that no one will think of eating and drinking!" The Imam (peace be upon him) said: "Allah the Exalted created the son of Adam (peace be upon him) with a hollow belly, and he must eat food and drink water. I ask you: are they more preoccupied on that day, or when they are in the Fire and cry out for help and seek aid? Allah, Blessed and Exalted, has said in this regard: وَ إِنْ یَسْتَغِیثُوا یُغاثُوا بِماءٍ کَالْمُهْلِ یَشْوِی الْوُجُوهَ بِئْسَ الشَّرابُ [And if they call for water, they will be given water like molten metal which will scald their faces. How dreadful a drink!] (al-Kahf/29)."

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): Abu Rabi' said: In the year when Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik and his companion Nafi', the freed slave of Umar ibn al-Khattab, performed the Hajj, we performed the Hajj with Imam Baqir (peace be upon him). Nafi' asked about the words of Allah the Mighty and Majestic, یَوْمَ تُبَدَّلُ الْأَرْضُ غَیْرَ الْأَرْضِ وَ السَّماواتُ [On the day when the earth shall be changed into a different earth, and the heavens]: "Which earth will be changed on that day?" Imam Baqir (peace be upon him) said: "An earth that will remain as bread from which they will eat, until Allah the Mighty and Majestic finishes the reckoning." Nafi' said: "At that time [the reckoning of the Resurrection] people are preoccupied with matters more important than eating, and are not thinking of eating." Imam Baqir (peace be upon him) said: "Are they more preoccupied at the moment of reckoning, or when they are in the Fire?" Nafi' replied: "Certainly when they are in the Fire." The Imam (peace be upon him) said: "By Allah! Nothing preoccupies them when, in the Fire, they are called to food and are fed Zaqqum, and are called to drink and are made to drink Hamim."

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): Zurarah said: I asked Imam Baqir (peace be upon him) about the words of Allah the Exalted: یَوْمَ تُبَدَّلُ الْأَرْضُ غَیْرَ الْأَرْضِ [On the day when the earth shall be changed into a different earth]. He said: "The earth will be changed into pure bread from which people will eat, until Allah completes the reckoning of them all. Allah has said: ما جَعَلْناهُمْ جَسَداً لا یَأْکُلُونَ الطَّعامَ [We did not make them bodies that did not eat food] (al-Anbiya/8)."

Imam Sajjad (peace be upon him): The verse يَوْمَ تُبَدَّلُ الأَرْضُ غَیْرَ الأَرْضِ [On the day when the earth shall be changed into a different earth] means that this earth is transformed into an earth upon which no one has committed sins. That earth is prominent, and on it no mountains or plants are to be seen, just as on the first day Allah spread it out. And by the power and majesty of Allah the Exalted, the Throne of Allah will be placed upon the water, just as it was at the beginning of creation.

Ali ibn Ibrahim (may Allah have mercy on him): The earth is transformed into a white, pure bread in the plain of Resurrection, and the people of faith eat from it.

The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family): Abu Ayyub al-Ansari said: One of the Jewish scholars came to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) and said: "Allah says in the Qur'an: يَوْمَ تُبَدَّلُ الْأَرْضُ غَیْرَ الْأَرْضِ وَ السَّماواتُ [On the day when the earth shall be changed into a different earth, and the heavens]; where will the creatures be at that time?" The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) said: "They are Allah's guests, and what is with Allah will never fail them."

The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family): The Jew asked the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) about the words of Allah the Exalted in the Qur'an: يَوْمَ تُبَدَّلُ الْأَرْضُ غَیْرَ الْأَرْضِ وَ السَّماواتُ [On the day when the earth shall be changed into a different earth, and the heavens] — where will the people be at that time? The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) answered: "At that time the people are in darkness, and they have not yet entered the plain of Resurrection."

The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family): On the Day of Resurrection, the people will be gathered upon a white, dusty earth like a loaf of pure white bread, on which no one has any landmark.

Imam Sajjad (peace be upon him): Allah the Exalted commands Israfil to blow the blast of death into the Trumpet. So the sound comes out from the side that faces the earth, and no human, jinn, satan, or any creature possessing a soul remains on the earth except that it dies. Likewise, the sound comes out from the side that faces the heavens, and no possessor of a soul remains in the heavens except that it dies. Allah says in the Qur'an: "except those whom Allah wills" (Naml/87), namely: Jibra'il, Mika'il, Israfil and Izra'il. These are the ones who, by the will of Allah, have remained alive. Then Allah the Exalted says: "O Angel of Death, who remains of My creation?" He replies: "O Allah! Life without death belongs to You; four angels, of whom I am one, remain." Allah commands him to take the souls of the other three, and he takes their souls. After that Allah says: "O Angel of Death, who remains?" He replies: "Your weak and lowly servant, the Angel of Death." Allah says: "O Angel of Death, die by My leave!" So the Angel of Death dies... At that moment Allah the Exalted commands the heavens, and they revolve with all their spheres and stars like a millstone, and He commands the mountains, and they move like the clouds. He replaces the earth with another earth, upon which no sin has been committed and upon which no blood was unjustly and openly shed, having neither mountains nor plants, just as He created it the first time; and likewise the heavens are changed. As Allah the Exalted says: يَوْمَ تُبَدَّلُ الْأَرْضُ غَیْرَ الْأَرْضِ وَ السَّماواتُ وَ بَرَزُوا لِلهِ الْواحِدِ الْقَهَّارِ [On the day when the earth shall be changed into a different earth, and the heavens (as well), and they shall come forth before Allah, the One, the Supreme]. And by the power and majesty of Allah the Exalted, the Throne of Allah will rest upon the water, just as it was at the beginning of creation. Then Allah the Exalted commands the heavens to rain upon the earth for forty days, until the water rises twelve cubits above everything. At that moment the bodies of the dead sprout from the earth like the seeds of plants, and by the power of Allah, the Mighty and the Praiseworthy, the parts that had turned to dust and the scattered particles of the creatures draw near to each other and join together, in such a way that if a thousand corpses have been buried in a single grave and their flesh, bodies and decayed bones have all become dust and been mixed together, the dust of one body does not mix with the dust of another; because in that grave there is both a fortunate person and a wretched, ruined one, and the body of one goes to Paradise and the body of the other burns in the Fire.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family): Allah changes الْأَرْضُ غَیْرَ الْأَرْضِ وَ السَّماوات [the earth into another earth, and the heavens], and He spreads and extends them like the ground of the market of Ukaz [Ukaz was the name of a market near Mecca where the Arabs would gather for one month every year, buy and sell, recite poetry and boast to one another, which Islam abolished], such that you see in it no lowness or highness. Then Allah gives a shout to the creatures, and suddenly they are on this transformed earth and heaven, and each one comes to be in the same place he was in on the first earth and heaven; whatever was inside the earth is inside it, and whatever was upon the earth is upon it.

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): Salman al-Farsi (may Allah have mercy on him) said: The Catholicos said to the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him): "Inform me about this verse يَوْمَ تُبَدَّلُ الْأَرْضُ غَیْرَ الْأَرْضِ [On the day when the earth shall be changed into a different earth], and also the verse which says: while the whole earth on the Day of Resurrection is in His grasp, and the heavens are folded up in His right hand; Allah is far exalted above the partners they associate with Him (Zumar/67). If the heaven is folded up and the earth is gathered, where in these two will Paradise and Hell be?" The Imam (peace be upon him) called for an inkwell and paper and wrote in it the words "Paradise" and "Hell", then folded the paper and gave it to the Christian and said to him: "Is it not so that I have folded up this paper?" He said: "Yes." He said: "Now open it," and the Christian opened it. The Imam (peace be upon him) said: "Do you see the sign of Fire and Paradise in the paper — have I erased them?" He said: "Yes [I still see them]!" He said: "Such is the power of Allah; when the heaven is folded up and the earth is gathered, Paradise and Hell are not annulled, just as the sign of Paradise and Hell was not annulled in this writing."

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Allah the Exalted, from the time He created the earth until now, has created seven worlds whose beings were none of them from the children of Adam; rather, He created them from the crust of the earth and settled them in it one after another, each with its own world. Then Allah the Mighty and Majestic created Adam, the father of this mankind (peace be upon him), and created the human race from him. By Allah! From the very beginning of creation, Paradise has never been empty of the souls of the believers, nor has Hell been empty of the souls of the unbelievers and the disobedient from the time Allah the Mighty and Majestic created it. Perhaps you suppose that when the Resurrection comes and Allah the Exalted joins the bodies of the people of Paradise with their souls in Paradise and joins the bodies of the people of the Fire with their souls in the Fire, then Allah the Exalted will no longer be worshipped in His dominion?! And that He will not create a creation to worship Him and to declare His Oneness and His greatness, and will not appoint for them an earth to carry them and a heaven to shade them? Does not Allah the Mighty and Majestic say: یَوْمَ تُبَدَّلُ الأَرْضُ غَیْرَ الأَرْضِ وَ السَّمَاوَاتُ [On the day when the earth shall be changed into a different earth, and the heavens (as well)]. And Allah the Mighty and Majestic has also said: أَ فَعَیینا بِالخَلْقِ الْأَوَّلِ بَلْ هُمْ فی لَبْسٍ مِنْ خَلْقٍ جَدیدٍ [Were We then wearied by the first creation (that We would be unable to create them again)?! But they (despite these clear proofs) are in doubt about the new creation] (Qaf/15).

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): The nearer punishment is the raj'a (return) of the family of Muhammad, and the greater punishment is the punishment of the Day of Resurrection; the day when Allah says: تُبَدَّلُ الْأَرْضُ غَیْرَ الْأَرْضِ وَ السَّماواتُ وَ بَرَزُوا لِلَّهِ الْواحِدِ الْقَهَّارِ [The earth shall be changed into a different earth, and the heavens (as well), and they shall come forth before Allah, the One, the Supreme].