DECEMBER 10

The Great Tidings

The chapter 78 of the Quran starts with these words: About what are they asking? About the fateful tidings—the theme of their disputes.  But they shall know (the truth); before long they shall know it. (78: 1-5)

By News or the Great news in this verse is meant the news of Doomsday.  That is when the trumpet will be blown and Doomsday will burst upon them without prior warning.  Today people are busy in this world.  Everyone has his own views different from others.  But with the onset of the greatest news of Doomsday all kinds of differences will cease altogether. Everyone will speak alike.  A big news does engulf all the lesser news.

One small instance of this matter came before us in May 13, 1998 when Indian Government conducted five nuclear explosions in Rajasthan.  These explosions were far more stronger than the atom bombs dropped in 1945 on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  The moment explosions occurred they assumed the position of the greatest news for the country. The world media in which India hardly figured, was dominated with this Indian news of explosion.

For a few days it seemed as if the big news had engulfed all the small news.

This incident is a prior intimation of the advent of the Doomsday. Today everyone has his own tale to tell; none is ready to remain silent or to listen to another.  But when the big news of Doomsday will be heralded, the entire state of affairs will see a transformation, having forgotten everything else they would think of one thing alone—that is, how to save themselves from the horror of Doomsday. A big news overshadows all the small news as if they had never existed at all.  This fact is true not only as regards this world, it is all the more valid as regards the Hereafter.