Period of Respite

By the heaven, and by the nightly visitant!

Would that you knew what the nightly visitant is! It is the star of piercing brightness.

For every soul there is a guardian watching over it. Let man reflect from what he is created. He is created from an ejaculated fluid that issues from between the loins and the ribs

Surely He has power to bring him back to life, on the day when men’s consciences are searched. Helpless shall he be, with no supporter.

By the heaven with its recurring cycles, and by the earth, ever bursting with new growth; this is a conclusive utterance, no flippant jest.

They scheme and scheme, and I, too, scheme and scheme. Therefore bear with the unbelievers, and let them be alone for a while.

(The Quran 86:1-17)

The shining of the stars above serves, in symbolic language, as a reminder of the fact that an Observer is watching mankind. This Observer is recording human actions. He will create man again after death and then will judge all his actions. This period of respite on earth is only a test. The fixed time that man is allotted between his birth and his death, serves as a line of demarcation between this world and the Hereafter. As soon as the trial period is completed, the consequences of our actions will appear, right before our eyes, although man had thought this event to be in the far distant future.

Though the Creator of the Universe is in the unseen, His being is clearly manifest in everything. If man were to ponder seriously upon the universe, he would certainly find God. He would discover the reality that in the present universe the only behaviour proper to man is that of obedience to God. Those who indulge in insolent behaviour towards God have no place in His world. Creation is an introduction of the Creator. For its observer, it is a manifestation of the Creator.