The Coming Times
A space of time is fixed for every nation; when their hour is come, not for one moment shall they hold it back, nor can they go before it.
Children of Adam when apostles of your own come to proclaim to you My revelations, those that take warning and mend their ways will have nothing to fear or to regret; but those that deny and scorn Our revelations shall be the people of the Fire, and there they shall remain forever.
Who is more wicked than the man who invents a falsehood about God or denies His revelations? Such men shall have their destined share, and when Our messengers (angels) come to carry off their souls, they shall say to them: ‘Where now are your idols, those whom you invoked besides God?’ ‘They have forsaken us,’ they will answer, and will admit that they were unbelievers.
(The Quran 7:34-37)
The verdict of hell or heaven for man is given on the basis of his reaction to the truth. When truth comes to a person supported by arguments, his mind testifies to God’s truth having been laid clearly before him. Now he is left with no plea, no excuse that he had not been shown the right path. But, if even after being told the truth, he refutes it, it is certain that his response is the result of arrogance. A superiority complex has come in the way of according the truth pride of place while he accepts a lower position himself. Nothing awaits such a person in the next world except hell.
When a man refutes the truth, he does so on the basis of some feeling of confidence or the other. Sometimes this confidence is based on wealth and power, sometimes on honour and popularity. The material things provided to him for the purposes of trial come to be considered by him as dependable supports, and he feels sure that he will come to no harm as he stands on firm ground. But this is his greatest misconception. On the day of judgement, when these ephemeral supports have left him, it will become plain that he had rejected the truth all along due to haughtiness, using the many words at his disposal to justify his refusal of truth on false grounds of principle.