tance in the midst of numerous others, and this is tied to many purposes, benefits, and instances of wisdom. For example, He has hidden the Night of Power in the whole of Ramadan, and the hour when prayers are answered in the whole of Friday, and well-accepted saints among the people generally, and the appointed hour in a person’s lifetime as well as the time of Doomsday in the life of the world. For if the time of man’s death were specified, the first half of his life would be passed in absolute heedlessness and the second, in terror, like progressing step by step to the gallows. Whereas for the balance to be preserved between this world and the next, and to remain perpetually between hope and fear, to live or die every moment has to be possible. In which case, twenty years of uncertain life are preferable to a thousand years of life that are specified.

Thus, the Last Day is the appointed hour of the world, the macroanthropos. If the time had been specified, all the Early Ages and Middle Ages would have been plunged into absolute heedlessness, and the latter centuries, into terror. Just as in his personal life man is concerned with the continued existence of his home and village, so in his social life and as a member of humankind he is concerned with the continued existence of the earth and the world. The Qur’an says,

The Hour has drawn nigh.(54:1)

That is, Doomsday is near.The fact that it still has not occurred after a thousand or this many years does not negate its nearness. For it is the appointed hour of the world, and in relation to the life of the world one or two thousand years are like one or two minutes in relation to a year. It is not only the appointed hour of humankind that it should be related to it and seen as distant. It is because of this that the Absolutely Wise One conceals Doomsday in His knowledge among the Five Hidden Things. It is due to the mystery of this vagueness that every age including the Age of the Bliss, the Age of the Prophet (UWBP), people have been frightened of the end of the world. Some of them even said that the conditions had all but appeared.

Thus, unfair people who do not know this truth say: “Why with their vigilant hearts and keen sight did the Prophet’s (UWBP) Companions, who had been taught all the details of the hereafter, suppose a fact that would occur one thousand four hundred years later to be close to their century, as though their ideas had deviated a thousand years from the truth?”

The Answer: Because, through the effulgence of the Prophet’s conversation, the Companions thought of the hereafter more than anyone. They knew the world’s transience and understood the divine wisdom in the hour