Following on from the recently concluded series of posts by Hazrat Inayat Khan on the theme of life after death, we begin a short series on the related topic of the Day of Judgment.

In Buddhism and in the Hindu religion little is said about the Day of Judgment, because they have the doctrine of karma; but in the Quran it recurs often in the different suras, great emphasis being put upon it, and in the Bible the Day of Judgment is spoken of very many times.

This Day of Judgment, of which various religions have spoken, is a great secret. All that can be said about it is that not one moment of time, not the blinking of the eye passes without a judgment; that in the conscience of each individual there is the faculty of judging, which judges himself and others, and that this faculty exists in its perfection in the universal Conscience, which judges the whole universe. The former is man’s justice, the latter the justice of God.

In man’s justice partiality and error are found, for his conscience is overshadowed by his self; thus the seeing faculty of the conscience is dimmed. God’s justice is the right justice, for no shadow of partiality falls upon His universal consciousness, because the whole universe is His field of vision and therefore His sight is keen. As our justice determines our likes and dislikes and creates in us favor or disfavor for another, so it is with God. He reckons the account of deeds and bestows rewards and punishments. He also forgives in His mercy and compassion whomever he may choose to forgive, as do we human beings in our small way. To the short-sighted, man’s justice is plain, but God’s justice is too vague to be apprehended; and there are many apparent examples to lead him astray, such as the righteous being ill-treated while the wicked enjoy life; but the keen-sighted can see an end to the enjoyment of the wicked and to the ill-treatment of the righteous. The seer can see the blow awaiting its time to fall upon the one, and the reward being prepared for the other. It is only a matter of time.

To a material person this seems absurd. He thinks, ‘If I rob someone, if the police catch me, that is the judgment. If they do not catch me, it is all right; then I am safe from it. If I have a purse full of money, and I can pay barristers and lawyers, it is all right.’ For he does not see anything in the hereafter. He sees only what is here.

A simple believer believes that there is a Day of Judgment, but he knows hardly anything about it. It is for the Sufi to understand that there is a record in the memory of every action, thought, and work – nature’s manuscript open before our own conscience; and if a murderer escapes the police, he cannot escape from his conscience within. One might think, ‘It is his own conscience, what does it matter if it is displeased for a while?’ But there is the universal Conscience behind it, perfectly just and all-powerful, which, if he escaped from the land and sought refuge in the water, could hang him even by means of the waves of the sea, as a penalty for his crime.

To be continued…