Chapter One: The Paper of Power and Money
You were not the first to sit in this seat. The hall is old, and intake after intake has passed through it, more than anyone can number except the One who wrote their names down. The difference between the school hall and the hall of the universe is that the first hides the papers of those who went before in locked drawers, while the second has spread their papers out on the walls: marked, with the mark written at the foot, and in the margin of each one the reason for the mark. So the stories of the Qur'an are not a tale told for entertainment. They are the archive of the examination, opened for you on purpose while you are still early in the time.
This part holds four papers. Two of them are one paper, answered differently, so the result came out differently. One belongs to a man who failed on both sides of it: in ease and in hardship. And one was written wrong from the first line to the last, until only minutes were left, and then it was erased and done again — and the price paid for that correction is the highest price in this book.
The results board in the corridor
In the long corridor outside the hall there is a glass case, and behind the glass hang the papers of an intake that has gone: one paper in red and another in green, with a printed model answer beside them. Most of the candidates walk past quickly; one of them straightens his collar in the glass and does not read what is behind it. And one candidate stops, and puts his finger on the line that cost its owner his mark, and whispers: here is where he fell.
In the greater hall the papers of those who went before are not behind glass. They are in a book recited to you by night and by day: a name, a situation, an answer, a result. The account of those before you was not told to you so that you might enjoy the tale, but so that you might read your own question on somebody else's paper.
مَقاعِدُنا مَقاعِدُ مَنْ تَوَلَّى
وَقَدْ خَطَّتْ أَنامِلُهُمْ كِتابا
Our seats are the seats of men who have gone, and their fingers have written a book.
فَأَوَّلُهُمْ تَوَسَّدَ ظِلَّ حُكْمٍ
فَلَمَّا قامَ عَنْهُ غَدا سَرابا
The first of them made a pillow of the shade of power, and when he rose from it, it turned into a mirage.
وَثانٍ عَدَّ ما يَحْوي زَمانا
فَأَصْبَحَ كُلُّ مَجْموعٍ تُرابا
A second spent a long time counting what he held, and by morning everything he had added up was dust.
وَثالِثُهُمْ عَلا حَتَّى تَناهى
وَأَلْقاهُ الْعُلُوُّ عَلى خَرابا
The third of them climbed until there was no higher to climb, and the height threw him down on a ruin.
وَرابِعُهُمْ أَفاقَ عَلى نِداءٍ
فَقامَ إِلى الصَّوابِ وَقَدْ أَنابا
The fourth of them woke at a call, and stood up towards what was right, having turned back.
The verses are the author's own; the English below gives their sense in prose.
First: Solomon, peace be upon him — the heaviest paper ever handed out, and its owner passed
People think the hard examination is the examination of poverty. The truth is that the heaviest paper ever handed out in the history of this hall was the paper of a man who was given everything. God gave him prophethood and kingship, and put at his service what no mind would think of: the wind running at his command, the jinn working in front of him, and the birds in an ordered array. And every increase in the giving is an increase in the weight of the paper, because every blessing is one more question at the foot of the page.
The difference between the two papers is that the paper of deprivation says plainly that it is a test, so its owner takes notice and asks for help. The paper of giving comes in the shape of a prize, wrapped up in congratulation, with well-wishers all round it, until the man being tested forgets that he is being tested. That is why most of those who fell in this section were men who thought they had been handed the result while they were still on the first question.
Solomon, peace be upon him, asked for this kingship openly and did not hide the asking, and he tied it to a condition that shows where his heart stood towards it:
قَالَ رَبِّ ٱغْفِرْ لِى وَهَبْ لِى مُلْكًۭا لَّا يَنۢبَغِى لِأَحَدٍۢ مِّنۢ بَعْدِىٓ ۖ إِنَّكَ أَنتَ ٱلْوَهَّابُ
He said: My Lord! Forgive me and bestow on me sovereignty such as shall not belong to any after me. Lo! Thou art the Bestower.
Whoever reads the request on its own takes it for the request of a man who wanted more for himself. Whoever reads what comes before it knows that it is the request of a man who asked forgiveness before he asked for anything, and who asked for a kingship to serve with, not to be served in.
Then came the moment in which souls are truly tested: not the moment of deprivation, but the moment of sudden power. The throne of a queen at the far end of the earth is carried to him in less than the blink of an eye and settles in front of him. This is where ordinary men slip, for a blessing that arrives all at once turns heads. But he did not look at the throne. He looked at the Giver, and said what the Qur'an has made the model answer to the paper of power and money:
هَٰذَا مِن فَضْلِ رَبِّى لِيَبْلُوَنِىٓ
This is of the bounty of my Lord, that He may try me
Look at the order of the words in his answer: he credited the favour first, then named the blessing a test, then declared that gratitude adds nothing to God and that its benefit comes back on the grateful man himself, then closed by saying that his Lord has need of nobody and is generous to everybody. Four meanings in two lines, and they answered the whole paper.
One scene earlier, that whole great army halted for an ant that had warned her people, and the prophet-king smiled. It was not the smile of a man making fun; it was the smile of a man who saw a sign in something small, and it turned at once into a prayer:
فَتَبَسَّمَ ضَاحِكًۭا مِّن قَوْلِهَا وَقَالَ رَبِّ أَوْزِعْنِىٓ أَنْ أَشْكُرَ نِعْمَتَكَ ٱلَّتِىٓ أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَىَّ وَعَلَىٰ وَٰلِدَىَّ وَأَنْ أَعْمَلَ صَٰلِحًۭا تَرْضَىٰهُ وَأَدْخِلْنِى بِرَحْمَتِكَ فِى عِبَادِكَ ٱلصَّٰلِحِينَ
And (Solomon) smiled, laughing at her speech, and said: My Lord, arouse me to be thankful for Thy favour wherewith Thou hast favoured me and my parents, and to do good that shall be pleasing unto Thee, and include me in (the number of) Thy righteous slaves.
This is the measure of the man who passes the paper of ease: the width of his kingdom does not distract him from an ant on the road, and hearing the ant does not distract him from remembering the One who gave.
The one who held the keys
The invigilator handed one candidate a ring of keys: the door of the hall, the drawer with the question papers, and the cupboard where the answer books are kept. His classmates sat looking at him with something like envy in the look. He opened what he was told to open and locked what he was told to lock; he did not put his hand to the drawer he had no leave to touch; and at the end of the time he gave the ring back exactly as he had taken it. One of them asked him: did it not tempt you? He said: it was in my hand, but it was never mine.
In the greater hall the same ring of keys is handed out under other names: money in an account, a post in an office, a word people listen to, and a body in health. And about every key there are two questions: did you open with it what you were given leave to open? And whose did you say it was?
Second: Korah — the same paper, and the result turned upside down
In the same hall, and in almost the same row, sat a man who was given something of the same kind that Solomon was given: wealth beyond counting, so much that the keys of his treasure chests alone were a load for a band of strong men. He was given, and he was not given an answer like Solomon's. He went out to his people in his finery, and they split into two groups: a group that wished itself in his place, and a group that knew what is with God is better and lasts longer:
۞ إِنَّ قَٰرُونَ كَانَ مِن قَوْمِ مُوسَىٰ فَبَغَىٰ عَلَيْهِمْ ۖ وَءَاتَيْنَٰهُ مِنَ ٱلْكُنُوزِ مَآ إِنَّ مَفَاتِحَهُۥ لَتَنُوٓأُ بِٱلْعُصْبَةِ أُو۟لِى ٱلْقُوَّةِ إِذْ قَالَ لَهُۥ قَوْمُهُۥ لَا تَفْرَحْ ۖ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَا يُحِبُّ ٱلْفَرِحِينَ وَٱبْتَغِ فِيمَآ ءَاتَىٰكَ ٱللَّهُ ٱلدَّارَ ٱلْءَاخِرَةَ ۖ وَلَا تَنسَ نَصِيبَكَ مِنَ ٱلدُّنْيَا ۖ وَأَحْسِن كَمَآ أَحْسَنَ ٱللَّهُ إِلَيْكَ ۖ وَلَا تَبْغِ ٱلْفَسَادَ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ ۖ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَا يُحِبُّ ٱلْمُفْسِدِينَ قَالَ إِنَّمَآ أُوتِيتُهُۥ عَلَىٰ عِلْمٍ عِندِىٓ ۚ أَوَلَمْ يَعْلَمْ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ قَدْ أَهْلَكَ مِن قَبْلِهِۦ مِنَ ٱلْقُرُونِ مَنْ هُوَ أَشَدُّ مِنْهُ قُوَّةًۭ وَأَكْثَرُ جَمْعًۭا ۚ وَلَا يُسْـَٔلُ عَن ذُنُوبِهِمُ ٱلْمُجْرِمُونَ
Now Korah was of Moses' folk, but he oppressed them; and We gave him so much treasure that the stores thereof would verily have been a burden for a troop of mighty men. When his own folk said unto him: Exult not; lo! Allah loveth not the exultant; But seek the abode of the Hereafter in that which Allah hath given thee and neglect not thy portion of the world, and be thou kind even as Allah hath been kind to thee, and seek not corruption in the earth; lo! Allah loveth not corrupters, He said: I have been given it only on account of knowledge I possess. Knew he not that Allah had destroyed already of the generations before him men who were mightier than him in strength and greater in respect of following? The guilty are not questioned of their sins.
The sentence that brought him down was one sentence, and in it one small word destroyed him: he traced the giving back to knowledge he had of his own. He did not deny the blessing, and he did not say it was no great thing. He simply changed the signature at the foot of the paper, rubbed out the name of the Giver and wrote his own. And that is failure itself: not in how much was answered, but in whom the answer was credited to.
Solomon saw the finery and saw in it nothing but a hand that had given it to him. Korah saw it and saw no hand behind it at all. The eye is the same in both cases, and the sight is the same; what differed was what lay behind the eye. And so the judgement on the two men was not a judgement on how much they owned, but on what owned them.
And Korah was not warned once and then left. He was advised; he was reminded of the last abode; he was reminded of his own share of this world, and never asked to throw it away; and he was pointed towards doing good as good had been done to him. All of that is the warning of an invigilator who walks past the desk and taps the wood with his finger: go back over the first line. But he did not lift his head.
Then the marking came, and it was done downwards and not across: the earth swallowed him and his house, and he had no band to help him against God, and he was not among those able to help themselves. As for the men who had wished themselves in his place the day before, by the next morning they knew what they had not known the night before:
فَخَسَفْنَا بِهِۦ وَبِدَارِهِ ٱلْأَرْضَ فَمَا كَانَ لَهُۥ مِن فِئَةٍۢ يَنصُرُونَهُۥ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ وَمَا كَانَ مِنَ ٱلْمُنتَصِرِينَ وَأَصْبَحَ ٱلَّذِينَ تَمَنَّوْا۟ مَكَانَهُۥ بِٱلْأَمْسِ يَقُولُونَ وَيْكَأَنَّ ٱللَّهَ يَبْسُطُ ٱلرِّزْقَ لِمَن يَشَآءُ مِنْ عِبَادِهِۦ وَيَقْدِرُ ۖ لَوْلَآ أَن مَّنَّ ٱللَّهُ عَلَيْنَا لَخَسَفَ بِنَا ۖ وَيْكَأَنَّهُۥ لَا يُفْلِحُ ٱلْكَٰفِرُونَ
So We caused the earth to swallow him and his dwelling-place. Then he had no host to help him against Allah, nor was he of those who can save themselves. And morning found those who had coveted his place but yesterday crying: Ah, welladay! Allah enlargeth the provision for whom He will of His slaves and straiteneth it (for whom He will). If Allah had not been gracious unto us He would have caused it to swallow us (also). Ah, welladay! the disbelievers never prosper.
See how long it took for envy to turn into praise: one night. That is the whole distance between the scene of the finery and the scene of the pit.
The one with the shining desk
He came in with a bag the class had never seen the like of, and lined up on the desk pens in colours of which he did not need two, and turned the watch on his wrist so that the light would fall on it. Heads turned to him once, then went back to the paper. And when the papers were taken in at the end of the time, his was the cleanest paper in the hall: white except for his name, written in a beautiful hand.
In the greater hall the treasure chests are put in the pan and weigh nothing, because the scale was not made for metals. The gold is left where it lies, the heart alone is lifted up, and what is written at the foot of the page is read out: in whose name?
«إنَّ اللهَ لا ينظرُ إلى صُوَرِكم وأموالِكم، ولكن ينظرُ إلى قلوبِكم وأعمالِكم»
God does not look at your outward forms or your wealth; He looks at your hearts and your deeds.
And the custom of parting in this hall is that a man's money walks out with him as far as the door and then stops there:
«يتبعُ الميّتَ ثلاثةٌ، فيرجعُ اثنانِ ويبقى معه واحد: يتبعُه أهلُه ومالُه وعملُه، فيرجعُ أهلُه ومالُه ويبقى عملُه»
Three things follow the dead person: his family, his wealth and his deeds. Two of them come back, and one stays with him: his family and his wealth return, and his deeds remain.
The first failed over money and the second over power, and the paper is one and the same: whose is the favour?