مَالِكِ يَوْمِ الدِّينِ

4. The Master⁹ of the Day of Judgment.¹⁰

9. The word Mālik, here translated as “Master,” means both owner and sovereign. Although God allows the existence of sovereigns in this world because He has endowed humankind with free will, He will be the sole, absolute Sovereign on the Day of Judgment. (“Whose is the absolute Sovereignty on that Day? It is God’s, the One, the All-Overwhelming (with absolute sway over all that exist).” (40: 16).) In addition, ownership of the other world with all its regions or sub-worlds, such as the Place of Supreme Gathering, the Bridge, Paradise and Hell, belongs to God exclusively.

10. The “Day of Judgment” translates the Arabic phrase Yawm ad-Dīn. The word dīn is usually rendered in English as “religion,” being derived from the verb Dā-Na (from d-y-n), meaning to profess a religion. From the same radicals (d-y-n), the verb Dā-Na has another, connected set of meanings – to borrow or be indebted, to be subjected or bound, to owe allegiance, to be called to account, judged, or convicted. (The related noun is dayn, a debt or liability, an obligation.) The Islamic concept of religion (dīn) encompasses all these meanings. God has brought us from the darkness of non-existence into the light of existence, created us in the best pattern, and raised us to the highest point in the hierarchy of creation. He has included in the dough of our existence certain elements that, however seemingly negative or destructive, will, when disciplined, cause us to rise to higher ranks of perfection. So that we might discipline them with His help, and not be defeated by them, and so that we might use all our capacities and the positive elements in our existence in the right way, He has sent Prophets and revealed through them and through Books the rules of how we should conduct ourselves. These are God’s trust or gifts to us, for which we owe Him the debt of gratitude. Paying this debt requires, first of all, designing our life in accordance with the rules God has established. In this sense, religion or dīn is the assemblage of Divine rules that human beings must observe in order to attain to good and salvation. A day will come when we will be called to account for our efforts in this regard, and we will be judged as to how we acted in this world, and rewarded or punished accordingly. Of that day, the sole Master is God.

As the lifetime of this universe is referred to as a “day”, so too the time when we are raised to life after death and judged, and eternally recompensed for what we did in this world, is also referred to as a “day.” That time is also the time when the realities of religion will become clearly and fully manifest. That is another of the reasons why the Qur’ān calls that “day” Yawm ad-Dīn, the Day of Judgment.