{مَالِكِ يَوْمِ الدِّينِ}
Master of the Time of Judgement (5)
(5) Key Word Analysis
(مالكmālik)
مَلَكmalak,مَلِكmalikand مالِكmālikare three similar words.Mālikmeans the one who rightfully owns a thing or who wields rightful authority over it; malakmeans angel and malikmeans a king, i.e., the one who exercises political authority.
(يَوْم– yawm)
This means absolute time. The Noble Qur’an says:
وَإِنَّ يَوْمًا عِنْدَ رَبِّكَ كَأَلْفِ سَنَةٍ مِمَّا تَعُدُّونَ
That is, some days of God Almighty are one thousand years long[i]. A poet says:
يوماه يومُ نَدًى ويومُ طِعانِ
‘The one whom I praise only spends his time in two ways: either he is being generous to others, or he is killing his enemies.[ii]’
Likewise, the Arabs say:
يوما يوم نُعْمٍ ويومُ بُؤسايالدهر
i.e., time has only two possibilities: either it bestows favours on man, or it brings him trouble. Similarly, Sībawayh asserts that the Arabs say:
أنا اليوم أفعل كذا لا يريدون يوما بعينه ولكنهم يريدون الوقت الحاضر[iii]
i.e., when an Arab says, ‘I’ll do this today’, by ‘today’ they do not mean the twenty-four-hour day, but rather the present time. Likewise, the Qur’anic verse
الْيَوْمَ أَكْمَلْتُ لَكُمْ دِينَكُمْ[iv]
does not refer to a particular day; rather, it refers to an era and time. Then it is written,
وقد يراد باليوم الوقت مطلقا،ومنه الحديث: تلك أيام الهرج أي وقته[v]
That is to say, at times yawmmay refer to time absolutely as it in the hadith: ‘These are the days of evil and war.’ Which indicates that this is the era of evil and war.
(الدِّينad-Dīn)
[ad-Dīn has the following connotations]
الجزاء والمكافأة(al Jazaa wal Mukaafaat) – reward;
الطاعة(at-Taa’at) – obedience;
الحساب(al-Hisaab)- reckoning;
القهر؛الغلبة؛الاستعلاء؛- (al-Qahr)dominance;
والسلطان؛والملكالحكم– (al-Hukm wal Mulk was Sultan)authority;
السيرة– (as-Seerat)disposition;
التدبير– (at-Tadbeer)the management and regulation of affairs;
اسم لجميع ما يُعبد بهالله- dīnalso refers to all the ways in which Allah the Exalted is worshipped, that is,sharī‘ah.
Further connotations of ad-Dīnare:
الملة- religion;
الورع- piety;
المعصية- disobedience;
الحال- a state;
القضاء- a verdict;
العادة- custom;
الشأن – a particular state.[vi]
[i]The Holy Qur’an, 22:48.
[ii]Ibn Manẓūr. 1956. Lisān al-‘arab. Beirut: Dār Ṣādir. Vol. 12. p. 650.
[iii]Ibn Manẓūr. 1956. Lisān al-‘arab. Beirut: Dār Ṣādir. Vol. 12. p. 650.
[iv]The Holy Qur’an, 5:4.
[v]Ibn Manẓūr. 1956. Lisān al-‘arab. Beirut: Dār Ṣādir. Vol. 12. p. 650.
[vi]Ash-Sharṭūnī, Sa‘īd al-Khūrī. 1983. Aqrab al-mawārid. Qom: Maktabat Āyat Allāh al-‘Uzmā al-Mar‘ashī an-Najafī. p. 362.
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