View source for Will the Servants be Questioned on the Day of Judgement?

==Brief description of the dubiety==
Based on verse 39 of Surah al-Rahmaan, no one will be asked questions in regards to their sins on the Day of Judgement. However, in verse 24 of Surah al-Saffat and some other verses in the Holy Quran, it says that people will be examined on the Day of Judgements in regards to their actions and they must answer these questions. These verses appear to be contradictory to one another.
==Detailed description of the dubiety==
===Contradictory Verses===
====Verse that negates any form of questioning on the Day of Judgement====
In verse 39 of Surah al-Rahmaan it has been revealed: “On that day neither humans will be questioned about their sins nor jinn.” In this verse, it has been specified that no servants will be questioned in regards to their sins on that dreadful day.
====Verses that mention that there will be questioning on the Day of Judgement====
In verse 24 of Surah al-Saffat Allah says: “[But first] stop them! For they must be questioned.” Based on this verse, mankind will be stopped and questioned on the Day of Judgement. Similarly, several other verses have the same theme.

In Surah al-Araaf, verse 6 it says: “We will surely question those to whom the Apostles were sent, and We will surely question the Apostles.”

Finally in Surah al-Hijr, verses 92-93 it says: “By your Lord, We will question them all, concerning what they used to do.”
===Summary===
In the verse of Surah al-Rahmaan, it states that there will be no form of questioning on the Day of Judgement; however in other verses it says that mankind will be stopped and examined on that day. Let us answer this apparent discrepancy.
==A summarized response==
The Day of Judgement will be very long and has multiple stations. In some of these stations, mankind will not be asked any questions, because everything will be clear and understood from the faces of man. However, in other locations, questions will be asked of the people. With due attention to the fact that the time periods of the verses discussed previously were not all the same and each one was in relation to a specific place on the Day of Judgement - no contradiction exists.
==A detailed response==
===Premises:===
====Unity of time and place for a report is a condition for contradiction====
In order for two reports to be contradictory to one another, those reports need to have a commonality with each other in some way. Amongst those similar points that are necessary in order for a contradiction to be formed, is the unity in time and place. For example, the two sentences ‘Ali came’ and ‘Ali did not come’ are in contradiction with one another at first glance. However, if the first sentence about Ali coming takes place on a Sunday, and the second sentence about Ali not coming takes place on a Monday, then the two phrases are no longer contradictory. Likewise, if the first sentence is in regards to Ali coming to school, and the second sentence is about Ali not coming to the masjid, then again there is no contradiction in these statements.. Therefore, in order for there to be a contradiction, both sentences must give information about an event that occurs at the exact same time and place.
====The Day of Judgement will be a long time and has different stops====
Based on the verses of the Holy Quran, the entire event of the Day of Judgement will be very long. In verse 4 of Surah al-Maarij, it mentions: “The angels and the Spirit ascend to Him in a day whose span is fifty thousand years.” Naturally, the various timespans of that long day possess different conditions, and in each area there will be a stop and a station which has its own specific conditions. Additionally, in a tradition from Imam al-Sadiq, it has been narrated that: “There are fifty stations on the Day of Judgement.” <ref name=":0">Amali Shaykh Tusi, Page 111</ref> <ref name=":1">Tafseer al-Mizan, Volume 19, Page 107</ref>
====The verses in question are in regards to different stations====
Therefore, according to the logic of the Holy Quran, there are different conditions for the various stations on the Day of Judgement. In some of the stations, man will not be allowed to speak, and instead one’s body parts and limbs will talk and will bear witness to what they did and where they went in this transient world. In verse 65 of Surah Yaseen, such has been described: “Today We shall seal their mouths, and their hands will speak to Us, and their feet shall bear witness concerning what they used to earn.”

In some other stations, man will not be questioned at all because everything will be visible upon one’s  face. In verses 39-41 of Surah al-Rahmaan, it has been revealed: “On that day neither humans will be questioned about their sins nor jinn. So which of your Lord’s bounties will you both deny?   The guilty will be recognized by their marks; so they will be seized by their forelocks and their feet.”

In this verse, it has been mentioned that in a certain place on the Day of Judgement, no one will be questioned about anything, and the guilty ones will be recognized from their faces.

In verse 111 of Surah al-Nahl, it mentions a station where man will try to defend himself: “The day [will come] when every soul will come pleading for itself and every soul will be recompensed fully for what it has done, and they will not be wronged.”  <ref name=":2">Tafseer Nemunah, Volume 23, Page 155</ref>

In verse 24 of Surah al-Saffat, it explains the conditions for another station. In this verse, it says: “[But first] stop them! For they must be questioned.’”

This verse talks about a certain area on that day in which man will be questioned in regards to one’s actions.

The fact that certain stations with these explanations have been described about the Day of Judgement does not mean that the conditions for the entire period there will be like this. None of the verses seek to describe that day in its totality; on the contrary, they only describe a certain timespan and station of that next life, and if the conditions are like that in some of the areas of that day, then it is correct to say that on the Day of Judgement, such an event will take place.

For example, it cannot be inferred from the sentence ‘it rained yesterday’ that it rained the entire day yesterday.
===Conclusion===
With due attention to the verses that were mentioned, the Day of Judgement will be a very long time period and every part of that after life will have its own specific conditions. Therefore, the fact that in the Quran, some verses mention that mankind will be questioned on the Day of Judgement, while another group of verses negate any form of questions or answers, does not result in any contradiction because these verses are in regards to multiple stations and each one describes one of those places that all of creation will have to go through. In some stations, man will be questioned regarding their actions, but in other places the faces of the individuals will attest to their evil deeds, and thus they will not be permitted to speak anything.
===Common example===
To the head of a company, a bus driver says: “The sky was cloudy on Friday and it rained. The motorway was very dangerous and for this reason I parked the bus in a parking lot.” In another conversation with one of his co-workers, he says: “The weather on Friday was really clear and there was not a cloud in the sky and the view of the mountains was a sight to see.” These two sentences are not in contradiction with one another because one of them is in relation to the rain which came down in the early hours of the morning, and the other is in relation to Friday afternoon - after the rainfall when the weather cleared up and the mountains had a beautiful resplendence. The description of the events for one day do not mean that those events took up that entire day and everything was the exact same throughout the course of that day. Therefore, it is possible for an apparent contradictory description to take place in one day, however upon close examination, we realize that there is no contradiction in the statements.  

With this same explanation, the verses describing the Day of Judgement when analyzed will come up with the realization that they are not in contradiction with one another, because they are in relation to different timespans regarding that event.  
[[Category:Quran]]
[[Category:Contradictions]]
==References==
<references />