The Day Before: The Analogy of This World

There are many ideas in the Quran that when reading the English translation are not as apparent as in the original Arabic. An example of this is the concept of “yesterday”. While in English this word can be translated any number of ways, in the Arabic Quran the word for “yesterday” or “the day before” is a single word أَمْسِ (amsi), and we will see this word used only four times in the entire Quran written in the form of بِالْأَمْسِ (bil-amsi) which would translate to “in the day before” or “in the previous day” as all as “yesterday.” The first use of this word is in Sura 10 verse 24.

10:24 The analogy of this worldly life is like this: we send down water from the sky to produce with it all kinds of plants from the earth, and to provide food for the people and the animals. Then, just as the earth is perfectly adorned, and its people think that they are in control thereof, our judgment comes by night or by day, leaving it completely barren, as if nothing existed the previous day. We thus explain the revelations for people who reflect.

إِنَّمَا مَثَلُ الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا كَمَاءٍ أَنْزَلْنَاهُ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ فَاخْتَلَطَ بِهِ نَبَاتُ الْأَرْضِ مِمَّا يَأْكُلُ النَّاسُ وَالْأَنْعَامُ حَتَّىٰ إِذَا أَخَذَتِ الْأَرْضُ زُخْرُفَهَا وَازَّيَّنَتْ وَظَنَّ أَهْلُهَا أَنَّهُمْ قَادِرُونَ عَلَيْهَا أَتَاهَا أَمْرُنَا لَيْلًا أَوْ نَهَارًا فَجَعَلْنَاهَا حَصِيدًا كَأَنْ لَمْ تَغْنَ بِالْأَمْسِ كَذَٰلِكَ نُفَصِّلُ الْآيَاتِ لِقَوْمٍ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ

In this world individuals assume that the natural state of affairs is that they are entitled to God’s blessings. This flawed mentality provides a false sense of security and control and will inevitably lead to a rude awakening. Under such distorted pretenses people assume that they cannot do wrong and that they will not be punished for their sins which is a recipe for disaster.

The only other three times the word أَمْسِ occurs in the entire Quran happen to be appropriately enough in Sura 28, entitled History (Al-Qasas / القصص). The fact that this Sura is entitled History and the purpose of history is to learn from the past so that we do not make the same mistakes in our lives makes it that much more noteworthy that all three other instances of the Arabic word for “yesterday” in the Quran occurs in this single Sura. When we look at these three other instances the significance of this becomes apparent.