المعنى الاصطلاحي :

Annihilation of the world, the lapse of its time of existence, and its total termination.

الشرح المختصر :

"Fanā Al-‘Ālam" (Annihilation of the world): The deviant sect "Al-Jahmiyyah" (Jahmites) and those who adopted their methodology believe that Allah, the Almighty, will annihilate the whole world and that nothing will continue to exist except Allah alone. They argue that, as nothing exists eternally except Allah, everything other than Allah will cease to exist. Then they disagree (among themselves) as follows: Al-Jahm said: "Allah, the Almighty, will terminate the existence of the whole world, and even if He brings it back, both Paradise and Hell will cease to exist; otherwise (he argued) this would entail eternal existence of the creatures, whose existence (according to him) must have a beginning in the past and an end in the future." However, the majority of the Jahmites believe that Allah, the Almighty, will restore the world after annihilating it and then never terminate it again. This group unanimously agree that Paradise will continue to exist if this happens, but they differ about the existence of Hell. Therefore, this issue has three possibilities: 1. Definite annihilation; the whole world will definitely cease to exist; 2. Non-determination; so both scenarios are possible, without confirming or negating any scenario; 3. Definite non-annihilation; Allah will definitely not terminate the existence of the whole world. This is the correct opinion, as the Qur’an informs us that the world will transform from one state into another. For example: the heaven will split open and turn crimson, like red hide; the mountains will pass on; the earth will be leveled; the seas will be filled with flame; the stars will be scattered; and so on, as mentioned in the Qur’an. Thus, Allah, the Almighty, has not told us in the Qur’an that He will terminate the existence of everything. On the contrary, the Qur’an is full of reports that the existence of the world’s elements will not be terminated. The termination of all creatures that Allah, the Almighty, mentioned in the Qur’an refers to their death rather than non-existence of their entities. Once people die, their souls survive to enjoy bliss or suffer torment as Allah, the Exalted, wishes, while their bodies go to the graves or so. The bodies of most people decay after death, while the bodies of the Prophets never decay. So those who believe that Allah, the Almighty, will terminate the existence of the whole world or see this as a valid possibility inevitably need such a void argument to maintain the integrity of their deviant views. However, the termination and destruction mentioned in the Qur’an refer to transformation into another material, just like its bringing into temporal existence was also a transformation of a material from one state into another.