"This is why it is imperative,

according to the Qur'an, to take this life seriously and to recognize fully that no matter how much one may hide one's negative intentions and one's failings, God "is well ware of them," as the Qur'an often puts it. Hence one must develop that inner torch which can enable one to distinguish between right and wrong, between justice and injustice, which the Qur'an calls taqwa - a crucial term, indeed one of the three or four most crucial terms. Although the final judgment upon man's conduct does lie outside him, as does the final criterion by which he is to be judged - and recognition of this fact is an essential part of the meaning of taqwa - such recognition already implies a certain development of the conscience of man to a point where this inner torch is lit. Like torchlight, taqwa is undoubtedly capable of gradations, from a zero-point of naive self-righteousness to a high point where one can almost completely X-ray one's state of mind and conscience.

The kind of being "made public" of the inner self so poignantly portrayed as occurring on the Day of Judgment is what the Qur'an really desires to take place here in this life; for a man [e: person] who can X-ray himself effectively and hence diagnose his inner state has nothing to be afraid of if his inner being goes public. It is only those who hide their inner being here - largely unsuccessfully, of course, for they really succeed not so much in hiding themselves from others as from themselves - who have every reason to fear the Day of Accounting. This is why the Qur'an says in sura 50, "You were sunk in heedlessness of this [accounting, X-raying], but now that We lifted the veil from you, your sight today is keen!" The central endeavor of the Qur'an is for man to develop this "keen sight" here and now, when there is opportunity for action and progress, for at the Hour of Judgment it will be too late to remedy the state of affairs; there one will be repeating, now sowing or nurturing. Hence one can speak there only of eternal success or failure, of everlasting Fire or Garden - that is to say, for the fate of the individual. As Jalal al-Din al-Rumi puts it:

If you wish to witness Resurrection, become it!

For this is the condition for witnessing anything!

-The Major Themes of the Qur'an by Fazlur Rahman, pg. 120