“O mankind!
Fear your Lord and be dutiful to Him! Verily, the earthquake of the Hour
(of Judgment) is a terrible thing. The Day you shall see it, every
nursing mother will forget her nursling and every pregnant one will drop
her load, and you shall see mankind as in a drunken state. Yet they
will not be drunk but severe will be the Torment of Allah.”[Soorah al-Hajj (22): 1-2]
There are numerous descriptions of the
Last Day in the Quran and the Sunnah that testify to the horror and
terrible nature of this Day.
Faith in the Last Day is not limited to
believing in the Day that will be established after resurrection, as
Shaikhul-Islam ibn Taymiyyah (rahimahullah) writes in Aqeedah
al-Wastiyyah, “Faith in the Last Day includes believing in everything
that the Messenger has informed us about that will happen after death.”
The first stage after death is the fitnah
of the grave. The people will face trial or will be tested in their
graves regardless of whether one is buried in the ground or is thrown in
the sea or is eaten by a lion or (his ashes are) dispersed in the wind.
He will face this fitnah and he will be asked about three matters;
a) Who is your Lord?
b) What is your Religion?
c) Who is your Prophet?
A believer
will reply, ‘My Lord is Allah, my religion is Islam and my Prophet is
Muhammad .’ Then a caller will call from the heavens thatmyslave has
spoken the truth. His gravewill then bewidened for him as far as his
eyes can see. It will be furnished with furnishings from Paradise. A
door will be opened into Paradise through which will come its fragrance
and blessings. This condition is without doubt more complete than his
condition in the world.
A disbeliever or hypocrite will say upon
being asked about his Lord, Religion and Prophet, ‘Oh, Oh, I don’t know.
I heard the people say something and I said it.’
Reflect upon what, ‘Oh, Oh,’ means. It
indicates that the slave recollects something, tries to recall it but is
unable to remember.
One’s inability to recall is more
distressing than being completely unaware. If you are asked about
something and you are unaware of it, you will say, ‘I don’t know.’ This
is without doubt deficiency but it does not cause grief – but if you are
asked about something and you knew it but you are incapable of
recalling it – this causes grief. So the disbeliever will say, ‘Oh, Oh.’
– as if he remembers something – “I don’t know. I heard the people say
something and I said it.”
The disbeliever will then be hit with a
large iron hammer whereupon he will let out a scream the sound of which
will be heard by everything except the jinn and mankind – because if
they were to hear it, they would be struck dumb. It is narrated that if
all the people of a city like Mina were to gather together to carry this
hammer, they would not be able to.
It is obligatory to believe in the Fitnah of the grave because believing in it is part of faith in the Last Day.
–
Contents:
Man either has stages or is nothing
How do we believe in the Last Day?
1. Fitnah of the Grave
2. Punishment of the Grave and its Blessings
Is the Torment in the grave for the body or the soul?
3. Resurrection.
Man might be dead, (his body) might be eaten by a lion. So, how will
the resurrection take place?
4. Closeness of the sun to the creation
How is it possible that the sun will be as close as a ‘meel’ to the creation on the Day of Judgment?
5. Accounting the people for their deeds
Will there be anyone who will escape the account?
6. The Balance
How will the deeds be weighted since they are attributes and actions
of the doers?
Is there one scale or many?
7. Distribution of the Books
8. al-Hawdh (the Cistern)
9. Shafa’ah
The Conditions of Shafa’ah
10. The Siraat
11. Entrance into Paradise or Hell
Are Paradise and Hell present today?
Are Paradise and Hell eternal?
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