Class 5 – Belief in the Day of Judgement
Class 5
‘Belief in the Day of Judgement’
Death is one of the few indisputable facts of life. Regardless of faith, race, status or age, we will all die. While the certainty of death is universally accepted, the question of what happens afterwards has been debated throughout history. After all, the enigma of death stumps us. We’ve devised various ways of killing other humans. Yet, despite innumerable technological and medical advances, we still cannot prevent an individual from dying. Furthermore, unlike life which we experience daily, we really don’t have first-hand knowledge of life after death. Aside from some near-death incidents, no one has come back from the dead to tell us what they encountered.
Islam teaches the Muslims through divine guidance (Quran & Sunnah), that one’s life doesn’t end on earth; rather, it is followed by the eternal life of the hereafter. This pamphlet explains how this belief has a major impact on our earthly lives, while instilling hope for healing in a perfect world where Allah’s ultimate justice will prevail.
The Last Day is the Day when mankind will be resurrected to be asked about their deeds and receive reward or punishment for them. It is called “the Last Day,” because it is the last day, no day after that. Afterwards, people of Paradise will permanently reside and take their places in it,and people of Hell will permanently reside and take their places in it.
Why Believe?
Believing in the soul and the afterlife is foremost about having faith in the unseen. Just as our souls are intangible beings giving life to our physical bodies, the world we see around us is functioning based on an invisible system created by Allah who is Ever-Watchful and All-Aware. Allah is also Just and He maintains a meticulous record of our deeds. We will be recompensed for our earthly lives in the hereafter where ultimate justice prevails.
Humans naturally seek justice in all aspects of their lives. When a person works, they expect to receive an appropriate salary. When an individual is harmed, they seek compensation. When someone helps another, they anticipate appreciation for their effort. Even though humans strive hard to establish justice, the reality is that this world will never be perfectly just. Many criminals go unpunished while the oppressed are denied basic rights. Do their lives simply dissolve without any accountability or fair dealing?
Allah proclaims in the Quran,
- “Do those who commit evil deeds really think that Wewill deal with them in the same way as those who believe and do righteous deeds, that they will be alike in their living and their dying? How badly they judge!”(45:21).
- In the afterlife, the evil doers will not be able to escape the grip of justice and victims of worldly suffering will be recompensed for their pain. People who spent their lives responsibly, avoiding temptations to commit sins, will also be rewarded. As mentioned in the Quran, “Allah created the heavens and the earth for a true purpose: to reward each soul according to its deeds. They will not be wronged” (45:22).
According to Islam, one of the greatest injustices humans can commit is to deny Allah’s existence, add partners to Him or worship worldly ideals or materialistic goals. Islam teaches that Allah is the Creator, Sustainer and Nourisher of every being in the heavens and the earth. As His creation, it is His right that we worship and obey Him. He showers us with His blessings every day out of His love and mercy. Worshiping Him is an expression of gratitude to Allah, and ignoring Him or worshiping others is ungratefulness and a denial of His blessings.
If our man-made judicial systems punish people for committing injustices against other people, it is even more understandable that Allah would punish those who deny Him His rights and commit injustices against His creation. Allah says in the Quran, “We shall set up scales of justice for the Day of Judgment, so that not a soul will be dealt with unjustly in the least, and if there be (no more than) the weight of a mustard seed, We will bring it (to account): and enough are We to take account”(21:47).
When you believe in the Last Day, you believe that it is the day when you stand before Allah to be asked by Him why you did those things and why you did not do the other ones. It is the day when Allah asks you why you divorced your wife arbitrarily, why you got married in a way that did not please Allah or why you had an illicit affair. On that day you will be asked about every giving, prohibition, satisfaction or anger that was not for the sake of Allah.
When you are aware of the fact that Allah will ask you about all your deeds, call you to account for whatever you do and punish you for your wrongdoings, you will absolutely become straight on Allah’s path.
It seems that all our lessons revolve around belief in the Last Day.
Belief in Allah and belief in the Last Day are inseparable
Amongst the six pillars of faith, the most amazing inseparable correlation is the one between believing in Allah and believing in the Last Day, because the mere belief in Allah does not oblige man to obey Him, while believing that Allah exists, that He knows everything and that He will call you to account for all your deeds, you will never make man think of disobeying Him.
The disparate connection between “The-Omniscient” and “The-Omnipotent”
Among all of His Beautiful Names, Allah has chosen two names; The-Omniscient and The-Omnipotent to be correlated. He knows whatever you do, and He is able to call you to accounts for your deeds. By Allah when you know that a person you disdain is more powerful than you, you will never disobey him. Also you will never dare to disobey whoever is able to punish you or put you in a difficult situation for any violation you may commit.
An examples given is, If an experienced doctor warns you against eating a certain kind of food that you like, you will definitely follow his command. Is the doctor’s command is more authentic that the one of Allah? If the doctor tells you that salt is bad for your health-you know that food is tasteless without adding salt to it-you will listen to his advice and avoid adding salt to your food. Is the warning of the doctor more fearful than the warning of Allah to you? How ignorant you are!”
The Qur’an mentions the Last Day on virtually every page
It recounts its events and conditions in varied literary styles. It also provides us with a wealth of details on this subject, something which is rarely found in connection with other issues falling in the domain of Ghaib (unseen).
Allah calls the Last Day by many other names
Each of those names describes the afflictions that will occur on that day. Some of the names mentioned in the Qur’an are: the Resurrection, the Hour, the Last Day, Yawm ad-Din, Yawm al-Hisab (the Day of Accounting), Yawm an-Nushur (the Day of the Rising), Yawm al-Hashr, and so on.
So, What’s the Purpose of the Hereafter?
Faith in the Last Day has a great influence on man’s life
Belief in the soul and the afterlife gives a context to our current existence. Belief in the events of the Last Day, such as Heaven, Hell, judgement, punishment, reward, success and loss, has a greatly beneficial influence in directing the believer, ensuring his conformity and adherence to righteous conduct and piety towards Allah. There is indeed a great difference between a person who does not believe that he will be resurrected and judged for every word and deed, and one who does. The first is driven solely by his own personal interests and preoccupied only by his worldly ambitions. There is no constraint on him save for his desires and appetites. His selfish objectives justify any means, attitudes or deeds, however harmful to himself and others they prove to be.
On the other hand, the person who believes that he will be judged by the most impartial Judge, and rewarded for any good and punished for every sin, conducts himself within the boundaries of Truth, goodness and rectitude. Those are the characteristics that please Allah on that Day. Allah says in the Qur’an: (And the weighing on that day (Day of Resurrection) will be the true (weighing). So as for those whose scale (of good deeds) will be heavy, they will be the successful (by entering Paradise). And as for those whose scale will be light, those are they who will lose their own selves (by entering Hell) because they denied and rejected Our Aayaat (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons, signs, revelations and so on) Al-A’raaf, Ayahs 8-9.
This reason for the Qur’an’s emphasis on the Last Day can also be seen in the connection it makes on many occasions between belief in the Last Day and performing righteous deeds.
By his very nature, man seeks to acquire personal benefits and to ward off harm. Belief in the Day of Judgement reinforces this instinctive drive that draws us toward good and away from evil. The Qur’an constantly reminds us of the Last Day and excels in describing it because of the beneficial influence this has in reinforcing our instinct for self-advancement.
Also imagine if a man murdered one hundred human souls, how can we punish him in this life? Will we be able to murder someone one hundred times to account for each person he harmed? Even if we tried, we cannot establish full justice in this world. There are individuals who have launched unjust wars, killed thousands/millions of people, enslaved, tortured, raped, abused, harassed and viciously harmed others. You can’t fully punish the criminal or fully repay the innocents here.
The hereafter, then, is what makes this life make sense.
None of the injustices, corruption or evil will go without account… and no good deed will go without full reward either:
- “That Day, the people will depart separated [into categories] to be shown [the result of] their deeds.”
- “So whoever does an atom’s weight of good will see it.”
- “And whoever does an atom’s weight of evil will see it.”(Qur’an 99: 6-8)
- “Indeed, Allah does not do injustice, [even] as much as an atom’s weight; while if there is a good deed, He multiplies it and gives from Himself a great reward.” (Qur’an 4:40)
Now is the time to make the choice, and none of us can withhold our own death or emergence to the Day of Judgement.
The effects of believing in the Last Day
1. All concepts and standards will change when you believe in the Last Day.
When you believe in the Last Day, the way of your thinking changes for the better, and your happiness will be achieved by giving, not taking. Nowadays, most people seek happiness by taking, not giving, by destroying others to make a living, by eating delicious food alone, by living in a prestigious house, by having an expensive car, by having extra marital affairs or physical relations before marriage and by being careless to people, to the difficult situation of young people and to the poverty of the poor. Believing in the Last Day changes all these concepts and makes things different; Those who understand the reality ahead of them are aware that their ultimate fate after death is based on their actions in this life. Such individuals are thankful for all the blessings that Allah has given them and humbly worship Him while promoting goodness in all aspects of their lives. When a person embraces such a God-conscious way of life, their purpose extends beyond merely enjoying worldly pleasures.
Their life is one of submission to Allah and they seek to positively contribute to the world around them. All of their transactions with people, even animals and the environment, are rooted in this motivation. They are guided by the certainty that they will one day return to their Creator and be held accountable for their deeds. Although they have the freedom to live according to their whims, they limit their attachment to this brief and imperfect life, seeking an eternal paradise in the hereafter. When you believe in the Last Day, you seek a righteous deed from the very beginning of your day in order to please Allah. You wake up in the morning and say, “O Allah, grant us a good deed which draws us closer to You.” This is how believing in the Last Day changes many things, because it is part of Muslim’s Creed.
2. Preparing for that day.
When you believe in the Last Day, you get yourself prepared for it. Similarly, when you believe that there is a final exam at the end of the year which makes one either honored or humiliated, and when you believe that if you pass this exam, you’ll get a high degree, occupy a distinguished position, have high income and get married, you’ll study hard. When you know for sure that this exam is inevitable and that your good job, high income and marriage are dependent on passing it, you do your best to pass it.
Why should we believe in the Last Day? In order to work for that day.
3. How to fulfill the purpose of your existence.
Dear brothers and sisters in Islam, believing in the Last Day makes you get yourself prepared to it. It makes you feel that there is a goal in your life which you should achieve. As long as you believe in the Last Day, your main concern will be doing good deeds starting from the beginning of your day till its end in order to please Allah the Almighty, and so achieving the purpose of your existence.
Believing in the Last Day is relieving for your heart and soul, while those who do not believe in it will suffer from melancholy, because they feel that their affairs are in the hand of someone whom they do not like. Whoever does not believe in the Last Day, feels that his life is unbalanced, his heart is full of grudge and that the pressure he is put under is unbearable.
As a believer, your mission is seeking Allah’s satisfaction and believing that all you affairs are in His Hand. Hence, doing righteous deeds makes you happy forever and relieved greatly. The believer is a balanced man who knows that what counts is working for what comes after death.
When you believe in the Last Day, you will spend money, time, experience, knowledge and everything you have in order to please Allah. The belief in the Last Day is a certainty, and has a sweetness. If Allah is by your side, none can be against you, but if He abandons you, none can help you!
If you draw closer to Allah, you will own everything, but if you turn away from Him, you will lose everything. When you believe in the Last Day, whatever you do will be for the Hereafter. You think about it when you make your living, when you study, when you get married and when you have children, because your main goal is pleasing Allah and whatever you do is means to help you achieve this goal. On the other hand, the main concern of whoever disbelieves in the Last Day is the worldly life.
Belief In The Last Day Has Three Parts
- To believe in the Resurrection. –The Resurrection happens when the Horn will be blown for the second time. Afterwards, mankind will be resurrected to face the questioning by the Lord of the worlds.
- To believe in the Reckoning –In the Last Day, the slave will be rewarded or punished for his deeds. This fact was also confirmed by the Qur’aan, the Sunnah and the consensus of Muslims.
- To believe in Paradise and Hell. They are the final destination for whoever deserves either one of them, and for eternity. Paradise is the destination of the ultimate happiness and joy that Allah prepared for the believers who feared Him, believed in what He required from them to believe and obeyed Him and His Messenger. As for Hell, it is the destination of torment and punishment that Allah prepared for the unjust disbelievers. They are the ones who disbelieved in Him and disobeyed His Messengers. Hell contains kinds of punishment and torment that no one could ever imagine.
GRAVE
Fitna (trial) of the grave and questioning by the two angels (Munkar and Nakir)
We should believe in what the Prophet ﷺ told us about the Fitna of the grave and the questioning of the dead person by the two angels about his God, his Faith and his Prophet. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ recounted how people will be examined in their graves and asked: 1) Who is your Lord? 2) What is your faith? 3) Who is your Prophet? The believer will say: “My Lord is Allah, Islam is my religion, and my Prophet is Muhammad.” The doubter will say, “I do not know. I had heard people say things and I repeated them.” He will then be beaten and tortured.
There are many Ahaadeeth Sahiha related to this subject.
Torment and bliss in the grave
In addition to the Fitna of the grave, we should also believe in what the Prophet ﷺ said about the bliss and torment to be experienced in the grave. This matter is detailed in both the Qur’an and the Sunnah.
Please join our free online certificate course “THE GRAVE”, to learn in detail about Death, Journey of the Soul, Questions, Trials, Blessing & Punishments in the Grave. https://learn-islam.org/the-grave (available online now, register and learn).
Note this is not part of the course, it is an independent course that can be done at your own pace and at your own convenience.
SIGNS OF THE HOUR
We should believe that the Hour will certainly come, and that its timing is known only to Allah who kept it from all human beings, including the Messengers and Prophets. It is impossible for anyone to find out when life in this world will come to an end.
But We must believe in what the Prophet ﷺ said about its signs and conditions. There are plenty of authentic Ahaadeeth in which the Prophet ﷺ mentions the Hour, its small signs and the great signs.
THE DAY OF JUDGEMENT
The Beginning of The Last Day
We must believe in what Allah tells us in the Qur’an, especially in the two Surats of At-Takwir and Al-Infitar (81 & 82), about what happens on the last day on this earth and the beginning of the Day of Judgement. The verses inform us that the Last Day will start with an overwhelming change in the universe, when the sky will be rent asunder and the stars scattered away, the planets will collide and the earth will be shattered. The mountains will collapse and everything will be laid to waste and all that man knew in this existence will be utterly destroyed.
Resurrection
We also believe that Allah will then command that the trumpet be sounded for the second time, whereupon life returns to the dead. This is the Day of Resurrection. That is the return of people in body and soul to the form they were on this earth. Allah will then cause people to rise from their graves, and the hypocrites and disbelievers will say:
“Woe to us! Who has raised us up from our place of sleep? “Yaa-Sin – Al-Aayah 52.
To which the believers will reply by saying:
“This is what the Most Beneficent (Allah) had promised, and the Messengers spoke truth” Yaa-Sin : 52.
The Gathering
We believe that the gathering will take place after people are resurrected and have risen from their graves.
After people are resurrected, Allah will command the angels to drive all humanity to a predetermined place where they will be gathered to await their judgements. They will be in the state in which they first came into this life, barefoot, naked and uncircumcised.
The Recompense of Deeds
We are required to believe that on the Last Day people will be recompensed for all what they gained in this world, good and evil. Allah says in the Qur’an:
(On that Day Allah will pay them the recompense of their deeds in full, and they will know that Allah, – He-is the Manifest Truth) An-Nur – Al Aayah 25.
Presentation And Reckoning
Recompense takes place following a fair trial in which people will be presented to their Lord. Evidence and arguments for and against them will be put forward, they will be presented with the records of their deeds and will read their records. We are informed of those events (the presentation and bringing to account, and the reading of the record) in the Qur’an and Sunnah and they are further confirmed by the consensus of the scholars of this Ummah.
The Fount
We must believe in what the Prophet ﷺ said about the fount which Allah has bestowed upon him and his people. The Ahaadeeth relating to it are well-known and have been recounted by more than thirty of the Sahabah.
The first to drink from it will be the Prophet ﷺ, followed by his Ummah, while the disbelievers and a group of disobedient people and those who commit of major sins will be barred from it. This will take place after the gathering, the presentation, reckoning, and reading of the records.
The Scale
We must believe in what Allah and His Messenger ﷺ have told us about people’s good and evil deeds being weighed on the Day of Judgement with a scale, to demonstrate the Justice of Allah.
The Ahaadeeth tell us that it is a real scale, with two plates, and that Allah transforms people’s deeds into objects with weights whereupon the good deeds will be placed on one side and the evil ones on the other.
The weighing of deeds takes place after the reckoning is over. Reckoning is meant to decide the deeds carried out by the servant in this life, and weighing shows their value and decides the commensurate recompense”. However, weighing is not carried out for prophets and angels and those whom Allah has exempted from reckoning.
The Bridge
We Believe that after the reckoning and weighing, people will pass over the bridge known as ‘as-Sirat’ set across the Hell-Fire.
Everybody will pass over this bridge: prophets and honourable worshipers, believers and disbelievers, those who face the reckoning and those who don’t. Those who adhered to the straight path of Allah, His true religion, in this life will walk straight across the bridge on the Last Day. Some of the Ahaadeeth tell us that the ease with which people cross that bridge depends on the amount of good deeds they performed in this life. Some pass like meteorites, others like the wind, or as fast as the eye can blink, or as though they were wading through sand, while those with the fewest good deeds take one step and stumble the next and the Fire will touch their sides. When they have all passed along, they will say to the Fire: “Praise be to Allah who saved us from you, after showing you to us. He has given us what He gave no other people”
Please join our free online certificate course “THE DAY OF JUDGEMENT”, to learn in detail about the Major & Minor Signs of Qayamah, the state of the believers and disbelievers, events on that day and more. https://learn-islam.org/day-of-judgement (available online now, register and learn).
Note this is not part of the course, it is an independent course that can be done at your own pace and at your own convenience.
PARADISE AND HELL
In addition to all of the above, we believe in the existence of Paradise and Hell, that they are two of Allah’s creations which He has as reward and punishment, and that they existed before mankind were created, exist today and will exist for eternity.
Allah has described some of the punishments of hell and about the bliss of Paradise in the Qur’an
Please join our free online certificate course “DESCRIPTION OF HEAVEN & HELL”, to learn in detail about the Heaven & Hell and the deeds that can lead us to heaven or deeds save us from hell. https://learn-islam.org/description-of-heaven-hell (available online now, register and learn).
Note this is not part of the course, it is an independent course that can be done at your own pace and at your own convenience.
ALLAH’S MERCY
As imperfect beings, we often make mistakes and commit wrong actions. While Allah does not expect perfection from us, He calls on us to strive to the utmost to worship Him and to live righteously. Out of His Mercy, Allah pardons whom He wills in the hereafter. Allah promises us in the Quran:
“And those who believe and do righteous deeds –We will surely remove from them their misdeeds and will surely reward them according to the best of what they used to do”(29:7).
Muslims seek salvation in the hereafter by living a God-conscious and virtuous life in this world. The fear of accountability in the hereafter, along with hope in the promise of Allah’s ultimate justice, motivates them to orient their present lives around the comprehensive worship of Allah, the true purpose of human existence. In this way, they endeavour in this temporary life for eternal joy.
[To the righteous it will be said], “O reassured soul, return to your Lord, well-pleased and pleasing [to Him], and enter among My [righteous] servants, and enter My Paradise.” (Quran, 89:27-30).
In next week’s classes we will InShaAllah study…
- Belief in Qadr.
- Weakness in Faith and its Causes.
- How to strengthen Faith.
- Who are the believers and Allah’s promises to the believers.
- Ihsan
- Factors that nullify Imaan & Islam.
SUPPORT LEARN ISLAM
If you benefit from courses by LEARN ISLAM and want to support us, please do so by buying the book FORGOTTEN SUNNAHS written by Abu Sahl Al Ansari (the founder and admin of LEARN ISLAM).
FORGOTTEN SUNNAHS : https://learn-islam.org/forgotten-sunnahs-book
ASSIGNMENT
There will be an Assignment Question asked in the Test. Marks will be given based on the following: –
- Invite atleast 15 people to the course (can invite via WhatsApp, Facebook, Email, telegram or word of mouth) 7 Marks. (check the note below for exceptions)
Note:
- Those who have already invited whether on Whatsapp, Email or FB, do not need to invite again.
- It does not whether people join or not, our job is to invite.
- Talk about any 3 topics from this week’s classes with atleast 3 people. 7 Marks.
- Pray for the Ummah, pray for the ease of all the poor & oppressed Muslims and pray that Allah make us all strong in imaan and give us the hidayah to work for the aakhirah and to help each other. – 2 Marks
TIPS OF TEST
- Do not have to memorise the ayahs or hadeeths word for word and their references, but remember their meanings and the msg being given.
- Remember the effects & benefits.
- Remember the occurrence (do not have to be in order).