Wattaquu Yawman-turja ‘uuna fiihi
‘ilaallaah. Summa tuwaffaa kullu nafsim-maa kasabat wa hum laa yuz-lamuun.
“And
fear a Day (that is, Qiyamah) when you will be returned to Allah. Then every
soul will be compensated for what it earned, and they will not be treated
unjustly.”(2: 282).
The word Qiyamah appears
70 times in the Holy Quran. Allah the Almighty has also called it (Qiyamah) by many other
names in the Holy Quran and each name shows an aspect of Qiyamah.
For example, among others:
1. As-Sa’a (The Appointed Hour)
2. Al-Yaum-ul-Haqq (The
Day of Truth, that is, the advent of such a day about which there is no doubt)
3. Al-Yaum-ul-Mal’oom (The
Known Hour)
4. Yaum-ul-Aazifa (The Terrifying Day which is approaching),
5. Yaum-un-Assir (The Hard Day),
6. Yaum-un-Azim (The
Great Day),
7. Yaum-ul-B’ath (The Day of Resurrection),
8. Yaum-un-Talaaq (The Day of Meeting, that is, meeting with Allah the
Almighty),
9. Yaum-ul-Jama (The Day of Assembly),
10. Yaum-ul-Khuruj (The Day of Coming Out, that is, from the tomb)
11. An-Naba-ul-Azim (The Great News).
12. Al-Haqqa (The Inevitable).
In various chapters and
verses of the Holy Quran, Allah the Almighty has given a clear picture on the
subject of the Day of Qiyamah so that you may receive your
rewards completely. The one who is free from the fire of hellfire on that day
and gets admission in paradise has truly achieved victory, and Allah the
Almighty shall certainly assemble us all on the Day of Qiyamah and
there is no doubt in it. Whose words are truer than the words of Allah the
Almighty? And we have been made to understand also from the Holy Quran that on
that Day, the world shall change into another world as well as the heavens, and
people shall be presented before Allah the Almighty, the Unique, Al-Qahhar (the Overpowering
Lord).
What we can understand is
that on the Day of Qiyamah, the earth shall be flattened. There
shall be no mountain, no height, no precipice, no tree, no building, no sky, no
star, no sun, and no moon. Those who have a doubt on this affirmation
say: “When shall that promise be
realised if this (affirmation) is true?” Allah says: They are
waiting only for a single cry/sound which shall seize them while they are still
debating on the subject; therefore they shall neither be able to draft a
testament nor return back to their families.
The day the sky shall be
agitated by a great shaking and the mountains shall start walking; that day,
woe to those who had taken the signs of Allah as lies. Allah the Almighty
Himself has given us a very severe warning, whereby He says:
“Oh
mankind, fear your Lord! Indeed, the convulsion of the Hour (that is, Qiyamah)
is a terrible thing.
On the Day you see it every nursing mother will be
distracted from that (child) she was nursing, and every pregnant woman will
abort her pregnancy, and you will see the people (appearing) intoxicated while
they are not intoxicated; but the punishment of Allah is severe.” (22: 2-3)
In the Holy Quran, Allah
the Almighty has made mention of the day when the sky shall fall asunder,
separated with clouds; the day when the sky shall be like melted metal and when
the mountains shall become like wool, when the moon shall be eclipsed and the
sun and the moon shall join together, when the great deafening sound shall be
heard, when the sun shall be wrapped, when the stars shall lose their
brilliance, when the mountains shall walk, when the wild animals shall be
assembled and when the sea shall be brought to ebullition. That Day shall be a
difficult day for the infidels (Kafirs) and
the evildoers (Zalims) who
shall tremble with fear (shall bite their hands) and each of them shall
declare: “Woe to me! Had I but
take the path of the Messenger of Allah! Unfortunately, Satan drifted me away
from the divine message.” And on that day, neither their near
kin nor children shall be of any use to them.
No friend shall seek his
best (intimate) friend despite that both shall look at one another. On that
day, the sinners will be ready to give as ransom their wives, brothers,
families and all that the world contain to be able to be free from, to avoid
the divine punishment. Unfortunately, there shall be no place to run, no escape
route, no refuge and each person will be so fearful and preoccupied that he
shall ignore one and all (from his temporal life). On the other hand, on that
day, those endowed with solid and firm Iman (faith), their faces shall shine and they shall be
happy, in bliss. As for the Kafirs (infidels)
and Zalims (evildoers),
their faces shall be filled with dust and darkened.
Therefore the words of
Allah which are found in the Quran are devoid of any doubt. A Muslim believer
must have faith (Iman) on
everything contained in the Noble Quran, and he must have a consolidated faith,
very firm one in Allah the Almighty, in His messengers and prophets without
exception, His sacred books, His angels, in Destiny/Divine Decree etc. which
form part of the belief taught by the perfect religion: Islam. And if someone rejects even a
single part of these beliefs, he does not form part of that perfect religion
(Islam) and finally he falls into unbelief and therefore he comes to such a
crossroad where there is no difference between him and either a Kafir or Zalim. The Prophet who has received
the most information onQiyamah is
verily our beloved prophet (pbuh), and Allah fed him (pbuh) with all
information (known to a human).
Traditions on the signs of Qiyamah
Many Sahaba (companions of the Holy
Prophet) have related that Hazrat Muhammad (pbuh) said about the signs of Qiyamah, that those who memorise the
signs occurring at the time of Qiyamah,
are those who memorise them, but those who forget them (those details) shall
remain in forgetfulness. (Muslim).
There are a lot of signs
of Qiyamah and they
are into two categories.
a) Alaamaat-e-Soughraa: The little
signs. Those are the signs which shall appear much before Qiyamah.
b) Alaamaat-e-Koubra: The major signs.
These are signs which shall appear whenQiyamah is
very near.
I
therefore cite some Hadiths on those signs:
1) Hazrat Ibn Umar (ra)
reported that the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) has said that one who wants to witness Qiyamah as if he is seeing it
with his own eyes should therefore read Chapters 81, 82 & 84 (of the Quran)
which gives details on Qiyamah.
(Tirmidhi & Mishkat).
2) Hazrat Anas (ra)
reported that Hazrat Muhammad (pbuh) has said that one of the signs of Qiyamah is that people shall
pride themselves on (boast about) Mosques. (Mishkat, Ibn-Majah & Abu
Dawud).
That is to say that there
shall be Muslims who will build great beautiful mosques, and there shall be
competition among them as to whom shall build the most beautiful and big
mosques. Thus, each of them shall boast on those constructions and flatter the
beauty of those mosques along with their decorations and long minarets. They
will compete in all these things despite the fact that those mosques shall
remain empty of worshippers (Musalli) at
the time of prayers! (Inset: The iconic Blue Mosque in Turkey).
There is another Hadith
which is reported by Hazrat Hasan Basri (ra) who narrated that Hazrat Muhammad
(pbuh) said that a time shall come when people shall talk about worldly
concerns while in the mosque. He afterwards warned (the true believers) not to
sit in the company of those kinds of people because Allah the Almighty shall
ignore them.
When one analyses all
this, those mentioned signs of Qiyamah have
already appeared. The Hadiths also mention that people shall come to mosques to
pray for only few minutes and thereafter talk about worldly matters.
Hazrat Abu Huraira (ra)
also reported that Hazrat Muhammad (pbuh) has said: “The most beloved places on Earth to Allah are its mosques, and the
most despised places on Earth to Allah are its markets.” (Muslim
& Mishkat)
Allah the Almighty loves
mosques wherein believers worship Him, praise Him and immerse themselves in His
remembrance (Zikr) etc.,
not to talk about worldly concerns!
As for the markets, these are places where
people talk a lot about worldly matters, such as films (movies), football,
horse racing, gambling, spying on others, getting eye-contact, selling illicit
goods, rob people in terms of weight of goods, wrecking containers to sell
stolen goods in the marketplaces. There are also those who put attractive goods
before the (potential) buyers/consumers but when delivering them the sold
goods, give those people expired/rotten ones. There are other illicit things
which happen in market-places but the list is too long here to mention all of
them. Therefore these kinds of people think that when they indulge in those
illicit things, they shall become wealthy quickly.
In another Hadith, Hazrat
Anas (ra) narrated that Hazrat Muhammad (pbuh) has said that Qiyamah shall not come until
time is shortened. A year shall seem like a month, a month like a week, a week
like a day, and a day like the flickering of a matchstick (to light up fire).
(Tirmidhi, Mishkat).
Therefore this Hadith is making
us understand how all these things shall come to pass quickly. What we can
understand also is that in these epochs, (divine) blessings shall be absent;
people shall be too preoccupied with mundane problems and things that years,
months and days shall come to pass quickly, and this is a reality which we are
living nowadays…
May Allah bless you and
endow you with inner knowledge and perception to see these signs and reform
your lives accordingly under the commandment of Allah and His Chosen Messenger. Insha-Allah,
Ameen.
-Friday Sermon of 20 June 2014 ~(21 Shabaan
1435 Hijri) -delivered by the Khalifatullah Hadhrat Munir Ahmad Azim Sahib (atba) of Mauritius.