Prophet Rasûlullah (sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa sallam) said that îmân was to believe in six certain facts. He declared that “First of all, to believe in Allâhu ta’âlâ, second to believe in His angels, third to believe the Books revealed by Allâhu ta’âlâ, fourth to believe in Allâhu ta’âlâ’s prophets.” And he went on to declare the rest of them:
The fifth of the six fundamentals of îmân is “to believe in the Last Day (al-Yawm al-âkhir).” It begins on the day when a person dies and continues till the end of Doomsday. The reason it is called the “Last Day” is because there is no night to come after it, or because it comes after the world. The “Day” mentioned in this hadîth sherîf is not like the day or night we know. It denotes some time. It was not made known when Doomsday will occur. No one could estimate its time. Nevertheless, our Prophet (sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa sallam) pointed out many of its harbingers and precedents: Hadrat al-Mahdî[2] will come; ’Îsâ (’alaihi ’s-salâm) will descend to Damascus from heaven; ad-Dajjâl[3] will appear; people called Ya’jûj and Ma’jûj[4] will put the whole world into turmoil; the sun will rise in the west; violent earthquakes will occur; religious knowledge will be forgotten; vice and evil will increase; irreligious, immoral, dishonest people will become leaders; Allâhu ta’âlâ’s orders will be forbidden; harâms will be committed everywhere; fire will come out of Yemen; seas and mountains will split into pieces; the sun and the moon will darken; seas will mix with each other, boil and dry up.
A Muslim who does sinful acts is called fâsiq. Fâsiqs and all disbelievers will be tortured (’adhâb) in their graves. These are certainly to be believed. After interment, the deceased will return to an unknown life and will be either in blessings or in torture. As it was declared in hadîth ash-sherîfs, two angels named munkar and nakîr, in the guise of two unknown horrible people, will come to his grave and question him. Questions in the grave will be on some fundamentals of îmân according to some scholars or on the whole of îmân to some others. For this reason, we should teach our children the answers to the following questions: Who is your rabb (Allah)? What is your religion? Whose umma (which prophet’s community) do you belong to? What is [the name of] your Holy Book? What is your qibla? What are your madhhabs in îmân and in ’ibâdât (or ’amal)? It is written in Tadhkirat al-Qurtubî that those who are not Ahl as-Sunna will not be able to answer correctly. The graves of those who will give precise answers will enlarge and a window will be opened to Paradise. Every morning and every evening they will see their places in Paradise, and angels will do them favours and give them good news. He who cannot answer precisely will be beaten with iron mallets so severely that every creature but mankind and genies will hear him cry out. His grave will become so tight that he will feel as if his bones would intertwine. A hole will be opened to Hell. In the morning and in the evening he will see his place in Hell. He will be tortured bitterly in his grave till the Resurrection.
It is necessary to believe in [the other] life after death. After the flesh and bones rot and turn into earth and gas, they will come together again; the souls will enter the bodies they belong to, and everybody will rise up from his grave. Therefore, this time is called the Day of Qiyâma (Resurrection).[5]
All living creatures will gather at the place of Mahshar. The deed-books will fly to their owners. Almighty Allah, the creator of the earth, heavens, stars and all particles, will make all these happen. Allâhu ta’âlâ’s Messenger (sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa sallam) reported that these will happen. It is for certain that what he said is true. All will certainly happen.
The deed-books of the pious (sâlih), the good people, will be given from their right, and those of the sinful (fâsiq), the bad people will be given from their back or left. Every action, good or evil, big or little, done secretly or openly, will be in that book. Even those deeds unknown to the kirâm kâtibîn angels will be revealed by the human organs’ witnessing and by Allâhu ta’âlâ, who knows everything, and there will be questioning and settlement of accounts on every action. During the Day of Judgement, every secret action will be revealed if Allâhu ta’âlâ wills it so. Angels will be questioned on what they have done on the earth and in the heavens, prophets (’alaihimu ’s-salâm) on how they communicated Allâhu ta’âlâ’s commands and His religion to men, and people on how they adapted themselves to prophets, how they lived up to the duties revealed to them, and on how they took care of one another’s rights. On the Day of Judgement, those who have îmân and whose actions and morals are beautiful will be rewarded and blessed, and people with a bad temper and wrong deeds will be punished severely.
Allâhu ta’âlâ, with His Justice, will torture some Muslims for their small sins and He will, with His Mercy, forgive grave and small sins of some other Muslims whom He wills. Except disbelief (kufr) and polytheism (shirk), He will forgive every sin if He wills, and He will torture for a small sin if He wills. He declares that He will never forgive disbelief and polytheism. Disbelievers with or without a heavenly Book, that is, those who do not believe that Muhammad (’alaihi ’s-salâm) is the Prophet for all human beings and who disapprove even one of the rules [orders and prohibitions] he communicated, will certainly be put into Hell and tortured eternally.
On the Day of Judgement, there will be a Mîzân (‘balance’), different from those we know, for weighing deeds and conduct. It will be so large that one of its scales can hold the earth and the sky. The scale for good deeds will be bright and to the right of the ’Arsh where Paradise is, and the scale for sins will be dark and to the left of the ’Arsh where Hell is. Actions, words, thoughts and looks that are done in the world will take shapes there, and the good deeds in bright figures and the evils in dark and ugly figures will be weighed on this balance, which does not resemble worldly balances; it was said that the scale carrying the heavier load will go up and the one carrying the lighter load will go down. According to some scholars, there will be various balances. And many others said, “It was not shown clearly in Islam how and how many the balances will be, so it would be better not to think of it.”
There will be a bridge called Sirât, which will be built over Hell upon Allâhu ta’âlâ’s command. Everybody will be ordered to cross that bridge. That day, all prophets will entreat as, “O Allah! Give safety!” Those who are to go to Paradise will cross the bridge easily and reach Paradise. Some of them will pass with the speed of lightning, some with that of wind, and some others like a galloping horse. The Sirât Bridge will be thinner than a hair and sharper than a sword. Adapting yourself to Islam in this world has a similar aspect; adapting yourself precisely to Islam is like crossing the Sirât. Those who withstand the difficulty of struggling with their sensual desires (the nafs) here will cross the Sirât easily there. Those who do not follow Islam because of the nafs will cross the Sirât with difficulty. For this reason, Allâhu ta’âlâ called the right path, pointed out by Islam, the “Sirât al-Mustaqîm.” This similarity in names shows that staying within Islam’s path is like crossing the Sirât. Those who deserve Hell will fall off the Sirât down into Hell.
There will be a body of water called Hawd al-Kawthar reserved for our master Muhammad Mustafâ (sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa sallam). It will be vast like a journey of one month. Its water will be whiter than milk, and its scent will be more pleasant than musk. The drinking glasses around it are more plentiful than stars. A person who drinks its water would never become thirsty again even if he were in Hell.
It must be believed that there will be shafâ’a (intercession). Prophets, Walîs, pious Muslims, angels and those who are allowed by Allah will intercede for the forgiveness of the venial and grave sins of those Muslims who die without having repented, and their intercession will be accepted. [Our Prophet (sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa sallam) declared, “I will make shafâ’a (intercession) for those who commit grave sins of my umma.” In the next world, shafâ’a will be of five sorts:
Firstly, the sinful, becoming tired of the crowd and of waiting so long at the place of Judgement, will wail and ask that the Judgement commence as soon as possible. There will be shafâ’a for this.
Secondly, there will be shafâ’a so that the questioning will be done easily and quickly.
Thirdly, there will be shafâ’a for the sinful Muslims so that they shall not fall off the Sirât into Hell and so that they shall be saved from Hell’s torture.
Fourthly, there will be shafâ’a for taking gravely sinful Muslims out of Hell.
Fifthly, there will be shafâ’a for the promotion of Muslims to a higher grade in the Paradise where, though there will be innumerable favours and an eternal stay, there will be eight grades and every person’s grade will be in proportion to the degree of his îmân and deeds.
Paradise and Hell exist now. Paradise is above the seven heavens. Hell is below everything. There are eight paradises and seven hells. Paradise is larger than the earth, the sun and the heavens, and Hell is much larger than the sun.
[1] Ref: This paragraphes are quoted from the book “The Belief and Islam” , annotated translation of book I’tiqâd-nâma written by Mawlana Khalid-i Baghdadi and published in English by Hakikat Kitabevi, www.hakikatkitabevi.com.tr, Istanbul. Mawlânâ Khalid-i Baghdâdî is the great walî, the treasure of Allâhu ta’lâlâ’s blessings, superior man in every respect, the master of unattainable knowledge, the light of right, truth and religion. The author of the book I’tiqâd-nâma, Mawlânâ Diyâ’ ad-dîn Khâlid al-Baghdâdî al-’Uthmânî (b.1192, A.H./1778 in Shahrazûr in the north of Baghdad, d. 1242/1826 in Damascus, quddisa sirruh), was called al-’Uthmânî because he was a descendant of ’Uthmân Dhu’n-nûrain, the third caliph (radî-Allâhu ta’âlâ’ anh).
[2] Hadrat al-Mahdî will be a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad (‘alaihi‘s-salâm). His name will be Muhammad and his father’s name will be ‘Abdullâh.He will preside over Muslims, strengthen Islam and spread it everywhere. He will meet ‘Îsâ (‘alaihi ‘s-salâm), and together they will fight and kill ad-Dajjâl. During his time, Muslims will settle everywhere and live in comfort and ease.
[3] Ad-Dajjâl (who is called Antichrist by Christians, and who will also be called Masih because his fame will spread over the word) will be a son of a Jew of Khurasan, northern Iran, and an enemy of Islam commanding innumerable soldiers. He will kill Muslims and bring
discomfort and disorder to the Middle East. After shedding much blood, he will be killed by Hadrat al-Mahdî. It is written with references in Mukhtasaru Tadhkirat al-Qurtubî by ’Abd al-Wahhâb ash-Sha’rânî (2nd ed., Istanbul, 1302) that ad-Dajjâl’s name will be Ibn as-Sayyâd.
[4] It is written in the Qur’ân al-kerîm that Yâ’jûj and Ma’jûj are two evil peoples, who, at a very ancient time, were left behind a wall, and that they will spread on the earth towards the end of the world. Considering that archaelogical research finds cities buried under the ground and sea fossils on the peaks of mountains, that wall does not have to have been found yet, nor do those peoples have to be so numerous that we see or know them today; it can be thought that, as thousands of millions of today’s people originated out of two poeple, those two peoples will spread on the earth multipliying out of a few people, whose place may not be known today.
[5] Plants absorb carbon dioxide from the air and water and salts (mineral substances) from the soil and unite them with one another and form organic substances, the living matter of our organs. It is known today that a chemical reaction taking years happens in less than a second
when a catalyst is used. Similarly, Allâhu ta’âlâ will unite water, carbon dioxide and mineral substances in graves and create organic substances and the living organs in a moment. Mukhbir-i sâdiq (the Truth Reporter, the Prophet) reported that we would come to the other life in this manner. And science shows that this is being done in the world.
