The Day of Resurrection (Yawm al-Qiyama)

Yawm al-Qiyama is the day of raising and reckoning in Sunni creed; the Tahawiyya places it in article 105 of belief in the hereafter: "we believe in the resurrection and the requital of deeds on the Day of Resurrection, the presentation, the reckoning, the reading of the book, reward and punishment, the sirat and the scales" ¹.

The creed also affirms the signs of the Hour — the emergence of the Dajjal, the descent of 'Isa ibn Maryam from heaven, the sun rising from its west, and the emergence of the Beast of the earth ²; Ibn Abi al-Izz's commentary elaborates these articles ³.

The Sheikh says the Great News on which people differ is the resurrection, and lists the views people hold about it (needs_source). ⁴ He distinguishes how the Qur'an addresses the believer and the disbeliever: for the believer it affirms, for the disbeliever it clarifies. ⁵ He sets out the argument for resurrection through the story of a man who crumbled a decayed bone and blew the dust away, and answers that the One who originated creation can recreate it (needs_source). ^{6 7} He says mountains that look fixed are in motion, and speaks of the day the earth is changed for another earth, without naming the verse (needs_source). ^{8 9} He relates a companion's question about the moving mountains; the report is broken off in the recording (needs_source). ¹⁰

The Sheikh says that the believing servant who is sincere in his relation with God asks about the hereafter and prepares for it, and he links this to the question with which the surah opens ¹¹.

He relays a traditional saying to the effect that if a caller announced that all people are in Paradise except one, every person would fear that he might be that one (needs_source) ¹².

The Sheikh says that the hereafter should be present at the noon prayer and at the night prayer before sleep, because it moves a person to pause, review and take himself to account; he recalls that the servant's limbs act on the command of his heart, the heart being like the managing director or the chairman ¹³.

He explains that the Day of Decision between people is a fixed term for taking and giving rights, and says that if each person dealt with others while picturing that Day, he would stop and examine himself ¹⁴.

He urges the listener to go home, sit with himself and list the rights people have over him and the rights of God, beginning with God's rights from today, among them the prayer before sleep ¹⁵.

The Sheikh takes up the question of a human life measured against the creatures that serve him, and answers that Juz Amma shows that on the Day of Resurrection the mountains move, so these creatures come to an end, and the life of the human being, served and honoured before God, is longer than the life of what he sees around him ¹⁶. All those servants likewise come to an end on the day the earth and the heavens are replaced, while the one served remains in bliss in eternity by God's will ¹⁷.

He says that the Day of Decision comes after the nine blessings mentioned in Surat al-Naba Al-Naba 17, and he explains that the decision is between truth and falsehood, between reward and punishment, and between the doers of good and the wrongdoers ¹⁸.

He holds that the disbeliever limits his life to a few numbered days, makes this world the last stage, forgets the stage of the barzakh and the stage of the abode of the hereafter, and does not prepare for them ¹⁹.

He says the Day of Decision is an appointed time on which the trumpet is blown and people come in crowds, and he begins an account of Aisha finding the Prophet ﷺ tired one day, leaning on his knee; the account is cut off in the recording (needs_source) ²⁰.

He says that when the trumpet is blown people come out in groups and each nation follows its imam, the followers of Nuh following Nuh and the followers of Ibrahim following Ibrahim ²¹. He adds that each nation has an imam who goes before it, that the heaven is opened and the earth and the heavens are replaced ²².

The Sheikh asks God to open for us the two doors of guidance, the guidance of direction and the guidance of help, then returns to Surat al-Naba at the verse about the opening of the heaven Al-Naba 19, saying that these are scenes of the Day of Resurrection and that whoever has studied them is prepared for them ²³.

He compares one who has not studied the scenes of the hereafter to a villager suddenly taken to a huge capital, who cannot cross the street among the cars and lights, unlike someone used to it ²⁴.

He gives another example of a man who has never entered an operating theatre and is afraid even if he has watched operations on television, unlike one who has gone in three or four times, who says he knows what will happen and is calm ²⁵.

He says that believers who attend gatherings of knowledge and learn the interpretation of the scenes of the Day of Resurrection will be ready when they see them, and that when the major signs of the Hour appear the world will split into two groups: one that knows about the hereafter and one that does not ²⁶.

He names among the major signs the sun rising from the west, the beast, the descent of the Messiah and the smoke, and says that the believer affirms them because they are among what came in the Book of God, while the other treats them as a purely scientific matter and argues about the movement of the sun ²⁷.

He says that once the sun rises from the west, repentance no longer helps, nor the faith of a soul that had not believed before, and he gives the example of a woman who refused the headscarf, for whom turning back will then be of no use ²⁸.

The Sheikh describes the scene of the heaven being opened until it becomes doors Al-Naba 19, and of the mountains, huge rock from which one cannot cut a stone, turning into a mirage Al-Naba 20 ²⁹.

He likens the mountains, after they had been pegs, to carded wool from which fine fabrics are made, and then mentions the earth being replaced by another earth, and the heavens ³⁰.

He mentions that the heaven is rolled up, that then there is neither heaven nor earth, and that a new earth appears in the new world ³¹.

He says he found that about ninety percent of the questions of the Companions were about the hereafter (needs_source), and relates that they asked the Prophet to describe the new earth for them and he described it as a white, pure and level land, and he ties this to what is said in Surat Ta Ha, that there is no crookedness in it Ta Ha 107 ³².

He explains that the earth will be level, with no pit, no plateau and no depression, so that everyone is visible to everyone ³³. He mentions that Aisha was alarmed, her first thought being the covering of women, since people come out of their graves naked (needs_source) ³³.

He says the Prophet answered her that the matter is too great for anyone to imagine, so that no one can look at another (needs_source) ³⁴. He then recalls an earthquake that struck Egypt in October 1992 (needs_source) ³⁴.

He tells that after the earthquake the mosques filled with people who prayed the afternoon prayer with him, and that his Monday lesson usually drew ten to fifteen thousand people (needs_source) ³⁵.

He tells a humorous story of a man who came out after the afternoon prayer and found a crowd gathered; out of curiosity, which the Sheikh regards as a trait of the Arabs, he went in and found a famous dancer whom the earthquake had caught on one of the floors; the story is cut off in the recording (needs_source) ³⁶.

In describing the slaughter of death between Paradise and the Fire, the Sheikh relates that people had all feared the end of life by death, whose symbol is the slaughtering, and then the caller cries, People of Paradise, eternity without death, and People of the Fire, eternity without death; the people of Paradise grow in joy and the people of the Fire in grief and sorrow ³⁷.

The Sheikh says that the book of good and bad deeds a person receives on the Day of Resurrection is in his own handwriting, and compares it to someone signing a declaration that states his name and what he has willed, followed by his signature and the date; he asks who wrote these words ³⁸.

So the person becomes a witness against himself for what his hands put forward, as if he had written with his own hand what he did in the world; the book leaves out no small or great deed without counting it, and God wrongs no one ³⁹.

He speaks of the scale, whether it is one scale or several, and whether each group with its imam has a scale by which its deeds are weighed, and says there are many views on this and that he will not go into the details of the hereafter now ⁴⁰.

He mentions a hadith in Sahih Muslim that ninety-nine scrolls are brought out for a servant from beneath the Throne, each scroll as far as the eye can see (needs_source) ⁴¹.

He relates that the servant says God does not wrong him and is told to take his own account; the Sheikh reckons that if he lived eighty years and fifteen are subtracted, sixty-five years remain to be accounted for (needs_source) ⁴².

He says that if one transcribes a sixty-minute lecture onto paper one sees how many pages it takes, so what of everything a person says and does being recorded over a whole lifetime ⁴³.

He lists what is written: wronging others and being wronged, acts of worship such as prayer, fasting, pilgrimage and charity, and the rights of neighbours, spouse, children, state, homeland, environment, insects and animals, all arranged by rights and wrongs ⁴⁴.

He says the book leaves out nothing small or great, and that we forget; no one remembers what he did in March of last year ⁴⁵.

He says that everything is recorded on the Day of Resurrection, that the disbeliever then says he wishes he were dust, and that creatures take their rights from one another ⁴⁶.

He relates the hadith of the woman who entered the Fire because of a cat she confined, neither feeding it nor letting it eat the vermin of the earth, and says rights are restored between creatures, animals included (needs_source) ⁴⁷.

He says that after some animals are given redress against others, God tells the animals, birds, insects and vermin to become dust and they become dust, so that the disbeliever on that day wishes he were dust; he asks God for deliverance (needs_source) ⁴⁸.

::perspectives

• Sunni view (not yet sourced): The Sunni position on the number of scales has not yet been sourced.
• The speaker's view (opinion): The Sheikh says that on the question of the scale, whether it is one or several, there are many views, and he does not go into them ⁴⁰.
• Academic and other views (not yet sourced): Academic and other views have not yet been sourced. :::

The Sheikh mentions the second blast, when people stand up looking on, and the spirits are returned to the bodies ⁴⁹.

He says that everything of the son of Adam perishes except the tailbone, and that people are raised in the form of their father Adam, sixty cubits tall, which the Sheikh estimates at between ten and fifteen metres (needs_source) ⁵⁰.

He says that men and women will then be of one age, thirty-three years, and that the servants stand in a state of bewilderment, not knowing where to go (needs_source) ⁵¹.

He mentions that hearts on that day tremble with fear and eyes are humbled, that a person on waking finds the earth changed, and that the disbelievers who denied the resurrection in the world ask whether they will go back to the graves ⁵².

He describes the new earth as like molten silver, with no pit and no high hill, a land on which no sin was ever committed, no blood shed and no wrong done; people head first to our father Adam, where the matter of intercession and the beginning of the reckoning starts ⁵³.

The Sheikh notes that today's lesson in Surat al-A'raf dealt with the various calls between the people of Paradise, the people of the Fire and the people of al-A'raf, and then moves us to the abode of the hereafter with Surat al-Nazi'at ⁵⁴.

He says that people will then divide into three groups, and that one group is plainly those for whom the best has gone before from God, and they enter Paradise by God's mercy ⁵⁵.

He mentions that the Prophet himself said he would not enter Paradise by his deeds unless God covered him with His mercy, and he describes the second group as the companions of the Fire ⁵⁶.