Afterlife and eschatology
Family: Belief and worship · 36 entries
Entries on this theme
Event
The Prophet's dream of the two gold bracelets, interpreted as the two liars
between 631 and 632 CE · 10 AHThe Prophet addressed the people from his minbar saying he had seen the Night of Power and then been made to forget it, and had seen on his arms two gold bracelets which he disliked and blew away, interpreting them as the two liars, the man of Yemen and the man of al-Yamama, that is al-Aswad al-Ansi and Musaylima; Ibn Ishaq has it from Yazid ibn Abdullah ibn Qusayt from Ata' ibn Yasar or his brother Sulayman from Abu Sa'id al-Khudri. He also reports from Abu Hurayra that the Hour will not come until thirty impostors appear, each claiming prophethood.The farewell prayer over the martyrs of Uhud
c. April 632 CE · Safar 11 AHIn early Safar 11 AH the Prophet went out to Uhud and prayed over the martyrs 'as one bidding farewell to the living and the dead', then said from the minbar that he was their forerunner, that he could see his Basin, and that he feared not polytheism for them but rivalry over the world.The night supplication at al-Baqi'
c. May 632 CE · Safar 11 AHOne night in the last days the Prophet went out at midnight to al-Baqi' cemetery, greeted its people, prayed forgiveness for them, foretold coming trials 'like the segments of dark night', and promised them 'we are following you'.Umar's denial of the Prophet's death and Abu Bakr's reply
8 June 632 CE · 12 Rabi' I 11 AHWhen the Prophet died, Umar stood up and said that some hypocrites claimed he had died, that he had not died but had gone to his Lord as Moses did, and would return to cut off the hands and feet of men who said he was dead. Abu Bakr came, uncovered the Prophet's face and kissed him, then went out and said: whoever worshipped Muhammad, Muhammad has died; whoever worshipped God, God lives and does not die; and recited the verse about the messengers. Umar said that when he heard Abu Bakr recite it he collapsed, knowing the Prophet was dead.Umar's Friday sermon on the stoning verse and on Abu Bakr's pledge
c. 12 June 632 CE · c. Rabi' I 11 AHOn the first Friday after the death Umar recalled a verse of stoning, which he said had been in God's book and had been recited, memorised and applied, and feared that someone might say there is no stoning in God's book; he then called the pledge to Abu Bakr a sudden act that God had averted the harm of, and said whoever pledges to a man without consultation has no pledge, nor has the one he pledged to.The torment of the Day of the Shadow
In al-Mas'udi the Day of the Shadow fell in king Kalamn's reign at Madyan — a door of fire opened from the sky while Shu'ayb sheltered at the thicket of al-Ayka, and the white pleasant cloud the people drove the believers into became their fire; Kalamn's daughter Haritha lamented him from the Hijaz.
Concept
Islamic eschatology
Islamic eschatology is the part of the creed concerned with death, the signs of the Hour, resurrection, reckoning and recompense; the Tahawiyya and its Sharh devote a chapter to belief in the signs of the Hour, noting that scholars devoted whole works to its hadiths.Loss and gain in time (al-khusr)
Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy's reading of Sura al-Asr as a measure of gain and loss in a person's life: a person is in loss unless he combines faith, righteous deeds, the call to truth and patience; he compares it with Sura al-Duha.Companions of the Fire and of Paradise
Sha'rawi holds that companionship means affection and constant attachment: the Fire clings to those who disbelieve and rejoices in them, and Paradise clings to the righteous believers and is glad of them, and that eternal dwelling in the Fire is an unending punishment that is not lightened.The most beautiful names of God (asma' Allah al-husna)
The most beautiful names of God: 'God has ninety-nine names — a hundred less one — whoever enumerates them enters Paradise', reported by Bukhari and Muslim; Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya devoted a section to them in Jala' al-Afham.Selling self and wealth to God (bay al-nafs wal-mal ila Allah)
Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy presents the giving of self and wealth in the way of God as a contract of sale in which God is the buyer and Paradise the price, and advises the Muslim to renew the contract every day.The Dajjal
In Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy's lessons, the Dajjal is the trial of the last days. He mentions that he carries food and drink, so that those in need of bread are tested by him, and he gives the answer found in the reports that believers are provided for through remembrance.The transience of the world (fana al-dunya)
The transience of the world in Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy's teaching in the series 'Al Fawzu Al Moubeen': the world is a temporary visit after which people return to their abode, and it is fickle and does not last; the parable of the flawed palace; the fall of tyrants; the world measured by a person's span within it; and Noah's saying about the world with two doors.Ghurbat al-Islam (the strangeness of Islam)
Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy holds that Islam began as a strange thing and will return strange, and that the second strangeness is harder than the first.Hamm (resolve or intention of the heart, and its legal effect)
Hamm in the legal sense is the resolve of the heart to do something, good or bad, before doing it; it is stronger than a passing thought. Most scholars hold that one who resolves on a good deed and does not do it has a full good deed recorded, and one who resolves on an evil deed and leaves it has a good deed recorded if he left it for God's sake; the jurists differ on the reward of one who left it for another reason. Al-Baqillani and others hold that the resolve that is not recorded is the passing thought without settled purpose, while a firm resolve is held against the person; they differ on whether a firm resolve to commit an act of the limbs is punished, some holding that it is punished by reproach rather than by torment. Some jurists hold one who resolves on sin within the Sacred Precinct is held to account, while others hold the pardon for resolve general in and outside the Precinct. Resolving on unbelief, or firmly intending it for the future, is held by al-Nawawi and others to be unbelief at once, but a passing whisper does not count.Hilal (the crescent and the lunar month for the law)
Hilal in the lexical sense is the moon in a particular state; technically it is the first sighting of the lit part of the moon on the first night. The law made the crescents times for people: the deferred dealings and the rites (the pilgrimage, fasting, the breaking of the fast) and the matters with legal effects, such as the waiting period, the period of nursing and the period of the oath of abstention. Jurists hold that only the lawgiver fixes the times of worship, while the times of transactions are agreed by the parties; an unqualified month is taken as a lunar month. The size of the crescent is no guide to the start of the month; what counts is the night of sighting.Hur al-'ayn (companions of paradise)
The hur al-'ayn in Islamic conception are among the promised blessings of paradise for the believers; Ibn Kathir mentions them in the chapters interpreting paradise's description, and the Sharh al-Tahawiyya details the gates of paradise and its bliss.Hur al-ayn in Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy's lecture
Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy says that the hur al-ayn are women whom God created with His own hand and are not like the wives of this world. He holds that the women of paradise do not age and that husband and wife rise together.Shafa'a (intercession: good and bad, in the hereafter, for prescribed penalties, and the gift it may bring)
Intercession is speaking on another's behalf so that a person gains a benefit or is spared harm. It is good when the law approves it, and bad when it is for what the law dislikes or forbids. The Sunni community agree that intercession will take place in the hereafter for believers who have sinned, and the scholars list five kinds of it. Intercession for a prescribed penalty is forbidden once the case has reached the ruler and permitted before that; it is allowed, and even recommended, for discretionary penalties unless the person interceded for is a wicked one. Taking a gift for intercession is unlawful when it is for a forbidden purpose, to drop a right, or to aid oppression, and the jurists differ where it lifts a wrong.Israfil (the angel of the trumpet)
Israfil is the angel charged with blowing the trumpet. In Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy's lessons the two blasts separate worldly life from resurrection, and he notes that some reported details have a weak chain of transmission, though other reports support them (needs_source).Jahannam (the Fire)
Jahannam in Sunni creed is the already-created abode of punishment in the hereafter — 'Paradise and the Fire are created, never perishing'; the commentary treats the grave sinners of the community and their standing toward it.Jannah (Paradise)
In Sunni creed al-janna is the already-created abode of reward in the hereafter — 'Paradise and the Fire are created, never perishing' — the home God admits the believers to by His mercy.Gardens of Eden (jannat 'adn)
The Gardens of Eden (jannat 'adn) in the Qur'anic text are among paradise's names; Ibn Kathir reports that God created the Garden of Eden with His own hand, and the creed affirms paradise is created and never perishes.The garden of trial (where Adam dwelt)
Sha'rawi holds that the garden in which Adam and his wife dwelt was not the eternal Garden but a garden of trial for applying the method, since it carried a duty and the Hereafter has none, and that the Qur'an uses the word jannah for gardens of this world too.The endings of deeds (khawatim)
That deeds are weighed by their endings; in his commentary on Ibn Masud's hadith Ibn Rajab explains 'deeds are but by their endings' as meaning that what counts is the state — sound or corrupt — in which the deed ends, that an evil ending comes through a hidden inward corrupting trait in the servant that people do not see, and that 'endings are the legacy of what preceded'; hence the early generations' intense fear of a bad ending and their fear that lesser hypocrisy might overcome them at the end and carry them into greater hypocrisy, while the Prophet often prayed 'O turner of hearts, make my heart firm on Your religion'.The book of deeds (kitab al-a'mal)
The book of deeds as Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy describes it in the series 'Al Fawzu Al Moubeen': the sheets flying and hanging from the necks, the books received from different directions, reading it as an examination result is read, and its counting of every small and great thing on the Day of Judgement.Angels in Islam (mala'ika)
Belief in the angels is a pillar of faith in Sunni creed: 'we believe in the angels and the prophets and the books sent down to the messengers, and we bear witness that they were upon manifest truth'.Angels in the jurists' discussion (malaika)
In the lexicon a malak is a subtle luminous body, and the angels are its plural, dwelling in the heavens. Belief in them is a pillar of the creed, and denying their existence is unbelief by the agreement of the Muslims. They were created of light, neither eat, drink nor sleep, and can take human forms by God's permission. They worship God in full obedience and are charged with tasks over every kind of creature; their chiefs are Jibril, Mikail and Israfil. The jurists differ on whether they excel the rest of mankind, and agree that whoever curses or mocks the angels, or denies them, is an unbeliever to be killed, while they differ on whether he is to be asked to repent.The stages of human life
Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy says that human life has five stages (needs_source) The first is the world of the dharr before the creation of Adam, when God took the covenant from the souls, the second is the world of the wombs, and the third is the world of witnessing, which is this life; this stage ends with the start of what the opening of Surat an-Nazi'at addresses.Shahid (martyr: the rank of martyrs, the kinds of martyr, washing and prayer over the dead, the shroud and burial)
In the jurists' usage a martyr is a Muslim who dies in fighting the unbelievers or because of it, and some other people are counted with him in matters of the hereafter. His rank with God is high, as the Qur'an and the sunna show. The jurists divide martyrs into the martyr of this world and the next, who dies advancing in battle so that God's word is highest, and the martyr of the next world only, who dies of a bowel disease, plague, drowning or the like. The jurists differ on washing and praying over the martyr of the battlefield: the Shafi'is and Malikis forbid both, the Hanafis require washing, the Hanbalis forbid washing; he is buried in his clothes after the weapons are removed. Two or three may be buried in one grave.What accompanies a person to the grave
What accompanies a person to the grave, in Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy's account: goods stay behind, family walks him to the grave, and only his deeds go in with him. He gives his account of burial and the grave, presenting the narrations as his own; some are not sourced in the recording.The sirat
The sirat in the creed is the bridge stretched over Jahannam that people cross on the Day of Resurrection; the Sharh al-Tahawiyya describes it as finer than a sword's edge, slippery.God's promise (wa'd Allah)
God's promise as Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy presents it in the tenth lesson of 'Al Fawzu Al Moubeen': God is truer than any promise and His promise to the believers of Paradise is true; the example of the father and the son; what the past tense in the verse signifies; what reassures the believer about the promise; and a comparison between God's promise and people's keeping of their own word.Wahy (revelation)
Wahy in Islamic conception is God's speech sent down to His messengers; 'we bear witness that the Qur'an is the speech of the Lord of the worlds', and the Sharh details that the Qur'an is not created.The Day of Resurrection (Yawm al-Qiyama)
The Day of Resurrection in Sunni creed: belief in the raising, the requital of deeds, the presentation, the reckoning, the reading of the book, reward and punishment, the sirat and the scales; and belief in the signs of the Hour — the Dajjal's emergence, the descent of 'Isa, the sun rising from the west, and the Beast of the earth.
Object
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