Judgement Day in Islam
In Islam, "the promise and threat" of Judgement Day,
is when "all bodies will be resurrected" from the dead, and "all people" are "called to account" for their deeds and their faith during their life on Earth. It has been called "the dominant message" of the holy book of Islam, the Quran, and resurrection and judgement the two themes "central to the understanding of Islamic eschatology."
Judgement Day is considered a fundamental tenet of faith by all Muslims, and one of the six articles of Islamic faith.
The trials, tribulations, and details associated with it are detailed in the Quran and the Hadith ; these have been elaborated on in creeds, Quranic commentaries, theological writing, eschatological manuals to provide more details and a sequence of events on the Day. Islamic expositors and scholarly authorities who have explained the subject in detail include al-Ghazali, Ibn Kathir, Ibn Majah, Muhammad al-Bukhari, and Ibn Khuzaymah.
Names
Among the names of the Day of Resurrection/Judgement used in the Qur'an are:- al-Qari'ah—the Calamity; , Chapter 101 is named al-Qari'ah; the word is found in Q.69:4, 101:1, 101:2, 101:3
- al-Zalzalah—the Earthquake; Surah 99 is name al-Zalzalah; the word is found in Q.99.1
- al-Sa'iqah—the Blast;
- Yawm an Thaqila—the Hard Day;
- Al-Yawm al-Muhit—the Encompassing Day;
- Yawm al-Fasl—the Day of Separation;
- al-Tammah al-Kubra—the Great Disaster;
- al-Haqqah—the Reality;
- Yawm al-Din—the Day of Judgement;
- Yawm al-Haqq—the True Day;
- Yawm al-Ḥisāb—the Day of Reckoning;
- Yawm al-Khuruj—the Day of Exodus ;
- as-sa’a—the Hour is reportedly mentioned 39 times in the Qur’an
- Yawm al-Qiyamah—Day of Resurrection; Literally means the "rising up at the resurrection" although it "has come to signify the entire series of events to take place" on Judgement day, "although technically "al-sā'a means the actual hour", according to scholars Jane Smith and Yvonne Haddad;
- On the Day of Resurrection it is mentioned 70 times in the Qur’an.
- al-Ṣūr—"The Trumpet";
- fanāʾ—the "extinction of all save God".
- al-ḥashr "means the specific gathering together" of resurrected for their judging;
- baʿth "signifies the calling forth for judgement";
- al-maʿād—"the return", "the general term used by theologians for the entire process" of resurrection, judgement and consignment to heaven or hell.
- al-maḥshar—the terror of the place of assembly;
- al-mawqūf—the time of standing before God before being judged by God.
Events
Four segments of end times in Islam can be presented:
- the signs/portents of "The Hour" and other events heralding the imminent end of the world;
- the soundings of the trumpet, the resurrection of the dead, and the gathering together of all living beings ;
- the reckoning where the resurrected are judged;
- the preparation for final consignment to heaven or hell, the crossing of the bridge that the damned fall off of to hell below, and the saved reach the other side, the possibility of intercession to save sinners from hell.
Portents
Destruction and resurrection
Following these portents, the Earth will be destroyed.
When the trumpet is blown with a single blast
and the earth and the mountains are lifted up and crushed with a single blow,
then, on that day, the terror shall come to pass,
and heaven shall be split, for upon that day it shall be very frail.... "
Verses from another surah describe
When the sun shall be darkened
When the stars shall be thrown down
When the seas shall be set boiling
When the souls shall be coupled,...
When the scrolls shall be unrolled
When heavens shall be stripped off,
When Hell shall be set blazing,
When Paradise shall be brought nigh
Then shall a soul know what it has produced.
A second trumpet blast will signal a "final cataclysm", the extinction of all living creatures – even the angel of death himself – save God.
God will then ask three times, "'To whom belongs the Kingdom this day?' No one answers Him so He answers Himself, saying, 'To God who is one alone, victorious!'" Numerous Qur'ānic mentions that every soul will taste death during "the hour" are thought to underscore the absolute power and tawḥīd of God while the resurrection of life demonstrates "His justice and mercy". The time between annihilation of all life and its resurrection is both "beyond all human time constructs" and generally estimated by many commentators to be forty years.
Resurrection
The Afterlife will commence with a trumpet blast, signaling the "Day of the Arising",according to the classical Islamic scholar and theologian al-Ghazali.
The sounding of the trumpet is mentioned at least two times in the Qur'ān, but "the Qur'an itself does not make explicit the chronology
involved with the blowing of the horn" and "it has been for the followers of the Prophet to determine for themselves the exact sequence of events after that."
Know that Isrāfīl is the master of the horn . God created the preserved tablet of white pearl. Its length is seven times the distance between the heaven and the earth and it is connected to the Throne. All that exists until the day of resurrection is written on it. Isrāfīl has four wings—one in the East, one in the West, one covering his legs and one shielding his head and face in fear of God. His head is inclined toward the Throne.... No angel is nearer to the throne than Isrāfīl. Seven veils are between him and the Throne, each veil five hundred years distance from the next...
This will wake the dead from their graves. Bodies will be resurrected and reunited with their spirits to form
"whole, cognizant, and responsible persons".
The first to arise will be the members of the Muslim community, according to "an often-quoted saying" of Muhammad, but will be "subdivided into categories" based on their sins while on earth. The classification of the resurrected into groups comes from "certain narratives" about Judgement Day that "suggest" the grouping, and are based on "a number of scattered verses in the Qur'an indicating the woeful condition" of resurrected sinners.
In the time between resurrection and judgement will be an agonizing wait at the place of assembly , or the time of standing before God
, giving sinners "ample opportunity to contemplate the imminent recompense for
his past faults". The resurrected will gather for "The Perspiration" — a time when all created beings, including men, angels, jinn, devils and animals will sweat, unshaded from the sun, awaiting their fate.
Sinners and nonbelievers will suffer and sweat longer on this day, which some say will last for "50,000 years" and others only 1000.
Judgment
The final judgment where God judges each soul for their lives lived on earth, will be "carried out with absolute justice" accepting no excuses, and examine every act and intention—no matter how small, but "through the prerogative of God's merciful will".Quran verses in Al-Haqqah are thought to refer to the reckoning on Judgement Day:
As for the one who is given his book in his right hand, he will say: Take and read my book.
I knew that I would be called to account.
And he will be in a blissful condition ....
But as for him who is given his book in his left hand, he will say: Would that my book had not been given to me
and that I did not know my reckoning! ...
Seize him and bind him and expose
him to the burning Fire!
"The book" is thought to refer to an account each person has, chronicling the deeds of their life, good and bad. Commentators reports "affirm" that each day in a person's life, "one or two angels" begin a new page, inscribing deeds, and that upon completion, the pages are assembled "in some fashion... into a full scroll or record". On Judgement Day the book is presented to the right hand of the resurrected person if they are going to Jannah, and left if they are to be sent to "the burning fire".
Another version of how the resurrected are judged involves several references in the Quran to mīzān, which some commentators believe refers to a way of balancing the weight of an individual's good deeds and bad on Judgement day, to see which is heavier, as the occurrence stated in Kitāb aḥwāl al-qiyāma, which will span in fifty thousand years.
It is believed those whose good deeds outweigh their bad will be assigned to Jannah, and those whose bad deeds outweigh the good, Jahannam. How much weight is given to internal and how much to external iman, how much to piety and how much to obedience to Islamic law, in the tabulation of good deeds and earning salvation, varies according to the interpretation of scholars. In one manual, hopeful humans are questioned about their behaviour not before they head on the path/bridge to heaven, but during. As they walk the bridge, said to have seven arches, "each 3,000 years in length"; they are interrogated at each arch about a specific religious duty prescribed by the shari'a -- their īmān, their prayer ṣalāt, almsgiving zakāt, pilgrimage ḥajj, ritual washings wudū', ghusl, and responsibility to their relatives", respectively.
While there is no Original Sin in Islam, the Quran does mention the many inherent flaws in the personalities of human beings – weakness, greed, stinginess, pride, etc.
What the common order is of Judgement Day at this point is unclear based on hadith as they disagree on the way God reveals to "the various categories of individuals what their fate is to be".
There are special conditions to those who did not receive teachings of Islam during their life accordingly, the people of the period are judged differently on the Day of Judgement. There is a difference of opinion between scholars of Islam on their afterlife. The rationalist Mu'tazilites believed that every accountable person must reject polytheism and idolatry and believe in an All-Powerful God. Failure to meet these requirements would result in eternal punishment.
On the other hand, the Ash'aris believed that those who did not receive the message would be forgiven, even idolaters. Their premise was that good and evil is based upon revelation; in other words, good and evil are defined by God. Therefore, in the absence of revelation, they cannot be held accountable.
Abu Hamid al-Ghazali categorized non-Muslims into three categories:
- 1. People who never heard of the message, who live in far away lands, such as the Byzantines. These will be forgiven.
- 2. People who were exposed to a distorted understanding of Islam and have no recourse to correct that information. These too will be forgiven.
- 3. People who heard of Islam because they live in neighboring lands and mix with Muslims. These have no hope of salvation.
Imam Nawawi said in his commentary Sharh Sahih Muslim that those who are born into idolatrous families and die without a message reaching them are granted paradise based upon the Qur'anic verse : "We do not punish a people until a messenger comes to them.". According to ibn Taymiyyah, these people who did not receive the message in this world will be tested in the afterlife, or Barzakh. This view also shared and accepted by Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, Abu Hasan al-Ash'ari, and Ibn Kathir, as they all based this ruling according to Hadith about the fates of four kinds of peoples:
- Those who never received the call or teaching to Islam during their life
- Those who suffered deafness before the teaching of Islam reached them
- Those with mental illness and severe insanity
- Those who had suffered senility or dementia when the words of Islam reached them
Muhammad Nasiruddin al-Albani, a Salafi scholar, stated on this matter: “The term Ahl al-Fatrah refers to everyone whom the dawah has not reached in a correct manner as it came in the Shariah… Such people will not be punished on the Day of Judgement . It is quite possible for People of the Interval to exist in every time period, whether before Islam or after. The message has to have reached them in its pristine purity, without any distortions. In cases where the dawah reaches people in a mutilated form in which its essential components; its fundamental principles of belief, have been substituted, I am the first to say that the dawah has not reached them.”