Unfolding the Events of The Last Day | Part 2 of 5

Resurrection

After Allah destroys this universe, and everything other than Allah perishes, He will bring people back to life for the Day of Return. At His order, the angel Israfil will blow the Horn, and souls will return to bodies and people rise to face the Lord of Creation.

And the Horn will be blown, and whoever is in the heavens and whoever is on the earth will fall dead except whom Allah wills. Then it will be blown again, and at once they will be standing, looking on. [Surat Al-Zumar, 39:68]

Allah also says,

And the Horn will be blown; and at once from the graves to their Lord they will hasten. They will say, ‘O woe to us! Who has raised us up from our sleeping place?’ [The reply will be], ‘This is what the Most Merciful had promised; the messengers told the truth.’ It will not be but one blast, and at once they are all brought present before Us. [Surat Ya Sin, 36:52]

A tradition cited by Muslim says,

Allah will send rain with which He will grow the bodies of people. Then the Horn will be blown one more time, and they will be standing, looking on.

This is supported by Allah’s words,

From it [i.e., the earth] We created you, and into it We will return you, and from it We will extract you another time. [Surat Ta Ha, 20:55]

Allah, the Most Glorious and Sublime, gives in the Glorious Quran many comparisons of Resurrection to the regeneration of a land with plants after rain. Allah says,

And it is Allah who sends the winds, and they stir the clouds, and We drive them to a dead land and give life thereby to the earth after its lifelessness. Thus is the resurrection. [Surat Fatir, 35:9]

Allah, the Most Glorious and Sublime, places in every human being a bone which the earth can never consume and from which creatures will be reconstructed on the Day of Resurrection. It is the coccygeal tip, as mentioned in a tradition cited by both Bukhari and Muslim. The first to be brought back to life and emerge from the cracking open grave will be the Prophet who says,

I am the master of Adam’s offspring on the Day of Resurrection, the first for whom the tomb cracks open, the first interceder, and the first whose intercession is accepted. (Tirmidhi)

The Book of Allah and the traditions of the Prophet are replete with reminders about the Day of Resurrection. All prophets and messengers told their people about it, and about the good prospect of Paradise and the threat of Hell. Allah says that unbelievers will admit on the Day of Resurrection that their messengers have warned them of the Hereafter. Allah says,

Every time a company is thrown into it, its keepers ask them, ‘Did there not come to you a warner?’ They will say, ‘Yes, a warner had come to us, but we denied and said, ‘Allah has not sent down anything.’ [Surat Al-Mulk, 67:8-9]

In narrating the story of Noah, Allah says,

And Allah has caused you to grow from the earth a [progressive] growth. Then He will return you into it and extract you [another] extraction. [Surat Nuh, 71:17-18]

And in a supplication, Abraham says,

‘Our Lord, forgive me and my parents and the believers on the Day when the account is established.’ [Surat Ibrahim, 14:41]

Likewise, the believer among Pharaoh’s people was certain that Resurrection would come. Allah quotes him as saying,

Assuredly, that to which you invite me has no [response to a] supplication in this world or in the Hereafter; and indeed, our return is to Allah, and indeed, the transgressors will be companions of the Fire. [Surat Ghafir, 40:43]

Other Divine Books, revealed by Allah, the Most Sublime, contained many references to the Last Day, warning against it, and announcement of the good news of what Allah has prepared for believers. These books, however, went through a lot of distortion. Still, there remain today such passages in the Old and New Testaments. In Chapter 32 of the Deuteronomy text of the Samarian Torah, there is the text:

Have I not kept this in reserve and sealed it in my vaults?  It is mine to avenge; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip. [Bible, Deuteronomy 32:34-35]

In the Book of Daniel, it says,

Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. [Bible, Daniel 12:2]

In the New Testament’s Book of Luke, it says,

The rich man also died and was buried. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up… [Bible, Gospel of Luke, 16:22-23]

One of the books that speaks a lot about Paradise and Hellfire is the Gospel of Barnabas, which is not recognized by the Council of Churches for inclusion in the New Testament, being in agreement with the Qur’an on many rulings but in disagreement with the other books of the Bible on many questions of belief.

Terrors of the Day of Resurrection

The Day of Resurrection will be a tremendous day of great terror, and human beings face no other day like it. Allah says,

Do they not think that they will be resurrected for a tremendous Day – The Day when mankind will stand before the Lord of the worlds? [Surat Al-Mutaffifin, 83:4-6]

He also describes it as grave, saying,

Indeed, these [disbelievers] love the immediate and leave behind them a grave Day. [Surat Al-Insan, 76:27]

In the chapter of Hajj [Pilgrimage], Allah says,

O mankind, fear your Lord. Indeed, the convulsion of the [final] Hour 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 rather the punishment of Allah is severe. [Surat Al-Hajj, 22:1-2]

It is enough for you to know that the hair of an infant will turn white because of the great terrors it will witness. Allah says,

Then how can you shield yourself from fear, if you disbelieve, a Day that will make the children white-haired?  The heavens will break apart there from; ever is His promise fulfilled. [Surat Al-Muzzammil, 73:17-18]

Moreover, kin relations will be severed. No son will ask about his parents, no mother about her children, and no brother about his sibling. Allah says,

So when the Horn is blown, no relationship will there be among them that Day, nor will they ask about one another. [Surat Al-Mu’minun, 23:101]

He also says,

On the Day a man will flee from his brother, and his mother and his father, and his wife and his children, for every man, that Day, will have a matter adequate for him. [Surat ‘Abasa, 80:34-37]

On that day, unbelievers will be willing to give everything to be relieved of punishment, and if they own everything on earth twice-over, they will be ready to use it to ransom themselves. Allah says,

. . . but those who did not respond to Him—if they had all that is in the earth entirely and the like of it with it, they would [attempt to] ransom themselves thereby. Those will have the worst account, and their refuge is Hell, and wretched is the resting place. [Surat Al-Ra’d,13:18]

…To be continued in Part 3, insha’Allah.