Allah, the Exalted, said:
٥٠ - باب الخوف
Allah, the Exalted, said:
O Children of Israel, remember My favor which I have bestowed upon you and fulfill My covenant [upon you] that I will fulfill your covenant [from Me], and be afraid of [only] Me.
And the Exalted said:
Indeed, the assault [i.e., vengeance] of your Lord is severe.
And the Exalted said:
And thus is the seizure of your Lord when He seizes the cities while they are committing wrong. Indeed, His seizure is painful and severe.
And the Exalted said:
Let not believers take disbelievers as allies [i.e., supporters or protectors] rather than believers. And whoever [of you] does that has nothing [i.e., no association] with Allāh, except when taking precaution against them in prudence.1 And Allāh warns you of Himself, and to Allāh is the [final] destination.
And the Exalted said:
On the Day a man will flee from his brother
And the Exalted said:
O mankind, fear your Lord. Indeed, the convulsion of the [final] Hour is a terrible thing.
And the Exalted said:
But for he who has feared the position of his Lord1 are two gardens -
And the Exalted said:
And they will approach one another, inquiring of each other.
The verses on this subject are very many and well known; the aim is merely to point to some of them, and that has been accomplished:
As for the hadiths, they are very many, so we shall mention a portion of them; and from Allah comes success:
On the authority of Ibn Masʿud (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) — and he is the truthful, the trusted — narrated to us: "Indeed, each one of you has his creation gathered together in his mother's womb for forty days as a drop, then he becomes a clinging clot for a like period, then he becomes a lump of flesh for a like period. Then the angel is sent to him and breathes the soul into him, and he is commanded with four matters: to record his provision, his appointed term, his deeds, and whether he will be wretched or happy. By Him besides whom there is no deity, one of you may do the deeds of the people of Paradise until there is between him and it but a cubit, and then what is written overtakes him, so he does the deeds of the people of the Fire and enters it; and one of you may do the deeds of the people of the Fire until there is between him and it but a cubit, and then what is written overtakes him, so he does the deeds of the people of Paradise and enters it." Agreed upon (al-Bukhārī and Muslim).
On his authority also, he said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Hell will be brought forth on that Day, having seventy thousand bridles; with each bridle there will be seventy thousand angels dragging it along." Narrated by Muslim.
On the authority of al-Nuʽmān ibn Bashīr (may Allah be pleased with them both), who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: “The lightest in punishment among the people of the Fire on the Day of Resurrection will be a man under the soles of whose feet two embers are placed, from which his brain boils. He will not think that anyone is punished more severely than he, though he is in fact the lightest of them in punishment.” Agreed upon.
On the authority of Samura ibn Jundub (may Allah be pleased with him): the Prophet of Allah ﷺ said: “Among them is one whom the Fire takes up to his ankles, among them is one whom it takes up to his knees, among them is one whom it takes up to his waist, and among them is one whom it takes up to his collarbone.” Narrated by Muslim. “Al-ḥujza” is the place where the lower garment is fastened, below the navel; and “al-tarqūwa” — with a fatḥa on the tāʾ and a ḍamma on the qāf — is the bone at the pit of the throat, and a person has two collarbones on the two sides of the throat.
On the authority of Ibn ʽUmar (may Allah be pleased with them both): the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “People will stand before the Lord of the Worlds until one of them sinks in his sweat up to the middle of his ears.” Agreed upon. “Al-rashḥ” means sweat.
On the authority of Anas (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ delivered to us a sermon the like of which I had never heard, and he said: “If you knew what I know, you would laugh little and weep much.” So the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ covered their faces, sobbing. Agreed upon. In another narration: something concerning his Companions reached the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, so he gave a sermon and said: “Paradise and the Fire were displayed to me, and I have never seen anything like today in good and in evil; and if you knew what I know, you would laugh little and weep much.” No day harder than that ever came upon the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ: they covered their heads, sobbing. “Al-khanīn” — with the dotted khāʾ — is weeping accompanied by a nasal sound and a sniffing of the voice through the nose.
On the authority of al-Miqdād (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: “On the Day of Resurrection the sun will be brought near to the creatures until it is the distance of a mile from them.” Sulaym ibn ʽĀmir, the narrator from al-Miqdād, said: By Allah, I do not know what he meant by “mile” — whether the measure of distance on the earth or the kohl-stick (mīl) with which the eye is anointed. He said: “So people will be, according to the measure of their deeds, in sweat: among them is one who will be up to his ankles, among them is one who will be up to his knees, among them is one who will be up to his waist, and among them is one whom the sweat will bridle completely.” He said: And the Messenger of Allah ﷺ pointed with his hand to his mouth. Narrated by Muslim.
On the authority of Abū Hurayra (may Allah be pleased with him): the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “People will sweat on the Day of Resurrection until their sweat sinks into the earth seventy cubits, and it will bridle them until it reaches their ears.” Agreed upon. The meaning of “it sinks into the earth” is that it descends and plunges down.
And on his authority, who said: We were with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ when he heard a thud, and he said: “Do you know what this is?” We said: Allah and His Messenger know best. He said: “This is a stone that was cast into the Fire seventy autumns ago; it has been falling through the Fire until now, when it has reached its bottom — so you heard its thud.” Narrated by Muslim.
On the authority of ʽAdī ibn Ḥātim (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “There is none among you but his Lord will speak to him, with no interpreter between Him and him. He will look to his right and see nothing but what he has sent forward, and he will look to his left and see nothing but what he has sent forward, and he will look before him and see nothing but the Fire facing his face. So guard yourselves against the Fire, even with half a date.” Agreed upon.
On the authority of Abū Dharr (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “I see what you do not see. The heaven has groaned, and it has every right to groan: there is not in it a space of four fingers but there is an angel placing his forehead in prostration to Allah the Exalted. By Allah, if you knew what I know, you would laugh little and weep much, you would take no pleasure in women upon the beds, and you would go out to the open roads imploring Allah the Exalted.” Narrated by al-Tirmidhī, and he said: “A good (ḥasan) hadith.” “Aṭṭat” — with a fatḥa on the hamza and a shadda on the ṭāʾ — and “taʾiṭṭ” — with a fatḥa on the tāʾ followed by a hamza with a kasra; al-aṭīṭ is the creaking sound of the saddle, the camel-saddle, and the like. Its meaning is that the multitude of worshipping angels in the heaven has so weighed it down that it groans. “Al-ṣuʽudāt” — with a ḍamma on the ṣād and the ʽayn — means the roads; and the meaning of “tajʾarūn” is: you cry out for help.
On the authority of Abū Barza — with a rāʾ then a zāy — Naḍla ibn ʽUbayd al-Aslamī (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “The two feet of a servant will not move on the Day of Resurrection until he is asked about his life — how he spent it; about his knowledge — what he did with it; about his wealth — how he earned it and on what he spent it; and about his body — how he wore it out.” Narrated by al-Tirmidhī, and he said: “A good and sound (ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ) hadith.”
On the authority of Abū Hurayra (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ recited: “That Day it will relate its news” [al-Zalzala: 4], then he said: “Do you know what its news is?” They said: Allah and His Messenger know best. He said: “Its news is that it will testify against every male and female servant concerning what he did upon its surface, saying: You did such-and-such on such-and-such a day. So these are its news.” Narrated by al-Tirmidhī, and he said: “A good and sound (ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ) hadith.”
On the authority of Abū Saʽīd al-Khudrī (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “How can I be at ease, when the holder of the Horn has already put the Horn to his mouth and is listening attentively for the command — awaiting when he will be ordered to blow, ready to blow?” This seemed to weigh heavily upon the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, so he said to them: “Say: Allah is sufficient for us, and what an excellent Guardian He is.” Narrated by al-Tirmidhī, and he said: “A good (ḥasan) hadith.” “Al-qarn” is the Horn (al-ṣūr) of which Allah the Exalted said: “And the Horn will be blown” [al-Kahf: 99] — thus the Messenger of Allah ﷺ explained it.
On the authority of Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Whoever fears [the journey ahead] sets out in the early part of the night, and whoever sets out in the early part of the night reaches the destination. Behold, the commodity of Allah is precious; behold, the commodity of Allah is Paradise." Narrated by al-Tirmidhī, who said: "A good (ḥasan) hadith." And "adlaja", with a sukūn on the dāl, means: he travelled in the early part of the night. What is intended is diligent striving in obedience [to Allah], and Allah knows best.
On the authority of Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her), who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: "People will be gathered on the Day of Resurrection barefoot, naked, and uncircumcised." I said: O Messenger of Allah, the men and the women all together, looking at one another?! He said: "O Aisha, the matter is too severe for that to concern them." And in another narration: "The matter is too grave for them to look at one another." Agreed upon (al-Bukhārī and Muslim). "Ghurlan", with a ḍammah on the dotted ghayn, means: uncircumcised.