SERIES 3:THE DAY OF
RESURRECTION
When Allah mentions the day of resurrection in the Qur'an, He calls it
"the day that the caller will call (them) unto something not known…"
(Surat
al-Qamar, 6) The terror of this day is something that human beings cannot know
because they have never encountered anything like it.
Only Allah knows the arrival time of that day. People's learning about
this day is limited to what is related in the Qur'an. The day of resurrection
will come all of a sudden when nobody expects it.
This day may seize people when they work in their office, sleep at their
home, talk on the phone, read a book, laugh, cry or drop their children off at
school. Furthermore, this seizure will be so horrifying that no one will have
seen anything like it in his lifetime.
The day of resurrection starts with the sounding of the trumpet (Surat al-Muddaththir,
8-10). When this sound is heard all over the world, those who have not used the
time given to them by Allah for gaining His good pleasure will be seized by a
great fear. Allah describes in the Qur'an the horrifying events that will
happen on that day:
Nay, the hour (of judgement) is the time promised them
(for their full recompense): And that hour will be most grievous and most
bitter. (Surat
al-Qamar, 46)
As the verses relate, the sounding of the trumpet is
followed by a great tremor and a roaring so violent as to deafen the ears. In
the intensity of this din, the mountains start to shake and slide with the
earth beneath them (Surat
al-Zalzala, 1-8).
Mountains are crumbled to atoms and become a scattered dust (Surat al-Waqia, 5). At
that moment, people very well understand how trivial are the things that they
have hitherto cherished. All the material values they have pursued throughout
their lives suddenly vanish:
Therefore, when there comes the great, overwhelming
(event),- the day when man shall remember (all) that he strove for, and
hell-fire shall be placed in full view for (all) to see. (Surat an-Naziat, 34-36)
On that day, even the mountains made up of stones, earth and rocks are
dispersed like carded wool (Surat
al-Qaria, 5) Man now becomes aware that this power is not the power of nature.
For on that day, nature also is laid low. A tremendous fear and horror rule
over all that happens that day. People, animals, and nature are all overwhelmed
by this horror. People see that the oceans burst forth (Surat
al-Infitar, 3) and that they are set on fire (Surat at-Takwir, 6).
The heavens start shaking just like the earth and they start to be torn
away, in a way hitherto unwitnessed. The usual blue colour of the sky that
people are accustomed to is transformed and resembles molten brass (Surat al-Maarij, 8). On
this day, everything in the sky that used to give light is suddenly darkened;
the sun is folded up (Surat at-Takwir, 1), the
moon is cleft asunder (Surat
al-Qamar, 1), and the sun and the moon are joined together. (Surat al-Qiyama, 9)
Pregnant women lose their children because of the horrifying fear of
that day. The fear makes children hoary-headed (Surat al-Muzammil, 17). Children run away
from their mothers, women from their husbands, and families from one another.
Allah tells the reason in the Qur'an:
At length, when there comes the deafening noise, that
day shall a man flee from his own brother, and from his mother and his father,
and from his wife and his children. Each one of them, that day, will have
enough concern (of his own) to make him indifferent to the others. (Surah
Abasa, 33-37)
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