Importance of that Day & Outline

If you want to know the importance of akhirah compared to dunya, use a simple mathematical equation. We’re going to live in dunya for 60, 70, 100 years? The akhirah is infinity. If you divide a hundred by infinity, what do you get? 0. So it is 0 importance to akhirah. The sahabah knew this without having to do any equations. Their khutub (lessons) were about akhirah; their reminders were about akhirah. RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam would give them speeches about akhirah. Qur’aan mentions akhirah with elaborate details.

There was a Bedouin, A’araabi, who made a du’aa` in front of RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam. And he sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam was very impressed with this du’aa`; he liked it a lot. The du’aa` is long, but we will mention the last part of it, “….I ask you to make the best of my deeds the last ones and the best of my life, the end of it. Oh Allah, make the best of my days, the day I meet you.” What day did he choose to be his best? The day of his graduation or his marriage ceremony? No! The day that he meets Allah subhaana wa ta’aala; the day of judgment. There’s a lot of wisdom in this; if that day goes fine, then you’re fine. If things go well for you that day, you’re good. If things go wrong that day, then it won’t matter how pleasant or happy your life in the dunya was, then you have lost everything.

I picked up this writing from an excellent series of books by ‘Umar alAshqar in ‘aqeedah. It’s divided into different sections, and he gave a whole section to alakhirah. It is divided into AlQiyaamah as-sughrah, alQiyaamah alQubra, al-jannah wa an-naar. And shaykh ‘Umar alAshqar has dug into the mothers of books (the traditional old books we can buy from scholars on Islam). He bought for us the treasures from those books. This book is unfortunately not in English, but we will be using his format as an outline.

He divides the situation of people into three: 

1. The disbelievers 

2. The Muslims who are sinners and 

3. The muttaqeen.