What is the Condition the People will be Resurrected in

RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam says, “You will be resurrected barefoot, naked and uncircumcised.” Then RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam recited the ayah, where Allah says, “[...]as We began the first creation, We shall repeat it, (it is) a promise binding upon Us. Truly, We shall do it.” (21:104)

So Allah is going to return you in the exact form when you were born – naked, barefoot and uncircumcised. Allah will bring you once again in your natural state.

When ‘Aa`isha heard this, she was concerned that men and women are going to be in the same place, naked. [Here is the hadith from Bukhaari of her conversation with the Prophet sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam:]

Allah’s Apostle said, “The people will be gathered barefooted, naked, and uncircumcised.” I said, “O Allah’s Apostle! Will the men and the women look at each other?” He said, “The situation will be too hard for them to pay attention to that.” [Bukhaari 8/76/534]

Who Will be Dressed First?

We know that people are going to start out naked, but then Allah subhaana wa ta’aala will dress them. RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam says that the first one to be dressed on the day of judgement is Ibraheem [Abraham], the friend of Allah subhaana wa ta’aala.

[You can refer to the hadith of Muslim here.]

RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam said that he will be dressed in a dress from Jannah. Then RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam says, “And then I will be dressed next with a dress from Jannah that no one would have similar to.” RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam will be given the best dress, but the first to be dressed will be Ibraheem ‘alayhis salaam. And this is a blessing and uniqueness that Allah has given to Ibraheem.

Who is the first one whose grave will open

Muhammad sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, whose grave is in AlMadinah, will be the first one whose grave will open up.

RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam says, “I am the leader of mankind on the day of judgement and I am the first one whose grave will open on the day of judgement.”

In another authentic hadith, a Muslim had a dispute with a Jew. The Jew said, “In the name of the One who revealed the tawrah on Musa” so this Muslim hit him and started praising Muhammad sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam. So the Jew came and complained to RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam. RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam said, “Do not prefer me over Musa, because I will be the first one to come out of his grave, but I will find that Musa is already holding onto the throne of Allah subhaana wa ta’aala. So I do not know whether he was included in the ones who were dead in the first blow or not.”

What does this hadith mean – ‘do not say that I am better than Musa’? Obviously, RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam did say in many ahaadith that he is the leader of mankind. We believe that RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam is the greatest of all of the ambiya, but RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam does not want us to say that when we are in a conversation with a non believer because we are just putting down the ambiya just to make the non believer upset. The ambiya of Allah belong to this Ummah, not to anybody else. Musa belongs to the Ummah of Islam. That’s why when RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam went to Madinah and saw the Jews fasting, he asked why they were fasting, and they said, “This is the day in which Allah has saved Musa from Fir’awn.” RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam said, “Musa belongs to us more than he does to them, so we should fast this day.”

We should not go to the Jew and say, “Muhammad is better than your Prophet!” We should not go the Christian and say, “Muhammad is better than your Prophet!” We are putting the Messengers of Allah down; we need to show the respect we have for all Messengers, even though we believe Muhammad sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam is the one Allah chose out of all of his creation.

How will the Resurrection Occur

Allah will send down a rain after everything is destroyed and dead. We will grow from our seeds. What are our seeds? RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam told us in a hadith that every part of our body will decompose except for a small part of our body – at the bottom of our spines. That small part will remain intact and that will be the seed we are going to grow from. Allah will send down a liquid from the sky (different from water) and we will grow up from that small seed.

RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam says in a hadith in Bukhaari, “Between the two shouts is forty.” RasulAllah was asked, “Forty days?” He did not respond. “Forty months?” He did not respond. He was asked, “Forty years?” Still, RasulAllah did not respond. So we do not know. RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam said that a fluid will fall from the sky and then we would grow up like plants would grow. Everything in the human being will decompose except for ajab udh-dhanab, and that is what the human body would grow out of it.

That is why you will find when Allah talks about the Resurrection, He ties it up with the growing of plants. SubhaanAllah!

Allah says, “And it is Allah who sends the winds so that they raise up the clouds and we drive them to a dead land and revive the earth therewith after its death. As such will be the resurrection.” Allah is telling us to look at the dead earth, and how He revives the plants. This is the exact thing that will happen with us on the day of resurrection.

Allah will Assemble All

Allah will assemble everyone, whether this human was lost in the depths of the ocean or this human being was in the dungeons of the earth. Allah will bring them all together. Allah says: “[...] 

Wheresoever you may be, Allah will bring you together (on the Day of Resurrection). Truly, Allah is Able to do all things.” (2:148) Wherever you may be – even in outer space – Allah will bring you together, because all of this universe belongs to Allah subhaana wa ta’aala.

Allah says, “We bought them together, we did not leave any one of them.” Even the animals will be included. Allah says, “When the wild beasts are herded together.” (81:5)

Abu Hurayrah radiyallahu ‘anhu says, “On the Day of Judgment, Allah subhaana wa ta’aala will assemble all of the creation: the beasts, the birds, even the insects; everything. And Allah subhaana wa ta’aala will be Judge on that day, because His Name is the Judge (al ‘Adl). And of the justice of Allah subhaana wa ta’aala, Allah will take revenge for the goat that did not have horns from the goat that did have horns.” In the dunya, it could’ve been that the goat with horns took advantage of the goat without horns and hurt it. Abu Hurayrah said that Allah will take revenge for that goat without horns. After every dispute is settled, then Allah will tell the beasts and animals to be turaab – dirt; and they would turn into dirt. And that is when the non believer would say, “I wish that I was dirt.”

Allah subhaana wa ta’aala says in the Qur’an, “And the non believer will say, ‘I wish that I am dirt.’” The non believer will wish they never lived or existed. This non believer who was so careful to save money and live in this money and enjoy himself; he will wish he were dirt. [Just a personal note....we as Muslims care too much for the dunya as well.]

Al Ba’ath wa An-Nushur (Resurrection)

Allah described it and said, “And the trumpet will be blown and behold, from the graves they will come out quickly to their Lord. They will say, ‘Woe to us! Who has raised us up from our place of sleep? This is what the Most Gracious has promised us and the Messengers spoke the truth.’ It will be but a single shout, and behold, they will all be bought before us.”

Notice here – they said, “Who has woke us up from our sleep?” When you are sleeping, the worst thing that can happen is that you wake up in a state of surprise. When you’re sleeping, you want to wake up slowly and calmly. You’ll find that when you suddenly wake someone up, that person wakes up disoriented. Imagine waking up from the graves after a long state of sleep…

They will come out from the graves. What will they see? Mountains exploding; the oceans in flames; the planets knocked out of their orbits; the sun will be just above their heads; the people will be running around them as if they are drunk. They are not drunk, but the punishment of Allah is severe. That is why they will say, “Woe be to us!” Allah is telling us their response.

First, imagine that a child is coming out of the grave. This child died when he was one year old. On the day of resurrection, he comes out and sees the nations of the worlds on their knees; some covered up in sweat. He sees everything else mentioned above. What do you think the response of this child will be?

Allah says in the Qur’an, “How will you save yourselves from a day [if you disbelieve] that will make a child gray-headed?”

The horrors of that day will turn that child’s head gray. That child hasn’t even sinned! What will happen to us – who are insisting on sins and not repenting?

That is the day – yawm al adheem.