The fifth of the six fundamentals of iman is "to believe in the Last Day (al-Yawm al-akhir)." It begins on the day when a person dies and continues till the end of Doomsday. The reason it is called the "Last Day" is because there is no night to come after it, or because it comes after the world. The "Day" mentioned in this hadith ash-Sharif is not like the day or night we know. It denotes some time. It was not made known when Doomsday will occur. No one could estimate its time. Nevertheless, our Prophet (sall-Allahu ta'ala 'alaihi wa sallam) pointed out many of its harbingers and precedents: Hadrat al-Mahdi (51) will come; 'Isa ('alaihi 's-salam) will descend to Damascus from heaven; ad-Dajjal (52) will appear; people called Yajuj and Majuj (53) will put the whole world into turmoil; the sun will rise from the west; violent earthquakes will occur; religious knowledge will be forgotten; vice and evil will increase; irreligious, immoral, dishonest people will become leaders; Allahu ta'ala's orders will be forbidden; harams will be committed everywhere; fire will come out of Yaman; seas and mountains will split into pieces; the sun and the moon will darken; seas will mix with each other, boil and dry up. A Muslim who does sinful acts is called fasiq. Fasiqs and all disbelievers will be tortured ('adhab) in their graves. These are certainly to be believed. After interment, the deceased will return to an unknown life and will be either at ease or in torture. As it was declared in hadith ash-Sharifs, two angels named munkar and nakir, in the guise of two unknown horrible people, will come to his grave and question him. Questions in the grave will be on some fundamentals of iman according to some scholars or on the whole of iman to some others. For this reason, we should teach our children the answers to the following questions: Who is your rabb (Allah)? What is your religion? Whose umma (which prophet's community) do you belong to? What is [the name of] your Holy Book? What is your qibla? What are your madhhabs in iman and in 'ibadat (or 'amal)? It is written in Tazkirat al-Qurtubi (54) that those who are not Ahl as-Sunnat will not be able to answer correctly. The graves of those who will give precise answers will enlarge and a window will be opened to Paradise. Every morning and every evening they will see their places in Paradise, and angels will do them favors and give them good news. He who cannot answer precisely will be beaten with iron mallets so severely that every creature but mankind and genies will hear him cry out. His grave will become so tight that he will feel as if his bones would intertwine. A hole will be opened to Hell. In the morning and in the evening he will see his place in Hell. He will be tortured bitterly in his grave till the Resurrection. It is necessary to believe in [the other] life after death. After the flesh and bones rot and turn into earth and gas, they will come together again; the souls will enter the bodies they belong to, and everybody will rise up from his grave. Therefore, this time is called the Day of Qiyama (Resurrection).(55) All living creatures will gather at the place of Mahshar. The deed-books will fly to their owners. Almighty Allah, the creator of the earth, heavens, stars and all particles, will make all these happen. Allahu ta'ala's Messenger (sall-Allahu ta'ala 'alaihi wa sallam) reported that these will happen. It is for certain that what he said is true. All will certainly happen. The deed-books of the pious (salih), the good people, will be given from their right, and those of the sinful (fasiq), the bad people will be given from their back or left. Every action, good or evil, big or little, done secretly or openly, will be in that book. Even those deeds unknown to the kiram katibin angels will be revealed by the human organs' witnessing and by Allahu ta'ala, who knows everything, and there will be questioning and settlement of accounts on every action. During the Day of Judgement, every secret action will be revealed if Allahu ta'ala will it so. Angels will be questioned on what they have done on the earth and in the heavens, prophets ('alaihimu 's-salam) on how they communicated Allahu ta'ala's commands and His religion to men, and people on how they adapted themselves to prophets, how they lived up to the duties revealed to them, and on how they took care of one another's rights. On the Day of Judgement, those who have iman and whose actions and morals are beautiful will be rewarded and blessed, and people with a bad temper and wrong deeds will be punished severely. Allahu ta'ala, with His Justice, will torture some Muslims for their small sins and He will, with His Mercy, forgive grave and small sins of some other Muslims whom He wills. Except disbelief (kufr) and polytheism (shirk), He will forgive every sin if He wills, and He will torture for a small sin if He wills. He declares that He will never forgive disbelief and polytheism. Disbelievers with or without a heavenly Book, that is, those who do not believe that Muhammad ('alaihi 's-salam) is the Prophet for all human beings and who disapprove even one of the rules [orders and prohibitions] he communicated, will certainly be put into Hell and tortured eternally. On the Day of Judgement, there will be a Mizan ('balance'), different from those we know, for weighing deeds and conduct. It will be so large that one of its scales can hold the earth and the sky. The scale for good deeds will be bright and to the right of the 'Arsh where Paradise is, and the scale for sins will be dark and to the left of the 'Arsh where Hell is. Actions, words, thoughts and looks that are done in the world will take shapes there, and the good deeds in bright figures and the evils in dark and ugly figures will be weighed on this balance, which does not resemble worldly balances; it was said that the scale carrying the heavier load will go up and the one carrying the lighter load will go down. According to some scholars, there will be various balances. And many others said, "It was not shown clearly in Islam how and how many the balances will be, so it would be better not to think of it." There will be a bridge called Sirat, which will be built over Hell upon Allahu ta'ala's command. Everybody will be ordered to cross that bridge. That day, all prophets will entreat as, "Oh Allah! Give safety!" Those who are to go to Paradise will cross the bridge easily and reach Paradise. Some of them will pass with the speed of lightning, some with that of wind, and some others like a galloping horse. The Sirat Bridge will be thinner than a hair and sharper than a sword. Adapting yourself to Islam in this world has a similar aspect; adapting yourself precisely to Islam is like crossing the Sirat. Those who withstand the difficulty of struggling with their sensual desires (the nafs) here will cross the Sirat easily there. Those who do not follow Islam because of the nafs will cross the Sirat with difficulty. For this reason, Allahu ta'ala called the right path, pointed out by Islam, the "Sirat al- Mustaqim." This similarity in names shows that staying within Islam's path is like crossing the Sirat. Those who deserve Hell will fall off the Sirat down into Hell. There will be a body of water called Hawd al-Kawthar reserved for our master Muhammad Mustafa (sall-Allahu ta'ala 'alaihi wa sallam). It will be vast like a journey of one month. Its water will be whiter than milk, and its scent will be more pleasant than musk. The drinking glasses around it are more plentiful than stars. A person who drinks its water would never get thirsty again even if he were in Hell. It must be believed that there will be shafa'a (intercession). Prophets, walis, pious Muslims, angels and those who are allowed by Allah will intercede for the forgiveness of the small and grave sins of those Muslims who die without having repented, and their intercession will be accepted. [Our Prophet (sall-Allahu ta'ala 'alaihi wa sallam) declared, "I will make shafa'a (intercession) for those who commit grave sins of my umma." In the next world, shafa'a will be of five sorts: Firstly, the sinful, getting tired of the crowd and of waiting so long at the place of Judgement, will wail and ask that the Judgement commence as soon as possible. There will be shafa'a for this. Secondly, there will be shafa'a so that the questioning will be done easily and quickly. Thirdly, there will be shafa'a for the sinful Muslims so that they shall not fall off the Sirat into Hell and so that they shall be saved from Hell's torture. Fourthly, there will be shafa'a for taking gravely sinful Muslims out of Hell. Fifthly, there will be shafa'a for the promotion of Muslims to a higher grade in the Paradise where, though there will be innumerable favors and an eternal stay, there will be eight grades and every person's grade will be in proportion to the degree of his iman and deeds. Paradise and Hell exist now. Paradise is above the seven heavens. Hell is below everything. There are eight paradises and seven hells. Paradise is larger than the earth, the sun and the heavens, and Hell is much larger than the sun. FOOTNOTES (50) Abd'al-Qadir Geilani passed away in Baghdad in 561 [1161 A.D.]. (51) Hadrat al-Mahdi will be a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad ('alaihi 's-salam). His name will be Muhammad and his father's name will be 'Abdullah. He will preside over Muslims, strengthen Islam and spread it everywhere. He will meet 'Isa ('alaihi 's-salam), and together they will fight and kill ad-Dajjal. During his time, Muslims will settle everywhere and live in comfort and ease. (52) Ad-Dajjal (who is called Antichrist by Christians, and who will also be called Masih because his fame will spread over the word) will be a son of a Jew of Khurasan, northern Iran, and an enemy of Islam commanding innumerable soldiers. He will kill Muslims and bring discomfort and disorder to the Middle East. After shedding much blood, he will be killed by Hadrat al-Mahdi. It is written with references in Mukhtasaru Tazkirat al-Qurtubi by 'Abd al-Wahhab ash-Sharani (2nd ed., Istanbul, 1302) that ad-Dajjal's name will be Ibn as-Sayyad. (53) It is written in the Qur'an al-karim that Yajuj and Majuj are two evil peoples, who, at a very ancient time, were left behind a wall, and that they will spread on the earth towards the end of the world. Considering that archaeological research finds cities buried under the ground and sea fossils on the peaks of mountains, that wall does not have to have been found yet, nor do those peoples have to be so numerous that we see or know them today; it can be thought that, as thousands of millions of today's people originated out of two people, those two people will spread on the earth multiplying out of a few people, whose place may not be known today. (54) Muhammad Qurtubi Maliki, the author of the book Tazkirat al-Qurtubi passed away in 671 [1272 A.D.]. (55) Plants absorb carbon dioxide from the air and water and salts (mineral substances) from the soil and unite them with one another and form organic substances, the living matter of our organs. It is known today that a chemical reaction taking years happens in less than a second when a catalyst is used. Similarly, Allahu ta'ala will unite water, carbon dioxide and mineral substances in graves and create organic substances and the living organs in a moment. Mukhbir-i sadiq (the Truth Reporter, the Prophet) reported that we would come to the other life in this manner. And science shows that this is being done in the world.