INTRODUCTION

Bismillāhir Rahmānir Rahīm, As-salāmu ʿAlaykum wa rahmatullāhi wa barakātuh. Peace be upon you brothers and sisters.

 Welcome back to the Muslim Converts Channel! So far, we have discussed the first four aspects of the usūl al-dīn. The last principal we will look into is the fundamental belief in the Day of Judgment. Whether it is Divine Justice (ʿadl), Prophethood (nubuwwa) or Divine Leadership (Imāmah), all of these principles culminate into this last fundamental belief.  

 Without the doctrine of the Day of Judgment, none of these principles would make sense.  Without belief in the Day of Judgment, one cannot be a Muslim.

Life in this world is the first phase of human life. In this life, there is choice. The life in the next world is the second, eternal stage where we will reap the consequences of the choices we made in the first stage of our lives.

 In this world we can make choices on how to lead our lives. Just because one can make choices, it does not mean that the right ones are being made. The Day of Judgment is about coming to God having made the right choices.

 In this lesson, we will look into the idea of the end of the world in Islam, the general features of humankind’s resurrection after its destruction. We will also look at humanity's accountability to God as well as notions of rewards and punishments in the Afterlife.

 BODY OF TEXT

 Say: it is Allah who gives you life, and then causes you to die, and then He will assemble you on the Day of Resurrection, which is beyond doubt, but most do not understand (Chapter 45 of the Qur’an, verse 26)

 Among other names, the Day of Judgment (yawm al-dīn) is also known as the Day of Resurrection (yawm al-qiyāma). Another name for resurrection is maʿād, which literally means to “come back” as in coming back to life after death.

The Day of Judgment in Islam is the day when all humans will be resurrected after their death. The event prior to the Day of Judgment is the total destruction of the world and all life on earth. When the world reaches its peak in corruption and its lowest point in religious faith, a final war between good and evil will take place.

 The religion of Islam holds that at the peak of the world’s darkness, God will send a savior. This savior is the 12th Imām of the Ahl al-Bayt (as) who is known as al-Mahdī. He is believed to come and rectify the world’s corruption and bring justice and faith to all of humanity.  

This final event of Imām al-Mahdī’s (aj) reappearance will set the stage for the total end of the world. The Mahdī is believed to be the promised messiah of Islam. His death will mark the end of the world and the beginning of the Day of Judgment.  

 According to Islamic tradition, when Allah wills to bring the Day of Judgment into effect, He will send down the Archangel Isrāfīl who will blow his trumpet and destroy the world with all life in it. Isrāfīl will then blow his trumpet and the world will come back again and all the humans that ever lived on the eath will be resurrected to life again.  

 As resurrected people, every single human on earth will stand before God and account for all his or her deeds. Foremost of all, people will account for the state of their spiritual hearts. When they lived, how much of a role did God have in their lives? How did they treat people, animals and nature? Did they waste their lives pursuing trivial matters? What was their relationship with God’s Prophets? Did they reject them out of hand even after coming to know the truth?

 According to Islam, each human being will be given a book where all their deeds will be written in. The misdeeds that they did will be shown in front of them. Perhaps you can think of a video that recounts all that you did, except that at this point it will be available for all to watch.  

 When humans will be questioned by God and His angels, people at times will not even be able to speak; their body parts will start speaking on their behalf and confess the kind of deeds they did whilst they were alive.

 It is not known when the Day of Judgment will begin, but it can be said that on some level, it begins in the grave after one dies. When humans die, people are visited by two angels called Munkir and Nakīr who come to test the state of people’s souls and their relationship to God in the grave.  

 Part of the process of testing is asking them questions regarding Allah. If they led godly lives while they were alive, they will be able to answer the questions in a positive way and pass the initial phase of judgment.  

 However, if they spent their lives rejecting God, they will have a harder time answering these questions the right way.  

So as you can see, the questioning by angels is the beginning phase of the Day of Judgment.

 On the Day of Judgment, a person's deeds and his or her relationship with God will be questioned.  

But we shouldn't forget that salvation does not depend only on human actions, but also on the justice and mercy of God. If Allah were to judge humanity solely based on His justice, very few would be able to enter heaven, if none at all. However, according to Islam, the mercy of God supersedes His justice. This means that although many will fall short, they will enter paradise by the grace of God.

 So let's recap and see how the Day of Judgment is connected to the other principles of the Usul al-Din:

 On their own, humans cannot know about the Day of Judgment or the requirements needed for salvation. As such, out of His justice, Allah must send Prophets to warn humankind of the Day of Judgment and prepare them for it by giving them guidance. Imāmah is a guardianship mechanism whereby the original instructions and correct form of guidance is preserved after Prophethood ends.