The Closeness of Allah to His
'Ibad
Included in this is the belief that He is
very close to His creatures, responding, as He has summed it up in His
saying:
"If My 'ibad (worshipers) ask you about Me; (say
that) I am very close, answering the caller when he calls on Me."
(al-Baqarah 2/186)
And the Prophet (peace be upon him) said to his
Companions when they raised their voices in invocation of Allah:
"O people! Restrain yourselves. Verily, you are not
calling One Who is deaf or absent, the One you call is nearer to each of you
than is the neck of your riding animal."
What has been revealed in the Book (i.e.,the Qur'an) and
in the Sunnah - of His Closeness and His Concomitance - does not contradict what
has been told of His Exaltation and Highness. Indeed, Glory be to Him, there is
none like Him in all His Attributes, and He is High in His Nearness and Near in
His Highness.
The Qur'an is the Word of
Allah
Part of the belief in Allah and His
Books28 is the belief that the Qur'an is Allah's Word revealed, not created29,
that in Him it originated and unto Him it returns, that Allah truly uttered it,
that this Qur'an which He revealed to Muhammad (peace be upon him) is truly the
Word of Allah not the word of any other, that it is not allowable to say it is a
narrative of the Word of Allah or an interpretation of it. That if the people
read it or write it in books does not mean it is not the true Word of Allah, The
Exalted, because speech is attributed to the one who spoke it initially, not to
the one who narrated it. It is the Word of Allah, its letters and its meaning.
The Word of Allah is not the words only, without meaning, and not the meaning
only, without words.
Seeing Allah on the Day of
Judgment
What we referred to of belief in Him,
in His Books, and in His Messengers includes also belief that those who believe
will see Him with their eyes, just as they see the sun on a day free of clouds;
Just as they see the full moon without obstacle, they will see Him, The
Glorified, while they are in the Courts of Judgment; And they will see Him after
entering Paradise. This is as Allah, The Glorified, The Exalted, wills.
Belief in the Hereafter
The Trial of the Grave and
Resurrection
The belief in the Last Day is a
belief in all that the Prophet (peace be upon him) told of what will happen
after death, belief in the grave trial, in the grave punishment and in the grave
delight.
As for the trial, people will be tried in their graves30
Every one will be asked: "Who is your God? What is your religion? Who is
your Prophet?" Allah will affirm the believers with the true words in this
life and in the Hereafter, so the believers will say: Allah is my Lord, Islam is
my religion, and Muhammad (peace be upon him) is my Prophet."
But the doubtful will say: "What? What? I don't
know. I heard the people say something, so I said it." Thence will he be
beaten with an iron bar until he sends out a loud scream which all but human
beings will hear, because if they would hear it, they would faint.
This trial will be followed either by delight or
punishment, until the Big Resurrection (al-Qiyamah al-Kubra) will take place.
The souls will be returned to their bodies and the Resurrection, which Allah has
told of in His Book (the Qur'an) and through His Prophet, and about which all
Muslims agree, will occur. The people, naked, barefoot, uncircumcised31, will
rise from their graves to face The Lord of The Universe, while the sun moves
nearer to them and their own sweat overwhelms them. Then the scales will be set
so that people's deeds may be weighed.
"Those whose scales are heavy (with good deeds) will
be successful and those whose scales are light (lacking sufficient good deeds),
will lose their souls eternally to Hell." (al-Mu'minun 23/102-103)
The Records of the People's
Deeds
The records will be distributed-the
records of deeds. Some will receive theirs in their right hands, and some in
their left or behind their backs32.
For The Glorified, The Exalted, has said:
"Every person is held responsible for his [or her]
deeds. On the Day of Resurrection We shall bring out for him a scroll which he
will see spread open. (He will be ordered): Read your own record; It is
sufficient that you judge yourself today." (al-Isra' 17/13-14)
Allah will remind the people of their deeds, talk
privately to His faithful 'abd (worshipper) and remind him of all his faults. So
it has been described in the Book (the Qur'an) and in the Sunnah.
As for non-believers, they will not be reminded in the
manner of the one whose good deeds and bad deeds are balanced, because they will
have no good deeds. Rather their (evil) deeds will be counted, verified and
presented so that they admit to them, and will be punished for them.