Doomsday. What is it really?

Ah, Doomsday. It is also known as Judgement Day. In Malay, we call it "Hari Kiamat".

Kiamat comes from an Arabic word, قيام (Qiam) which means rise or wake up. Doomsday is a belief of divine religions, including Judaism, Christianity and Islam.


Believing in Doomsday is one of the "pillars of faith". Doomsday is the ending day and the destruction of the universe. Everything that's still alive will die. The land and sky will be changed, no longer the land and sky as it is now.

I've heard that Doomsday occurs on a Friday. I don't really know for sure. Not even one of Allah's creatures know when Doomsday will arrive, not even prophets nor angels know. Only Allah knows.


Even so, Allah told us, through our loyal Prophet Muhammad, about the clues of Doomsday (to tell if Doomsday is near), which was mentioned in my previous post. 


Allah intentionally kept the actual date of Doomsday as a secret. One of the causes is so that people will be alert at all times, and always be obedient to Allah and avoid evil deeds. So that people will not only be obedient to Allah when the time is near. Make sense?


This case is the same as Allah keeping the time of our death as a secret. Every living creature will eventually die, and the death of every creature has been determined by Allah. However, nobody knows when their death will arrive.

Clues of Doomsday.

Doomsday. I will only blog about the clues in this post. I will talk about the others in another post. By the way, the date of doomsday is fixed. Nobody knows when. The whole 21/12/2012 thing is just a myth. I mean it COULD happen on that date,  but only Allah knows.

Some clues of Doomsday were found in the Holy Quran. These clues are divided into 2 parts:-

• Small signs. These are early signs of Doomsday, it just means that Doomsday is near.
• Big signs. These are late signs of Doomsday, it means that Doomsday is starting/happening or is very, very, very near.

Here are some small signs of Doomsday:-

• Earthquakes happening a lot. 
• Naked women are said to be more beautiful than women who cover their Aurat.
• People are racing/rushing to build tall buildings.
• More females than males.
• Islamic matters are handled by non-Muslims.
• More evil people than good people (People with Iman).
• Many people lie and it's becoming common.
• Many good people are dying.
• Sex is trending.
• Music and singing is trending.
• Many evil rulers.
• Many people are studying and seeking for knowledge because of rank and position, and not because of Allah.
• The crescent moon looks big/huge.
• The distance between markets are close. (Indicates the big number of barter trading)
• People are dying their hair black to look younger.
• Humiliating people are given positions of honor.
• People only say hello (Assalamualaikum) to people they know. 
• There'll be many children born before their parents are married.
• Mosques becomes pathways. (That is, people only pass through mosques without praying in them)
• The appearance of sudden death. (Sudden death is.. trending?)
• Many fights and murders/assassinations.
• Chaos is happening to spread evil.
• Many people hope to die because of chaos and misery in life.
• The appearance of luxury and pampered lifestyle among Muslims.
• Wives work in the same company as their husbands.
• People choose someone to be Imam (a person that leads a prayer in the mosque) not because of knowledge, but because of their voice.
• The number of policemen is increasing, showing that there are increasing number of damages.
• Men are respected not because of their courtesy and kindness, but because of fearing of their wickedness.
• Men are rough with their father, but gentle with their friends. 
• Men obey their wives, but betray their mother.
• Many people will be homosexuals.
• Prayers are ignored, taken lightly and left, abandoned.
• Not many Muslims want to practice and spread their religion.
• Advertisements, photographs and pornographic films are widespread and easily available.
• The matters which are legal (halal) are considered illegal (haram), and vice versa. 
• Zakat is considered as a burden. 
• Rain doesn't fall according to its seasons. 
• Difficult in distinguishing friends and enemies.
• Sins are taken lightly. 
• Mosques are decorated, but most are locked and empty. 
• Western people are influencing Muslims to follow their style. 
• Stupidity and ignorance for Islam becomes increasingly clear. 
• Alcohol is common beverage consumed unashamedly by Muslims.
• Time passes by so quickly. 
• Most of the news published are false.  
• Muslims don't know how to differentiate between halal (legal) and haram (illegal)

You can probably see that most of the clues are already happening? It's a sign..
  
Now for the big signs:-

• Smoke appears from the land of Hijaz.
• The appearance of Dajjal.
• The appearance of Dabatul Ard animals.
• The appearance of Ya'juj and Ma'juj.
• The appearance of Imam Mahdi.
• The descent of Prophet Isa from the sky.
• The sun rises from the west.
• Occurs a very long night.
• Three eclipses occur : once in the west, once in the clusters of the Arabic land, and lastly, fire comes out from Yaman and all humans run to Sham (Syria)
• The door of forgiveness is closed.
• Words in the Holy Quran start to disappear, and the verses from the Holy Quran forgotten by the memorizers.
• The occurrence of three large earthquakes.
• The planets in the solar system contravene/crash against each other.

Dying. How it feels like. A sneak peek of death.

Death. Nobody wants to experience it. (At least not that I know of.) Yet, some people are curious about the feeling of death.

"The pain of sakaratul maut (the removal of life from our body by Angel Izrail) is about three hundred times more painful than being struck by a sword."(IMAGINE THAT!) - H.R. Ibnu Abu Dunya

Death is VERY painful.  Especially for those who do not believe. Even the Prophet Muhammad felt pain when his life was extracted by Angel Izrail (The angel assigned by Allah to remove lives). "Jibril, how sick is this sakaratul maut!" the Prophet said to Angel Jibril, who was by his side.

 Seeing his father's life being extracted, Fatimah's eyes shut. Ali, who was also by the Prophet's side, lowered his head and Angel Jibril turned his face. "Jibril, are you disgusted to see me, so you turned away?" asked the Prophet. Jibril replied, "Who would bear seeing Allah's favorite creature being snatched away by death?"

Then the yell of the Prophet was heard, because the pain was unbearable. "Oh Allah, death is horrifying! Just give all the punishment of death to me, not to my people" (Awww! how generous and thoughtful is he?) 

The Prophet's body became cold. His legs and chest weren't moving anymore. His lips trembled as if he wanted to whisper something. Ali immediately brought his ears close to the Prophet's lips. "Uushiikum bis shalati, wa maa malakat aimanuku" Meaning: Watch your prayers and teach the weak people among you to be polite.


Outside the door, cries were heard, friends hugging each other. Fatimah covered her face with her hands and Ali's ears again were brought closer to the Prophet's lips, which were beginning to turn blueish. "Ummatii, ummatii, ummatii," he said. Meaning: My people, my people, my people. And the Prophet returned to Allah's side.


If someone like the Prophet felt that much pain when his life was extracted, let alone us, imperfect humans! Moreover, the unbelievers, the pain will be very horrendous, indeed!


Even though the pain of sakaratul maut is unbearable, the Prophet had the chance to request to Angel Jibril to meet Allah and ask Him to let him suffer all the pain that his people will suffer during sakaratul maut. But Allah didn't accept the Prophet's request, which was delivered by Angel Jibril. Then the Prophet asked for two-thirds of his people's pain to be inflicted on him. Still, Allah rejected the request. The Prophet then asked for only one-third of his people's pain to be inflicted on him. That last request, Allah accepted.


Mentioned in a narration: when a believer is dying, four angels will come towards him/her. One angel extracts the soul from the right foot, one angel extracts the soul from the left foot, one angel extracts the soul form the right hand and the other angel extracts the soul from the left hand. Then his/her soul is free just like that when they extract it from the end of his/her head and fingers.


Angel Izrail extracts a human life depending on what he/she has done throughout their lifetime. If the person that's going to die rebels Allah, then Angel Izrail will extract his/her soul roughly.  Otherwise, if the person that's going to die respects Allah, then Angel Izrail will extract his/her soul gently.


The Prophet once said, "The believer's soul comes out by jumping out and the unbeliever's soul is hard to be taken out, like extracting a soul from a donkey." - Narrated by ath-Thabarani and Abu Na'aim of al-A’masy of Ibrahim of Alqamah of Abdullah.






 

What REALLY happens after we die.

Have you ever thought about what will happen to you when you die?

Every religion has different opinions about this. But I, as a Muslim will tell you mine.

DYING is VERY PAINFUL. (I will talk about this in my next post.)

When someone dies, his or her family members or specific people will complete the corpse with 4 steps:-

1. They give the corpse a bath. They clean the corpse thoroughly.
2. They shroud the corpse.
3. They pray FOR the corpse. This is called "Sembahyang Jenazah" in Malay.
4. And lastly, they bury the corpse.

Note: ALL the steps above are fulfilled according to certain conditions.

When the corpse is in the grave (Alam Barzakh), two 'frightening' angels (malaikat), named Munkar and Nakir, assigned by our ONE AND ONLY god, ALLAH TA'ALA, appears. Their voice like roaring thunder, their gazes like the lightning strike. (No, they are not evil.)

The two angels will ask the dead : "Who is your god?" "Who is your prophet?" "What is your religion?" (You're probably thinking, "How does she know this?" or something similar. Well, it's recorded in the Holy Al-Quran.) They will also ask other questions. I just listed out a few. (very few)

"The questions will be very difficult to be answered by the dead, and to answer it they need help." - Al-Quran, Surah Al-Bihar, 6:215

I know it sounds weird and impossible if someone tries to ask something to someone dead. But to Allah, nothing's impossible. 

Here's a 'fun' fact:-

The two angels will ask the dead if they had made any sins when they were alive. Guess what? The corpse's mouth isn't going to be the one to answer.. (whut?) Yes, not their mouth, but their body parts! (awesome, huh?)


Example: their stomach might say, "He/she ate something haram (illegal)" or their hands might say, "He/she stole something"

This is because the mouth is sealed. Why? because.. mouths lie! Agree?

Also, when the dead gives a wrong answer to their questions, a punishment will be 'awarded'.

And about the priorities of fasting during Sha'ban (The month before Ramadhan in the Muslim calendar) is mentioned in a narration:   

"Those who fast for nine days in the month of Sha'ban, the angels Munkar and Nakir will be gentle when asking." -Tsawabul A'mal: 87

The dead will continue being punished or rewarded in his/her grave, until doomsday comes along. (I will talk about doomsday in another post)

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this post!