TO BELIEVE IN THE LAST DAY

The fifth of the six fundamentals of iman (belief) 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 sharif [1] 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 will come; ’Isa (’alaihi ’s-salam) will descend to Damascus from heaven; ad-Dajjal will appear; people called Ya’juj and Ma’juj will put the whole world into turmoil; the sun will rise in 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 (prohibitions) will be committed everywhere; fire will come out of Yemen; seas and mountains will split into pieces; the sun and the moon will darken; seas will mix with each other, boil and dry up.

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GLOSSARY
[1] hadith (sharif): i) a saying of the Prophet (‘alaihi ‘s-salam).; al-Hadith ash-sharif: all the hadiths as a whole; ii) ‘ilm al-hadith; iii) Books of the hadith ash-sharif. iv) Al-hadith al-qudsi, as-sahih, al-hasan: kinds of hadiths (for which, see Endless Bliss, II).