The Day of Judgment and facing Him azza wa'jal
In the name of Allah the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
I am sure we all have seen on the television how a criminal court room looks like where the camera is mostly focused on the judge, the lawyers, some family members of the victim/accused, and the victims/accused of-course. But I’m not so certain if a lot of us have had that opportunity to be in such an environment to experience the situation in a courtroom.
Very recently I was in a court room and there were about 50-70 people. It was a small city court of traffic violation. Each individual who were there went to either plead guilty or not guilty or to have a plea bargain done so that their fines could be reduced or eliminated. It was quite an experience and a hard hit to reality.
Back in May, while I was attending the graduation ceremony of some friends, we had to sit in a huge open stadium. The weather was very pleasant that day with cool breeze. It was a nice happy sunny day. The ceremony was from 9 in the morning till 1:00pm. However, I recall after 2 hours of sitting (even before noon), I was like “the sun is too hot” and I was trying to cover my head with a magazine. My beloved friend who I was sitting with, told me, “Faria, can you imagine what it would be like on the Day of Judgment when there would be no shade and the sun thousand times nearer and thousand times hotter and not a single friend to accompany and much more worse.” Subhanallah! I never thought of it that way. Since then every time before I complain of the sun, her words just work as a reminder.
I don’t know how much of a realization I got that day at the graduation ceremony, but the other day when I went to the court room, I saw the judge calling out individual’s name and saying out loud in front of all the people who were present – what individual’s crime is and the options they have. Where the fines or the punishment at most would be couple of hundreds of dollars and may be some points in the license and of-course a bad driving record. And I was not so not comfortable being called by the judge to say it loud where people would hear my crime - that I speeded in a 30 mile zone. Damn! If I was so ashamed in front of 50-70 people and was looking for the judge to lower my fines – how are we going to deal with ourselves on the Day of Judgment when not only our driving records would be exposed but all that we say, do, see, hear, walk on and all that we have done is going to be uncovered? How is it going to be when we would be in front of the Lord of the Universe with all of mankind as the audience of our deeds and it would all be shown on the screen – and where there would be nothing to hide and no more chance to rectify? No attorneys to converse with and no friends to guide and each individual repeating “ya nafsi, ya nafsi.” May Allah (swt) have mercy on us and cover our faults on that Day as He has in this world. Let this be a reminder to myself and others of the Hadith where the prophet (saw) asked us not to do anything in private that we will not do in public.
Come to think of it we do not think of that Day much and for some of us even take this life for granted and can’t even comprehend to think about death. The reality being – nothing is more certain than death. Death is the ultimate truth and there’s no question to the magnitude of its truth. If anything is certain in this life – it is – the grave, the Day of Judgment, and that follows. “Verily, mankind is at loss” – and no wonder we are at a loss, since we are all intoxicated in our own ways (not to mention that the intoxicant industry is the number one industry) – immersed in our dreams, aims, work, family life, school life, friends, pride, arrogance. We all tend to take this dunya, this life, and all the adornments that come with it for granted. May Allah (swt) help us refocus on our real purpose of living. May He assist us to be with Him through our qalb at all times. Let us not be of those who wishes to change at the 12th hour and dies at the 11th hour.
InshaAllah, this is a month of mercy, forgiveness and His immense Generocity. Moreover, starting tonight we are stepping into the last 10 nights of Ramadan – we are to search for that night! The night which is better than a thousand nights – Laylatul Qadr. Let us make use of it – let us seek His forgiveness and His rahma and let us be in His door! Let us all return to Him with full spirit and hope. For verily He will answer – if not in this world then definitely in the Hereafter. Let us not transgress over His rights and let us not do anything that will not make our Rasulallah (saw) proud of us and that will humiliate us in front of Him azza wa’jal. Please include me in your duas so that I am one of such slaves who is freed from the hellfire. Amen.
I am sure we all have seen on the television how a criminal court room looks like where the camera is mostly focused on the judge, the lawyers, some family members of the victim/accused, and the victims/accused of-course. But I’m not so certain if a lot of us have had that opportunity to be in such an environment to experience the situation in a courtroom.
Very recently I was in a court room and there were about 50-70 people. It was a small city court of traffic violation. Each individual who were there went to either plead guilty or not guilty or to have a plea bargain done so that their fines could be reduced or eliminated. It was quite an experience and a hard hit to reality.
Back in May, while I was attending the graduation ceremony of some friends, we had to sit in a huge open stadium. The weather was very pleasant that day with cool breeze. It was a nice happy sunny day. The ceremony was from 9 in the morning till 1:00pm. However, I recall after 2 hours of sitting (even before noon), I was like “the sun is too hot” and I was trying to cover my head with a magazine. My beloved friend who I was sitting with, told me, “Faria, can you imagine what it would be like on the Day of Judgment when there would be no shade and the sun thousand times nearer and thousand times hotter and not a single friend to accompany and much more worse.” Subhanallah! I never thought of it that way. Since then every time before I complain of the sun, her words just work as a reminder.
I don’t know how much of a realization I got that day at the graduation ceremony, but the other day when I went to the court room, I saw the judge calling out individual’s name and saying out loud in front of all the people who were present – what individual’s crime is and the options they have. Where the fines or the punishment at most would be couple of hundreds of dollars and may be some points in the license and of-course a bad driving record. And I was not so not comfortable being called by the judge to say it loud where people would hear my crime - that I speeded in a 30 mile zone. Damn! If I was so ashamed in front of 50-70 people and was looking for the judge to lower my fines – how are we going to deal with ourselves on the Day of Judgment when not only our driving records would be exposed but all that we say, do, see, hear, walk on and all that we have done is going to be uncovered? How is it going to be when we would be in front of the Lord of the Universe with all of mankind as the audience of our deeds and it would all be shown on the screen – and where there would be nothing to hide and no more chance to rectify? No attorneys to converse with and no friends to guide and each individual repeating “ya nafsi, ya nafsi.” May Allah (swt) have mercy on us and cover our faults on that Day as He has in this world. Let this be a reminder to myself and others of the Hadith where the prophet (saw) asked us not to do anything in private that we will not do in public.
Come to think of it we do not think of that Day much and for some of us even take this life for granted and can’t even comprehend to think about death. The reality being – nothing is more certain than death. Death is the ultimate truth and there’s no question to the magnitude of its truth. If anything is certain in this life – it is – the grave, the Day of Judgment, and that follows. “Verily, mankind is at loss” – and no wonder we are at a loss, since we are all intoxicated in our own ways (not to mention that the intoxicant industry is the number one industry) – immersed in our dreams, aims, work, family life, school life, friends, pride, arrogance. We all tend to take this dunya, this life, and all the adornments that come with it for granted. May Allah (swt) help us refocus on our real purpose of living. May He assist us to be with Him through our qalb at all times. Let us not be of those who wishes to change at the 12th hour and dies at the 11th hour.
InshaAllah, this is a month of mercy, forgiveness and His immense Generocity. Moreover, starting tonight we are stepping into the last 10 nights of Ramadan – we are to search for that night! The night which is better than a thousand nights – Laylatul Qadr. Let us make use of it – let us seek His forgiveness and His rahma and let us be in His door! Let us all return to Him with full spirit and hope. For verily He will answer – if not in this world then definitely in the Hereafter. Let us not transgress over His rights and let us not do anything that will not make our Rasulallah (saw) proud of us and that will humiliate us in front of Him azza wa’jal. Please include me in your duas so that I am one of such slaves who is freed from the hellfire. Amen.
posted by Seeking nearness to Allah at
6:33 PM
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