Death is approaching quickly. Soon we will be raised up to face the Reckoning and that will be the most severe day we will ever endure. That is the day you would see every woman giving milk to her child casting aside that baby. Every pregnant woman would miscarry and abort her baby due to the frightfulness of that day. On that day you would see mankind as though they are drunk, even though they are not – it is just that the punishment of Allah is so severe.[1] That is the day on which children will turn grey-haired out of fright.[2] Its terror is so great that even though people will be naked, they will not be aware of that. So on that day everyone will be running around looking for something – anything – to assist him and to save him from the punishment. He would go to his parents, his wife, and his children – all the people dearest to him in this world who previously would have done anything to help him. But on that day they would flee from him, caring only for their own selves.
They would find nothing to help them. But those who used to recite the Qur’an diligently in this world, for them the Qur’an would appear as an intercessor on their behalf. The Prophet (saw) said: “Read the Qur’an, for verily it will come on the Day of Resurrection as an intercessor for its companions.”[3] Another reward granted to the Huffaz on that terrible day is that they themselves would be granted permission to intercede on behalf of others who are destined for the Fire: “Whosoever recites the Qur’an and memorises it, believing firmly that what it legislates as lawful is lawful and what it legislates as prohibited is prohibited, Allah will enter him into Paradise and accept his intercession on behalf of ten of his relatives who had been destined to enter the Fire.”[4]
That day is a day of disgrace and abasement wherein people would be brought low and humiliated. But there are some who will be honoured greatly by Allah (swt) and one category of them are the parents of the Huffaz. The Prophet (saw) said: “On the Day of Resurrection a crown of such brilliance will be placed on the heads of the parents of one who learnt the Qur’an and practised on its laws, that its glitter will outshine the brilliance of the sun which penetrates your houses. What then do you think will be the position of the one who himself learnt the Qur’an and acted in accordance with it?”[5]
In the Hereafter all good deeds will come to an end. Only those acts of ‘ibadah performed in this world will be of benefit to a person. There is only one exception to this: “It will be said to the companion of the Qur’an, ‘Recite (the Qur’an) and ascend the (heights of paradise) and recite in the slow manner you used to recite in the worldly life. Your final abode will be in accordance with the last verse that you recite.”[6]
Allahumma nawwir quloobanaa bil Qur’an, wa zayyin akhlaaqanaa bil Qur’an, wa najjinaa minan Naari bil Qur’an, wa adkhilnaa fil Jannati bil Qur’an.
O Allah, illuminate our hearts with the Quran, beautify our character with the Quran, save us from the Fire through the Quran, and enter us into Jannah through the Quran.
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[1] al-Hajj: 2.
[2] al-Muzzammil: 17.
[3] Sahih Muslim.
[4] Sunan al-Tirmidhi.
[5] Sunan Abu Dawud. Two of the people in the chain of this hadith are classified as weak.
[6] Sunan al-Tirmidhi.