The Great Happening
Prophet Mohammad once asked his companion, Abdullah Ibn Masood, to read him a part of the Quran. “Me, read the Quran to you, when unto you it has been revealed?” Ibn Masood asked. “Yes,” the Prophet answered, “I like to hear it read by someone else.” So Abdullah Ibn Masood started reciting Surah Al-Nisa. When he reached this verse, the Prophet asked him to stop: ‘How will it be when we produce a witness from every nation and call upon you to testify against them?’ (The Quran 4: 41). Abdullah Ibn Masood looked at the Prophet and saw that tears were flowing from both his eyes. (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith No. 5050)
What an awesome event the setting up of God’s court of justice will be! There will be no occasion for contumacy or denial. Those whom people disregarded in this world, will be the ones to be brought forward as God’s witnesses; for they were God’s witnesses on earth, warning mankind of the impending Day of Judgment. They were thought of as the most insignificant people on earth, but it will be their testimony that will decide people’s eternal fate.
Think of the state of those who are loquacious in the world but find themselves without words on that day; and of those who wield power and prestige, only to be divested of all traces of might. Superficial veils will be rent asunder, and those who feigned false piety will be exposed for the hypocrites they were. The tables will indeed turn on that day, when many who are last in the world will be the first in the sight of God, and the filth and pollution of what had seemed pure and attractive will be revealed before the eyes of man. Much that man looks upon with relish now; he will turn away in horror from then.
People’s real natures are concealed in this world. For some, attractive words have hidden their inner states and for others, material splendour. But in the next world these things will be taken away from man; he will be brought forward in his real state. What a calamitous day that will be! If one were to gauge the severity of that day, then one would cease to talk so ferociously, or be so allured by worldly things; worldly honour would seem just as meaningless as worldly disgrace.
