ARTICLES OF FAITH

PROPHETS and BELIEF IN THE LAST DAY

Belief in life after death, bodily resurrection, final judgment and the eternal life in Paradise and
(or) Hell is one of the articles of faith.
This world as we know it will come to an end one day and the dead will rise from their resting
place for their final and fair trial.
Muslims believe that Allah preordains the time of Qiyama but is unknown to man.
The trials and problems preceding and during the Day of Resurrection are described in detail in
the Quran and Hadith. The Quran says:
“Anyone who denies God, His angels, His books, His messenger and the Day of Judgment has
gone far, far astray.”(4:136)
Islam teaches us that there are four definite stages of every human life.
The first is in the womb of our mother. There, the flesh is united with the spirit.
According to a tradition of the Holy Prophet, this joining takes place some time after the fortieth
day of conception.
The second stage of our life begins in this world.
We are born, grow from children to adults and then reach old age and die.
Some people die in their youth while others live longer than most.
The third stage starts after our death.
A person’s life on this earth ends with his/her death, after which another life begins in the state
of Barzakh, which is an intermediate state in which the soul is placed after death till resurrection.
The state of grave is therefore, the same state as that of Barzakh.
Immediately after death the lesser Judgement or Qiyamat-e-Sughra takes place, after which the
righteous are spoken of as tasting the fruit of their good deeds while the evil doers have to taste
the evil consequences of their wrong deeds.
The fourth and final stage of our existence is eternal.
It will begin with the end of the world.
The entire universe with all forms of life will be brought to its ends by its Creator.
At many places in the Quran the details of the onset and outcome of the Day of Judgment have
been given.
That Day will start by the first blow of Trumpet by Hazrat Israfil.
The Quran says:“When the Trumpet is sounded a single time. When the earth and its mountains
are raised high and then crushed to powder with a single blow. On that Day the Great Event will
come to pass.” (69:13-15)
The second Trumpet will be blown and there will be resurrection of everything that existed in this
world.
A new world will emerge with a new sky.
All human beings who had lived on this earth since its inception (start) will come back to life, this
is called Hashr.
Now all humans will stand before Allah for accountability of all their deeds in the worldly life.
Allah will set the Scale of Ultimate Justice.
The account of our deeds will be examined in many ways.
Some people will be interrogated in secrecy and if the person concerned confesses his/her sins
honestly, fearing Allah, they will be pardoned.
Some will be subjected to a very severe interrogation during which they will have to explain their
each and every deed and utterance.
The people undergoing such an interrogation will be sent to Hell.
No injustice will be done on the Day of Judgement.
People’s hands, feet and tongue will bear witness against them.
There will be no bargaining, no friendship or intercession.
Our good and evil deeds will be sorted out.
If we persecuted or harmed anyone in any way, we may lose some of our good deeds to them
by way of compensation and if we have no good deeds left then the other person’s bad deeds
will be transferred to our account.
Then our deeds will be weighed on the scale mentioned before and the true weight of our
conduct will be shown to us.
People will be given their book of deeds which they will be asked to read.
The good will be given their record in their right hand, while the sinners in their left hand or from
behind their backs.
The Qur’an says: ‘’then he who is given his record in his right hand will have an easy reckoning
(calculation) and return to his people well pleased. But whoever is given his record from behind
his back will cry out for destruction and he will enter a blazing fire.’’ (84:7-12)
Finally according to the deeds people will be awarded forever and ever.
The Quran promises eternal dwelling place as a reward in Paradise for the pious and the
righteous.
The evildoers and the sinners, on the other hand will be given horrible punishment.
When the judgment is finished, a bridge will be stretched over the top of the pit of Hell.
This bridge, called the Sirat, will lead to Paradise which will be on the other side.
Everyone will have to cross this bridge(Sirat).
The Prophets and the righteous people will zoom right over and enter Paradise.
The treading of the bridge by the people will be based on the nature and enormity of their good
or bad deeds.
The two states of Heaven and Hell are not spiritual.
They will be experienced in physical forms by the new bodies with which Allah will raise men up.

MARKING SCHEME
An angel will blow the last trump.
Everyone will be resurrected from the dead at the end of time.
All will have to face judgement before God.
Actions performed during one’s lifetime will be examined.
The consequence will be either paradise or hell.
[1 mark for supporting quotations.]
Belief in Prophets and Messengers:
Muslims believe that God has guided mankind throughout history through specially
appointed prophetic messengers. This process started with Adam (the first Prophet)
and ended with Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W).
The Holy Quran mentions 25 of these prophets such as:

Abraham, Noah, Jesus, and Moses. Muslims believe that Muhammad[s.a.w]

is the last
prophet, sent for all humankind with the message of Islam.
The prophets and messengers sent by Allah were men. They had wives and children and
they were entrusted with the task to guide their people. They were absolutely obedient
to the command of Allah and they refrained from all sorts of sins.
This was a special gift given by Allah to them. Allah selected prophets and messengers,
not because of their intelligence or deeds but, only because He wanted to do so and He
bestowed them with the gift of prophethood.
The prophets and messengers demanded their people obey Allah and follow him.
Prophet Muhammad (S.AW) was the last and final prophet of Allah who explained each
and every aspect of Islam (practically) with the help of the Quran.
The Quran has mentioned various prophets and messengers such as Hazrat Ibrahim
(A.S) and Hazrat Isa (A.S). It is mandatory for Muslims to believe in all the prophets and
messengers sent by Allah.
The message that Muhammad (PBUH) brought was universal, eternal and complete. He
summoned up the message delivered by the previous prophets and messengers with
the help of Allah almighty.

Belief in the Prophets - Rusul & Nabi

Q Outline the most important features of the Quran teachings about
prophethood. [4-N-03][4-N-05][4-J-04]
Q What are the main features of the belief in the line of messengers (Rusul)
who were sent before the time of the Prophet Mohammad (saw)?
10-J-03][10-J-07][10-J-00]
Q Write about Muslim belief in prophets. [10-J-09]
Q Give a full account of the Muslim belief in prophets. [10-N-11]
Q Give an account of Muslim belief in the following:
(i) angels; and (ii) prophets. [10-N-12-paper 21]
Q Give an account of Muslim belief in prophets and the messages they
preached. [10-N-13-2058/22]
Prophets or the Messengers of Allah were all chosen by Allah. They were all
human beings who were sent to particular nations and communities. They
belonged to the best families of their communities and their character as
individual was excellent. The first prophet on earth was Adam (as). After him
many prophets came. According to a Hadith, more than 124000 prophets came
to different nations. Among them the most prominent prophets are Adam, Nuh,
Idrees, Ismael, Yaqoob and Yousuf (as). Mohammad (sw) is the last prophet of
Allah and with him the religion of Islam is complete.
“For We send our messengers only to give good news to the righteous
people and to warn the evil doers” [Al Anaam 48]

Prophets were the people who were the means of communication between Allah
and human beings. If we do not believe in prophets and their teachings, obviously
we will not believe in Allah. Some of the prophets were given the scriptures and
the Books. Ibrahim (as) who was given scriptures (Suhoof), Musa (as) who was
given Tawrat, Dawood (as) who was given Zuboor and Isa (as) was given Injeel.

Quran has given the names of about twenty six prophets. All the Prophets gave
the same message. It was to believe that there is no god but Allah and He has no
partner. Belief in the Resurrection and the Day of Judgment in order to correct
attitude according to the will of Allah and belief in the Prophets as they had no
personal interest in giving the message of Islam. However the social laws and
worships varied according to the needs of the nations. The worships like prayers,
fasting and Zakaat were obligatory acts. Respect of all human beings was also
obligatory.

All the messengers are equal in status and we should not distinguish between
them in respect. However we believe that Mohammad (sw) has the highest staus
because on the journey of Mairaaj, he led the prayer of all prophets.
“And they say: we do not discriminate against any of His messengers”.

[Al Baqarah 285]