Portents

Many verses of the Quran, especially the earlier ones, are dominated by the idea of the nearing of the Day of Resurrection.^[26][27] In Islam the signs of the coming of Judgement Day are described as "major"^[28] and "minor".^[29] The Al-Masih ad-Dajjal will appear, deceiving the foolish and killing Muslims until killed by either the Mahdi or Jesus.^[30][31] Following him, two dangerous, evil tribes of subhumans with vast numbers called Yajooj and Majooj will be released from where they have been imprisoned inside a mountain since Roman times.^[20] And according to some narratives, a murderous tyrant called the Sufyani will spread corruption and mischief,^[32] killing women, children and descendants of Muhammad. To save believers from these horrors, the Mahdi will appear and Isa bin Maryam (Jesus) will descend from heaven to assist him. The sun will rise from the west.^{[Note 5][33]} A breeze will blow causing all believers to inhale it and die peacefully.^{[Note 6][34]}

Destruction and resurrection

Following these portents, the Earth will be destroyed. (In surah Al-Haqqah)

When the trumpet is blown with a single blast
and the earth and the mountains are lifted up and crushed with a single blow,
then, on that day, the terror shall come to pass,
and heaven shall be split, for upon that day it shall be very frail. ... "

(Q.69:13–16)^{[Note 7][8]}

Verses from another surah (At-Takwir) describe

When the sun shall be darkened
When the stars shall be thrown down
When the seas shall be set boiling
When the souls shall be coupled, ...
When the scrolls shall be unrolled
When heavens shall be stripped off,
When Hell shall be set blazing,
When Paradise shall be brought nigh
Then shall a soul know what it has produced.

(Q.81:1,2,6,7,10-14)^{[Note 8][8]}

A second trumpet blast will signal a "final cataclysm" (fanāʼ), the extinction of all living creatures – even the angel of death himself – save God.^[8] God will then ask three times, "'To whom belongs the Kingdom this day?' No one answers Him so He answers Himself, saying, 'To God who is one alone, victorious!'"^[35] Numerous Qur'ānic mentions that every soul will taste death during "the hour" are thought to underscore the absolute power and tawḥīd of God while the resurrection of life demonstrates "His justice and mercy".^[36] The time between annihilation of all life and its resurrection is both "beyond all human time constructs" and generally estimated by many commentators to be forty years.^[36]

Resurrection

The Afterlife will commence with a trumpet blast (different sources give different numbers of trumpet blasts),^{[Note 9]} signaling the "Day of the Arising", according to the classical Islamic scholar and theologian al-Ghazali.^[38]

The sounding of the trumpet is mentioned at least two times in the Qur'ān, but "the Qur'an itself does not make explicit the chronology involved with the blowing(s) of the horn"^[37] and "it has been for the followers of the Prophet to determine for themselves the exact sequence of events after that."^[8]

Know that Isrāfīl is the master of the horn [al-qarn]. God created the preserved tablet [al-lawḥ al-maḥfuz] of white pearl. Its length is seven times the distance between the heaven and the earth and it is connected to the Throne. All that exists until the day of resurrection is written on it. Isrāfīl has four wings—one in the East, one in the West, one covering his legs and one shielding his head and face in fear of God. His head is inclined toward the Throne .... No angel is nearer to the throne than Isrāfīl. Seven veils are between him and the Throne, each veil five hundred years distance from the next ...^[39]

This will wake the dead from their graves. Bodies will be resurrected and reunited with their spirits to form "whole, cognizant, and responsible persons".^[3] The first to arise will be the members of the Muslim community, according to "an often-quoted saying" of Muhammad, but will be "subdivided into categories" based on their sins while on earth. (the classification of the resurrected into groups comes from "certain narratives" about Judgement Day that "suggest" the grouping, and are based on "a number of scattered verses in the Qur'an indicating the woeful condition" of resurrected sinners)^[40]

In the time between resurrection and judgement will be an agonizing wait (Q.21:103, Q.37:20) at the place of assembly [al-maḥshar], or the time of standing before God [al-mawqūf], giving sinners "ample opportunity to contemplate the imminent recompense for his past faults" (just as sinners suffer in the grave before Resurrection Day).^[9] The resurrected will gather for "The Perspiration"^[41][42] — a time when all created beings, including men, angels, jinn, devils and animals will sweat, unshaded from the sun, awaiting their fate.^[43] Sinners and nonbelievers will suffer and sweat longer on this day, which some say will last for "50,000 years" (based on Q.70:4) and others only 1000 (based on Q.32:5).^[9]

Judgement

The final judgement (Reckoning, ḥisāb) where God judges each soul for their lives lived on earth,^[44] will be "carried out with absolute justice" accepting no excuses, and examine every act and intention—no matter how small,^[45] but "through the prerogative of God's merciful will".^[3]

Quran verses in Al-Haqqah (surah 69) are thought to refer to the reckoning on Judgement Day:

As for the one who is given his book in his right hand, he will say: Take and read my book.
I knew that I would be called to account.
And he will be in a blissful condition (Q.69:19–21) ....
But as for him who is given his book in his left hand, he will say: Would that my book had not been given to me
and that I did not know my reckoning! (Q.69:25-26) ...
[And it will be said] Seize him and bind him and expose

him to the burning Fire!(Q.69:30-31)^[46]

"The book" is thought to refer to an account each person has, chronicling the deeds of their life, good and bad.^[46] Commentators reports "affirm" that each day in a person's life, "one or two angels" begin a new page, inscribing deeds, and that upon completion, the pages are assembled "in some fashion ... into a full scroll or record".^[46] On Judgement Day the book is presented to the right hand of the resurrected person if they are going to Jannah, and left if they are to be sent to "the burning fire".^[46]

Another version of how the resurrected are judged ("particular elements that make up the occasion of the reckoning" in the Quran are not ordered or grouped and are called "modalities of judgement")^[47] involves several references in the Quran to mīzān (balance), which some commentators believe refers to a way of balancing the weight of an individual's good deeds and bad on Judgement day, to see which is heavier, as the occurrence stated in Kitāb aḥwāl al-qiyāma, which will span in fifty thousand years.^[48]

It is believed those whose good deeds outweigh their bad will be assigned to Jannah (heaven), and those whose bad deeds outweigh the good, Jahannam (hell).^[49][50] How much weight is given to internal and how much to external imam, how much to piety and how much to obedience to Islamic law (the two being intertwined, of course), in the tabulation of good deeds and earning salvation, varies according to the interpretation of scholars.^[51] In one manual (Kitāb aḥwāl al-qiyāma), hopeful humans are questioned about their behaviour not before they head on the path/bridge (aṣ-ṣirāṭ; see below) to heaven, but during. As they walk the bridge, said to have seven arches, "each 3,000 years in length"; they are interrogated at each arch about a specific religious duty prescribed by the shari'a -- their īmān, their prayer ṣalāt, almsgiving zakāt, pilgrimage ḥajj, ritual washings wudū', ghusl, and responsibility to their relatives", respectively.^[51]

(While there is no Original Sin in Islam, the Quran does mention the many inherent flaws in the personalities of human beings – weakness, greed, stinginess, pride, etc.) ^{[Note 10]}

What the common order is of Judgement Day at this point is unclear based on hadith as they disagree on the way God reveals to "the various categories of individuals what their fate is to be".^[46]

There are special conditions to those who did not receive teachings of Islam during their life accordingly, the people of the period are judged differently on the Day of Judgement. There is a difference of opinion between scholars of Islam on their afterlife. The rationalist Mu'tazilites believed that every accountable person (Arabic: مكلف, mukallaf) must reject polytheism and idolatry and believe in an All-Powerful God. Failure to meet these requirements would result in eternal punishment.

On the other hand, the Ash'aris believed that those who did not receive the message would be forgiven, even idolaters. Their premise was that good and evil is based upon revelation; in other words, good and evil are defined by God. Therefore, in the absence of revelation, they cannot be held accountable.^[53]

Abu Hamid al-Ghazali categorized non-Muslims into three categories:

• 1. People who never heard of the message, who live in far away lands, such as the Byzantines ("Romans"). These will be forgiven.
• 2. People who were exposed to a distorted understanding of Islam and have no recourse to correct that information. These too will be forgiven.
• 3. People who heard of Islam because they live in neighboring lands and mix with Muslims. These have no hope of salvation.^[53]

He also wrote about non-Muslims who have heard a distorted message: "The name of Muhammad has indeed reached their ears, but they do not know his true description and his character. Instead, they heard from the time they were young that a deceitful liar named Muhammad claimed to be a prophet. As far as I am concerned, such people are [excused] like those who the call of Islam has not reached, for while they have heard of the Prophet’s name, they heard the opposite of his true qualities. And hearing such things would never arouse one’s desire to find out who he was."^[54]

Imam Nawawi said in his commentary Sharh Sahih Muslim that those who are born into idolatrous families and die without a message reaching them are granted paradise based upon the Qur'anic verse 17:15: "We do not punish a people until a messenger comes to them.". According to ibn Taymiyyah, these people who did not receive the message in this world will be tested in the afterlife, or Barzakh.^[53] This view also shared and accepted by Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, Abu Hasan al-Ash'ari, and Ibn Kathir, as they all based this ruling according to Hadith about the fates of four kinds of peoples:

1. Those who never received the call or teaching to Islam during their life
2. Those who suffered deafness before the teaching of Islam reached them
3. Those with mental illness and severe insanity (in another Hadith with similar narration also those with mental deficiancy or low intelligence disabilities which prevent them to understand Islam properly)
4. Those who had suffered senility or dementia when the words of Islam reached him.^{[Notes 1]}

According to Ibn Qayyim, Ibn Taymiyya, and other Islamic scholars who agreed on this Hadiths, this means those four type of peoples would be further examined by Allah in Barzakh, where these four type of person will be tested in the state where their senses and their minds in perfect condition, so they can understand they are being tested examined by God.^[57][56]

Muhammad Nasiruddin al-Albani, a Salafi scholar, stated on this matter: “The term Ahl al-Fatrah refers to everyone whom the dawah (message of Islam) has not reached in a correct manner as it came in the Shariah… Such people will not be punished on the Day of Judgement [for their disbelief in this world]. It is quite possible for People of the Interval to exist in every time period, whether before [the revelation of the final message of] Islam or after. The message has to have reached them in its pristine purity, without any distortions. In cases where the dawah reaches people in a mutilated form in which its essential components; its fundamental principles of belief, have been substituted, I am the first to say that the dawah has not reached them.” ^{[citation needed]}

The crossing of the Bridge

The saved and the damned now being clearly distinguished, the souls will traverse over hellfire^[58] via the bridge of sirat. This story is based on verses in the Quran (Q.36:66, Q.37:23–24), both of which "are rather indefinite". Only Q.37:23–24 mentioning hell in the form of al-jahīm with ṣirāṭ at least sometimes being translated as 'path' rather than 'bridge'.^[59]

˹They will be told,˺ "This is the Day of ˹Final˺ Decision which you used to deny."
˹Allah will say to the angels,˺ "Gather ˹all˺ the wrongdoers along with their peers, and whatever they used to worship
instead of Allah, then lead them ˹all˺ to the path of Hell [ṣirāṭ al-jahīm].
And detain them, for they must be questioned."
˹Then they will be asked,˺ "What is the matter with you that you can no longer help each other?"

(Q.37:21–25)^[60]

ṣirāṭ al-jahīm "was adopted into Islamic tradition to signify the span over jahannam, the top layer of the Fire".^{[59] [Note 11]}

Muhammad leading the Muslim Ummah will be first across the bridge.^[62] For sinners, the bridge will be thinner than hair and sharper than the sharpest sword, impossible to walk on without falling below to arrive at their fiery destination,^[63] while the righteous will proceed across the bridge to paradise (Jannah).

Paradise and Hellfire

The "events" of "the judgement process" are concluded with the arrival of resurrected at their final "abode of recompense": either paradise for the saved or hell for the damned.^[64] The Quran describes habitation within the abodes in "exquisite detail",^[4] while "a wealth of picturesque specifics" (their shapes, structures, etc.) are elaborated on by hadith and other Islamic literature. Much of Islamic cosmology comes from "earlier world views" (the circles of damnation, seven layers of heaven above the earth, fires of purgation below of Mesopotamian and/or Jewish belief) with Quranic verses interpreted to harmonize with these.^[65]

While critics have charged that the concept of afterlife in Islam is "very materialistic", the afterlife punishment of hell and pleasure of heaven are all not only physical, but psychic and spiritual.^[66] Their characteristics having matching features or direct parallels with each other. The pleasure and delights of Jannah described in the Quran, are matched by the excruciating pain and horror of Jahannam,^[67][68] The common belief among Muslims holds that both abodes coexists with the temporal world,^[69] rather than being created after Judgement Day.

Paradise

Paradise, Jannah (Arabic: جَنّة, romanized: janna, or 'the garden'),^{[citation needed]} is the final abode of the righteous.^[70] Jannah is described with physical pleasures such as gardens, rivers, fountains; lovely houris that no man has touched before, wine that does not make drunk, and "divine pleasure".^[66] Their reward of pleasure will vary according to the righteousness of the person.^[71][72]

Hellfire

Punishment and suffering in hell in mainstream Islam varies according to the sins of the condemned person.^[71][72] It is commonly believed by Muslims that confinement to hell is temporary for Muslims but not for others.^{[73][74][Note 12]}

Hell is described physically in different ways by different sources of Islamic literature. It is enormous in size,^[76][77][78] and located below heaven.^[79] Different sources give different descriptions of its structure. There are seven levels^[80] but it is also said to be a huge pit over which the bridge of As-Sirāt crosses;^[81] to have mountains, rivers, valleys and "even oceans" filled with disgusting fluids;^[82] and also to be able to walk (controlled by reins),^[83] and ask questions,^[84] much like a sentient being.