INTRODUCTION
Allâhu ta’âlâ pities all the people on the earth, and sends them the useful things He creates. He has taught the entire humanity how they should act and behave so that they may lead a life of comfort and peace in the world and in the Hereafter. Choosing some of the people whose deserved destination in the Hereafter is Hell, He will magnanimously forgive them and bless them with Paradise. He, alone, creates every living being, makes every being maintain its existence every moment, and protects all against fear and horror. Trusting ourselves to the honourable Name of such a being, Allah, we embark on writing this book.
May hamd (praise and gratitude) be to Allâhu ta’âlâ! May infinite thanks be to Him for the blessings and favours He has showered on us! If any person offers hamd to any other person at any place, at any time, in any manner, for any reason, all the hamd and gratitude will have been offered to Allâhu ta’âlâ. For, He, alone, creates all, trains and disciplines all, and makes all sorts of goodness done. He, alone, is the owner of power and might. Unless He reminds, no one will be able to opt to do or even desire to do anything, good and evil alike. After the slave opts for something, nobody can do even a mote of good or cause any harm to any other person, unless He, too, wills it and gives the power and chance to do so.
May salutations and benedictions be to all His Prophets ‘’alaihim-us-salawât-u-wa-t-teslîmât’, primarily to Muhammad Mustafâ ‘’alaihi wa ’alaihim-us-salawât-u-wa-t-teslîmât’, the highest of them! May our salutations and benedictions be to the Ahl-i-beyt of that noblest Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa sallam’ and to each and every one of his Sahâba ‘radiy-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’anhum ajma’în’, who have been honoured with the fortune of having seen his beautiful face, a therapeutic treatment for souls, and of having heard his useful words, and who therefore are the highest of all people!
For becoming a Muslim, it is necessary to utter the statement that reads, “Lâ ilâha il-l-Allah, Muhammadun rasûlullah,” and which is termed the Kalima-i-tawhîd, to briefly know its meaning, and to believe it. To know its meaning means to know six things. Those six things are called the essentials of îmân (tenets of belief). The fifth of those six tenets is belief in life in the Hereafter. The great Islamic scholar Imâm Muhammad Ghazâlî ‘rahmatullâhi ’alaih’, who was born in the hijrî year 450 and passed away in 505 [1111 A.D.], wrote a book entitled Durra-t-ul-Fâkhira fî-kashf-i-’ulûm-il-âkhira and separately assigned to giving information about the Hereafter. He mentions that book in Kashf-uz zunûn as well? Omer (’Umar) Begh, a teacher of the Arabic language in the military junior high school (Rushdiyya) in Kastamoni, (Turkey,) translated that valuable book from Arabic to Turkish and entitled itKur’ân-ı kerîmde kıyâmet ve âhıret halleri (Facts About the Rising and the Hereafter in the Qur’ân al-kerîm); the Turkish version was printed in Kastamoni on November 13, 1911, which coincided with Dhu’l-qa’da 5, 1329 Hijrî. It has now fallen to the lot of our bookstore, (i.e. Hakîkat Kitâbevi in Istanbul, Turkey,) to have this valuable book printed once again. Explanations provided later from other valuable books have been written within brackets. Infinite thanks be to Allâhu ta’âlâ for blessing us with this chance to serve our brothers in Islam! May Allâhu ta’âlâ bless us all with the lot of learning the true teachings conveyed by the scholars of Ahl as-sunnat and believing the facts taught, thereby adapting ourselves to the commandments and prohibitions communicated to us by our beloved Prophet Muhammad ‘’alaihis-salâm’ and thus becoming good people! A good person is good to everybody. He does not assault anybody’s property, life, chastity, or honour. He does not revolt against the State or violate the laws. Our Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ stated: “Islam dwells in the shade provided by swords.” Its meaning is: “It is under the administration and and protection of the State and its laws that people lead a life of comfort and perform their acts of worship peacefully.” The more powerful the State the more throughgoing will the comfort and peace it provides be. For that matter, Muslims should always support the State, pay their taxes in time, and counsel the same to others, doing so with a suave language and a smiling face. May He protect us from believing the lies, tricks and slanders of the enemies and thereby betraying our own Religion and State! Âmîn.
Today’s Muslims the worldover have been torn apart into three (major) groups: In the first group are the true Muslims, the followers of the Ashâb-i-kirâm, (i.e. the Sahâba.) They are called the Ahl as-sunnat, or the Sunnî Muslims, or the Firqa-i-nâjiyya, the group who have been saved from Hell. The second group are the enemies of the Ashâb-i-kirâm. They are called the Shi’îs (Shiites), or the Firqa-i-dhâlla. The third group are inimical both to the Sunnî Muslims and to the Shi’îs. They are called Wahhâbîs or Najdîs (or Nejdîs), the latter cognomen coming from the Arabian city Nejd, birthplace of the so-called heresy. This group are also called the Firqa-i-mel’ûna (the accursed group). For, the adherents of this group call Muslims ‘polytheists’, as is written in our books entitled the Rising and the Hereafter, (i.e. the current book,) and Se’âdet-i-ebediyye, (i.e. the Turkish version of the six fascicles of Endless Bliss.) Any person who calls a Muslim ‘disbeliever’ was in advance anathemized by our Prophet, who said that that was an accursed deed. This tragic tripartite state of Muslims is a product of Jewish and English conspiracies.
People who follow their nafs and harbour evils in their hearts, regardless of the group they belong to, shall go to Hell. For the tezkiya of the nafs, i.e. for cleansing the nafs from the evils inherent in it, such as kufr (unbelief) and fondness of sinning, every Believer should always and all the time say, “Lâ ilâha il-l-Allah,” and for the tasfiya of the heart, i.e. to protect the heart against the dirts of kufr and sinfulness coming from the nafs, from the devil, from evil company, and from harmful and subversive books, they should continuously say, “Estaghfirullah.” If a person obeys the Ahkâm-i-islâmiyya, (i.e. comandments and prohibitions of Allâhu ta’âlâ, i.e. the rules and essentials of Islam,) he can be sure that his invocations shall be accepted. Not performing the five daily prayers called namâz, looking at women going about without properly covering themselves, and eating and drinking things that are harâm, are symptoms of not obeying the Ahkâm-i-islâmiyya. Invocations of such people shall be rejected.
Mîlâdî - Hijrî Shamsî - Hijrî
Qamarî
2001 - 1380 - 1422
(The English version:
A.D. - Hijrî Solar - Hijrî Lunar)
2010 - 1387 - 1431
AN IMPORTANT NOTE: Christian missionaries are trying to propagate Christianity, Jews are trying to spread the Talmûd, and the Hakîkat Kitâbevi (Bookstore) in Istanbul, Turkey, is trying to publicize Islam, while freemasons are trying to annihilate religions. A person with reason, knowledge, and a pure conscience will see and realize which one of these four choices will be the wisest to make as a true way of life. He will support its propagation and contribute to all people’s attaining happiness both in the world and in the Hereafter. No other service to be done to humanity could be more valuable or more useful than doing so. That the so-called heavenly books called the Taurah and the Bible possessed by today’s Christians and Jews were written by human beings, is a fact acknowledged by their own men of religion. As for the Qur’ân al-kerîm; it is as pristine and intact as it was when it was revealed by Allâhu ta’âlâ. All Christian priests and Jewish rabbis ought to read, carefully and without prejudice, the books published by the Hakîkat Kitâbevi, and try as best they can to understand what they say.
The RISING and the HEREAFTER
May hamd (praise and gratitude) be to Allâhu ta’âlâ, who declares that His Dhât (Person) is eternal. He willed that all beings other than Him be non-existent. He will punish disbelievers and sinners with torment in grave. He declared His commandments and prohibitions through His Prophets so that His slaves should attain happiness in the world and in the Hereafter. He rendered His slaves’ being subjected to torment or blessed with rewards in the Hereafter dependent on a few days of behaviour they would spend conducting themselves with during their sojourn in the world. He made it easy for those slaves of His whom He had chosen and loved to commit themselves to the path leading to the Hereafter and thereby become blessed with His Grace.
May Allâhu ta’âlâ lavish our benedictions and salutations to His Most Beloved Prophet, Muhammad ‘’alaihis-salâm’, and to his Âl (Family, Progeny) and Ashâb (Companions), whose names He blessed with highest honours among Muslims.
You should know that Allâhu ta’âlâ, the sole power who gives life to all and who takes life out from all, declares, as is purported in the hundred and eighty-fifth âyat-i-kerîma of the Âl-’Imrân Sûra and in the thirty-fifth âyat-i-kerîma of the al-Enbiya Sûra and fifty-seventh âyat-i-kerîma of the al-’Ankebût Sûra, which read: “Every soul shall have a taste of death: ...” Thereby He pointed to three deaths on the part of the ’âlams (all beings). Anyone brought into the ’âlam of world shall definitely die. Those brought into the ’âlam of jeberût and to that of angels shall definitely die, too. Of them, those who were brought to the ’âlam of world are the sons of Âdam (human beings) and animals living on land, in water, and in the air.
The second ’âlam, i.e. the ’âlam [that is invisible (to the human sight) and] which is called ‘Melekûtî’, is the ’âlam containing the kingdoms of angels and genies.
The third ’âlam, i.e. the one that is called ‘jeberût’, consists of the elite of angels. As a matter of fact, the seventy-fifth âyat-i-kerîma of the Hajj Sûra of the Qur’ân al-kerîm purports: “Allâhu ta’âlâ chooses Messengers from angels and from men. ...”
The highest ones of these (elite of angels called jeberût are (the angels) called ‘Kerûbiyân’; ‘Rûhâniyân’; ‘Hamala-i-’Arsh’; and ‘Surâdiqât-i-jelâl. The nineteenth and the twentieth âyat-i-kerîmas of the al-Enbiyâ Sûra purport: “... Even those (angels) who are in His (very) Presence are not too proud to serve Him, nor are they (ever) weary (of His service):” “They celebrate His praises night and day, nor do they ever flag or intermit.” Those highest angels are meant in the âyat-i-kerîmas quoted above. Through these âyat-i-kerîmas Allâhu ta’âlâ praises them. So highly honoured are those angels that their abode is Gardens of Paradise. They are mentioned in the Qur’ân al-kerîm and their attributes are described. So close are they to Jenâb-i-Haqq (Allâhu ta’âlâ), and Paradise is their abode; yet they shall die all the same. Their being close to Allâhu ta’âlâ shall not prevent their death.
I shall tell you about worldly death first. Harken well to what I am going to inform you with: if you believe Allâhu ta’âlâ and His Messenger, the Rising Day, and the Hereafter, I shall describe for you how human beings are transmuted from one state into another, and inform you about the states and modes they undergo during the process. For, this information requires evidence and witnesses, and Allâhu ta’âlâ and the Qur’ân al-kerîm bear witness to what I am going tell you. The Qur’ân al-kerîm and the sahîh hadîth-i-sherîfs testify to truth of my statements. [When man dies, his worldly life ends. His life in the Hereafter begins. Life in the Hereafter consists of three stages. Life in grave continues until Rising. Next comes (that which is called) life of Qiyâmat (Rising and Judgment). Thereafter comes life in Paradise and/or Hell. This third life is everlasting.]
In the world, good and useful things are mixed with evil and harmful things. Always good and useful things should be done to attain happiness, comfort and peace. Because Allâhu ta’âlâ is very profoundly compassionate, He created a power to distinguish good things from evil ones. This power is termed ’aql(wisdom, mind, reason). This ’aql, when it is pure and healthy, performs its duty quite well and never goes wrong. Sinning and following the nafs will ail the ’aql and the qalb (heart), so that they will no longer see between good and evil. Allâhu ta’âlâ, with His Mercy, does this job Himself, teaches good things through His Prophets and commands (His slaves) to do them. Teaching the hamful ones, too, He prohibits to do them. These commandments and prohibitions, in the aggregate, are called Din (religion). The religion taught through Muhammad ‘’alaihis-salâm’ is called Islam. Today there is only one unchanged and undefiled religion on the earth. It is Islam. To attain comfort it is necessary to adapt oneself to Islam, i.e. to become a Muslim. Becoming a Muslim does not require any formalities such as going to an imâm or to a muftî. What there is to do is simply to first have îmân (belief) with one’s heart and then learn the commandments and the prohibitions and practise the former and avoid the latter.
Questioning angels will come to your grave;
“Did you perform your namâz properly,” they will say.
“So you think there’s no problem once you’re dead?
There is bitter torment awaiting you,” they will
say.
FIRST CHAPTER
When Allâhu ta’âlâ created Âdam ‘alaihis-salâm’, and when He made masah on his waist with His infinite Might, He took two handfuls from him, one from his right hand side and one from his left hand side. He separated the motes of all people from one another. Âdam ‘’alaihis-salâm’ looked at them, and saw that they were like motes. An âyat-i-kerîma in the al-Wâqi’a Sûra purports: “These, the ones on the right hand side, will be practising the deeds for the people of Paradise, so they are people of Paradise. Their practices are neither useful nor harmful to Me. And those, the ones on the left hand side, are people of Hell since they will be practising the deeds for the people of Hell. Nor are their practices useful or harmful to Me.”
Âdam ‘’alaihis-salâm’ asked Allâhu ta’âlâ: “Yâ Rabbî (O my Rabb, Allah)! What are the deeds to be practised by the people of Hell?” Allâhu ta’âlâ declared: “To attribute a partner (or partners) to Me and to deny the Prophets I have sent and to revolt against Me by disobeying My commandments and commandments in My Books (that I have revealed to My Prophets).”
Thereupon Âdam ‘’alaihis-salâm’ prayed and implored to Allâhu ta’âlâ: “Yâ Rabbî! Render these people witnesses for themselves. It is hoped that they will not commit the deeds for the people of Hell.” And Allâhu ta’âlâ made their own nafses witnesses for themselves and declared: “Am I not your Rabb (Allah)?” “(Yes). You are our Rabb. We testify (to it).” Allâhu ta’âlâ made the angels and Âdam ‘’alaihis-salâm’ witnesses, too, and they avowed His being the Rabb. After this solemn agreement He sent them back to their former places. For, it was only a spiritual life that they had been leading. It was not a physical life. Allâhu ta’âlâ placed them in Âdam’s ‘’alaihis-salâm’ loins. Taking away their souls, He kept them in one of the treasuries of the ’Arsh.
When a father’s semen fertilizes the mother’s ovum and produces the child in its physical shape, the child is lifeless yet. Putrifaction of the dead body has been prevented by an angelic essence which was placed into it. When Allâhu ta’âlâ decrees to give a soul to the dead child in the womb, He replaces to the corpse the soul He has been keeping for some time in the treasuries of the ’Arsh. Thereafter the child begins to move. There is many a child that moves in its mother’s womb. Sometimes its mother hears it. Sometimes she does not. The death that takes place after the mîsâk (agreement) wherewith Allâhu ta’âlâ asked the souls: “Am I not your Rabb,” i.e. His sending the souls to the treasuries of the ’Arsh, is the first death, and the present life in the mother’s womb is the second life.
SECOND CHAPTER
Thereafter Allâhu ta’âlâ makes man stay in the world as long as his lifespan. He stays in the world till his determined time of death comes and his rizq has been exhausted and his deeds predetermined in the eternal past have come to an end. When his worldly death draws near, four angels come to him. They extract his soul out of his body, one pulling it from his right foot, another from his left foot, the third one from his right hand, and the fourth one from his left hand. In most cases, he begins to see the ’âlam of melekût (the second ’âlam) before his soul turns into a state of gargling. He sees angels and the inner essence of their deeds exactly in the states wherein they exist in their ’âlam. If his tongue is capable of speech, he informs about their existence. In many other cases, however, he thinks that the events he is watching are tricks being played by the devil; he remains motionless until he becomes quite speechless. As he is in that state, the angels tug at his soul again, by grabbing the ends of his fingers and toes. At this stage his breath gargles as if water were being poured out from a water carrier’s demijohn. The fâjir’s soul is extracted as harshly as if thorns stuck on damp felt were being forced apart, which is a fact stated by our Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’, the highest of mankind. At this state the dying man feels as if his stomach were filled with torns. He feels as if his soul were being drawn through a needle-hole and as if heaven and earth were being pressed against each other, with himself left between them.
Hadrat Kâ’b ‘radiy-Allâhu ’anh’ was asked how death felt. He said: “I felt it like this: A branch of thorns placed into you. Someone strong is forcing it out. It tears away what it can, leaving the rest there to rue it.”
The Master of all Prophets ‘sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa sallam’ stated: “Vehemence of a single one of the pangs of death is definitely worse than the pain to be felt under three hundred sword-strokes.”
At that time man’s body pours with sweat. His eyes swiftly move from one side to the other. His nose recedes from both sides. His ribs rise, his breath swells, and he turns pale. As our blessed mother ’Âisha-i-siddîqa ‘radiy-Allâhu ’anhâ’ held the Messenger of Allah in her lap, she saw these symptoms (of death) and, in tears, she uttered a poem, which meant, in English:
“Let me sacrifice my nafs for you, oh, you, the Messenger of Allah; no ill-treatment has ever made you sad or hurt you. Nor have any genies ever struck you until now. Nor have you ever feared anything. What is happening now, that I see your most beautiful face covered with pearls of sweat. Whereas any other dying person turns pale, the nûrs of your blessed face illuminate everywhere.”
When his soul reaches his heart, he becomes dumb. No one can talk once their soul has come to their chest. There are two reasons for it. One of them is this: Something tremendous is happening, and the chest is narrow under the pressure of the breaths.
Don’t you see that a blow dealt on a person’s chest will make him faint. He will be able to speak only some time later. In many cases he will not be able to speak. When you hit a person on any part of his body he will cry. If you hit him on the chest, however, he will immediately fall down as if he were dead.
The second reason is this: Sound is a phenomenon which is produced by air going out of lungs. This air is gone now. Unable to inhale and exhale, the body loses its warmth and becomes cold. At this stage treatments that the dying people are subjected to vary.
With some people, the angel hits with hot steel tempered with poisoned water. Presently the soul runs away and exits (the body). The angel picks it and holds it in his hand, it trembling like quicksilver. It is a human figure as big as a locust. Thereafter the angel delivers it to the zebânî (angel of torment).
With some dying people the soul is pulled out slowly, until it reaches the throat, where it is stopped. Even after leaving the throat it still retains its attachment to the heart. Then the angel hits it with poisoned hot iron. For, the soul will not leave the heart unless it is hit with that iron. The reason for hitting it with that iron is that the iron has been dipped into the sea of death. When it is placed on the heart it turns into poison that spreads over the other limbs as well. For, the secret of life lies in the heart only. Its secret is effective only in worldly life. For that matter, some scholars of (the Islamic science termed) Kalâm (or Kelâm) have said that “life is different from soul” and that “the meaning of life is a mixture of soul and body.”
As the soul is being drawn out and the last piece of tie attaching it to the body is about to break, the dying person becomes inundated with quite a number of fitnas. They are the fitnas caused by the devil, who mobilizes all its armies specially against that (dying) person. Disguised in his parents and siblings and other dead people beloved to him, they show themselves to him at that critical moment, and say to him:
“O, you, so and so! You are dying. We have beaten you at that. You(’d better) die in the Jewish religion. That religion is the accepted one in the view of Allah.” If he refuses to believe them and does not listen to them, they leave him. Others come onto him, saying: You die as a Christian! For, it is the religion of the Messiah, i.e. Îsâ (Jesus) ‘’alaihis-salâm’, who abrogated the religion of Mûsâ (Moses) ‘’alaihis-salâm’.” They will carry on like this, taking turns to suggest to him all the religions held by various people. That is the time when anyone destined by the Jenâb-i-Haqq to go wrong shall go wrong. And that is the state pointed out in the eighth âyat-i-kerîma of Âl-i-’Imrân Sûra, which purports: “O our Rabb! Let not our hearts deviate as we die after Thou hast granted us îmân in the world. ...”
If Jenâb-i-Haqq grants guidance to a slave of His and blesses him with steadiness in îmân, the rahmat-i-ilâhiyya (divine compassion) shall come to his rescue. According to some (Islamic scholars) Jebrâîl (Archangel Gabriel) ‘’alaihis-salâm’ is meant by the word ‘rahmat’ (used in the âyat-i-kerîma).
The rahmat-i-ilâhiyya expels the devil and removes the fatigue from the invalid’s face. Thereupon that person feels soothed and smiles. Many a dying person is seen to smile at that stage, when the rahmat, (i.e. Hadrat Jebrâîl,) is sent by Allâhu ta’âlâ and gives him the glad tidings, saying, “Do you know me? I am Jebrâîl. And these (disguised people) are the demons, your enemies. You die as (a member of) the Millat-i-hanîfiyya and the dîn-i-Muhammadiyya, (i.e. the religion, Islam, declared through Hadrat Muhammad.) Nothing could be more beloved and more soothing than this angel for a person. The (latter part of the) eighth âyat-i-kerîma of Âl-i-’Imrân Sûra, which purports: “... Yâ Rabbî! Grant us mercy from Thine own Presence; for Thou, alone, are the Grantor of bounties without measure,” points out this fact.
Some people die standing during namâz. Some people die as they are asleep, some die as they are busy with something, some die all of a sudden, deeply absorbed as they are in playing or listening to musical instruments or other frivolous occupations, and others die as they are on the booze. Some dying people are shown their passed acquaintances. It is for that matter that in some cases the dying person looks at the people around him. At that moment he grumbles, yet in such frequency as to be heard by all but the human ear. Were man to hear it, he would certainly perish, being horrified to death.
The sense that the dying person will lose last is hearing. For, only his sight is gone when his soul leaves his heart. His hearing, however, stays with him until his soul is grabbed and taken away from him. It is for this reason that our Master the Fakhr-i-’âlam ‘sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa sallam’ stated: “Coach the people in their death-bed to pronounce the two statements called the shehadateyn-i-kalimateyn. That is, get them to say, ‘Lâ ilâha il-l-Allah, Muhammadun Rasûlullah’!” On the other hand, he, (i.e. the Most Blessed Prophet,) dissuaded from talking too much in the presence of a dying person. For, a person undergoing those moments is in most vehement trouble.
If you see a corpse with its saliva pouring out, its lip hanging down, its face blackened, and its eye-balls turned back, you should know that it belongs to a shaqî (sinner, evil-doer), who saw his sheqâwat (wretchedness) in the Hereafter.
If you see a corpse with its mouth almost open as if it were rejoicing, its face smiling, and its eyes looking as if it were winking, you should know that its owner was blessed with the glad tidings that he had been destined to attain happiness in the Hereafter.
Angels wrap that soul in silk cloth from Paradise. That sa’îd (good) person’s soul is in human figure as big as a honey-bee. He has lost nothing of his mind and knowledge. He knows all his doings in the world. The angels fly up with the soul, rising to heavens. Some dead people know that they are rising, while some of them do not know what is happening. Thus, watching the ummats of past Prophets ‘’alaihim-us-salâm’ and the newly dead people like watching swarms of locusts around them as they fly by, they arrive in the worldly heaven, the first (and the lowest) layer of heavens.
Jebrâîl ‘’alaihis-salâm’, leader of these angels, goes up to the worldly heaven. “Who are you,” he is asked. When he says that he is Jebrâîl and the person with him is so and so and praises that person, calling him beautiful names and names that that person used to rejoice in having, angels in charge as guards of the worldly heaven say, “He is such a good person, for the belief, the creed he held was beautiful. And he had no doubts as to that correct belief.”
Then they rise to the second layer of heavens. “Who are you,” comes the question. Jebrâîl ‘’alaihis-salâm’ repeats the answer he gave to the angels in the first heaven. The angels in the second layer of heavens say onto that soul, “Welcome here, that (good) person. As he was in the world he performed his prayers of namâz in a manner in full observance of all acts of farz in it.”
Passing it, they rise up to the third layer. “Who are you,” is the question again, whereupon Jebrâîl ‘’alaihis-salâm’ repeats what he said before. “Welcome, that (good) person,” says a voice, “who safeguarded the rights of his property by paying zakât for it and also the ’ushr[1] for the crop that he reaped from the field, by giving it to the people prescribed (by Islam), which he did willingly and lavishly.” So they go on, still upwards.