True Life Begins with Death
There is a difference between what the believers, who spend their lives abiding by the morality of the Qur'an and obeying Allah's commands, receive in return for their obedience, and what the unbelievers, who spend their lives chasing their desires, forgetting Allah and the Day of Judgment, receive in return for their rejection. This difference makes itself known at the moment of death. Whereas the angels take the lives of believers nicely, they take the unbelievers' lives in a most agonizing manner. The angels greet the believers and give them the good tidings of Paradise and gently draw out their souls. All believers come face to face with the gateway to the eternal life (death), having prepared for it throughout their lives, knowing its inevitability.
On the other hand, the unbelievers meet death with overwhelming pangs of regret, having tried to evade it all their lives, having known its existence and yet still having ignored its reality. The Guards of Hell reach out for them, striking their faces and their backs, plucking out their souls harshly, which causes much pain, and then send them to a humiliating and burning punishment. It is revealed in one verse as:
If only you could see when the angels take back those who did not believe at their death, beating their faces and their backs: "Taste the punishment of the Burning!" (Surat an-Anfal, 50)
The believers have prepared for this Day all their lives, and have prayed to Allah that He may not disgrace them, as He indicates in the following verse:
[Those who remember Allah say:] "Our Lord, give us what You promised us through Your Messengers, and do not disgrace us on the Day of Resurrection. You do not break Your promise." (Surah Al 'Imran, 194)
The events of the Day of Judgment increase the believers' awe of Allah, but He reveals that He will protect them from the evil of that hard Day, for:
"Truly We fear from our Lord a glowering, calamitous Day." So Allah has safeguarded them from the evil of that Day and has made them meet with radiance and pure joy. (Surat al-Insan, 10-11)
The Believers on The Day of Judgment
Their Physical Condition
On the Day you see the men and women of the believers, with their light streaming out in front of them, and to their right: "Good news for you today of Gardens with rivers flowing under them, remaining in them timelessly, forever. That is the Great Victory." (Surat al-Hadid, 12)
The believers will be protected against the fear of this Day, and their faces will be radiant with the joy and trust of receiving their reward. They will be "laughing, rejoicing" (Surah 'Abasa, 39). Allah describes the different facial expressions of the believers and the unbelievers, as follows:
Those who do good will have the best and more! Neither dust nor debasement will darken their faces. They are the Companions of the Garden, remaining in it timelessly, forever. But as for those who have earned bad actions—a bad action will be repaid with one the like of it. Debasement will darken them. They will have no one to protect them from Allah. It is as if their faces were covered by dark patches of the night. Those are the Companions of the Fire, remaining in it timelessly, forever. (Surah Yunus, 26-27)
The unbelievers will beg the believers for some of the light, although they had fought them while alive. The meaning of this light is illumination, safety, and joy. This light radiating from those who have earned Paradise will not benefit the unbelievers, regardless of how much they want it. As its source is the good deeds done on Earth for the approval of Allah, the unbelievers, who have no store of such deeds, will not have any of it. For this reason, as Allah revealed in the verses of the Qur'an they will be told to "go back to Earth in order to find some". The verse about this matter is as follows:
That Day the men and women of the hypocrites will say to those who believe: "Wait for us so that we can borrow some of your light." They will be told: "Go back and look for light!" And a wall will be erected between them with a gate in it, on the inside of which there will be mercy, but before whose exterior lies the punishment. (Surat al-Hadid, 13)
The believers will receive the reward for their efforts to win Allah's good pleasure while alive, and they will be well-pleased with it (Surat al-Ghashiya, 9). Allah will respond to their efforts most generously. That was what they were hoping and expecting, and they will be grateful for it and say: "... Praise be to Allah Who has fulfilled His promise to us and made us the inheritors of this land, letting us settle in the Garden wherever we want…" (Surat az-Zumar, 74).
The Believers' Reward
To those who do not believe, the life of this world is painted in glowing colors and they laugh at those who believe. But on the Day of Resurrection, those who do their duty will be over them. Allah provides for whoever He wills without any reckoning. (Surat al-Baqara, 212)
As we can see from the verses, the believers who fulfilled their duty to their Lord without seeing Him, who waited for the judgment in apprehension will be under His protection. Another verse that gives the good news of the believers being protected on that Day is the following:
… on the Day when Allah will not disgrace the Prophet and those who believed along with him. Their light will stream out ahead of them and on their right. They will say: "Our Lord, perfect our light for us and forgive us! You have power over all things." (Surat at-Tahrim, 8)
Whereas the unbelievers will be debased as never seen before, the believers will know no fear. They will live the joy and pleasure of receiving what Allah has promised them, and will be given their books in their right hands and wait in peace to be directed to Paradise. Allah responded to them with endless rewards, took their lives pleasantly, and protected them from the Day of Reckoning. Allah reveals that He gives blessings and prosperity to the believers in particular, for:
Say: "Who has forbidden the fine clothing Allah has produced for His servants and the good kinds of provision?" Say: "On the Day of Resurrection such things will be exclusively for those who believed during their life in this world." In this way We make the Signs clear for people who know. (Surat al-A'raf, 32)
Once judgment has been passed and Hellfire has been shown to them, the believers will be directed to Paradise:
And those who have heeded their Lord will be driven to the Garden in companies. When they arrive there, finding its gates open, its custodians will say to them: "Peace be upon you! You have done well, so enter it timelessly, forever." (Surat az-Zumar, 73)
In the Qur'an the details of the rewards that the believers will receive in the eternal life of the Hereafter are given. One example is given below, as follows:
The heedful will be in Gardens of Delight, savoring what their Lord has given them. Their Lord will safeguard them from the punishment of the Blazing Fire: "Eat and drink with relish for what you did." They will recline on couches ranged in rows, and We will marry them to dark-eyed maidens. We will unite those who believed with their offspring, who followed them in faith, and We will not undervalue their own actions in any way. Every man is in pledge for what he earned. We will supply them with any kind of fruit and meat that they desire. They will pass around there a drinking cup to one another with no foolish talk and no wrong action in it. Circulating among them there will be youths like hidden pearls. Some of them will come up to others and they will question one another. They will say: "Beforehand we used live in fear among our families. But Allah was gracious to us and safeguarded us from the punishment of the searing wind. Beforehand we certainly used to call on Him because He is the All-Good, the Most Merciful." (Surat at-Tur, 17-28)
The Trial of the Two Groups
The trial of the unbelievers, who did not follow Allah's path and pursued either their own desires and cravings or the twisted values or beliefs of their societies, will be very hard indeed. On that Day, there will be no mercy or compassion for them, and no power will be able to end their suffering. The main reason for this is that they did not respect Allah's boundaries, even though they were sent reminders, and that they would not have done so even if they were sent back to Earth. This truth is revealed in the following verses:
If only you could see when they are standing before the Fire and saying: "Oh! If only we could be sent back again, we would not deny the Signs of our Lord and we would be among the believers." No, it is simply that what they were concealing before has been shown to them; and if they were sent back they would merely return to what they were forbidden to do. Truly they are liars. (Surat al-An'am, 27-28)
While they are accounting for their deeds, the blazing Hell is awaiting them. They will be sent to Hell in return for what they did while alive, for:
When the Pages are opened up, when the Heaven is peeled away, when the Fire is set ablaze, when the Garden is brought up close: then each self will know what it has done. (Surat at-Takwir, 10-14)
Allah reveals that the believers will have an easy trial:
O Man! You are toiling laboriously toward your Lord, but meet Him you will! As for him who is given his Book in his right hand, he will be given an easy reckoning and return to his family joyfully. (Surat al-Inshiqaq, 6-9)
The believers who have lived their lives according to the will of our Lord, Who created and guided them onto the right path, will have their sins forgiven by Allah the Most Merciful, Who has revealed that He will forgive sins and turn them into goodness for those who believe and do good. On that Day, our Lord will address the believers, who will already have received what was promised:
"O self at rest and at peace, return to your Lord, well-pleasing and well-pleased! Enter among My servants! Enter My Garden." (Surat al-Fajr, 27-30)
In this way, they will be saved from the eternal Hellfire by His grace and favor and enter Paradise full of endless reward. Their reply to "enter Paradise" is revealed in the Qur'an:
They will say: "Praise be to Allah, Who has fulfilled His promise to us and made us the inheritors of this land, letting us settle in the Garden wherever we want. How excellent is the wage of those who work!" (Surat az-Zumar, 74)
The Unbelievers On The Day Of Judgment
Their Physical State
On the Day of Judgment, people will be raised up and re-created. The believers' faces will manifest the light and beauty unique to the faithful, while the unbelievers' faces will be made hideous:
We pursued them with a curse in this world, and on the Day of Resurrection they will be hideous and spurned. (Surat al-Qasas, 42)
Yet Allah relates in many verses that dust, gloom, and darkness also will cover the unbelievers' faces:
That Day some faces will be dust-covered, overcast with gloom. Those are the dissolute unbelievers.
(Surah 'Abasa, 40-42) On the Day of Resurrection, you will see those who lied against Allah with their faces blackened. Do not the arrogant have a dwelling place in Hell? (Surat az-Zumar, 60)
Blackening the face is a metaphysical phenomenon. Those people who forsook an honorable life, one lived according to Allah's will, for one lived according to their selfish desires acquire only debasement. Thus, the resulting ugliness and dishonor is placed upon them. For this reason, they are driven to Hell in shame:
If We had wanted to, We would have raised him up by them. But he gravitated toward Earth and pursued his whims and base desires. His metaphor is that of a dog: If you chase it away, it lolls out its tongue and pants, and if you leave it alone, it lolls out its tongue and pants. That is the metaphor of those who deny Our Signs. So tell the story so that hopefully they will reflect. (Surat al-A'raf, 176)
People who allow themselves to be ruled by their selfish desires will be debased in the Hereafter in return for their conceit on Earth. In addition to physical ugliness, they also will be disgraced, for:
Some faces that Day will be humiliated. (Surat al-Ghashiya, 2)
The unbelievers, who led a life far remote from the morality of the Qur'an and did not improve themselves, even though Allah had given them the means for numerous times, will experience the astonishment of being debased and helpless at an unexpected moment. The ones who mindlessly reject the verses of Allah and, abiding by their lower selves, choose to lead a life according to their debased ambitions deserve this punishment, and so their situation on that Day will be very difficult. Allah will fulfill His promises, for His rule is just. Allah says:
… We will gather them on the Day of Resurrection, flat on their faces, blind, dumb, and deaf. Their shelter will be Hell. Whenever the Blaze dies down, We will increase it for them.
(Surat al-Isra', 97) He will ask: "My Lord, why have you gathered me blind when before I was able to see?" [Allah] will say: "Just as Our Signs came to you and you forgot them, in the same way you too are forgotten today." (Surah Ta Ha, 125-26)
In the Qur'an, Allah relates that the unbelievers' faces will be made humble by disgrace:
They will emerge from their graves with downcast eyes, like swarming locusts. (Surat al-Qamar, 7)
The expression in their eyes and their fear-evoking appearance will be given to them on that Day. Allah describes them, as follows:
On the Day the Trumpet is blown—and We will gather the evildoers on that Day, blue-eyed [their eyes dimmed by terror and sightless]. (Surah Ta Ha, 102)
In the Qur'an Allah also reveals that those who were in conceit over His Messengers and verses will be branded on their noses:
We will brand him on the snout! (Surat al-Qalam, 16)
This is an important source of shame, for calling their noses "snouts" and being branded is enough to reveal their debasement and ugliness in the Hereafter. Whereas the believers will live in the Hereafter in comfortable environments, the unbelievers will begin a life of everlasting disgrace. Allah reveals all of this, as follows:
[Some] faces that Day will be radiant, gazing at their Lord. And [some] faces that Day will be glowering, realizing that a back-breaking blow has fallen. (Surat al-Qiyama, 22-25)
There is no possibility of hiding or escaping. Allah reveals that the unbelievers, who are instantly recognizable by their appearance, will be seized by their forelocks and feet and then cast into Hell.
The evildoers will be recognized by their mark and seized by their forelocks and their feet. (Surat ar-Rahman, 41)
In a hadith, our Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, describes the state of the unbelievers in this way:
Anas ibn Malik reported that a person said: "Allah's Messenger, how will the unbelievers be made to assemble on the Day of Resurrection (by crawling) on their faces?" Thereupon he said: "He Who is powerful enough to make them walk on their feet, is powerful enough to make them (crawl) upon their faces on the Day of Resurrection." (Sahih Muslim)
The Recreation of Deniers in The Hereafter
ADNAN OKTAR: As you know, the irreligious said that everything came about by chance. But in hell they will be confronted by all the things they imagined in their heads. Boiling magma will pour from the Earth because Darwinists and materialists say that the Earth was initially boiling larva. Then they say that life came into existence by chance, and continued with mutations and all the rest. Allah will create people in the manner they described; for instance; they will be created with heads on their backs, their bodies facing forward and their heads backward. Because they believed this was quite possible through mutations. Allah will create them like that. Their skins will be black and filthy. Their eyes will be unable to distinguish between black and white, there will just be purple, in both eyes. They eyes will be created unseeing. They say that eyes came about though mutations, and their eyes will similar be created to be unseeing. And they will enjoy conflict. Materialists have the idea of thesis and antithesis, as you know, constant conflict. (Kaçkar TV, January 8th, 2009)
ADNAN OKTAR: When someone who does not believe dies, his soul will be taken by him being struck on the back and face. His soul will depart very painfully, like a thorny bush leaving the body. Those around will see his terrified face. Every moment will be pain and suffering. Every stage is a difficulty that cannot be overcome. Allah has them brought to the Hereafter crawling on their faces, in order to humiliate them. Their eyes are purple, with no white in them. He says their eyes are purple, the color of the sky. Allah also says in a verse that their eyes are unseeing, and they are covered in dust. And they look dirty and dark, He says. May Allah forbid, they are in a terrible state. Believers have a light before them and a light to their right. They will try to see around them, because the first environment is rather dark. He says that at the outset all believers and kafir will be brought to the edge of hell try to see around them. They need light there. That is why Almighty Allah has them taken there by someone else. There is a light before them and to the right. And if that light is there, then everything is fine.
PRESENTER: Salvation will follow.
ADNAN OKTAR: Of course. They hope very strongly, He says. He arranges for light. The others go off in a terrible state, crawling. Allah separates the believers and hypocrites there. "Divide yourselves," He says. They enter through the gates of paradise. The kafir are left there, on their knees. From there, they are taken off to hell, placed inside hell. And the rest is suffering. (Kanal 35, November 29th , 2009)
They Will Not Be Permitted to Speak
The unbelievers will receive their books with great astonishment and regret. Their exclamations of "If only!" and "Alas for us!" show that they will be aware of their remorse's vanity. There is no point in moaning and complaining, as they are said to do in the following verse: "They will exclaim on the Day their faces are rolled over in the Fire: 'If only we had obeyed Allah and obeyed the Messenger!'" (Surat al-Ahzab, 66) Allah will answer their begging, cries, weeping, and screaming for help with the following words:
"Today We have forgotten you, as you forgot the meeting of this your Day..." (Surat al-Jathiya, 34)
Despite of all this, they will continue to make demands on Allah: to send them into a realm of nothingness, to allow them to give all they have in ransom to escape the suffering, and even to be sent back to Earth to rectify their wrongs. Allah states:
If only you could see the evildoers hanging their heads in shame before their Lord: "Our Lord, we have seen and we have heard, so send us back again and we will act rightly. Truly we now have certainty." (Surat as-Sajda, 12)
They will beg to save themselves from the shocking punishment. But Allah reveals that they will never change their old ways and that there is now no way for them to save themselves. The unbelievers have committed the most serious sin: rebellion against Allah, Who created and sustained them. Therefore, they are not permitted to defend themselves. Allah says:
On that Day, woe to the unbelievers! This is the Day on which they will not say a single word, nor will they be allowed to offer any excuses. On that Day, woe to the unbelievers! (Surat al-Mursalat, 34-37)
Allah will not speak with, protect, or purify them as a consequence of what they have done, for:
Those who conceal what Allah has sent down of the Book and sell it cheap take nothing into their bellies but the Fire. On the Day of Resurrection, Allah will not speak to them or purify them. They will have a painful punishment.
(Surat al-Baqara, 174) Those who sell Allah's contract and their own oaths for a paltry price, such people will have no portion in the Hereafter, and on the Day of Resurrection Allah will not speak to them or look at them or purify them. They will have a painful punishment. (Surah Al 'Imran, 77)
He will say: "Slink away into it and do not speak to Me." (Surat al-Mu'minun, 108)
People's anger cannot be compared to Allah's anger with the unbelievers. Irrespective of how furious people might get, their vengeance is limited, whereas Allah's is beyond our comprehension. This vengeance culminates in an incredibly painful recompense, one that exceeds the limits of our intellect and imagination. The Qur'an reveals this fact, as follows:
The ones who do not believe will be addressed [as follows]: "Allah's disgust will be even greater than your own disgust is toward one another when you are called upon to believe and [still] do not believe." (Surah Ghafir, 10)
They are in Fear
The unbelievers' eternal fear and remorse begins when the angels of death take their lives. None of them can escape this event, because this is their final capture and, after their death, they will pass through the gates of eternity. At that moment, an indescribable fear will grip their whole being, and they will realize that the promised punishment has just began. As Allah says in the Qur'an:
... If you could only see the wrongdoers in the throes of death when the angels are stretching out their hands, saying: "Disgorge your own selves! Today you will be repaid with the punishment of humiliation for saying something other than the truth about Allah, and being arrogant about His Signs." (Surat al-An'am, 93)
Having left all their earthly wealth, which has been rendered worthless and meaningless, they will find that none of their treasures or people whom they had counted upon can help them. As the verse says, they will be all alone, for:
You have come to Us all alone, just as We created you at first, leaving behind you everything We bestowed upon you. We do not see your intercessors accompanying you, those whom you claimed were your partners with Allah. The link between you is cut. Those for whom you made such claims have forsaken you. (Surat al-An'am, 94)
As if their hands and feet are bound, they will be unable to control or guard their bodies, which they had liked so much and thought that they could control and use to fulfill their desires. They just cannot do what they want to. The verses reveal that they will be invited to prostrate before Allah, but that they will not be able to:
On the Day when legs are bared and they are called on to prostrate, they will not be able to do so. Their eyes will be downcast, darkened by debasement, for they were called on to prostrate when they were in full possession of their faculties. (Surat al-Qalam, 42-43)
Allah is the possessor of everything, and everything happens according to His will. The unbelievers will be asked to prostrate so that they will feel remorse and pain for delaying this while alive. These people, who were too vain to prostrate before Allah will not be able to do so now, even though they will want to. They will be captured, called to account, and sent to Hell.
They Feel Remorse
Those who deny the meeting with Allah have lost, so that, when the Hour comes upon them suddenly, they will exclaim: "Alas for what we neglected there!" They will bear their burdens on their backs. How evil is what they bear! (Surat al-An'am, 31)
People often experience remorse, but even when they can rectify what they have done, for some reason their pride prevents them from doing so. They think that they know best and shut their ears to all advice. But on that Day, they will experience remorse for their behavior. Even though they will plead, full of remorse, to be sent back to Earth to make amends, their request will be refused. They will realize that the wealth, children, partners, traditions, ideologies, and all of the other things they strove for and defended have no value, and that only those deeds done for Allah's good pleasure have true value. But this realization will not benefit them anymore.
Some will try to conceal their remorse because of their pride, as follows:
If every self that did wrong possessed everything on Earth, it would offer it as a ransom. They will confide regret when they see the punishment. Everything will be decided between them justly. They will not be wronged. (Surah Yunus, 54)
Even though they know their guilt, they still try to conceal their remorse. They get exactly what they deserve, for Allah's justice demands it. Allah will separate the believers and the unbelievers on that Day. All that the unbelievers experience on the Day of Judgment is a consequence of preferring satan's path over Allah's, and something that is truly deserved, for:
Those who perform bad actions will be flung headfirst into the Fire: "Are you being repaid for anything other than what you did?" (Surat an-Naml, 90)
Many factors will bring on this remorse. For example, their meeting with Allah's punishment, being all alone, watching their skins testify against them, being made hideous, sensing the terror of eternal suffering, seeing Hell and, comprehending the damnation that is awaiting them, seeing the false deities they followed blindly and trusted in suddenly disappear, and seeing that satan, whose path they followed consistently, also has deserted them. In the Qur'an Allah recounts what satan will tell his followers on that Day in the following words:
When the affair is decided, satan will say: "Allah made you a promise, a promise of truth, and I made you a promise but broke my promise. I had no authority over you, except that I called you and you responded to me. Do not, therefore, blame me, but blame yourselves. I cannot come to your aid, nor you to mine. I reject the way you associated me with Allah before." The wrongdoers will have a painful punishment. (Surah Ibrahim, 22)
The believers will watch the unbelievers' hopeless situation, whereas the unbelievers will regard the believers from the corner of their eyes, as their heads will be lowered in shame and remorse. This reality is revealed in one verse:
You will see them as they are exposed to it, abject in their abasement, glancing around them furtively. Those who believe will say: "Truly the losers are those who lose themselves and their families on the Day of Resurrection." The wrongdoers are in an everlasting punishment. (Surat ash-Shura, 45)
The degree of remorse in the Hereafter is far too great to be compared with anything on Earth. There is no return or escape from this remorse, for it is the end of the unbelievers' inevitable and unstoppable breakdown, which they are forced to bear on their shoulders. This devastation and remorse is the consequence of their denial of Allah, Who created them and then offered almost all there is on Earth for their use. This path of denial determined their final destination in the Hereafter: Hell. There, they will experience for eternity every conceivable sorrow, pain, and worry they would rather not have thought about. Allah's retribution will face them with all of its might.
They Bicker between Themselves
Arguing in it with one another, they will say: "By Allah, we were plainly misguided when we equated you with the Lord of all the worlds. It was only the evildoers who misguided us, and now we have no one to intercede for us. We do not have a single loyal friend. If only we could have another chance, then we would be among the believers!" There is certainly a Sign in that, yet most of them are not believers. (Surat ash-Shu'ara', 96-103)
The unbelievers will meet a suffering of unequalled proportions. They will be extremely angry at their situation and furious with the people who led them away from Allah's path. Their greatest ambitions, such as wealth and position, will have lost all meaning. They will be furious with their leaders, who led them away from His path, and try to distance themselves from them. The dispute between those who led and those who followed is revealed, as follows:
When those who were followed disown those who followed them, and they see the punishment and the connection between them is cut, those who followed will say: "If only we could have another chance, we would disown them just as they have disowned us." In that way Allah will show them their actions as a cause of anguish and remorse for them. They will never emerge from the Fire.
(Surat al-Baqara, 166-67) They will say on the Day their faces are rolled over in the Fire: "If only we had obeyed Allah and obeyed the Messenger!" And they will say: "Our Lord, we obeyed our masters and great men, and they misguided us from the Way. Our Lord, give them double the punishment and curse them many times over!" (Surat al-Ahzab, 66-68)
Allah reveals that such leaders are one of the factors that lead people away from belief in Him. Some people who are considered superior because of other people's values and not because of Allah's values, have an enormous influence over their followers. People who submit to these leaders are tricked into living according to this world's impermanent values and thus waste their lives. However, unable to recognize their mistakes on Earth, they supported one another in disobedience against Allah and abided by their own creeds. When their error is exposed on this Day, they will begin to blame one another. Regardless of these accusations, neither party will be saved from Hell.
Allah describes such leaders in the following terms:
We made them leaders, summoning to the Fire, and on the Day of Resurrection they will not be helped. We pursued them with a curse in this world...
(Surat al-Qasas, 41-42) He [Pharaoh] will go ahead of his people on the Day of Resurrection and lead them down into the Fire. What an evil watering-hole to be led to! (Surah Hud, 98)
The unbelievers will wish that there was a distance as great as that between East and West between them and the leaders whom they followed. Allah states that:
If someone shuts his eyes to the remembrance of the All-Merciful, We assign him a devil who becomes his bosom friend—they debar them from the path, yet they still think they are guided—so that, when he reaches Us, he says: "If only there was the distance of the two Easts [East and West] between you and me!" What an evil companion! It will not benefit you today, since you did wrong, that you share equally in the punishment. (Surat az-Zukhruf, 36-39)
People will not want to know some of those whom they loved, trusted, or were attached to with passion while alive; they will deny others and condemn the rest. In the Qur'an Allah says:
He [Abraham] said: "You have adopted idols apart from Allah as tokens of mutual affection in this world. But then on the Day of Resurrection you will reject one another and curse one another. The Fire will be your shelter. You will have no helpers." (Surat al-'Ankabut, 25)
Allah relates their ensuing arguments, as follows in the following verses:
[The custodians of Hell will be told:] "Hurl into Hell every obdurate unbeliever, impeder of good, doubt-causing aggressor who set up another deity together with Allah. Hurl him into the terrible punishment." His inseparable comrade will say: "Our Lord, I did not make him overstep the limits. He was, in any case, far astray." He will say: "Do not argue in My presence when I gave you advance warning of the Threat. My Word, once given, is not subject to change, and I do not wrong My servants." (Surah Qaf, 24-29)
Those who, according to their shallow minds, despised the believers' righteous path will be astonished when they do not find the believers beside them on that Day, as described below:
They [the profligate] will say: "How is it that we do not see some men whom we used to count among the worst of people? Did we turn them into figures of fun? Did our eyes disdain to look at them?" All this is certainly true—the bickering of the people of the Fire. (Surah Sad, 62-64)
While they were alive, their disputes with each other never ended and, in fact, they actually darkened their own lives. In reality, they are well aware of the cruelty that they inflicted upon one another. They did not find peace even among those close to them or in their own environment, and yet they would not cease their arguing. Whereas the believers always live in contentment here and in the Hereafter, the unbelievers always live in a state of restlessness and discontent. They will receive pain from all sides, as well as dispute continually with those whom they consider close.
They are Disgraced
Arrogance toward Allah will bring humiliation. People who do not believe in the Hereafter, deny Allah's evident existence, and live a carefree life will pay a heavy price in return. As, by making a grave mistake, they do not consider His punishment probable and so do not think about it, they become satan's friend by falling for his diversionary tactics and thus waste their lives. Instead of living life as a test, they live it as empty cause. Their arrogance caused them to commit many sins, such as mindlessly fighting Allah (Allah is beyond that) and looking for ways in their shallow minds to deny Him. This is no doubt a great sin, one that will lead to great suffering and humiliation in the Hereafter.
Obviously, the unbelievers are wrong. They never inquire into the source of Allah's gifts or how they came by their wealth, and consider it their right to enjoy life's pleasures without remembering and giving thanks to their Creator. But the consequences of such arrogance will be massive. Allah reveals:
On the Day when those who did not believe are exposed to the Fire [it will be said]: "You dissipated the good things you had in your worldly life and enjoyed yourself in it. So today you are being repaid with the punishment of humiliation for being arrogant in the land without any right and for being deviators." (Surat al-Ahqaf, 20)
Those who spend their lives pursuing the world and never reflect upon the Hereafter will be humiliated on the Day of Judgment and after. Allah reveals this truth in the following verses:
Has news of the Overwhelmer reached you? Some faces on that Day will be downcast, laboring, toiling endlessly.
(Surat Ghashiya, 1-3) Then on the Day of Resurrection He will disgrace them and ask: "Where are My partner deities, for whose sake you became so hostile?" Those given knowledge will say: "Today there is disgrace and evil for the unbelievers." (Surat an-Nahl, 27)
And on the Day of Resurrection his punishment will be doubled, and he will be humiliated in it timelessly, forever. (Surat al-Furqan, 69)
People who continue their war on Allah with an ugly impudence disregard the Day of Judgment. They live unaware of the plan Allah has devised for them, a plan that is unrivalled. Only small groups of people accepted and then abided by the Messengers' calls. These calls increased other people's unbelief and also increased their burden. In the end, Allah will show the reality of the Hereafter to all people in the most spectacular fashion. And the unbelievers will clearly understand the consequences of Allah's promises. Their lives are not eternal, and their time on Earth has been exhausted. Pleasures and desires have lost their appeal, and the only reality that matters is His judgment. The evil that they did against Allah has been repaid, for He has judged them fit to live forever in suffering and sorrow. On the other hand, the believers' eternal life will be shown to all people with all of its splendor and beauty.
