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The Day of Judgement in Islam: From the Signs of the Hour to Paradise

Life in this world is fleeting. For Muslims, it will be followed by a Day on which every human being, from the most powerful to the most destitute, will be resurrected and will answer for their deeds before God. Belief in this Last Day is one of the pillars of faith. This page sets out its main stages as taught by mainstream Sunni creed: the signs of the Hour, the resurrection, the gathering, the intercession, the judgement, the scale, the bridge and finally Paradise and Hell. The Quran gives the broad outline; many details come from authentic hadiths, and we give the source each time.

A pillar of faith

When the angel Gabriel asked Prophet Muhammad ﷺ about faith, he replied: “That you believe in Allah, His angels, His Books, His messengers and the Last Day, and that you believe in divine decree, its good and its bad” (Sahih Muslim 8). The Quran gives this Day many names: the Day of Resurrection (Yawm al-Qiyamah), the Day of Recompense (Yawm ad-Din, Quran 1:4), the Hour (as-Sa‘ah), the Striking Calamity (al-Qari‘ah), the Inevitable Reality (al-Haqqah)… Several surahs bear these names.

Its date is known only to God: “They ask you about the Hour: when is its arrival? Say, ‘Its knowledge is only with my Lord. None will reveal its time except Him. […] It will not come upon you except unexpectedly’” (Quran 7:187). When Gabriel asked him about it, the Prophet ﷺ answered: “The one being asked knows no more about it than the one asking” (Sahih al-Bukhari 50). He did, however, make clear that it is near: “I have been sent, and the Hour, like these two”, joining his index and middle fingers (Sahih al-Bukhari 6504). Any prediction of a date should therefore be rejected.

Before the Last Day: the grave and the barzakh

“Every soul will taste death” (Quran 3:185). Between death and resurrection lies a period the Quran calls the barzakh, the “barrier”: “and behind them is a barrier until the Day they are resurrected” (Quran 23:100). According to authentic hadiths, the deceased is questioned there by two angels about their faith and about the Prophet ﷺ: the believer answers with confidence, while the hypocrite or the disbeliever does not know what to say (Sahih al-Bukhari 1374). The Prophet ﷺ linked this test to the verse: “Allah keeps firm those who believe, with the firm word, in worldly life and in the Hereafter” (Quran 14:27; Sahih al-Bukhari 1369).

The signs of the Hour

The minor signs

The hadiths foretell many warning signs, some of which are considered to have already appeared. The Quran mentions the splitting of the moon: “The Hour has come near, and the moon has split [in two]” (Quran 54:1). In the hadith of Gabriel, the Prophet ﷺ mentions among the signs the time when “a slave woman gives birth to her master” and when the shepherds of camels “compete with one another in constructing tall buildings” (Sahih al-Bukhari 50). He also said: “The Hour will not be established until (religious) knowledge is taken away, earthquakes become frequent, time passes quickly, trials appear, killing becomes widespread and wealth becomes so abundant that it overflows” (Sahih al-Bukhari 1036), and “until a man passes by someone’s grave and says, ‘Would that I were in his place’” (Sahih al-Bukhari 7115).

These signs are warnings meant to awaken consciences. Scholars caution against hastily applying them to current events in order to deduce a date.

The ten major signs

The Companion Hudhayfah ibn Asid reported that the Prophet ﷺ said: “It will not come until you see ten signs”, and he listed them (Sahih Muslim 2901):

  1. the smoke (ad-dukhan);
  2. the Antichrist (ad-Dajjal);
  3. the Beast (ad-dabbah);
  4. the rising of the sun from the west;
  5. the descent of Jesus (‘Isa), son of Mary;
  6. Gog and Magog (Ya’juj wa Ma’juj);
  7. a sinking of the earth (khasf) in the east;
  8. a sinking of the earth in the west;
  9. a sinking of the earth in the Arabian Peninsula;
  10. and, last of all, a fire coming out of Yemen that will drive people to their place of gathering.

Only some of these signs are mentioned in the Quran: the Beast that will come out of the earth and speak to people (Quran 27:82), the release of Gog and Magog (Quran 21:96), Jesus described as a sign “for knowledge of the Hour” (Quran 43:61), and the coming of “some of the signs of your Lord” after which new faith will no longer be accepted (Quran 6:158), which the Prophet ﷺ explained as the rising of the sun from the west (Sahih al-Bukhari 4635). Some exegetes understand the verse of the smoke (Quran 44:10-11) as this major sign, whereas Ibn Mas‘ud applied it to the famine that struck Makkah in the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ (Sahih al-Bukhari 4821). The Antichrist is known only from the hadiths: “No prophet was sent without warning his people against the one-eyed liar. He is one-eyed, and your Lord is not one-eyed” (Sahih al-Bukhari 7131). As for Jesus, the Prophet ﷺ announced that he will descend among people again “as a just judge” (Sahih al-Bukhari 3448; Sahih Muslim 155).

The end of the world and the resurrection

When God commands it, the universe will be overturned: “When the sky breaks apart, and when the stars fall, scattering, and when the seas are erupted, and when the [contents of] graves are scattered, a soul will [then] know what it has put forth and kept back” (Quran 82:1-5). Everything will perish except God: “Everyone upon it will perish, and there will remain the Face of your Lord, Owner of Majesty and Honour” (Quran 55:26-27).

The Quran describes two blasts of the Horn (as-sur), entrusted to an angel whom tradition names Israfil: “And the Horn will be blown, and whoever is in the heavens and whoever is on the earth will fall dead except whom Allah wills. Then it will be blown again, and at once they will be standing, looking on” (Quran 39:68). The Prophet ﷺ said: “Between the two blasts there will be forty.” When Abu Hurayrah was asked whether he meant forty days, months or years, he declined to say. The hadith continues: God will then send down water from the sky and bodies will grow as plants grow; every part of the human body decays except one bone, the tip of the tailbone (‘ajb adh-dhanab), from which the creature will be reassembled (Sahih al-Bukhari 4935; Sahih Muslim 2955).

The Quran’s arguments for the resurrection

To the sceptics who thought a return to life impossible, the Quran replies with arguments anyone can reflect on:

  • Repeating is easier than beginning: “Who will give life to bones while they are disintegrated? Say, ‘He will give them life who produced them the first time’” (Quran 36:78-79); “it is He who begins creation; then He repeats it, and that is [even] easier for Him” (Quran 30:27).
  • Nothing is beyond His power: “Does man think that We will not assemble his bones? Yes. [We are] Able [even] to proportion his fingertips” (Quran 75:3-4).
  • The dead earth comes back to life every year: “Indeed, He who has given it life is the Giver of Life to the dead” (Quran 41:39).
  • Divine justice and wisdom require it: in this world many injustices go unpunished and many good deeds unrewarded. “Then did you think that We created you uselessly and that to Us you would not be returned?” (Quran 23:115); “Or should We treat those who believe and do righteous deeds like corrupters in the land?” (Quran 38:28).

The gathering

Once resurrected, all humanity will be gathered before God. The Prophet ﷺ said: “You will be gathered barefoot, naked and uncircumcised”, then recited: “As We began the first creation, We will repeat it” (Quran 21:104), and added that the first to be clothed on that Day will be Abraham (Ibrahim) (Sahih al-Bukhari 3349). When ‘A’ishah worried that men and women would look at one another, he replied: “The matter will be too grave for them to be concerned with that” (Sahih al-Bukhari 6527). Everyone will think only of their own fate: “On the Day a man will flee from his brother and his mother and his father and his wife and his children, for every man, that Day, will be a matter adequate for him” (Quran 80:34-37).

The sun will be brought close to creation and people will be immersed in sweat according to their deeds, some up to their ankles, others up to their mouths (Sahih Muslim 2864). But seven kinds of people will be in God’s shade “on the Day when there is no shade but His”: a just ruler, a young person who grew up worshipping their Lord, a man whose heart is attached to the mosques, two people who love each other for God’s sake, a man who refuses the advances of an influential and beautiful woman out of fear of God, one who gives charity so discreetly that his left hand does not know what his right hand gives, and one who remembers God in solitude with tears in his eyes (Sahih al-Bukhari 660).

The great intercession

Overwhelmed by the waiting, people will go to Adam to ask him to intercede for them with God, then to Noah (Nuh), Abraham, Moses (Musa) and Jesus; each will decline, until they come to Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, who will prostrate before his Lord and be permitted to intercede (Sahih al-Bukhari 4712; Sahih Muslim 194). This is the “great intercession”, through which, scholars explain, creation is relieved of the waiting and the judgement begins. He said: “Every prophet has an invocation that is answered, and I wish to keep mine as intercession for my community in the Hereafter” (Sahih al-Bukhari 6304), and: “I will be the leader of the children of Adam on the Day of Resurrection, the first whose grave will open, the first to intercede and the first whose intercession will be accepted” (Sahih Muslim 2278).

All intercession depends on God’s permission: “That Day, no intercession will benefit except [that of] one to whom the Most Merciful has given permission and has accepted his word” (Quran 20:109). According to the hadiths, the Prophet ﷺ will also intercede for the believers of his community who committed major sins (Sunan Abi Dawud 4739; authentic), and the believers themselves will intercede for their brothers (Sahih al-Bukhari 7439).

The judgement: the record of deeds and the witnesses

Everyone will receive the record of their deeds: “and We will produce for him on the Day of Resurrection a record which he will encounter spread open. ‘Read your record. Sufficient is yourself against you this Day as accountant’” (Quran 17:13-14). Nothing will be missing from it: “Oh, woe to us! What is this book that leaves nothing small or great except that it has enumerated it?” (Quran 18:49). Whoever receives it in their right hand “will be judged with an easy account and return to his people in happiness”, while whoever receives it behind their back “will cry out for destruction” (Quran 84:7-12; see also 69:19-29). The limbs themselves will testify: “That Day, We will seal over their mouths, and their hands will speak to Us, and their feet will testify about what they used to earn” (Quran 36:65).

The Prophet ﷺ explained that the first deed for which a servant will be held to account is the prayer (Sunan Abi Dawud 864; authentic), and that the first cases settled between people will be those of bloodshed (Sahih al-Bukhari 6533). He also said: “The feet of a servant will not move on the Day of Resurrection until he is asked about his life and what he did with it, his knowledge and what he did with it, his wealth, where he earned it and how he spent it, and his body and how he wore it out” (Jami at-Tirmidhi 2417, graded hasan sahih by al-Tirmidhi). The rights of others will be settled with scrupulous care: the truly “bankrupt” person is the one who comes with prayers, fasts and charity, but who insulted, slandered, robbed or struck others; his good deeds will be handed over to his victims (Sahih Muslim 2581).

This judgement is perfectly just, and God’s generosity in it is immense: “Indeed, Allah does not do injustice, [even] as much as an atom’s weight; while if there is a good deed, He multiplies it and gives from Himself a great reward” (Quran 4:40). Yet the Prophet ﷺ warned: “Whoever is closely questioned in his reckoning will be punished”; as for the “easy account” of the verse, it is simply the presentation of the deeds, without close questioning (Sahih al-Bukhari 6536).

The scale

Deeds will be weighed: “And We place the scales of justice for the Day of Resurrection, so no soul will be treated unjustly at all. And if there is [even] the weight of a mustard seed, We will bring it forth” (Quran 21:47). “Then as for one whose scales are heavy [with good deeds], he will be in a pleasant life. But as for one whose scales are light, his refuge will be an abyss” (Quran 101:6-9). The Prophet ﷺ pointed out what weighs heavily: “Two phrases are light on the tongue, heavy in the scale and beloved to the Most Merciful: Subhan Allahi wa bihamdihi, Subhan Allahi al-‘Azim” (Sahih al-Bukhari 6406), and: “Nothing is heavier in the scale than good character” (Sunan Abi Dawud 4799; authentic).

The Prophet’s Basin

According to authentic hadiths, the Prophet ﷺ will have a basin (al-hawd) from which his community will drink: “My basin is a month’s journey across; its water is whiter than milk, its scent sweeter than musk, its cups as numerous as the stars of the sky; whoever drinks from it will never be thirsty again” (Sahih al-Bukhari 6579). He also warned that some would be turned away from it and that he would be told: “You do not know what they introduced after you” (Sahih al-Bukhari 4625); scholars understood this to refer to those who abandoned the religion or altered it after his death.

The bridge (as-sirat)

A bridge will be laid over Hell, and everyone will have to cross it. Many exegetes connect this crossing to the verse: “And there is none of you except he will come to it. […] Then We will save those who feared Allah and leave the wrongdoers within it, on their knees” (Quran 19:71-72). The details come from the hadiths: the Prophet ﷺ described it as slippery and set with hooks; the believers will cross it according to their deeds, some in the blink of an eye, others like lightning, the wind or swift horses; some will pass safely, others scratched, and others will fall into the Fire (Sahih al-Bukhari 7439). The Companion Abu Sa‘id al-Khudri added that it had reached him that the bridge is “thinner than a hair and sharper than a sword” (Sahih Muslim 183). The Quran describes the light that will then go before the believers: “On the Day you see the believing men and believing women, their light proceeding before them and on their right” (Quran 57:12).

Paradise and Hell

Paradise (al-jannah) surpasses anything one can imagine: “And no soul knows what has been hidden for them of comfort for eyes as reward for what they used to do” (Quran 32:17). God says in a hadith qudsi: “I have prepared for My righteous servants what no eye has seen, no ear has heard and has never occurred to a human heart” (Sahih al-Bukhari 3244). It has a hundred levels, the highest of which is al-Firdaws: “When you ask Allah, ask Him for al-Firdaws, for it is the best and highest part of Paradise” (Sahih al-Bukhari 2790). The greatest joy of its people will be to see their Lord: nothing they have been given will be dearer to them (Sahih Muslim 181; see Quran 10:26 and 75:22-23).

Hell (jahannam) is the place of punishment: “Your fire is one of seventy parts of the fire of Hell” (Sahih al-Bukhari 3265). The Quran states that those who rejected faith will abide in it eternally (Quran 98:6), while the reward of believers who do righteous deeds will be gardens of perpetual residence, “Allah being pleased with them and they with Him” (Quran 98:7-8). According to Sunni belief, a believer whose sins have led them into Hell will not remain there forever: “Whoever said ‘There is no deity but Allah’ and has in his heart good the weight of a grain of barley will be taken out of the Fire”, then the weight of a grain of wheat, then of an atom (Sahih al-Bukhari 44). Once everyone has reached their abode, death itself will be slaughtered, and it will be announced: “O people of Paradise, eternity and no death! O people of Hell, eternity and no death!” (Sahih al-Bukhari 4730).

God alone judges: Sunni scholars point out that no specific person can be declared bound for Paradise or Hell, except those named in the texts. The believer lives between hope in God’s mercy and fear of His punishment.

Preparing for the Last Day

A man once asked the Prophet ﷺ: “When will the Hour be?” He replied: “What have you prepared for it?” The man said: “Nothing, except that I love Allah and His Messenger.” The Prophet ﷺ told him: “You will be with those you love” (Sahih al-Bukhari 3688). The right question, then, is not “when?” but “with what?”: faith, prayer, good character, respect for the rights of others and sincere repentance, for the door of God’s mercy remains open until the last breath.

The Prophet ﷺ said: “Whoever would like to see the Day of Resurrection as if seeing it with his own eyes, let him recite ‘When the sun is wrapped up’, ‘When the sky breaks apart’ and ‘When the sky has split open’” (Jami at-Tirmidhi 3333, graded hasan). To reflect on that Day, read or listen to these surahs in particular:

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