WOULD THAT I WERE DUST!

Expression of True Belief

THE gravest and most grim prospect for a believer is to stand before God Almighty on the Day of Judgement. The Day of Judgement will mark the annihilation of all life, followed by resurrection and judgement by God. This will be an event of such magnitude and import that mere thought of it makes a believer shiver.

If believers get a chance, they would rather be a creature other than a human to avoid giving an account of their deeds of this life. The Quran says, “(On that Day), whoever has done the smallest particle of good will see it; while whoever has done the smallest particle of evil will see it.” (99: 7-8)

The second Caliph Umar Farooq was fatally injured by Abu Lulu Firoz. On the throes of death, he lay with his head in the lap of his son, Abdullah. Umar said to him, “Rub my cheek in the dust Abdullah,” and his son did as he was asked. With his head resting on the ground, Umar uttered these words to himself: “Woe betide you, Umar, and woe betide the one who gave birth to you if God does not forgive you.” (Tabaqat ibn Saad)

---

The believers bow to God while He is yet invisible, while those who disbelieve bow to God only when He reveals Himself to them.

---

Before he had breathed his last, Umar, like a true believer, wished to be joined with the dust, and thought in fear and trembling what God’s judgement of him would be in the life after death. How different are the people who give no thought to such matters until it is too late—until they stand before their Maker on the Day of Judgement. The believers bow to God while He is yet invisible, while those who disbelieve bow to God only when He reveals Himself to them. The Quran gives ample warning to the deniers of truth with the verse:

We have warned you of a chastisement which is near at hand, on the Day when man shall [clearly] see what his hands have sent ahead, and when he who has denied the truth shall say, ‘Oh, would that I were dust!’ (78: 40)