On many occasions, the Prophet warned his companions, and Muslims in following generations, about the Day of Judgment and emphasized the need to be well-prepared for it. This is the day when everyone will be held accountable for whatever they had done or said in their lives. Everyone will be judged on the same basis, by the same criterion, and their destiny will be known. God may pardon whomever He wills, and He certainly forgives a countless number of people much of their sins. Whoever is so forgiven will end up in Heaven, while those who are not will end up in Hell. The basic element that earns forgiveness is belief in God. Those who do not believe in Him or associate with Him other deities forfeit their claims to forgiveness, because their basic sin is too grave to merit forgiveness.
Since resurrection and the Day of Judgment are so strongly emphasized in Islam, the Prophet’s companions were keen to ask him about it whenever an occasion arose. The following Hadith, reported by Jabir ibn Abdullah, mentions an occasion and an unrelated question. “A young man from the Ansar had a son born to him, and he called him Muhammad. His people, Al-Ansar, said to him, ‘We will not call you after the Prophet.’ We then stopped on the way to ask the Prophet about the Last Hour. He said to us: ‘You have come to ask me about the Last Hour.’ We answered in the affirmative, and he said, ‘No one alive today will complete one hundred years.’ We said, ‘A young man from the Ansar had a son born to him, and he called him Muhammad, but his people, Al-Ansar, said to him, We will not call you after the Prophet.’ He said, ‘The Ansar have done well. You may call your children by my name, but do not call yourselves by the same parental appellation I use’.” (Related by Al-Bukhari in Al-Adab Al-Mufrad)
We need first to clarify the point about the names. The Arabs at the time, and most Arab countries today, call a person as the father of his eldest son. This is taken for granted, and it is used as a gesture of respect. The Prophet was often called by his companions as Abu Al-Qasim, after his eldest son who died in infancy. This is what the Hadith refers to when the Prophet tells his companions not to use his own parental appellation.
This means one should not call his first son Al-Qasim, so that he himself would not be called Abu Al-Qasim, and this would remain in all generations as another name of the Prophet. In fact, when the man referred to in this Hadith called his son Muhammad, the Ansar objected because they would have had to call him Abu Muhammad, and they felt uneasy about this when the Prophet was still among them.
It should be added that this took place only a few weeks before the Prophet’s death. According to some reports, it was a month before the Prophet’s death. Therefore, we take the last statement of the Hadith as permitting using the Prophet’s name to call our children, but not to use his parental appellation, Abu Al-Qasim. This has been done by Muslims throughout history, with countless numbers being called Muhammad, but no one calls himself Abu Al-Qasim.
The central point in this Hadith is the question about the Last Hour, which is another name for the Day of Judgment. The Prophet was asked this question many times. In the Qur’an, he is instructed to say that only God knows its time: “They ask you about the Last Hour: ‘When will it come to pass?’ Say: ‘Knowledge of it rests with my Lord alone. None but He will reveal it at its appointed time. It will weigh heavily on the heavens and the Earth; and it will not fall on you except suddenly.’ They will ask you further as if you yourself persistently inquire about it. Say: ‘Knowledge of it rests with God alone, though most people remain unaware’.” (7: 187)
Yet people will always ask, and the answer will remain the same. This is something that God has chosen not to reveal to us. Hence, we need not ask about it. Therefore, the Prophet always diverted the question to alert us to something closely related to it. To us, what is important is the time of death, because after we die, we cannot alter what we did in this life, or earn further reward, except in the three specified ways of a continuous charity, a useful contribution to knowledge and prayer by our children. The Prophet’s answers when he was asked about the Last Hour were always in this vain: reminding his interlocutors of their approaching death. On one occasion, he said to a man asking him about the Last Hour: “What have you prepared for it”. Here in this Hadith, he tells his companions that no one alive that day would live more than one hundred years. This does not preclude the possibility of people born after that day living more than a hundred years. The Prophet’s answer alerts them to the fact that after death, it would not matter to anyone when human life is brought to an end, because their own hour had already come.
The other point is that this Hadith tells of a future happening. The Prophet did mention future events in a number of Hadiths, and everything he mentioned came to pass. Never did he mention something and it failed to take place in exactly the same way he mentioned. Had there been a register of death at the time, we would have been sure that everyone alive that day, anywhere on earth, would not have lived longer than 100 years.
Another Hadith is reported by Abu Musa Al-Ashari who mentions that he was with the Prophet in a farm in Madinah, when the Prophet had a stick in his hand which he used to stir mud in water. A man was by the door seeking admission, and the Prophet said to Abu Musa: “Open for him and give him the news that he will be in Heaven.” Abu Musa went to the door to find Abu Bakr, and I opened for him and gave him the happy news. Another man sought admission, and the Prophet said to me, “Open for him and give him the news that he will be in Heaven.” It was Umar, and I opened for him and gave him the happy news.
Then another man sought admission, and the Prophet was reclining. He sat up and said to me “Open for him and give him the news that he will be in Heaven, but only after he would have to go through some hardship.” I went to do so, and it was Uthman. I opened for him and told him. He only said, ‘I seek God’s help’.” (Related by Al-Bukhari, Muslim, and Al-Tirmidhi)
We do not need to comment on this Hadith, because its message is very clear. The three companions of the Prophet given this most happy news were the most deserving. They were his closest companions, trusted by him and giving their utmost to serve God’s cause. But we note that although both Umar and Uthman were assassinated, the Prophet’s mentions only the hardship to be endured by Uthman. This is a reference to the last period of his life when rebels surrounded Madinah and then stormed his home to kill him. At the time, he showed total faith in God, and he decided not to resist the rebels. He could certainly have defended himself and Madinah, but he decided to sacrifice his life in order to spare Muslim blood. Thus, he gave one of the shiniest examples of total devotion to the cause of Islam. May God be pleased with all three of the Prophet’s companions mentioned, and with Abu Musa, the reporter of this Hadith.
