Maulana Wahiduddin Khan | Creation Plan of God | Al-Risala March 1988
At a conference I attended in Delhi in 1986, security precautions were exceptionally strict because a leading political figure was due to inaugurate the proceedings. Everyone entering the Conference Hall was checked by Security Police using electronic devices. As I approached the gate of the Conference Hall, the security men stepped forward to make their routine check. However, a highly placed official of the Organizing Committee, a Mr. Bajaj, who happened to be with me at the time, waved them aside and said, “Let him go in. There’s no need to check him.”
This incident suddenly made me think of what would happen on the Last Day. It all seemed very similar. When anyone made as if to enter the gates of paradise, the Angels would stop him and check him. The only one to be saved and allowed to enter would be one of whom God would say, “Do not check him. Let him come in.” Those handed over to the Angels to be checked would never attain salvation.
It is written in the Quran that the one to be saved in the Hereafter will be he who is the object of an “easy reckoning.” (84:8) The Prophet affirmed this by saying: “One who is examined is doomed.” (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith No. 4939) Furthermore, the Prophet asserted that no one could attain salvation in the Hereafter purely on the strength of his own actions. It was only God’s mercy and bounty which would save him on the Last Day. (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith No. 6463)
Awareness of the perils of the Hereafter does much to change wrong attitudes. It can, in fact, effect a complete transformation in an erring human being. A man who was once callous would then rush to the aid of those in adversity. His logic would be simple. If he did not do so, God would be deaf to his entreaties and indifferent to his fate on that awesome Day of Reckoning, when he found his way barred to paradise by the Angels of the Almighty.