First Topic: The Importance of Belief in the Last Day and Its Effect on Human Conduct

Belief in the Last Day is one of the pillars of faith and one of Islam’s fundamental doctrines. Indeed, the resurrection in the Hereafter is the foundation upon which the structure of the creed rests after belief in the oneness of Allah Most High.

Belief in the events and signs of the Last Day is part of belief in the unseen, which reason cannot apprehend and which can be known only through revealed texts.

Because of the importance of this momentous Day, we find that Allah Most High frequently links belief in Him with belief in the Last Day. As He says: “Righteousness is not that you turn your faces toward the east or the west; rather, righteousness is that of one who believes in Allah and the Last Day (177)” [al-Baqara: 177]. He also says: “This is an admonition for whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day (2)” [al-Talāq: 2]—along with many other verses.

Rarely does one pass a page of the Quran without finding some mention of the Last Day and the reward and punishment it entails.

Life, in the Islamic conception, is not merely this brief and finite worldly life, nor is it merely the brief and finite span of a human being’s existence.