we shall never be deprived of good from a Lord who laughs—

“and He alone has knowledge of the Hour.”

I said, “O Messenger of Allah, teach us something that other people do not know—something of the knowledge you possess. We come from a people whom no one believes: Madhḥij, who loom over us, Khathʿam, who support us, and our own clan from which we spring.”

He replied, “You will live on for a while, then your Prophet will die. You will live on again for another while, then the Deafening Cry will be sent forth. By the life of your Lord, it will leave nothing alive upon its surface—not even the angels who are with your Lord. Then your Lord—Exalted is He—will circle the earth while the lands lie desolate before Him. He will send down a rain pouring from beneath the Throne. By the life of your Lord, it will leave no place where someone was slain and no grave in which anyone was buried without splitting the earth above him, recreating him from near his head until he sits upright. Your Lord will then say, ‘What state are you in?’—speaking of his present condition. He will answer, ‘My Lord, let this day end,’ for so fresh is his covenant with life that he imagines he has only just been talking with his family.

I said, “O Messenger of Allah, how will He gather us after the winds, decay, and beasts have scattered us?”

He said, “Shall I give you a parable of that among the signs of Allah? You look upon the earth when it is nothing but dry, crumbling soil.” I said, “It will never come to life again.” He continued, “Then your Lord sends down rain upon it, and within only a few days you look again and find it a single stretch of verdure. By the life of your Lord, He is surely more capable of gathering you from mere water than of gathering the plants of the earth. You will be brought forth from your resting places and the spots where you fell; you will look at Him and He will look at you.”

I said, “O Messenger of Allah, how can that be when we will fill the earth and He—Exalted is He—is a single Being who looks at us and we look at Him?”

He answered, “Shall I tell you a parable of that among the signs of Allah? The sun and the moon are but a small sign of His, yet you see them and they see you at the very same moment, and none of you is crowded out of viewing them. By the life of your Lord, He is even more capable of seeing you and of your seeing Him without obstruction than you are of seeing them while they see you, with no hindrance in your sight of them.”

I said, “O Messenger of Allah, what will our Lord do with us when we meet Him?”

He said, “You will be presented before Him with your records laid open—nothing of you will be hidden from Him. Then your Lord—Blessed and Exalted is He—will take, with His hand, a handful of …”