4. An-Nisaa

What will it be like on the Day of Judgement, when Allah brings the prophet of each community to bear witness against their actions, and Allah brings the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) as a witness for all the communities and messengers?

On that great day, those who disbelieved in Allah and went against His Messenger will wish they were dust and that the earth and they were level. They will not hide anything of what they did from Allah. Allah will seal their mouths so that they cannot speak and will give permission to their limbs to bear witness to what they did.

O you who have faith in Allah and follow His Messenger, do not pray when you are drunk, until you recover from your drunkenness, and can tell what you are saying. (This ruling was before alcohol was completely forbidden.) Do not pray when you are in a state of major ritual impurity, and do not enter the mosques when you are in that state, except in passing, until you have washed your body. If you have an illness and cannot use water because of it, or if you are travelling, or have answered the call of nature, or have had sexual relations with women, and you cannot find water, then find clean earth, and wipe your faces and hands with it. Allah pardons your shortcomings and is Forgiving to you.

O Messenger, do you not know about the Jews who were given a portion of knowledge in the Torah and traded guidance for error? They wish you would go astray from following the right way of life – which the Messenger came with – and that you would follow them in their deviation.

Allah knows your enemies better than you do, O believers, so He informs you of them and makes clear to you that they are against you. Allah is enough as a Protector, keeping you safe from them harming you; and Allah is enough as a Helper, stopping them from plotting against you and from hurting you.

Among the Jews are an evil group who change the words Allah sent down, interpreting them in a way that they were not revealed. They say to the Messenger (peace be upon him), when he instructs them in something, that they hear and disobey, and say, “Listen to us, may you not hear!; and give the wrong impression when they say, ‘Rā’inā’: meaning ‘watch over us’ when they really mean ‘ru’ūnah’ or ‘silliness’, twisting what they say when they want to call the Prophet (peace be upon him) so that they say something insulting to the faith. If they had said ‘We hear and obey’, instead of ‘We hear and disobey’; ‘Listen’, instead of ‘‘Listen to us, may you not hear!"; and had truly said, ‘Watch over us’, then these would have been better for them than what they said, and more appropriate, being worthy and correct behaviour in the presence of the Prophet (peace be upon him). But Allah condemned them and removed them from His mercy due to their disbelief, because they do not have faith in any way that is beneficial.

O you of the Jews and the Christians who were given the scripture, have faith in what I revealed to Muhammad (peace be upon him) which confirmed what you had in the Torah and the Gospel, before the faces are blotted out and are turned backwards; or they are removed from the mercy of Allah like those who broke the Sabbath by fishing when this had been prohibited to them, for which Allah transformed them into monkeys. Allah’s decree is certainly carried out.

Allah does not forgive that anything from His creation should be associated to Him. Besides this and disbelief, He pardons the disobedience of whomever He wills, out of His bounty. Or He punishes those He wills among them according to their disobedience, out of His perfect justice. Whoever worships others next to Allah has committed a terrible sin, which is not forgiven if someone dies still doing it.

Do you not know, O Messenger, the affair of those who are full of praise for themselves and of what they do? Allah alone praises whomever He wills, because He knows whatever is hidden in people’s hearts, and will not lessen the reward for their actions in any way, not even as much as the thread of a date stone.