The Quran says that on Judgment Day, when mankind is gathered before God, a person will look upon his deeds. Those who denied God, and rebelled against Him, will behold the doom that awaits them. In anguish they will cry out:
“Would that I were dust!” (78:40)
When Umar, the second caliph of Islam, lay on his death-bed, stricken by the dagger of Abu Lulu Firoz, his son, Abdullah ibn Umar was resting his father’s head in his lap. “Rub my cheek in the dust, Abdullah,” Umar said to him. Abdullah ibn Umar did so. Then, with his head resting on the ground, Umar addressed these words to himself:
“Woe betide you, Umar, and woe betide the one who gave birth to you, if God does not forgive you.”(Tabqatibn Sad)
If one compares both these events, one will find that the very words uttered by deniers of God in the next world, are those uttered by believers in this world. In the life after death, people who deviated from the right path will wish they were dust. But here we have a believer saying, before he dies, in this life on earth: “Join me with the dust.”
Who dare rebel against God when He appears before one? Everyone will submit to Him then. But the only creditable submission of God is that which comes before He makes Himself manifest. Those who have not discovered God in this world will bow to Him when He reveals Himself before them in the Hereafter.
But a believer bows to Him while He is still invisible in the present world.
A true believer experiences in this world what others will experience in the next world. Others will humble themselves on seeing God, while a believer does so without seeing Him.
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