Gifts of Knowledge

Shaikh ʿAbdur-Razzāq al-Badr said, “We are at the start of summer and we will mention a great matter and a severe event which it reminds us of.

It is a clear cut sign and true proof of what Allaah has prepared for the Day of Reckoning.

Summer, and especially when it becomes very hot, reminds us of the Fire of Hell on the Day of Judgement, and it has been mentioned in a ḥadīth in the two Ṣaḥīḥs from Abū Hurairah that the Prophet ﷺ said, “The [Hell] Fire complained to its Lord saying, ‘O my Lord! My different parts eat each other up.’ So He allowed it to take two breaths, one in the winter and the other in summer, and this is the reason for the severe heat and the bitter cold you find [in weather].”

All of us try to get away from the summer’s heat by trying to find cooler places and shade, and that is why one of the Salaf said, ‘I am amazed at the person who tries to shelter himself from the summer’s heat in this world, how can he not then protect himself from Hell’s heat on the Day of Judgement by keeping away from sins?’

And [more specifically] the midday heat, especially during summer, also reminds us of the Fire. Abū Hurairah reports in a ḥadīth that the Prophet ﷺ said, “When it is very hot, then wait for it to cool down before you pray, for intense heat is from the flaring up of the Hell-fire,” this is a reminder for people who fear Allaah.

When some of the Salaf, may Allaah have mercy on them, would leave after the Jumuʿah prayer during the severe heat, they would remember the people departing on the Day of Judgement—departing either to Paradise or the Fire because that Day will be on a Friday, the Day of Reckoning will be on a Friday, and by midday on that Day the inhabitants of Paradise would be having their midday nap and those of the Fire settled theirs, as Ibn Masʿūd said and then he recited Allaah’s Saying, “On that Day the residents of Paradise will have the best settlement and the finest place to rest.” [Furqān: 24]

The sun which Allaah has created in this life reminds us of the Fire of the Day of Judgement, its heat reminds us of the heat to come on the Day of Judgement.

Indeed it reminds the people of when it will come close to the creation on the Day of Judgement, the Day when they will stand on a flat plain with a reddish tinge, there being no shade, no refuge, no dwelling place for anyone except whoever Allaah provides shade to under His Shade on the Day when there will be none except His.”

Source.

Tagged: heat, hell, Hellfire, midday nap, paradise, shade, summer