An incorrect Hadith about the excuses of people on the Day of Judgment

19-8-2003 | IslamWeb

Question:

I have read the following Hadith in a book but it did not mention the reference of the Hadith. On the Day of Resurrection", Allah Ta'ala resurrects all the dead people. Then Angels will question one by one, first of all they will enquire about Prayers. Some people will say, (1) because of lot of children we had no time to pray. (2) Some will say, we were kings (or) ministers on the earth and we spent our lives looking after the affairs of the people and therefore, we had no time to pray. (3) Some will say, we were always inflicted with diseases and had no strength to pray. Every one will answer in a distinguished way. Angels will reply to first group, "What! Did you have more children than Yaqoob (Alaihi Salaam)? Yaqoob (A.S.) had 13 children and he lost his eyes crying for his loving son Yusuf (Alaihi Salaam) and in all such calamities he never left prayer". For second group, (Angles will say) O kings! ministers! Who ruled the earth listen! Were you greater than Sulaiman (Alaihi Salaam)? The kingdom of Sulaiman (A.S) cannot be defined. His rule was not only on people, but also air, jinn, birds and even ants were under his rule by the Will of Allah. It is not necessary to say that there was no (other) king with such a big kingdom on the earth. Also he had 100 wives approximately. Sulaiman (A.S) ruled the Kingdom by looking after their affairs and used to perform prayer with humbleness, etc.

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Answer:

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and may His blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions. We could not find the Hadith you are enquiring about, nor any Hadith that is similar to that, in any known books of Sunnah. Probably, it is not a Hadith at all. However, every person would be called to the account of his deeds on the Day of Judgment, and the first matter he would be questioned about is his prayer. The Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) said: The first thing about which the people will be called to account out of their actions on the Day of Judgement is prayer. If the prayers were correct he would be succeed, if the prayers were wrong or not valid he would be unsuccessful and a loser . [ al-Tabrani in al-Awsat, Sheikh al-Albani graded it Sahih in his book Sahih al-Jami al-Sagheer]. Imam al-Tirmizi narrated from Abdullah Ibn Amar Ibn al-Aas (Radiya Allahu Anhu) that the Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam) mentioned prayer one day and said: " He who observes it constantly, it will serve for him as a light, as (burhan), an evidence, and (as a means of) salvation on the Day of Resurrection. He who does not observe it constantly, it will not serve for him as a light, as an evidence, and (as a means of) salvation on the Day of Resurrection, and he will be with Qarun , Pharaoh , Haman and Ubayy Ibn Khalaf ". Allah knows best.