Life as we know it can bring with it all sorts of grief, stress, and regret. At times, such stress is due to financial worries, other times it relates to health concerns, whilst at other times its anxiety is due to an enemy that awaits. The grief of this world is of many types and of varying degrees, however, no matter how serious stress becomes, you are very unlikely to see it causing a mother to “forget her baby”, or a “child to go grey” or for “people behaving as if they are drunk”.These descriptions are exclusive to only one specific day of stress and regret. That is the Day of Judgement.
Allah said, The Day you see it every nursing mother will be distracted from her nursling, and every pregnant woman will abort her pregnancy, and you will see the people appearing intoxicated although they are not intoxicated; but the punishment of Allah is severe.”[1]
A day so intense that it has been described as the day that will make children turn grey.”[2]
On this day of colossal stress and unimaginable fear, people– in their billions – will only be of two categories.
The first category
A group who feel safe, secure, and inexplicably at peace. These people singled out Allah in worship, they tackled every sin of theirs before death and lived a life of preparation for the Day of Allah’smeeting, thus Allah said about them,
أThose will have security…”[3]And He said, “TheGreatest Terror (the Day of Judgement) will not grieve them”[4]
The second category
They are the terrorized and regretful ones, who will be heard screaming out: “.. How great is our regret for not giving it thought!”[5]
A second group will be heard pleading as they lower their heads in shame, “Our Lord, we now see and we hear so return us so that we may do good, we are now certain!”[6]
And a third group will be heard screeching “O I wish that I was dust!”[7]
Regret is an incredibly powerful negative emotion that, at times, can become so extreme that, if not managed with iman, can make a person suicidal. In fact, the Harvard Newsletter tells a story of a man in Liverpool who always chose the same set of lottery numbers. However, one time when he forgot to renew his ticket, his numbers came up. This poor man was so full of self-blame and regret that he committed suicide. Similarly, there will be people who will wish for death on the Day of Judgement as one of its names is ‘Yawmul Hasra’ (The Day of Regret).
Allah said, “And warn them, O Muḥammad, of the Day of Regret…” [8]
The Prophet (sall Allahu ʿalayhi wa sallam) said, “There isn’t any person who enters Jannah except that they are first made to see their potential place in the hellfire had they failed so that they increase ingratitude, and there isn’t a person who enters the hellfire except that they are first made to see their potential place in paradise had they passed so that they are taken by regret.”[9]
What once seemed to be the greatest possible achievement in life will all of a sudden seem on that Day as a regretfully wasted opportunity, for what greater regret can there be in existence than missing out on Allah’s acceptance and the Paradise that it brings.
With this said, it is essential to realize that the Prophet(sall Allahu ʿalayhi wa sallam) has explicitly mentioned several matters that will bring about ‘Hasra’ (regret) on that long day. What follows are a few examples of these matters:
The regret of not giving Surat Al-Baqara due attention
When the rewards are distributed to those who had given this surah the focus it deserves, those who fell short will be in a major state of bitter regret. This is because the Prophet (sall Allahu ʿalayhi Wa Sallam) said, “ReciteSurat Al-Baqara, for taking care of it is a blessing, leaving it will be regret and the magicians are unable to overcome it.”[10]