How Allah Uses “Tomorrow” in the Qur’an

Khutbah: How Allah Uses "Tomorrow" in the Qur'an

In the name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful. All praise is due to Allah. We praise Him, we seek His help, we seek His forgiveness and we seek His guidance.

We believe in Him and we put our trust in Him. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and from the evil of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide him, and whosoever He misguides, none can guide him.

I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship except Allah. He is alone and has no partner. To Him belongs all praise and all glory. He gives life and causes death. And He is Ever-Living, Never-Dying. In His hand is all good. And He is Able to do all things. I bear witness that Muhammad is His Servant and His Messenger. And that he is pure and has no partner. He fulfilled the trust. And he conveyed the message. And he advised the Ummah. And he exposed the misguidance. And he left us on the white path — its night is like its day. There is nothing that can be removed from it but destruction. So upon him be the best prayer and the best submission. And upon his family and his companions. And upon those who follow his Sunnah until the Day of Recompense.

وَأُوصِيكُمْ وَنَفْسِي بِتَقْوَى اللهِ وَقَدْ أَمَرَنَا بِالْحَقِّ.

أَمَّا بَعْدُ. We begin by praising Allah and bearing witness that none has the right to be worshipped or unconditionally obeyed except for Him. And we bear witness that Muhammad ﷺ is his final messenger. We ask Allah to send his peace and blessings upon him, the prophets and messengers that came before him, his family and companions that served alongside him, and those that follow in his blessed path until the Day of Judgment. And we ask Allah to make us amongst them. Allahumma ameen.

The Revolutionary Shift in Mindset

Dear brothers and sisters, of the most revolutionary things that the Prophet ﷺ brought to this world was that he was able to shift the mindset of a people who did not believe in any life after death whatsoever, and turn it into a mindset in which everything that they hoped for, everything that they longed for was the eternal life beyond that grave.

SubhanAllah, I want you to imagine having grown up your entire life believing:

Once we die and we become dust and bones, do we ever return back? Do we ever really see anything after that? And to take that type of a mindset and to make it so that all you're thinking about is that which comes after the grave. And a Jannah that Allah has promised you — a paradise that is more expansive than the heavens and the earth:

— that has been promised for people of God-consciousness.

The Word "Tomorrow" — غَدٌ — in the Qur'an

Now subhanAllah, this idea of shifting what life actually is completely revolutionized even the language that the Arabs would use around the Prophet ﷺ. In fact, even in the Qur'an itself, when Allah mentions that on the Day of Judgment, as a person starts to see the initiation of it, they would say:

"Oh how I wish I would have prepared for my life." حَيَاتِي — if you say to anyone "my life," they're going to assume that you're talking about حَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا, the life of this world. But Allah is saying that on the Day of Judgment, once the initiation of the Day of Judgment begins, a person will refer to that which is to come as their life — as if that which preceded it was not actually life.

And the Prophet ﷺ turned that into an optimism when he said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 2834; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1804)

"O Allah, there is no life except for the life of the hereafter." Not that the life of the hereafter is greater than this life — but that in the true sense of the word, there is no life except for the life of the hereafter.

The Incident of Al-Rubayyi' bint Mu'awwidh

And so I was intrigued by the word "tomorrow." And I'll tell you exactly why. When we celebrate the Messenger ﷺ, one of the things that makes him so beloved to us is his humility despite his greatness, alayhis salatu wassalam. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ could have exploited the deep emotional attachment that people had to him. He could have built himself an amazing home. He could have consumed the wealth of this world. He could have had the people kissing his feet — no one would have said anything to him. They loved him that much, alayhis salatu wassalam. As Abu Sufyan said, "I never saw a man more beloved to his people than Muhammad ﷺ to his people."

He could have made his grave an entire monument, but the Prophet ﷺ wanted to be buried underground in his home with nothing on top of it. He could have said and done so much, alayhis salatu wassalam, but he was a man dedicated to his mission and dedicated to making sure that the concepts that he had been brought with would never be compromised, and that he would warn about those things.

And so, for example, Al-Rubayyi' bint Mu'awwidh رضي الله عنها — and this is where this entire khutbah comes from, subhanAllah — is a very interesting moment. Al-Rubayyi' was speaking about her wedding, and she says that at her wedding, the Ansar started to sing these songs where they started to memorialize some of their fathers and their forefathers from Badr. And then they came to the Prophet ﷺ and they started to praise the Messenger, alayhis salatu wassalam — and he is the most praiseworthy human being that has ever walked the face of the earth. But they said in their lyrics:

"And we have a Prophet amongst us who knows what will happen tomorrow." And the Messenger of Allah ﷺ stops the wedding, stops the nasheed, stops the singing — and he says to them, not in a harsh way, but in a way to correct the concept: no one knows what happens tomorrow except Allah, and I am no exception to that. Remove that line — وَفِينَا نَبِيٌّ يَعْلَمُ مَا فِي غَدٍ — "that we have a Prophet amongst us who knows what's tomorrow."

He could have let it go. He could have said, "Well, maybe there are implications, there are layers." But he understood ﷺ that this could potentially undermine everything that he was bringing to his people, alayhis salatu wassalam. Because when Allah says:

"No one knows what they will earn tomorrow. And no one knows in what land they will die" — the Messenger of Allah ﷺ is included in that.

The Day of Judgment as "Tomorrow"

Now here is the interesting thing about that usage. I want you to imagine if you were living in that community five years into the messengership of Muhammad ﷺ, and you familiarize yourself with the Qur'an and with these concepts of the unseen and the hereafter. And the word "tomorrow" — غَدٌ — is used in your presence. And everybody around you understands that the word "tomorrow" actually means the Day of Judgment. SubhanAllah.

If that was not an important shift in mindset, Allah would not speak of it as such in the Qur'an. When Allah uses the word "tomorrow" in the Qur'an, He is referring to the Day of Judgment:

"O you who believe, be mindful of Allah and pay attention to what you have put forth for tomorrow."

And Qatada رحمه الله comments on this. He says:

"Allah has brought the Hour so near to you that it is as if it is tomorrow." And imagine if you opened your calendar — your Google Calendar — and instead of thinking Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, you thought: today, and then you had on your calendar "the Day of Judgment — tomorrow." Not "I'm looking for the signs around me," not "something is happening here or there," but "the Day of Judgment is tomorrow."

Imagine what that would do for your muhasabah — for your self-accountability — on a daily basis, where you look back at the day and say, "This was my last day on earth." Imagine what it would do for your relationships.

A Warning About Our Words

So when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ says:

(Reported by Imam Ahmad in his Musnad; also referenced in similar wording in Sunan Ibn Majah)

"Don't say something today you'll have to apologize for tomorrow" — imagine what that would do for your relationships. Imagine what it would do in regards to your actions. If every day you look at your calendar and it says: "Today is Friday. Tomorrow is the Day of Judgment." And Allah wants you to think about tomorrow that way — not to horrify you, but to make you accountable and responsible. Not to paralyze you, but to allow the vision of tomorrow to shape every single thing that you do today.

Two Commands of Taqwa in One Verse

And you find in this ayah:

"O you who believe, be mindful of Allah and pay attention to what you have put forth for tomorrow — being the Day of Judgment. وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ" — the ulema mention that the reason why Allah mentions وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ twice here comes with great benefit.

As Imam Hassan al-Basri رحمه الله said, the first وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ is in regards to your past:

In regards to what you have done in the past that you have not rectified. And this is a big problem that we have sometimes — that we don't rectify the wrongs of yesterday and we just hope that they'll disappear tomorrow. And we're not a people like that. We're taught not to despair, but we are taught to repent. We are taught to make the things that we did wrong right to the best of our ability. To correct what we have done, to do proper tawbah, to make sure that we have done our best to correct our previous mistakes. Not be doomed by them, but do our best to make sure that we have at least covered our bases with Allah. That when He asks about yesterday, we can say we did our best. So the first وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ — فِيمَا مَضَى مِنَ الذُّنُوبِ — as Imam Hassan al-Basri رحمه الله says.

He said the second وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ is in regards to your future deeds. Now that you've learned from yesterday, what are you doing about it tomorrow? You see, when they say "learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow" — for us it would be a little bit more: "learn from yesterday, live for tomorrow." And place today somewhere in between. Learn from yesterday, live for tomorrow. وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ. So Allah reminds you: put tomorrow in front of you as if it is the Day of Judgment.

The Story of Prophet Salih — Being Wronged Today

Likewise, a lot of times when we find ourselves in a situation where we have been wronged — where it is hard for us to let go of the pain that has been inflicted upon us yesterday or today — and that stops us from moving forward in regards to our future. SubhanAllah, look what Allah said to Salih عليه السلام:

"They will come to know, O Salih — everything they say to you, every name that they call you, they call you an arrogant liar — they will come to know tomorrow," as in the Day of Judgment, "who the arrogant liar actually is." Don't worry about it. Their words will come back to them. Their actions will come back to them. Instead:

What have you put forth for tomorrow? What have you invested in your tomorrow?

The Certainty of Death — Preparing for the Definite Tomorrow

Now the reason why I share this brief reminder, dear brothers and sisters — subhanAllah, we have another janazah today after Salatul Jumu'ah. And if you've been paying attention, the amount of janazah — sometimes three times a day, sometimes even nine times a day last week — have been many. And you need to think to yourself: how many people wait for an imaginary tomorrow and don't focus on the definite tomorrow?

Imam Hassan al-Basri رحمه الله said: "I have never seen something as certain as death that people pretend doesn't exist. It is as certain as they come, but they pretend it doesn't exist."

And I want you to think about your muhasabah. I want you to think about your self-accountability tonight, bi idhnillahi ta'ala. Today, when you shut that book, when you shut that phone, when you shut whatever it is that you're doing — when your record for the day closes today — are you comfortable meeting Allah tomorrow? That's the question. Am I ready to meet Allah tomorrow?

And if Allah found it so important that we even remove the word "tomorrow" from our language in regards to the things that we may or may not do in a worldly perspective:

"Don't say 'I'm going to do it tomorrow' unless Allah wills." If Allah found it that important for you to use it that way, then think of it that way as well.

The Joy of Tomorrow — Bilal's Last Words

May Allah allow us to sincerely repent from the wrongs of yesterday and today. And may Allah allow us to receive the greatest blessing of tomorrow. And may Allah make us like Bilal رضي الله تعالى عنه, who when he was passing away said وَافَرَحَاهُ — "what joy!" — to his wife, who said وَاحُزْنَاهُ — "what grief!" And he said: what a day of joy —

"Tomorrow we will meet our beloved ones — Muhammad ﷺ and his companions."

May our tomorrow be with our beloved Prophet ﷺ. May our eternity be as his neighbors ﷺ. May Allah remove from us any of the sins that we have committed against ourselves or against anyone else, and may they not be a barrier between us and Him, and not be a barrier between us and our desired neighbor ﷺ. Allahumma ameen.

Second Khutbah — Du'a

الحمد لله والصلاة والسلام على رسول الله وعلى آله وصحبه ومن ولاه.

فَاذْكُرُوا اللهَ يَذْكُرْكُمْ، وَاشْكُرُوهُ عَلَى نِعَمِهِ يَزِدْكُمْ، وَلَذِكْرُ اللهِ أَكْبَرُ، وَاللهُ يَعْلَمُ مَا تَصْنَعُونَ. وَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ.