People of the Left in Fire (90:19-20)

 

بِسۡمِ اللّٰہِ الرَّحۡمٰنِ الرَّحِیۡمِ

In the Name of Allah, the Rahman, the Merciful

الصلاة والسلام عليك يا سيدي يا رسول الله

وعلى آلك واصحابك يا سيدي يا نور الله

Allah سبحانه وتعالى says:

ثُمَّ کَانَ مِنَ الَّذِیۡنَ اٰمَنُوۡا وَتَوَاصَوۡا بِالصَّبۡرِ وَتَوَاصَوۡا بِالۡمَرۡحَمَۃِ

اُولٰٓئِکَ اَصۡحٰبُ الۡمَیۡمَنَۃِ

Again, he should have been of those who believe and exhort one another to perseverance and exhort one another to mercy

These are the people of the right hand

(Surah 90, Ayah 17 & 18)

وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا بِآيَاتِنَا هُمْ أَصْحَابُ الْمَشْأَمَةِ

عَلَيْهِمْ نَارٌ مُّؤْصَدَةٌ

But those who disbelieve Our Signs, they are the people of the left hand

Around them will be a fire closed over

(Surah 90, Ayah 19 & 20)

So Allah says that the people of the right hand are blessed and made to enter Paradise while those of the left hand are cursed and shall be cast into Hellfire. Allah also says in the Holy Quran that the record of deeds for a righteous believer is given in his right hand while for a wicked unbeliever it is placed in his left hand (Surah 69, Ayah 19 & 25). A similar teaching is attributed to Jesus Christ, who reportedly said: “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world...Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” (Matthew 25:31-34,41)

Islam prefers the right hand over the left. For instance, the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم enjoined upon the Muslims is to eat and drink with the right hand, but to use the left hand for wiping one’s private parts after answering the call of nature.

From an Islamic perspective, it is therefore not a coincidence that the political spectrum, divided between right and left, has the right hand characterized as conservative, religious and traditional, while the left hand is associated with the liberal, secular and progressive. Some Muslims have ignorantly positioned themselves on the left of the political spectrum. These leftists call for democracy, secularism, liberalism, pluralism, feminism, socialism and other matters that are at odds with the letter and spirit of Islam. The very fact that the Holy Quran condemns the Ashab al-Shimal or Ashab al-Mash’amah “companions of the left hand” should compel them to reconsider their leftist politics

والله ورسوله اعلم

And Allah and His Apostle know best!