Sometimes I see a person that seems so familiar to me but I can’t place their name or face or I’m quite sure that we have never met before. And sometimes a person sees me and says, “Haven’t we met before? You look so familiar.” Or you meet someone or read about a personality past or present and feel a certain kinship, connection, or understanding for them.
I often wonder whether or not we were perhaps standing next to each or in the same section in the situation described below:
Ibn Abbas (radiyAllahu anhu) reported that the Prophet (صلي الله عليه وسلم) related that,“When Allah (سبحانه وتعالى) created Adam (عليه سلام), He took a covenant from him in a place called Na’man on the day of Arafah. Then He extracted from him all of his descendants that would be born until the end of the world, generation after generation, and spread them out in front of Him in order to take a covenant from them also.
He spoke to them face to face saying: ‘Am I not your Lord?’ and they all replied, ‘Yes, we testify to it.’ Allah then explained why He had all of mankind bear witness that He was their Creator and only true God worthy of worship. He said, ‘That was in case you (mankind) should say on the Day of Resurrection, ‘Surely we were unaware of all this. We had no idea that You, Allah , were our God. No one told us that we were supposed to worship You alone.” Allah went on to explain that it was also in case some people would say: ‘It was our ancestors who made partners (with Allah) and we are only their descendants; will you the destroy us for what those liars did?’
[Collected by Ahmed, Classified sahih, see Silsilah al-Albani’s al-Ahadith as-Sahihah]
The Prophet (صلي الله عليه وسلم) said this in an explanation of the verses (interpretation of the meaning): And (remember) when your Lord brought forth from the Children of Adam, from their loins, their seed (or from Adam’s loin his offspring) and made them testify as to themselves (saying): “Am I not your Lord?” They said: “Yes! We testify,” lest you should say on the Day of Resurrection: “Verily, we have been unaware of this.” Or lest you should say: “It was only our fathers aforetime who took others as partners in worship along with Allah, and we were (merely their) descendants after them; will You then destroy us because of the deeds of men who practised al-batil (i.e. polytheism and committing crimes and sins, invoking and worshipping others besides Allah)?” [Al A’raaf 7/172-173]
[Tafsir At-Tabari].
Hadeeth courtesy of Ilm Fruits.
Ify Okoye 
But you don’t finish – does Allah kill off non-believers?
That kinship you speak of, that unexplainable connection, I know just what you mean. I never had thought of it in relation to this story, though. SubhanAllah.
Nick, actually I did finish and I don’t know what you are talking about.
Zaynab, I’ve always loved this hadeeth.
Salaama Apple, that is great hadeeth. Jazakalah Kheryam
Nick,
I am hoping you are not here to bother the Muslims just for the sake of being bother some, and I will give you the benefit of a doubt that you are curious to know what Islam says. if you are curious about what Allah says about the Unbelievers or the believer, or anything Please visit this website. It is the Complete Translation of the Quran, it is Audio not written.
http://english.islamway.com/bindex.php?section=echapters&recitor_id=171
My Allah bless whomever build that site, I have trouble reading the Arabic Language and understanding it. this site helps come closer to my religion, it translates verse by verse, chapter by chapter, in a clear language.
I feel that when I am closer to Allah, I hear the rewards that is promise to mankind and when I am away from Allah, I only hear the punishment that was promise to mankind. Perception is amazing, which side of the fence you are standing dictates the way you hear the Quran. Go in there with open mind, and remember Quraan was send to all mankind not to one tribe, clan, continent etc.