How do you know those of your Ummah who have not yet come, O Messenger of Allah?

The reader: In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions:
The author (may Allah have mercy on him) transmitted, in the context of the hadiths in the chapter on the virtue of wudu: "From Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him):

Abu Hurairah (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) went to the (Baqi') cemetery and said, "May you be secured from punishment, O dwellers of abode of the believers! We, if Allah wills, will follow you. I wish we see my brothers." The Companions said, "O Messenger of Allah! Are not we your brothers?" He (ﷺ) said, "You are my Companions, but my brothers are those who have not come into the world yet." They said; "O Messenger of Allah! How will you recognize those of your Ummah who are not born yet?" He (ﷺ) said, "Say, if a man has white-footed horses with white foreheads among horses which are pure black, will he not recognize his own horses?" They said; "Certainly, O Messenger of Allah!" He (ﷺ) said, "They (my followers) will come with bright faces and white limbs because of Wudu'; and I will arrive at the Haud (Al-Kauthar) ahead of them." [Muslim] .

أن رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم أتى المقبرة فقال : السلام عليكم دار قوم مؤمنين، وإنا إن شاء الله بكم لاحقون، وددت أنا قد رأينا إخواننا، قالوا : أو لسنا إخوانك يا رسول الله ؟ قال : أنتم أصحابي، وإخواننا الذين لم يأتوا بعد، قالوا : كيف تعرف من لم يأت بعد من أمتك يا رسول الله ؟ فقال : أرأيت لو أنَّ رجلا له خيل غُر محجلة بين ظهري خيل دُهم بهم، ألا يعرف خيله ؟ قالوا : بلى يا رسول الله، قال : فإنهم يأتون غُرًا محجلين من الوضوء، وأنا فرطهم على الحوض

Riyad as-Salihin 1029

Muslim narrated it".

The Shaykh : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful:
This is the hadith that al-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him) included in his book *Riyad al-Salihin* in the chapter on the virtue of wudu, from Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), : The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) initially forbade visiting graves because the people were newly converted from shirk, and he feared that their hearts would become attached to the graves and they would be led astray by them, so he forbade visiting them. Then, when faith became established in their hearts, he commanded them to visit them and said: , and in another narration: . So he (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) commanded their visitation and explained the great wisdom behind this visitation, which is that it reminds one of death: it reminds the person who is on the surface of the earth that today he is on its surface and tomorrow he will be in its belly, and he does not know when this will happen. A person may wake up on the surface of the earth and go to sleep in its belly, or go to sleep on its surface and wake up in its belly. So visiting cemeteries is a reminder of death or a reminder of the Hereafter, because when a person passes by a cemetery and thinks of his father, his brother, his uncle, his wife, or the like, who were with him yesterday, eating, drinking, and enjoying themselves in palaces, and now they are detained in their graves by their deeds, he remembers last year at this time when they were with us, rejoicing in the world and delighted by it, and now they have left it and become detained by their deeds: whoever does good will meet it, and whoever does evil will meet it. So it reminds of the Hereafter and truly reminds of death. Go out to the cemeteries and look: these are people whom only Allah (Mighty and Majestic) can count, or who can only be counted with difficulty. They were with you yesterday, and now they are in the belly of the earth, and you do not know, perhaps you will be their companion in a short time. So it reminds of death, as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said. For this reason, he himself used to go out to al-Baqi' to visit the people of al-Baqi', and he (peace and blessings be upon him) would greet them and make du'a for them. He greeted them and said: , meaning, O people of the abode of a people of faith. He greets them, and it appears (and Allah knows best) that he greets them and they hear him, for there is no benefit in addressing someone who does not hear, but they do not respond because they are in their graves. So he greets them and says: . And the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) spoke the truth when he said that no living person will not join the dead by the will of Allah (Mighty and Majestic). He says: . The scholars (may Allah have mercy on them) differed on why he said: "And we, if Allah wills, will be joining you," when it is a known and certain matter? How can he say: "If Allah wills"? The correct view is that there is no problem with this, for the meaning of the condition here is: if we join you, we only join you by the will of Allah, whenever He wills for us to join you, because the matter is His and the dominion is His. He (Mighty and Majestic) manages what He wills in whom He wills. Does not Allah say: ? Even though they will enter it, because Allah emphasized the entering with the oath, the lam, and the nūn of emphasis. There is no doubt that they will enter it. For this reason, when the truce at al-Hudaybiyyah was concluded on the condition that the Messenger would return and not complete his 'Umrah, 'Umar said to him: : "I did not say this in this year," . So the result is that the phrase "if Allah wills" here does not mean the kind of condition where a person is in doubt between the occurrence of the thing and its non-occurrence, but the meaning of the condition is: our joining you is not by our choice, but by the will of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), . Then he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: : He wished to meet his brothers (peace and blessings be upon him). May Allah make me and you among them. He wished to meet his brothers. They said: : "Companions" is more specific than "brothers." A companion is a brother and more, and a brother is a brother without companionship. He said: : Meaning, you are more specific than them. And they, the Companions, are brothers of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) and his companions, whereas those who came after him from the believers are his brothers but not his companions.
: O Allah, to You is praise, O Allah, keep us firm upon that.
The student: Amen.

The Shaykh : They believe in the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) and that he is truly the Messenger of Allah, although they do not see him, but they are like those who see him. They said: , meaning, and you did not meet them? He gave the example of a man who has white horses with white markings on their legs, "ghur" meaning whiteness on their heads, "muhajjal" meaning whiteness on their legs, among black horses that have no whiteness. Would he be confused between this one and that one? They said: , meaning, from the effect of wudu. So in this is proof of the virtue of wudu, and that this Ummah will come on the Day of Resurrection with white faces and white markings on their legs from the effect of wudu. "Ghur" means white faces, and "muhajjal" means white legs and hands. And this whiteness is a whiteness of light and illumination by which people will recognize them on the Day of Resurrection, on this great witnessed day. The Ummah of this noble Prophet will be recognized by this sign and mark which no one else has. I ask Allah the Exalted, by His grace and generosity, to gather me and you on this face and to make us of His Ummah in appearance and in reality, for He is capable of all things.