RendezVous Posted March 31, 2005 THE SIGNS OF JUDGEMENT DAY (I) THE MINOR SIGNS Prelude As Muslims, we know that this world, created by Allah, will also be brought to an end by Him, and that it will be followed by a new world in which all people will be resurrected and brought to account for their beliefs, words and deeds. The precise timing of the end of the world is known only to Allah; not even any of the prophets sent by Allah, nor any of the angels closest to Him, know when it is to occur. "They ask you about the Hour, when will its coming be? Say : its knowledge is only with my Lord. None will reveal it at its time save Him. [its knowledge] is weighty upon the [inhabitants of the] heavens and the earth. It will not come to you except suddenly. They ask you as if you are well-informed about it. Say : Its knowledge is only with Allah, but most of mankind do not know."[Qur’an, 7:187] Although we do not know when exactly the world is going to end, Allah and the Prophet (may Allah bless him and his Household and grant them peace)have told us of some of the signs which indicate that the Hour is approaching, drawing nearer. In the Gabriel Hadith, wherein the angel Gabriel took on the form of a man with extremely dark hair and extremely white clothing, and then came and asked the Prophet (may Allah bless him and his Household and grant them peace) about the levels of the religion (Islam, Iman and Ihsan), he asked after that, "Tell me about the Hour." The Prophet (may Allah bless him and his Household and grant them peace)replied, "The questioned one is not more knowledgeable about it than the questioner," whereupon Gabriel (peace be upon him) said, "Then tell me about its signs." He replied, "That the slave girl shall give birth to her mistress, and that you see barefoot, naked, poor shepherds building tall buildings." [Muslim] So, there are certain events and signs which will occur on the earth prior to it. These signs are categorized into minor and major signs. The minor signs are those which start occurring well before the Day of Judgement, and which in themselves are not strikingly extraordinary. The major signs are those which will occur closer to the Day of Judgement, and they are bizarre and remarkable. It is important for us to acquaint ourselves with these signs, so that: 1) We can strengthen our conviction of the truth of the Messenger by seeing his prophecies fulfilled. "[Allah is] the Knower of the Unseen, such that He does not acquaint anyone with His Unseen. Except he of whom He approves of messengers . . . that one may know that [the Messengers of Allah] have conveyed the message of their Lord, and He encompasses that which is with them, and has enumerated all things." [Qur’an, 72:27-28. See in particular Mujahid’s interpretation : Mukhtasar Tafsir Ibn Kathir, (3/561).] 2) We can be aware of the details of these matters, especially the trials and tribulations amongst them, so that we are better equipped to deal with them if they occur during our lifetimes. "Fore-warned is fore-armed." "And the True Promise draws near, whereupon the eyes of the unbelievers will be fixed [and they will say], ‘Alas for us! We were heedless of this! Nay, we were wrongoders!’" [Qur’an, 21:97] 3) We can heighten our realization of the approach of the Hereafter, and thereby apply ourselves, with increased vigor, to prepare for it. for once the major signs have started to occur, one may fail to do good deeds, or even lose the opportunity to believe and repent if one had not done that by then "Do they then await only the Hour, that it come to them suddenly? For indeed, it signs have [already started to] come! Then, how can they have their reminder when [the Hour] comes to them?! " [Qur’an, 47:18] "On the day that some of the signs of your Lord will come (to pass), faith will not benefit a soul which had not believed before or earned good in its faith." [Qur’an, 6:158] "Hasten to do [good] deeds before tribulations like pieces of the darkened night, wherein a man will awaken a believer but be an unbeliever by night, or will be a believer by night and awaken an unbeliever, [and in which] people will sell their religion for some (paltry) worldly provisions." [Various narrations to this meaning are recorded by : Tirmidhi (gharib), Muslim, Ahmad] "A time will come upon people wherein the one steadfast to his religion will be like one holding a burning coal." [Tirmidhi (gharib)] It is certainly not intended, nor desired, to become complacent with and fatalistic regarding with these tribulations and signs, claiming that one cannot turn back destiny, and that one should therefore sit back, complacently, not attempting to combat the predicted spread of evil and merely awaiting Imam Mahdi or Prophet Jesus (peace be upon them) to bring victory to the truth! By no means! We have been ordered to take certain precautions, and to adopt certain means, to uphold the truth and to combat evil, and even if we fail in the course of that in spite of our utmost effort, we would still have discharged our obligation. On the other hand, if we sit back complacently, then we are accountable for our inaction, and we cannot blame the consequences on destiny. So, we must counter adverse destiny with favorable destiny, and flee from one destiny to another. Shaykh `Abdul-Qadir al-Jaylani said, "I counter the destinies of truth with truth, for [the sake of] truth. The [true] man is he who combats [adverse] destiny, not he who is abandons himself with destiny." Some Minor Signs The minor signs are scattered through the hadith literature, and depending on the method of counting and other criteria, they can number from fifty to over hundred. A couple are mentioned in the Gabriel Hadith. Let us proceed now to mention some more of them. Hadith 1 w On the authority of Anas : the Prophet (may Allah bless him and his Household and grant them peace)said, "Among the portents of the Hour is that people will compete with one another in [building and decorating] mosques." [Nasa'i] Hadith 2 w On the authority of Anas ibn Malik : He said : I heard the Messenger of Allah D say, "Indeed, among the portents of the Hour are that knowledge will decrease, ignorance will abound, adultery will become widespread, wine will be drunk, and men will be few and women will be many, to the extent that there will be a single provider for fifty women." [bukhari and Muslim] Those fifty women need not necessarily all be his wives (which is not allowed in Islam, of course). Although some people may come to falsely legitimize it (as was done by a ruler during the time of al-Qurtubi), it seems probable that among the fifty will be not only wives, but also mother, daughters, sisters, aunts, and the like. Hadith 3 w "Time will contract (i.e. it will appear to be shorter, and its blessings will vanish, such that people will accomplish less in more time), knowledge will be lifted up, stinginess will be cast [into people’s hearts], tribulations will appear, and killing will be much." [Ahmad, Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud] Hadith 4 w "Make haste to do [good] deeds before six [things] : [1] the leadership of fools, [2] the proliferation of police / government agents, [3] the selling of judgement, [4] blood being taken lightly, [5] severance of [ties of] kinship, [6] people who will take the Qur’an as music, sending ahead one of them to sing for them, even though he may be least of them in knowledge/understanding [of the religion]." [Ahmad, Tabarani] We can extract from this hadith several general phenomena, each of which we discuss at greater length http://www.isgm.net http://www.cair-net.org Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
