FOREWORD
God’s prophets have constantly told us that the present world will not be eternal, that it is perpetually on its countdown, and that a time will come when its term will expire, and it will come to its end. All the scientific evidence tells us that this countdown is approaching its final number. The scientists of the 20th century discovered the law of entropy and concluded that the world’s energy is continuously on the decrease and that this process cannot be reversed. Therefore, it is inevitable that the present world will end after a fixed period. According to their research, the scientists of the 21st century have told us that the time for the end of the present world has come very close. It could even be a mere 10 to 20 years.
All these revelations and scientific facts covered in the media under ‘global warming’ are, in fact, ‘divine warning’. It is a declaration by the Creator
Doomsday when the first phase of human history will end. The study of the Quran and Hadith tells us that before the end of human history on earth, some clear signs will appear, which will serve as the final warning for man. The major signs heralding Doomsday will be the following appearance: 1. Yajooj and Majooj (Gog and Magog), 2. Dajjal (The Great Deceiver), 3. Climate Change, 4. Dukhan (Smoke), 5. Fitnah Duhaima (Age of Uttern Confusion), 6. Ikhwan-e-Rasool (Brothers of the Prophet) and 7. Idkhal-e-Kalima (Age of Global Divine Call).
The history of religion tells us that from the time God created man, He has been sending prophets for man’s guidance. During the age of the prophets, the knowledge of reality was transmitted at the level of revelation. This process continued until the age of the modern scientific revolution. Now, the reality, which was being presented to the man at the level of revelation, has become a proven fact to the ultimate extent at the level of human knowledge. For the first time in human history, the divine book, the Quran, and human knowledge are totally in consonance. It has made it possible for truth seekers to find it at the
level of total conviction and realisation, leaving no margin of doubt.
In his last sermon, the Prophet Muhammad also urged his followers to convey the message of the Quran‘even if only a single verse’. (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith No. 3461) Therefore, the greatest need of the hour is to acquaint all people with God’s message in a language and style which is understandable to them.What is the message of the Quran? The message of the Quran is to make man aware of the Creation plan of God. That is, to tell man why God created this world, the purpose of settling man on earth; what is required from man in his pre-death life span, and what he will confront after death. Man is born as an eternal creature. When God created man as such, He divided his life span into two periods, the pre-death period, which is a time of trial, and the post-death period, which is the time for receiving the rewards or punishment merited by one’s actions during one’s lifetime. These actions will take the form of eternal paradise or eternal hell. The purpose of the Quran is to make man aware of this reality. This is the theme of the Quran that serves to guide man throughout his entire journey right from this life to the next in the Hereafter.
The beginning of the end of human history is upon us. Now, the final time has come for all human beings to awaken and arise, discover their Creator and His creation plan for them, and replan their lives according to it. All that is left to happen now is for Doomsday to take place and Almighty God to come directly into man’s view. God will command the angel Israfil to blow the trumpet. Then, suddenly, human history, having passed through its temporary phase, will enter its permanent phase. That is to say, the blowing of the trumpet will mark the end of the phase of action and the beginning of the phase of reward. Now, the final time has come for all human beings to awake and arise. Those who do not awake today will be awakened by the trumpet of Doomsday, but the awakening will be of no avail to anyone.
Wahiduddin Khan
February 2021 New Delhi, India
THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF HUMAN HISTORY
The Quran is the final revealed book of God. It was revealed to the last prophet, Muhammad (may peace be upon him), in the first quarter of the 7th century. The basic theme of the Quran is to warn man of God’s creation plan, according to which the present world has been built for a limited period. A time will come when this world is brought to an end, then Qiyamat, or the Day of Judgement, will occur. All human beings will be resurrected and presented before the Creator of the universe.Then, according to the record of their deeds on earth, their final fate will
be decided upon.
The study of the Quran and Hadith tells us that before the end of human history on earth, some clear signs will appear, which will serve as the final warning for man. The chief signs heralding Doomsday will be the following appearance: 1. Yajooj and Majooj (Gog and Magog), 2. Dajjal (The Great Deceiver), 3. Climate Change, 4. Dukhan (Smoke), 5. Fitnah Duhaima (Age of Uttern Confusion), 6. Ikhwan-e-Rasool (Brothers of
the Prophet) and 7. Idkhal-e-Kalima (Age of Global Divine Call).
After the emergence of these signs, God will command the angel Israfil to blow the trumpet. Then, suddenly, human history, having passed through its temporary phase, will enter its permanent phase.That is to say, the blowing of the trumpet will mark the end of the phase of action and the beginning of the phase of reward.
Gog (Yajuj) and Magog (Majuj)
Gog and Magog have been mentioned in the Quran in verses 94 of chapter 18 and 96 of chapter 21. They have also been mentioned on various occasions in the books of Hadith. (Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, At Tirmizi, Ibn Majah, Musnad Ahmad). Similarly, we find mention of them in the books of the Bible,
e.g. in Ezekiel. In other religious books, such as the Puranas, one of the sacred books of Hinduism, they are also mentioned by Koka and Vikoka. Much has been written about them in commentaries on the Hadith and Quran (Tafsir).
However, no consensus has so far emerged regarding Gog and Magog. It is necessary to reach an opinion that is academically in accordance with the relevant data. In line with this principle, the writer has made
an in-depth study of all the data and has come to certain conclusions, which are presented here.
The story of Gog and Magog is not a matter of mystery. It is something that can be understood by the inferential method. Here, avoiding technical discussions, It shall attempt to present an academic picture of my findings.
Application of the Names, Gog and Magog
Who are Gog and Magog? Scholars have expressed various opinions. I find Maulana Anwar Shah Kashmiri’s (d 1934) opinion the most appropriate, namely, that these terms apply to Russia, Britain, and Germany. He writes: It appears that by Gog and Magog are meant the western European nations. (Faiz al-Bari ala Sahih al-Bukhari, Vol. 4, p.
The traditions about Gog and Magog are mostly in metaphorical language, which is why this subject has been found difficult to understand. If we keep this fact in view, it becomes almost certain that these refer to the developed European nations, including Russia and China.
The Quran tells us that Noah’s ark ran aground on Mount Judi, situated on the borders of ancient Turkey. Present-day Turkey is now regarded as a
part of Europe. When Noah’s ark landed here, three of his sons Ham, Sam, and Yafis (Japheth) were with him. Ham and Sam began their new lives in Asia and Africa, while the children of Japheth initially settled in Russia, later spreading throughout different European and neighbouring countries and ultimately to Australia and America. Probably these children of Japheth who settled in Western countries, Russia and China are the people who are referred to as Gog and Magog. There was nothing mysterious about them. Nor were they destined to follow the wrong path.They were men just like any other men. All the situations they faced were explainable in common natural laws.
The Two Phases of Gog (Yajuj) and Magog (Majuj)
Gog and Magog have been mentioned in the Quran at various points, at one place with reference to Dhul-Qarnayn (
It appears that the wall built by Dhul-Qarnayn pertains to the initial phase of Gog and Magog. It remained standing for a very long time and acted as a check to their malicious activities.
However, over the years, this wall built by Dhul- Qarnayn disintegrated, and then it became possible for the later generations descended from Gog and Magog to cross this boundary and spread out across the outer world. Subsequently, this aggressive race of Gog and Magog was replaced by a more moderate race. It was the second stage, when, passing through various phases, they made uninterrupted progress towards a more advanced civilization.
This latter stage can be divided into two periods: pre-Renaissance and post-Renaissance. At this stage, according to the traditions of the Prophet of Islam, that event took place, which was referred to by the Prophet as ‘making a hole in the barrier of Gog and Magog’. Although the wall built by Dhul-Qarnayn was a material wall that disintegrated by a natural process after some time, the wall mentioned in the Hadith was probably not that material wall but was instead an intellectual barrier. With the destruction of the actual stone wall, Gog and Magog had the opportunity to spread throughout the neighboring areas, but the destruction of the other “wall” is an event of far greater significance than the former, which allowed Gog and Magog to spread out globally. In the words of the hadith, a time will come when “they will eat
everything, and they will drink all the water of the world.” (Ibn Majah, Hadith No. 4081) That is to say that they will come to possess the world’s entire resources.
What will happen after the breaking down of the physical barrier erected by Dhul-Qarnayn is recorded in the Quran in the chapter entitled “The Cave” (
“On that Day, We shall let them surge against each other like waves, and then the Trumpet will be blown, and We shall gather them all together.” (
Gog and Magog will surmount ancient geographical boundaries and interact with the rest of the world in general. The subsequent eating away of all the things and drinking all the water (i.e., using up all the resources) of the world (as referred to in the hadith mentioned above) relating to the events of the later phase when, after conquering nature, they would have ushered in the modern industrial age, thanks to which they would have the opportunity for global exploitation.
Chapters 18 and 21 of the Quran describe Gog and Magog’s first and second stages. There were three significant periods of Gog and Magog: the period of
confinement, the age of interaction, and the age of science and industrial progress and development.
Gog and Magog were no mysterious community— ‘they were men’ just like anyone else. In ancient times, banditry and violence as a means of survival became rife due to the widespread paucity of economic resources. Even in Arabia, such people were known as Sa‘ali-kul-Arab (Arab dacoits), and Gog and Magog initially belonged to one such group.
The Wall of Gog and Magog
In a tradition of the Prophet, we find a reference to the mighty wall that had acted as a barrier between Gog and Magog and the rest of humanity finally giving way, thus allowing them to wreak havoc on the world at large.
According to this tradition, when Makkah had been conquered and idolatry had been wiped out from Arabia, the Prophet, then living at Madina, had a dream. At that time, he was sleeping in his wife’s room, Zaynab bint Jahash (d.
“There is no god but God, woe to Arabs, the evil which has drawn near! The barrier of Yajuj and Majuj has been dented today.” (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith No. 3346; Sahih Muslim, Hadith No. 2880)
An Intellectual Barrier
Judging from this tradition of the Prophet and the subsequent history, it seems that ‘barrier’ here does not refer to any physical obstacle but is instead an intellectual barrier—that of nature worship. The demolition of this belief is symbolized by the physical disintegration of the boundary, after which all the doors of progress and development were opened to Western countries. Consequently, they were able to dominate the rest of the outer world.
In reality, all the potential sources of development were hidden in nature, the discovery of which led to the birth of Western civilization. These resources had existed in nature from the very outset, but human beings had given nature the status of God, leading to nature worship. Viewing nature as an object of worship, man did not at that time dare to conduct any research into it. However, in the first quarter of the 7th century, when Islam spread the revolutionary belief in the One God, nature worship was replaced by God worship; nature was no longer sacred. Now nature became something to conquer rather than to worship. It was the starting point of our modern materialistic civilization.
It was by dint of the efforts of the Prophet of Islam that, for the first time in the history of monotheism (tawheed), the theoretical phase of this belief reached the stage of the revolution. In the 8th year of Hijra, Makkah was conquered, and the Kabah was rid of all idols. Soon afterwards, monotheism came to dominate the whole of Arabia. Then, after a very short period, nature worship fell into abeyance throughout almost all of the inhabited world and was ultimately confined to a few far-flung areas.
The fundamental nature of this revolution, established across the world by the Muslims, was religious. The secondary aspect of this revolution, which may be called secular, flourished mainly in Europe. The Europeans, now approaching their research into scientific matters in the spirit of secularism, climbed to the zenith of their development. The progress of this second aspect of the Islamic revolution began in Europe after the Crusades of the 14th century, and its effects continued into the beginning of the 21st century, when, thanks to its contribution, modern civilization has peaked.
What is known as Western civilization is a secular version of the revolution based on Islamic monotheism. The direct outcome of Islam’s task was removing
nature from its pedestal as an object of worship. It led directly to the initiation of research and investigation into natural phenomena. Initially, this process was started in ancient Baghdad, Cordova, etc., among Muslims, but this task was carried out entirely by Europeans after the Crusades. For this reason, the existence of our modern materialistic civilisation is generally attributed by historians to the West.
The first half of the 7th century revolution was the starting point of a new age of scientific inquiry. The present age has seen the culmination of this process in a scientific revolution. This present scientific secular revolution is, in reality, an Islamic revolution.
The Quran, revealed in the first quarter of the 7th century, repeatedly mentions that in contemplating heavenly and earthly phenomena, you will find the signs of God in them. However, at the time of the revelation of the Quran, these signs of God were not fully exposed: they were hidden in nature. For this reason, there was no desired framework within which man could ponder over the Quran. God wished to provide man with such a framework.
The greatest hindrance to this happening was the ancient monarchical system. Imperialism, which ran counter to the scheme of God, had closed
the doors to freedom of thought. Therefore, God Himself intervened in human history through the Companions of the Prophet. This, in essence, was not merely a political change: it was the initial stage of the forthcoming scientific revolution. The two big monarchical empires of the Byzantines and the Sassanids were dismantled by the Companions of the Prophet, resulting in the establishment of an open atmosphere of scientific research. (
Here “the everlasting mountains” means those political ‘mountains’ that existed from ancient times in the form of imperial powers. The renowned French historian, Henri Pirenne, (d. 1935) refers thus to the demolition by Islam of this absolute imperialism: “Islam changed the face of the globe. The traditional order of history was overthrown.” (Henri Pirenne, History of Western Europe, p.
Two Aspects of the Scientific Revolution
From one point of view, the west’s revelation of the secrets of nature gave expression to the signs of God’s creation. From another, more material point of
view, the west’s discoveries enabled human beings to acquire almost unlimited material power. They were able to convert water into steam by which to power locomotives and invent automobiles and the aero plane fueled by petrol, and more recently, television and the internet, thus bringing global means of modern communication into existence.
Owing to this access to the natural sciences, which the western countries had, they were able to gain material dominance in the world. One relevant excerpt from the Quran, a verse in chapter no.
unearth its secrets without having any inhibitions about doing so.
The Potential of Higher Realization
God’s prophet, Abraham, was born in ancient Iraq in the pre-scientific age. The Quran tells us that God showed Abraham His kingdom of the heavens and the earth so that he might have certainty of faith. (
The observation of the kingdom of the heavens and the earth—in effect, the observation of creation—brings greater conviction regarding the Creator. However, such an observation could be achieved only through revelation in pre-scientific times.
When direct observation of the universe became possible for man through the telescope (1608) and the microscope (1676), a much greater degree of conviction was achieved in the present scientific age. Now, it has become possible, thanks to human knowledge itself, for everyone to directly see God’s signs spread out in the universe and thus have his belief confirmed. The modern scientific revolution has opened a new door that will enable all human
beings to realize God. Now, it has become possible for any man to apprehend the evidence of the Creator through direct study and observation of creation. Through this scientific revolution, the divine signs revealed to man have made possible the achievement of a high degree of divine realization.
A significant number of God’s servants have achieved the realization of God through these signs. However, evil forces are always at work in this world alongside good forces. Zoarashtra (d.
Indeed, certain influential minds were born in this next stage of human history whose ideas were responsible for taking people away from God- realization. The Prophet forewarned this when he stated that a great deceiver would be born in later times who would put people on the wrong path by his outwardly alluring ideas (some traditions mention 30 deceivers who will appear in the later phase of human history).What is meant by deception? It means, in fact, intellectual misguidance through misinterpretation of religion. In this age, this kind of misguidance will become widespread.
The Zenith of the West
The Western nations set up modern communications after a long and arduous struggle. It was natural to receive the lion’s share of their benefits. These technological advances, coming soon after they colonized a significant part of the world, gave the whole world the status of a global village. Naturally, the western countries became the masters of this modern world.
The Prophet predicted another aspect of this matter. It is explained metaphorically in a long tradition that tells Gog and Magog’s story. A part of this tradition is as follows:
According to Abu Saeed Khudri, the Prophet of Islam said that Gog and Magog would be unleashed, and then they would descend upon the people. As is mentioned in the Quran, they would overwhelm the people from every hillside, leaping across every barrier of land and sea, and the believers would retreat to their cities and strongholds, bringing their flocks with them. Gog and Magog would drink all the water of the land; passing a river, they would drink it dry. Then those who came after them would pass by that place and would say, “There used to
be water here once.” Then one of them would say, “We are done with the people of the earth. Now the people of heaven are left.” One of them would shake his spear and hurl it into the sky, and it would come back stained with blood as a test and a trial for them. (Musnad Ahmad, Hadith No. 11731)
A Clarification
This tradition points out the reality that gradually emerged globally after the Renaissance in Europe. After that, a new phenomenon appeared in the financial world—an “economic explosion.” Control of this development was totally in the hands of developed nations. Thus, they contrived to gain a monopoly over all the world’s material resources. The more significant part of these lay in the eastern world, but their consumption was mainly in Western and other industrialized nations. That is why developed nations took away most of the natural resources and used them to their advantage.
The Hadith further tells us that Gog and Magog would direct their gaze upon the sky after drinking all the water on earth. It perhaps alludes to different kinds of space rockets. At different times, the Western nations have sent many rockets into space searching for
some planet like the earth. These rockets, equipped with sophisticated equipment and cameras, failed to find any earth-like planet in the vastness of space despite intensive efforts. This hadith clearly describes in a symbolic language all these efforts made by the western countries in present times, which have changed the world.
The Great Event of History
The establishment of world order through the efforts of Gog and Magog is a very significant event in human history in terms of its consequences. Through this evolution for the first time in human history, nature has become a subject of investigation instead of being an object of veneration. Consequently, all the earth’s resources will continue to be exploited. It has been referred to thus in a hadith: “The earth will deliver all its treasures, leaving nothing inside.” (Mustadrak al Haakim, Hadith No. 8504)
This process of discovering the hidden material secrets in nature is performed by Western secular scientists, who are indifferent to religious matters, displaying neither a positive nor a negative attitude. However, the philosophers and thinkers will use their research for their respective purposes. In this way, two groups will
be formed—secular thinkers and religious thinkers. After the advent of the age of science, the perverted ideas produced in the world have resulted not from science but atheism.
The Approach of Doomsday
According to the Quran and Hadith, Doomsday will be very near at the time of the appearance of Gog and Magog. A long tradition has been recorded in the books of hadith: “At the time of the appearance of Gog and Magog, Doomsday will be so close, that it could be likened to a pregnant woman whose pregnancy has fully matured, and whose child may be delivered at any time, day or night.” (Musnad Ahmad, Hadith No. 3556)
The appearance of Gog and Magog and the subsequent events are no simple matters. It is, in fact, the time for the final call of Truth before the end of human history. Such circumstances will come into existence as will enable the believers to perform the task of calling people to the truth in its most superior form. This will be like the trumpet of dawah prior to the trumpet of Doomsday. In such a situation, the appearance of the great deceiver would be indicative of man having finally lost any justification for his inhabiting the present earth any longer.
THE APPEARANCE OF DAJJAL
The root of dajjal is ‘dajl’, which means to deceive. When a metal is given a gold polish to simulate gold, this process of polishing is called Dajl. Dajjal means deceiver. Dajjal is the superlative degree, that is, a great deceiver.
In later times dajjal has been called the deceiver, because he will act deceitfully. He will indulge in gross misrepresentation of the truth to the people to mislead them. Another name for Dajl in ideological matters is a misinterpretation, i.e., an incorrect or false explanation. Dajjal will not wield the sword for this purpose, for people cannot be misled by the sword—only false reasoning can mislead them.
Such acts of Dajl have repeatedly occurred in the world. However, the invention of the printing press and the media has enormously increased the scope of Dajl, which is now unparalleled in human history. Dajjal is no mysterious personality. The earlier dajjal who could carry out deception on a very small scale has been replaced by a dajjal who can do so on a very great scale. It is another name for the harmful use of
the great opportunities produced in the wake of the discoveries made by Gog and Magog.
The Deception (Fitnah) of the Great Dajjal
There is a hadith that tells us that the words ka-fa-ra (meaning denial) will be inscribed on the forehead of Dajjal. (Musnad Ahmad, Hadith No. 14954) It shows that the period in which Dajjal will be born will be one of denial, of atheism.The evil in earlier times was not a denial of God but was rather that of associating something else with the One God. In earlier times, the existence of God was accepted as an axiom. However, in present times this axiom is not regarded as valid. Today is the age of atheism, of denial of God.
A study of the Hadith shows that dajjal or dajjaliat (dajjalism) is, in fact, a phenomenon of the scientific age. In the scientific age, a group of people will deny the truth in the name of the reason for the first time. They will give the impression that religious truths cannot test scientific rationalism.
Then, by the grace of God, an individual will arise— the hajeej—and will put an end to this dajjali menace (fitnah) by using scientific evidence. He will prove the dajjali arguments baseless by putting forward superior
arguments at the ideological level. (Sahih Muslim, Hadith No. 2937) This event will be the first of this nature in the whole of human history. He will be the greatest witness of the call of truth. That is why his role has been expressed thus in the hadith: “His will be the greatest witness of truth to mankind in the eyes of God.” (Sahih Muslim, Hadith No. 2938) This great dawah event will take place before doomsday.
The Dajjali menace is not by its nature a new menace. It is only the culmination of the satanic menace. Satan has always tried to make untruth appear attractive and thus make people deviate from the truth. In the scientific age, this satanic fallacy presented in beautiful words will appear in the form of elegant scientific arguments. (
Such falsification always requires supportive resources, which, lacking in previous times, now exist in abundance. Dajjal is, in fact, that great deceiver who, employing these modern resources, will make untruth appear very attractive by the forceful presentation of falsehood, until the advent of a believer who by the special grace of God, will put this dajjaliat (deception) to an end at an ideological level.
What Is Dajjaliat?
Dajjaliat is not an evil that will appear all of a sudden. Dajjaliat is, in fact, a superlative degree of satanic deception. Deception and Dajl are almost synonymous in meaning. Deception is a common deception, while dajjaliat is a deception of a high degree. The Quran tells us that at the very time of man’s creation, Satan issued this challenge: “I shall make the path of error seem alluring to them on the earth and shall mislead them all…” (
The Fitnah of Ungratefulness
These verses of the Quran show that the actual purpose of satanic deception is to make man ungrateful for God’s bounty. By employing an attractive strategy, Satan will lead man into ungratefulness. If a man is rightly guided, he will lead his life with feelings of gratitude, whereas he would be grievously misguided if he led his life in a state of ungratefulness. Satan has always acted thus, but in present times, Satan will cause a man to deviate on a far greater scale from the
path of gratefulness to God. That is why this evil of the present age has been termed dajjaliat in the hadith.
What is gratefulness? Gratefulness is, in essence, another name for the acknowledgement of God’s blessings. This grateful behaviour has been desired of man at all times. To show gratefulness for some blessing received from a benefactor is a natural human feeling. However, acknowledgement always requires a point of reference; for instance, when you eat anything, your food is a point of reference for acknowledgement. Then you call out, “O God, I am grateful to You for giving me food to eat.”
However, anyone who has made a scientific study of the whole spectrum of the health-giving qualities of the different foods will be doubly appreciative of any given food item. His feeling of gratefulness will be far more significant in intensity than that of one who has no specialized knowledge of food so that when he utters these words: O God, I am thankful to You for having given me this food; he will do so in superlative terms. Where the layman will only be able to savour the taste of the food, the food specialist will appreciate it on a superior level, based upon his extensive knowledge of dietetics. If the acknowledgement of the former is a simple one, the acknowledgement of the latter will be on a Himalayan scale.
Food for the Human Being
In present times, food has been the subject of much research. In the wake of this research, innumerable factors have come to light, which significantly increases the possibility of the realization of God.This God-realization gives rise to how it happened that the food requirements of human beings are abundantly available in the external world well in advance of their needs and in perfect form. The interface between human requirements and the available food is an ocean of God-realization for the thinking person.
In ancient times food had only one kind of significance—it was something to fill one’s stomach to satisfy one’s hunger. It was undoubtedly an excellent reason for thanksgiving, but the discoveries made in modern times have greatly expanded the reference point regarding thanksgiving. According to modern research, food is not just something with which to fill the belly; it is a means of fulfilling the varied requirements of the body. That is why food is now considered in terms of a balanced diet—a diet with the right amount, proportion and variety of the foods needed for health. According to modern research, a balanced diet contains carbohydrates, proteins, fat, vitamins, mineral salts, and fibre in the correct proportions.
This scientifically formulated balanced diet has provided us with a significant reference point for our feeling of boundless gratitude. If, according to previous information, man knew the importance of food only on an animal level, now with the benefit of modern research, he understands the importance of food and diet on a much higher level. He can now, therefore, greatly intensify his expression of gratitude to his Lord. It is only in this day and age that this addition to the point of reference has been possible. Compared with the previous centuries’ findings, modern science has achieved a remarkable feat. It has for the first time unearthed those hidden realities in nature, which are referred to in the Quran as divine signs. These scientific discoveries have greatly added to the point of reference for man regarding the blessings of God.
Similarly, for the first time, it has become possible for a man to experience divine blessings of an extremely high degree in many different spheres, causing man’s heart and mind to be filled with highly elevated feelings of gratitude to God. Thus it has become possible for modern man to experience the realization of God on a superior plane.
Speech and Hearing
For ancient man, speech and hearing were just simple happenings, but many discoveries have been made in present times that have shown the extent to which these powers of speech and hearing are a great blessing of God—unique gifts that can induce oceans of gratitude for the benefactor. The uniqueness of this blessing is illustrated by an experiment once carried out by a scientist.
He took a glass bulb, put an electric bell inside, and sealed its mouth. He then extracted all the air from inside the bulb. The bell switch was outside the glass, and when the switch was turned on, one could see the bell ringing, but no sound could be heard.
Such experiments show that when a person hears the voice, it is by natural transmission. The voice coming out of a person’s lips creates waves in the air. These waves travel and reach another person’s ear, then that person hears and understands these sound waves as meaningful words through a highly complex hearing system. There are a number of provisions in nature that facilitate this unique system of speech and hearing. One who knows these modern discoveries of science can have such a deep feeling for his benefactor as was not possible for the man born in the pre-scientific age.
The Law of Water
In ancient times too man used to travel by sea and river. Moreover, he had the opportunity to thank God for those journeys over water. However, in modern times the research on this subject has greatly added to the point of reference for man to be grateful to God. For instance, what is the law of nature by which the boat sails on the water? Man did not possess this knowledge earlier. In present times, extensive research has greatly added to human knowledge. According to scientific discoveries, it has been revealed that the unique law of water enables boats and ships to sail across vast stretches of water and reach far-off destinations.
This water law is called hydrostatics, one aspect of which is buoyancy. Buoyancy is the upward pressure by any fluid on a body partly or wholly immersed therein: it is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced.
The sailing of the boat likewise produced within man the feeling of gratitude, but in modern times this discovery of the science of the law of buoyancy has greatly added to the point of reference for man in this regard. Now, with this newfound knowledge, when anyone sees a boat or ship sailing at great speed across the water, he is overwhelmed more than ever with
feelings of gratitude. This opportunity to demonstrate a high degree of gratefulness has been created by modern scientific discoveries.
Hatred and Complaint
These are only some of the more straightforward examples out of the enormous number of modern scientific discoveries that have come to our knowledge. For the first time in human history, scientific discoveries have given believers the excellent opportunity to know the blessings of nature at a high level and acknowledge their benefactor far more deeply.
The believers had this very superb opportunity to be highly thankful to God, but at the same time, satanic deception caused their thinking to deviate and produced a negative mentality. The entire Muslim world became prey to hatred and violence. As a result, people became deprived of experiences that could have led to profound gratitude and an intense realization of God.
This satanic deception is indeed something of enormous proportions; that is why in the hadith, this is called dajjalism. How did this dajjali come into effect? It became possible because precisely at the same time as science had revealed divine signs, non-
Muslim nations equipped with modern knowledge and technology had conquered Muslims in every field. In particular, Muslims lagged behind non- Muslims in educational, economic and political fields. This backwardness on the part of Muslims was due to their shortcomings, but dajjal, using the modern media, told Muslims that it was solely the plots and oppression of other nations that were responsible for their plight. As a result of this dajjali (deception), Muslims worldwide became involved in hate and violence campaigns against non-Muslim nations. They failed to make positive use of modern opportunities, either for dawah or for God-realization. Dajjali deception was the reason for this mentality of hatred and the propensity to complain. These non-Muslim nations were our Madu (congregation), and hating the Madu is not lawful in Islam, but Dajjal made this act appear attractive and induced Muslims to think that it was precisely in accordance with Islam.
The Period of the Appearance of Dajjal
There are several traditions about dajjal in the books of hadith. These traditions describe certain strange qualities of Dajjal, which people take in the literal sense.
All the attributes of dajjal in the hadith are expressed in symbolic language. For instance, this is the wording of one long narration about Dajjal in which he will speak with a voice that will be heard in the east and the west. Dajjal will say, ‘O my companions, come to me, O my companions, come to me. O my friends, come to me, O my friends, come to me.’ (Kanz al- Ummal, Hadith No. 39709)
This is indeed the language of symbolism. This does not mean that dajjal’s voice will be of such a high pitch or velocity that it could be heard worldwide. It was, in fact, a prediction that the appearance of dajjal would be in the age of telecommunications. He would be like an ordinary man, but it would become possible for him to make his voice travel from one end of the world to the other, thanks to mechanical communications.
These words of the narration tell us, in fact, of the opportunities of this age rather than of the unusual personality of dajjal.
Why the Traditions of the Predictions of Doomsday Are Worded in Symbolic Language?
The absolute clarity of the statements in the Quran leaves no doubt about the approach of Doomsday. For example, chapter 7, verse 187, says: “The hour
will suddenly overtake you.” Chapter 29, verse 15 has this to say: “The hour is coming, but I choose to keep it hidden, so that every human being may be recompensed in accordance with his labours.” Ibn Kathir, in his explanation of this verse of the Quran, quotes the words of Abdullah ibn Masood, the senior Companion of the Prophet: “God said, ‘I have kept Doomsday hidden from all creatures. Had it been possible, I would have kept it hidden from Myself as well.’” (Tafisr Ibn Kathir, Vol. 5, p.
The stand of the religious scholars is that if any tradition contradicts the Quran, the Quran’s statements will be held to be accurate, and that particular tradition will be scrutinized. In such a situation, purely from the academic point of view, there is only one option, in terms of explanation, and that is to hold the statement of the Quran to be accurate, while the statement of the hadith should be regarded as being symbolic. There is no other way to end this contradiction.
The Negative Use of Opportunities
Dajjal will act negatively in using the opportunities available to confuse people. In this way, he will cause people’s thinking to deviate from God to non- God. This Dajjalism will be at work in both secular
and religious fields. We give here a few examples to explain this more fully.
The Theory of EvolutionThe Theory of Evolution
Organic evolution falls into the category of dajjali concepts. Charles Darwin (d. 1882) and other biologists discovered that different living species have striking similarities in their physical structure. For instance, take the cat and the tiger. By referring to this similarity, evolutionists have formulated the theory that an evolutionary process has taken place in the world of biology. One species develops automatically into some other kinds of (more developed) species during this process.
It was indeed a very great deception. What is indicated by the similarities between different species is nothing but a variety in the species. Although the Creator chose similarity in physical structure to create species, every species was a separate, unique creation. The evolutionists’ observations indicated variety, but they were fallaciously interpreted to prove the concept of organic evolution.
This theory does not deny the existence of God. However, in effect, it amounts to making God irrelevant in the whole process of creation. According
to the theory of evolution, the whole process of life takes place by natural selection. This concept renders God’s role in the creation of life so negligible that there remains no significant difference between believing and not believing. In present times, we see that the concept of God has become almost peripheral in practical life. The major reason for this state of affairs is the general acceptance of evolution.
Material Interpretation of History
The exact sciences had simply discovered the realities of nature. Physicists performed this task with great rigour and objectivity. The realities of nature thus discovered were related to the revelation of divine signs in the universe and human beings. Their utility was as data supporting modern theology in terms of their nature. However, precisely the same period witnessed the appearance of secular philosophers and thinkers. They made harmful use of the information arising from scientific research in that they proceeded to use it to present a purely material interpretation of human history. This line of thought is outlined in Julian Huxley’s (d. 1975) book, meaningfully titled, Religion without Revelation.
Just as the west were leaders in the physical sciences
in the present world, they also became leaders of the world in the interpretation of life. It was as if the task of interpreting both life and the universe could be performed only by the west. The inhabitants of the eastern world had no option but to follow the west.
The ideological task performed by the west was a material interpretation of history. During this period, many philosophers and thinkers came to the fore. They and their followers, who subscribed to their ideology, succeeded in influencing the minds of the whole world by using modern media. It has come about due to the misinterpretation of the facts. The reason is traceable to the religious scholars’ failure to play any constructive role.
Entertainment Culture
Dajjal undertook this task of deceiving the common person in another way. The new world discovered by science had great potential for guidance for the common person. For the first time, it had become possible for a man to discover the divine truth at the level of established knowledge, with better opportunities that existed for God-realization. Scientific discoveries made it more apparent that the blessings man had received in this world were from
his Benefactor and must be acknowledged as such. Thereby acknowledging the Benefactor, he could be held deserving of further blessings.
However, precisely simultaneously, dajjal appeared and misled man into a satanic entertainment culture, justifying this by invented philosophies. Everyone wanted to fulfil his or her desires right there and then. They forgot that every blessing brings with it responsibilities. Moreover, man has no right to enjoy these blessings without discharging these responsibilities.
In present times, the entertainment culture is in vogue. All men and women want to enjoy life to the full. The most popular motto of today is: right here, right now.
A significant number of books have been written to justify this ideology. One salient name in this field is Sigmund Freud (d. 1939). He was a great advocate of such thinking. He wanted to prove that human desires have a crucial role in forming the human personality. He held that by suppressing desires, one’s personality became scarred by repression, and the process of psychological growth became distorted. As such, it was necessary to satisfy one’s desires freely. Due to this misleading ideology, permissiveness prevails
worldwide, and human society has been reduced to a jungle of well-clad animals.
A great fallacy lies hidden in the ideology of Sigmund Freud and other western thinkers of his ilk. They attributed the growth of personality development to the unbridled fulfilment of desires, whereas such development was a product of the human mind. Indeed, man’s mind promotes the growth of the human personality. The truth is that in this case, the fulfilment of desires is only a distraction and, as such, is an obstacle to intellectual development.
Dajjali fitnah, by its nature, is not a new evil. It has always existed in the form of satanic fitnah. What is particular about it is that this fallacious ideology has come to form the basis of a civilization. Finding it very attractive, people, in general, will accept it. It will be the ultimate form of the grossly improper use of modern discoveries. This same dajjali culture prevails in the present age.
Dajjaliat:The Fitnah of Religious Exploitation
Imam Nawawi (d. 1277) quoted another hadith to explain this tradition: “What I fear more than anything else for my community (ummah) is the misguided leaders who will mislead the people.” (Sahih Ibn Hibban, Hadith No. 6714)
‘Leaders of the Ummah’ here means leaders who exploit. To promote their leadership, they utter beautiful words. They mask the irreligious nature of their goals in religious terminology. A significant number of people are then misled and rally around them. In short, this is religious exploitation.
The Political Interpretation of Religion
In the age of the printing press, age, books that give a political interpretation of Islam have been printed and published on a large scale. For a variety of reasons, these books have become popular. The goal of those who have fallen under the influence of this literature has become political revolution. This political interpretation of Islam is based on a dangerous fallacy, i.e., that religion is another name for a “complete system” and that the goal of religion is not just worship of and devotion to God, but is, more importantly, the implementation and enforcement of the civil and criminal laws of religion. Since implementing these laws has never been possible without the possession of power, it is natural that the possession of power by force has become the overriding goal of these movements. This religious form of politics, when carried into effect, has caused great harm.
For the first time today, it has become possible to perform dawah work based on scientific arguments or proofs. The divine message could have been communicated worldwide far more effectively than has been done to date through modern communications. However, this great potential has not been realized simply because those who performed dawah work have become engaged in futile political activities. Negative thinking among Muslims, violence, extremism and an unsympathetic attitude towards others result from a political interpretation of Islam. This political interpretation has given birth to the hate culture among Muslims.
The Fallacy of Political Interpretation
This fallacy has resulted from deviation from the true path of religion. Religion relates basically to an individual’s life, and as such, it imparts the basic teachings regarding all aspects of life. In other words, these teachings address one’s individual life rather than the political system in the external world. One method adopted to formulate a political interpretation of religion was to take religious teachings meant to be followed in one’s own life, at the individual level, and treat them as something to be imposed on the external
world. For instance, according to Islam, man ought to act with total fairness in all his dealings (
The Concept of Complete Religion
Another basis for the political interpretation of Islam was the concept of a “complete religion”. “Complete religion” meant that civil and criminal laws must also be enforced together, along with commands on belief and worship in a religion. As per this interpretation, all the parts of religion must be treated as a whole. Otherwise, adherence to religion would remain incomplete. However, the truth is that worship is the real or fundamental part of religion, while the enforcement of laws is a relative part. The religious part has to be observed in all circumstances by every believer, whereas the enforcement of laws is a societal
concern. If society is prepared to enforce laws, that becomes its religious responsibility, but if it is not prepared to do so, the enforcement of laws will remain in abeyance.
The fallacy behind the concept of complete religion is that both the real and relative parts of religion have been given equal status, regardless of the circumstances. This has been the root cause of all evil. The desirability of the fundamental part of religion is eternal, while the desirability of the social part of the religion depends upon the actual condition of society. Complete Islam for an individual is only required of him according to his capacity.
A political interpretation of Islam was disseminated to implement the ‘complete Islam’. However, as to the practical result, it became akin to total deviation from real Islam. It was a case of totally distorting the reality of Islam in terms of consequences. Of the ensuing evils, the first kind of harm done by the political interpretation of Islam was changing the real target of the Islamic mission. According to the Quran, the real goal is: “To seek ways to come closer to Him.” (
in order to enforce the “complete Islam” throughout the world.
The second harm of this interpretation was that by adherence to this concept the nature of social relationships changed. According to Islam, Muslims and non-Muslims are dayee (addressor) and madu (addressee). However, this political interpretation changed this relationship into one of political rivalry. As a result, non-Muslims were no longer considered Muslims’ well-wishers and people to whom the divine message had to be conveyed. They instead became their rivals. In this way, a political culture instead of a dawah culture came into existence.
It was as a result of this political interpretation that, throughout the whole world, Islamic action became synonymous with violent action. Activists began their work by employing peaceful means but soon found that overturning the rulers was not possible in this way. Therefore, they opted for a violent course of action to attain their objectives. They even went to the extent of holding suicide bombings lawful. When put into practice, the concept of political revolution thus resulted in nothing but so much hate and violence. Those who came under the influence of this political interpretation engaged themselves in a
wholly unlawful course in Islam, i.e., revolt against an established Muslim government. In the present day, all Muslim rulers have received modern education, and because of this background, although religious in their personal lives, the majority of them have adopted a modern outlook in political matters. This is why the upholders of the political interpretation of Islam insist that since their rulers are not enforcing “complete Islam” in their country, they feel duty- bound to rebel against them, unseat them from power and replace them with such individuals as will enforce complete Islam.
This theory has resulted in a division of the people into two groups—the rulers and the ruled, with Muslims beginning to fight against the rulers of their respective countries. This line of action on the part of the Muslims, in the terminology of Islamic law (fiqh), is that of revolt (khurooj), which is unlawful (haraam) in Islam.
The 20th century was a period of feverish activity set in motion by this political interpretation of Islam. It was precisely at this moment that the discoveries of science, in the words of the Quran, had made significant revelations of the divine signs lying hidden in the universe. The need of the hour was to give
the call of truth at a very high level, supported by scientific discoveries. However, at that very time, our leaders, under this tragic misapprehension, became embroiled in political activities. As a result, the call of truth could not be given, despite all the opportunities to present themselves at a very high level.
This example can gauge the political extremism of Muslim leaders: Syed Jamaluddin Afghani (d. 1897), the leader of the radical political activities of his group in Paris, was asked in 1884 by his disciple, Mufti Mohd. Abduh (d. 1905), why they should not leave this futile task (politics) and engage themselves in peaceful dawah work and in the field of education, where there would be many opportunities for such work. Jamaluddin Afghani replied: “You talk of disheartenment.” (Jamaluddin Afghani, by Mahmood Abu Riyya, Cairo, 1966, p. 50).
It was indeed a grave tragedy resulting from the political interpretation of Islam. There were two negative results of this interpretation: failure to utilize modern dawah opportunities and the generation of the culture of hatred and violence in the name of political revolution. The negative result of this political interpretation of religion was that calling people to God was stopped.
With very few exceptions, people became engaged in bringing about “complete Islamic political rule” based on their self-styled interpretation of Islam. This, however, was just not possible according to the law of nature. In this way, trying to achieve something impossible yielded a negative result, which was entirely possible, i.e., peaceful dawah work, could not be achieved either.
The Requirement of a New Prophet
Then we have another example that pertains to those who claim that since circumstances have changed in the 20th century, we need a new prophet. They claimed that their leader was the Prophet of the New age by advancing this theory.
This whole matter is based on a fallacy because a new prophet is not sent to the world because of the changed situation. The changed situation only establishes the need for ijtihaad rather than a new prophet. Whenever any prophet is sent to the world, it is only for two reasons. Firstly, no prophet has been sent to that region and, therefore, due to the absence of prophetic guidance, a prophet has to be sent. Secondly, the teachings of the previous prophets, having been subjected to human interpolation, the
authentic source of divine religion, is not available to man.
In present times neither of the conditions mentioned above is valid, considering that a final prophet came in the form of Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn Abdul Muttalib, who was God’s prophet for all time for the entire world, and the teachings of this prophet have been fully preserved. Therefore, there is no need for any other prophet.
There is no doubt about it that circumstances have changed. However, what is required is that, by the exercise of ijtihaad, we must present the teachings of the final prophet of Islam in a manner that is entirely understandable to the modern mind so that people may find his teachings relevant in the modern world as they were in the past. The change in circumstances only proves the necessity for ijtihaad rather than the need for the coming of a new prophet.
GLOBAL WARMING DIVINE WARNING OF DOOMSDAY
Scientists from all over the world repeatedly emphasize that global warming is the greatest danger of present times. Both print and electronic media inform people daily of this perilous situation.
Reports based on the findings of international scientists, such as “Doomsday Not Far” (Hindustan Times, December 8, 2007) and an Indian TV programme, ‘Five Years to Doomsday’ telecast on December 20, 2007, warned that climate change is now turning into climate disaster. As a result, the day is fast approaching when human beings, regardless of where they are living, will no longer inhabit the planet earth.
An international panel of 25,000 scientists, who belonged to 130 countries, was formed under the aegis of the United Nations, the most outstanding international institution in the world. Headquartered in Paris, this panel was formed to investigate the causes of climate change. It completed its research and submitted a report to the United Nations.
The media covered this sensational report at length and was published in detail by the Times of India on February 3, 2007, titled ‘Warning Signs’. I think it would have been more appropriate to call it ‘Warning Signs of Doomsday.’
In the context of recent deliberations by scientists from all over the world on this subject, the Times of India published a report on May 18, 2007, titled ‘By 2050 the Earth Will be Arid and Empty.’ According to this report, a well-known scientist, James Lovelock, observed in the light of scientific information that by 2050, a significant part of the land surface would have become dry. It would pose a severe threat to the lives of all living beings. We have reached the beginning of the end, from which point people will start dying one by one, eventually putting an end to all life on earth. “We are on the edge of the greatest die-off humanity has ever seen. We will be lucky if 20 of us survive what is coming.” (p.
A letter on this subject, written by Sir Isaac Newton, the famous British scientist, in 1704, was displayed in a museum in Jerusalem. He wrote that the present world would come to an end in 2060. It was reported on the front page of the Times of India, June 18, 2007, under the heading, ‘Newton Saw End of the World in 2060.’
Sir Isaac Newton (d. 1727) had made this observation based on a mathematical calculation based in turn on the classical laws of gravity and motion. This estimate appeared so strange that people took it to show a superstitious side to Newton’s life. This letter was first shown to the public in 1969 when Jerusalem’s Hebrew University displayed it in the ‘Newton’s Secrets’ exhibition.
Newton’s observation by mathematical calculation regarding the end of the world has become a known fact in science. The climate change taking place as a result of global warming in modern times has brought scientists to conclude that by 2010 the life support system will be so disturbed that most probably all kinds of life will end on earth by 2050.
By the beginning of the 21st century, scientists worldwide had become unanimous in their warning that the earth was changing rapidly as a result of global warming and climatic changes. According to modern scientific observations, these changes will render our earth uninhabitable by 2050.
Over the last ten years, scientists have published many reports on this subject. Recently, the American Science Magazine published one such report by James Hansen (
Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. A summary of this report was published in The Times of India, New Delhi, on April 9, 2008, under the caption “Earth in Crisis.” According to this report (p.
The news given by scientists regarding the disturbance of the balance governing the life support systems on earth is based not on theoretical calculations or conjecture but rather on the information garnered from observations. In our times, the latest scientific methods have been employed to enable continuous study and observation based on which these reports have been published in the media. All such information is of a kind that is accessible to anyone with a scientific background.
Negative Effects of Global Warming
The massive ice caps at both the north and south poles, the vast freshwater reservoirs, are now melting at an alarming rate. Also, there are massive, mountain-top glaciers—gigantic storehouses of drinking water— which, as a consequence of global warming, are likewise rapidly melting, and their stored water is draining off into the oceans through the rivers.
Global warming is altering many features of the world permanently. A warmer world significantly impacts extremes of temperature and rainfall with implications for human health, ecosystem survival, and sustainable economic activity. Enhanced warming is expected to amplify the thawing of permafrost and the loss of seasonal snow cover of land ice and Arctic sea ice. Besides other negative impacts, climate change is resulting in two unbearable situations. On the one hand, very soon the level of water in the seas will rise, inundating coastal cities. On the other hand, the non-coastal areas will suffer from an intolerable water shortage. Some scholars predict that the shortage of water will become so acute that even a third world war might occur over this issue.
This results in two unbearable situations. On the one hand, the level of water in the seas will soon rise, flooding coastal cities such as Calcutta, Bombay, Chennai, etc.
The rivers are always full of water because the ice in the mountains keeps gradually melting the whole year-round, and this water continuously comes to the rivers through tributaries. However, when all this ice has melted, naturally, the rivers will run dry. Moreover, all their fresh water will be mixed with the
ocean’s salty water. The ocean will be full of water but, being too salty, it will be fit neither for irrigation nor for drinking. The situation prevailing will be somewhat like that portrayed by Samuel Coleridge in his poem ‘The Ancient Mariner’: “Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink.”
Time reporting of a Study on the melting of glaciers stated, “Glacier Loss Is ‘Unstoppable.’ The report elaborated on this, saying, “The West Antarctic Ice Sheet is one of the keys to global sea rise. Running up against the Amundsen Sea, it contains an estimated 27,
A study led by NASA Sea Level Change Science Team members from the University of Hawaii projects that there will be a surge in coastal flooding starting in the 2030s. A report on NASA’s website states, “The global sea-level rise causing higher seas amplified by the lunar cycle will cause a leap of flood numbers
on almost all U.S. mainland coastlines, Hawaii, and Guam.” (https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/study- projects-a-surge-in-coastal-flooding-starting-in- 2030s/)
As a result, every U.S coast will experience rapidly increasing high-tide floods, when a lunar cycle will amplify rising sea levels caused by climate change. It will result in floods the world over.
Devastating Floods Linked to Climate Change
As predicted, floods have been seen worldwide. The autumn and summers of 2021 have witnessed ravaging and deadly floods, cyclones and hurricanes worldwide. Countries most affected by them include the United States, Mexico, Germany, France, China, India, Sudan, Nigeria, Uganda, Indonesia, Philippines, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and parts of India, bringing widespread destruction in their wake.
Flash floods occurred in the city of New York in early July 2021. One of the ten most intense cloud bursts in the past 80 years occurred here, resulting in more than an inch and a half of rain to fall within an hour, causing severe damage and submerging parts of the city.
Devastation occurred in China in Zhengzhou, the capital of the Henan province, on Tuesday, 20 July, 2021, due to flooding. In just one hour, a record 7.
The widespread flooding in China is in part linked to climate change, said Xuebin Zhang, a senior research scientist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, noting, “We do not usually see that kind of a flood.” He added, “Without climate change, you would not see as much precipitation as you see today. Simply because the air is now hotter and it can hold more moisture, as such it will give you more rain in intense storms than before.”
In India, the heaviest monsoon rains took place in July 2021 in the Mumbai region in decades. A weather station in Mahabaleshwar, recorded 23 inches of rainfall, causing landslides and leaving entire
neighborhoods submerged. (Reuters News Agency Report)
In western Germany and large parts of Europe, heavy floods wiped out villages and reduced some infrastructure to a sea of debris in July 2021. John Butschkowski, a Red Cross driver helping with the German rescue mission, told Reuters, “It is inconceivable that this is happening in Germany.”
Ilan Kelman, a professor of disasters and health at University College London, wrote for the Washington Post this week, “No one should assume that we can ever make our abodes completely fireproof, be ready to evacuate safely while being psychologically and financially prepared to return to only ashes. … We must plan better for floods and build our cities and communities to withstand them.”
According to the Floodlit, in France, nearly two months of rain fell in just a few hours in Lot-et- Garonne Department in southwestern France late on 08 September 2021. The streets of the city of Agen were inundated with over 2 meters of water. These floods directly result from global warming as warmer atmospheres retain more moisture that falls as heavy rains.
These floods, climate scientists say, should serve as a wake-up call for leaders to take urgent action on warming temperatures to protect the planet.
Unprecedented Wildfires Caused by Climate Change
The official Twitter account of United Nations Climate Change written in early July 2021 had predicted that climate change would result in floods in certain parts of the world and heatwaves, drought and wildfires linked to rising temperatures in others, “From unprecedented fires in Western North America to devastating floods in Europe: The most recent and accelerating climate change impacts constitute a clarion call to action.” (https://www. washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2021/ world-floods-climate/)
As predicted, fires are now occurring more frequently and severely in ecosystems that have historically rarely experienced a fire. In 2019, wildfires raged across large swathes of Canada, Siberia, the Mediterranean, and the Amazon. These brought the devastating power and potential threat of fire across the world into focus. An increase in the frequency and intensity of wildfires, especially in ecosystems that are not adapted to fire,
could lead to lasting changes in vegetation structure and composition, wildlife populations, soil erosion, and the benefits humans derive from these landscapes.
The Amazon saw a significant uptick in the number of fires across Brazil, Bolivia and Peru (with ~9000 km2 burnt) in 2019 due to human-driven deforestation, logging and exploitation. It in itself is a cause for concern as there are fears that the interaction of deforestation, widespread use of fire for clearing and climate change are pushing this typically wet tropical ecosystem closer to an ecological tipping point, towards a degraded low-carbon savannah system10. It is vital for global sustainability as the Amazon forest is the world’s largest carbon sink, but its capture and storage of carbon dioxide has decreased over the past decades.
As per the Moscow Times, a warming climate combined with a 150-year drought and high winds created the best conditions to turn the taiga forest into fire fuel. This prediction has also come true in the early spring of 2021. Fires are prevalent now, even in the coldest places like Yakutsk, Siberia. Temperatures over the year range between -44 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit in Yakutsk. This past summer, after arid and extremely hot weather patterns, the Saka-Yakutia region reached
It is reported that “A heatwave in one of the world’s coldest regions has sparked forest fires and threatened the Siberian city of Yakutsk.” (Jonathan Watts, The Guardian, 20 July, 2021) He states, ‘Everything is on fire’: Siberia hit by unprecedented burning.” A teacher from Yakutsk was also reported to have told ABS News, “Everywhere is burning, and there are not enough people.” These fires are leading to an “apocalypse” of thick toxic smoke, which is one of the world’s worst- ever air pollution events in the Yakutsk region.
As of August 16, 2021, more than 40 million acres (
2.5 million acres, reports Ann M. Simmons for the Wall Street Journal. The fires are burning so intensely that a vast swath of smoke blocks sunlight. For the first time in recorded history, smoke from the fires in Siberia have drifted thousands of miles away to reach the North Pole, reports Oliver Carrol for the Independent.
A concerned citizen, Edward Woods, wrote, “This is happening across the globe daily.” It is time we wake up and take note of these devastating effects of climate change.
Science Corroborates Islamic Predictions of Doomsday
It is generally held that Islam and science are separate from one another, the subject of Islam being different from science subjects. However, there is one respect in which Islam and science completely conform to one another.
Moreover, what science is now making known through its discoveries has already been made known in Islam through revelation. The difference is that Islam had made these predictions about things 15 hundred years ago in the 7th century AD, while science has discovered these same things only in recent centuries and particularly at the beginning of the 21st century.
These predictions include the coming of Doomsday or the end of human history. What is strange about this is that what had been predicted in the Quran and Hadith has only now come to man’s knowledge as facts through scientific observations. The Quran, the revealed book of God, directly addresses this issue. It says:
“Corruption has appeared on land and sea because of the evil which men’s hands have done: and so He will make them taste the fruit of some of their doings, so that they may turn back from evil.” (
According to the above verse of the Quran, corruption in the land and sea (referring to global warming) is man-made. Scientists from all over the world repeatedly emphasize that global warming is man- made.
The Sixth Assessment of the IPCC Climate Report emphasized that climate change is global and of human origin. The Hindu (August 17, 2021) reports: The impact of climate change on the atmosphere, oceans, and land is unmistakably of human origin, and this impact is picking up pace. It is striking that no part of the inhabited world is now untouched by the impact of global warming.
The Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC report in 2007 came under the main heading: ‘Global warming is man-made’. All these reports seem to interpret the above Quranic verse: man-made corruption has spread on land and sea. This report also tells us that the earth’s atmosphere has now heated up to a degree far higher than that of the pre-industrial age. The level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will soon be doubled.
This report also tells us that the polar ice and the glaciers on the mountains are continuously melting because of this heat. As we all know, there are
substantial ice caps at both the north and south poles. These are vast freshwater reservoirs, but they are now melting at an alarming rate. Also, there are substantial mountain-top glaciers—gigantic storehouses of drinking water—which, as a consequence of global warming, are likewise rapidly melting, and their stored water is draining off into the oceans through the rivers.
Due to this, the level of water in the seas is rising. It is feared that this will rise by as much as one meter in the near future, and there will be the risk of the coastal areas being submerged. On the other hand, the non-coastal areas will suffer from an intolerable water shortage.
The report further tells us that the dangerous changes occurring in our world result in irreversible damage. That is, there is no remedy for this process. The report also tells us that, due to these changes, the earth will be hit by draughts, which will seriously affect the life support system. All these occurrences are a direct result of human activities. According to the report, “We are endangering all species on earth; we are endangering the future of the human race.”
What is happening is not simply a matter of climate change. It is, in fact, a warning by the Creator. It is an intimation in advance of something that will occur
very shortly. It is meant to bring man to his senses so that he may reform himself and save himself from God’s chastisement. God provided for all kinds of necessary things in this world, but these things were not meant to be luxuries. They were meant, instead, to be merely facilities. For the truth is that God made this world purely as a preparatory ground, and man was required to build in it a heavenly personality so that he might inhabit the next eternal world of Paradise. However, man mistook those things provided by his Maker to be luxuries and, instead of preparing himself for paradise, he began building a ‘paradise’ in this world itself.
God continued to send warnings of different kinds, but man could not be brought to his senses. In this way, he forfeited the justification to stay in this world for a further period in the eyes of God. Now the time has come when this world should be terminated, and man should be brought to book and be held accountable on the Day of Judgement.
Predictions of Global Warming
In several places, the Quran has recorded that certain signs indicating its approach will appear before Doomsday. The change in the earth that has been predicted in different verses of the Quran will probably
not be sudden but will instead be gradual. Today this is happening. It is noteworthy that extraordinary progress has been made in different fields in the present times, which have enabled man to understand the changes over a period of time, whereas it has not hitherto been possible for a man to observe these changes. That is, on the one hand, God will bring about eye-opening changes through advanced news of Doomsday, while precisely at the same time He will provide man with modern scientific methods by which he may directly learn about these changes.
By the beginning of the 21st century, scientists worldwide had become unanimous in their warning that the earth was changing rapidly as a result of global warming and climatic changes. Recently, the American Science Magazine published one such report by James Hansen (
The news given by scientists regarding the disturbance of the balance governing the life support systems
on earth is based not on theoretical calculations or conjecture but rather on the information garnered from observations. In our times, the latest scientific methods have been employed to enable continuous study and observation based on which these reports have been published in the media. All such information is of a kind that is accessible to anyone with a scientific background.
The traditions of the Prophet of Islam have predicted such occurrences.
1. According to a Hadith, “When the Qiyamah approaches, the sun will come closer to man.” (Musnad Ahmad, Hadith No. 17439) As a result of this, great heat will be generated on earth. This hadith tells us precisely what we have been told in the report.
The sun coming closer does not mean that the distance between the sun and the earth will become less, for in such a case, life on earth would immediately come to an end. This coming closer is symbolic of the sun’s heat becoming more intense, thereby raising the temperature, thus, predicting global warming.
2. What will happen to man when the sun’s heat increases? It has been expressed thus in the hadith:
“The people will be sweating. Some will sweat till their ankles, some till their knees, others till their waist and yet others till their faces.” (Sahih Muslim, Hadith No. 2864)
The Arabic word araq in this tradition, which means sweat, literally means ‘squeezed water’. Sweat is called araq because it squeezes [or oozes] out of the human body. That is why the wine which is squeezed out of grapes is also called araq. This tradition, in fact, symbolically tells us that during the last days, when the sun’s heat will increase and the glaciers of ice and the ice sheets at the polar caps of the Arctic and Antarctica will start melting then the sea level will rise. As a result, the coastal settlements will be submerged in seawater. Some areas will be submerged, while others will be less affected, depending upon the altitude of the landmass affected. Now both revealed, and scientific knowledge has confirmed that Doomsday is near.
Climate Change, Earthquakes and Doomsday
Climate changes triggered geological mayhem. As the kilometers-thick Scandinavian ice sheet vanished, the faults beneath released the accumulated strain of tens of millennia, spawning massive magnitude eight earthquakes.
Andrea Hampel of the University of Hannover’s Geological Institute, who with colleagues has been studying earthquake activity, says, “future ice loss may trigger earthquakes of intermediate to large magnitude if the crust underneath the modern ice cap contains faults prone to failure”.
Scientific studies reveal that where an earthquake fault or volcanic activity is primed and ready to go, climate change may provide that extra helping hand that brings forward the timing of a quake or eruption that would eventually have happened. In keeping with these scientific predictions, earthquakes have occurred with greater frequency worldwide. The number of noticeable earthquakes has been increasing year after year since 2017 in the important oil-producing regions of the U.S., according to an analysis by an independent energy research firm. The National Earthquake Information Center now locates about 20,000 earthquakes around the globe each year or approximately 55 per day.
On the 26th December 2004, an undersea earthquake in Indonesia resulted in a tsunami which caused heavy damage and loss of life in South Asian coastal cities. Another earthquake that remains fresh in recent memory is the one that devastated the Chinese
province of Sichuan, killing almost 70,000 people in May 2008.
On March 4, 2021, a series of earthquakes occurred in the Kermadec Islands, New Zealand, with magnitudes of 8.1 and 7.4 at 19:28:
An earthquake occurred off the coast of the Alaska Peninsula on July 28, 2021, of a magnitude of 8.2 according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), followed by many aftershocks, including three that were of magnitude 5.9, 6.1 and 6.9, respectively.
Early in the morning of August 14, 2021, an earthquake of a magnitude of 7.2 rocked Haiti, causing homes, schools and hospitals to collapse, claiming hundreds of lives, and nearly 1.2 million people affected and leaving communities in crisis.
On September 5, 2021, an earthquake measuring five on the Richter Scale jolted Yecheng County of Kashgar Prefecture in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. On September 8, 2021, an earthquake occurred near Acapulco in Guerrero, Mexico, of a magnitude of 7 on the Richter scale, causing landslides, gas leaks and killing many.
Such earthquakes occur almost every day in varying degrees of intensity, some regions being more prone to earthquakes than others.
The earthquake is one terrestrial phenomenon that most forewarns us of the advent of Doomsday. Anomalies in the organisation of the present set-up of the universe, which periodically result in minor calamities, indicate what is going to happen on a large scale in the future.
The earth’s interior is composed of red-hot semi- molten magma, which is ejected periodically through volcanic activity in the form of lava. Sometimes also, strong movements of the earth’s crust can be felt. These are produced by the movement of the plates of the earth’s crust due to continental drift. From time to time, the movement of the earth’s surface assumes gigantic proportion and the resulting earthquakes are like a unilateral attack of nature upon man in which nature has the upper hand.
According to a tradition, Prophet Muhammad said, “The Hour (Last Day) will not be established until earthquakes will be very frequent. (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith No. 1036)
In light of the above tradition, we studied seismic activity over the last century and found that the world
has witnessed a substantial increase in earthquakes. According to long-term records, since about 1900, the average number of major earthquakes per year has been 16. These usually include 15 earthquakes in the magnitude seven range and one earthquake having a magnitude of 8.0 or greater. The records of the past 40-50 years reveal that we have exceeded the long- term average number of significant earthquakes about a dozen times. Earthquakes are increasing all around the world.
The above tradition relates earthquakes with Doomsday, as an Earthquake is, in fact, a small reminder of the day of resurrection. A surge the earth is split asunder with a terrible rumbling; when buildings come tumbling down like playing cards; when the upper layers of the earth are cracked open, and the interior of the earth is spewed out, when cities bustling with life are reduced to ashes in a matter of minutes; when the earth is strewn with dead bodies, like shoals of fish washed up on the sea coast, man realizes his utter helplessness in the face of nature. What is most tragic about earthquakes and volcanic eruptions is that no one can predict when or where they will take place. Moreover, everything happens in a flash when they do, leaving little or no time for
escape. The day of the resurrection will come upon us all of a sudden, just like an earthquake. Such natural catastrophes demonstrate, most awesomely, God’s capacity to destroy the earth at any moment.
Even more terrifying events take place in the outer reaches of the universe. In the infinitude of space are enormous celestial bodies in continuous motion. There are so many of them that they are in danger of colliding with each other. Studies in astronomy have confirmed that this is an actual possibility - it would not be surprising if they collide. What is surprising is that they do not collide. Our Solar System may well result from a collision of this type. If we can visualize such a collision taking place on a greatly enlarged scale, the day of resurrection will no longer seem impossible, nor even such a remote possibility as we had perhaps at first imagined.
Believers in the concept of life hereafter contend that a time is bound to come when the forces of destruction present in the universe in the embryonic form will one day assume gigantic proportions. What is latent today will undoubtedly be manifest tomorrow, and the coming of the day of resurrection will be a reality. Today we apprehend it as a probability; tomorrow, we shall witness it as fact. Man needs to prepare for the
coming of Doomsday in the hereafter when he can in this world of test.
Clouds of Dukhan (Smoke) from East to West
In another tradition, the Prophet of Islam mentioned ten indicators signaling the approach of Doomsday, one of the last being smoke (dukhan):
Hudhaifa bin Usaid al-Ghifari reported: “God’s Messenger said: The Last Hour will not come until you see ten signs before and (in this connection) he made a mention of the smoke. (Sahih Muslim, Hadith No. 2901)
The same is predicted in the Quran in these words: “Watch out for the day when the sky brings out visible clouds of smoke (dukhan) that will envelop the people. This will be a painful punishment.” (The Quran,
The above Quranic verse and various traditions of the Prophet of Islam predict visible clouds of dukhan or smoke as one of the significant signs of the coming of Doomsday.
The 21st century is witnessing a substantial increase in volcanic activity. Scientists found that volcanic eruptions increased as the climate became hotter,
“After glaciers are removed the surface pressure decreases, and the magma more easily propagate to the surface and thus erupt.” (Email of Graeme Swindles, the University of Leeds to Scientific American) Therefore, scientists are also confirming that global warming leads to increased volcanic activity in the form of lava and ash that leads to ‘a thick visible smoke in the sky.’
On 14 April 2010, a volcano erupted suddenly from beneath the glaciers in Iceland, an island in the North Atlantic about 200 miles southeast of Greenland. So much ash was emitted that it spread throughout the major part of Europe’s atmosphere. Darkness enveloped the entire region leading to the grounding of thousands of flights in the region.
The ash seen from satellite images appears to be ‘a visible cloud of smoke.’ Therefore, the ash thrown up by the volcanic eruption may be the smoke predicted in the Quran and Hadith traditions. On 19th September 2021, the Cumbre Vieja volcano erupted on the Spanish Canary Island of La Palma, sending lava shooting into the air and streaming in rivers towards houses in two villages from the Cumbre Vieja national park in the south of the island. (“Lava pours out of the volcano on La Palma in Spain’s Canary Islands”, Reuters,
September 20, 2021) Plumes of thick, black smoke blocking the sun above the island are seen in the images, captured by a satellite of the U.S. Earth observation company Maxar Technologies on Thursday (October 14), indicating that iron mixed with magma is rising from the Cumbre Vieja volcano crater. The Instituto Volcanológico de Canarias (INVOLCAN) suggested that the current eruption could persist for weeks to months. (NASA Earth Observatory, October 4, 2021)
A tradition of the Prophet of Islam states that the smoke will last for forty days:
“There will be smoke (dukhan) that fills the space from east to west and will last forty days.” (Tafsir al-Tabari, Vol.
According to the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), the cloud of smoke emitted by the La Palma volcano is spreading over Europe, reaching altitudes of up to 3.1 miles (5 kilometers). It is expected to cross Europe from west to east over the coming days, CAMS senior scientist Mark Parrington said on Twitter.
Japan’s volcanic Mount Aso started erupting on Wednesday, 20th October 2021, blasting ash several miles into the sky. According to ABC News, a massive
column of grey smoke is billowing into the sky (20th October 2021).Television networks broadcast images of a dark cloud of ash looming over the volcano that quickly obscured large swathes of the mountain.
According to a hadith, “smoke will rise before Doomsday which will fill the east and the west.” (Al- Sunan al-waridah fı al-fitan by Al-Danı, Vol. 5, p. 1108)
This tradition refers to spreading a cloud of smoke from east to west. The plume of thick clouds of volcanic ash spreading in the east in Japan and the west in the Spanish Canary Islands. An October 22nd report showing live drone footage of Mount Aso, under the title, “Dukhan hits Japan”, showed eruptions sending stones tumbling down and plumes of ash rain clouds 3,500 meters high. The Japan Meteorological Agency raised the warning level for Mount Aso to three on a scale of five.
Another volcanic eruption started on 20 December 2021 on Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha‘apai, a submarine volcano in the Tongan Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. Its climax was witnessed on 15 January 2022 in the form of a cataclysmic explosion. The 8-minute eruption sent plumes of ash soared to a height of at least 30 kilometers, well into the upper atmosphere, or stratosphere, which is the highest
plume in satellite records, according to NASA. Being the largest volcanic eruption in the 21st century, it caused a sonic boom that was heard more than 10,000 kilometers away in the US state of Alaska and the UK. Reverberations from the eruption circled the globe multiple times in the atmosphere and the oceans, causing a tsunami affecting the shores of Australia, the US and Russia. NASA concluded that the explosion was “hundreds of times more powerful” than the first atomic bomb.
The Tongan volcano blast sent shock waves around the globe and defied scientific expectations.” (www.nature.com, February 9, 2022) Nico Fournier, a volcanologist at GNS Science in Taupo, New Zealand, said that it just basically rips the Band-Aid on our lack of understanding of what is happening underwater: There are huge pieces of this puzzle that we have not quite managed to pull together. Scientists have predicted super volcanic eruptions which will spread very thick clouds of volcanic ash, which will fill a large part of the earth.
If we stop and ponder that these predictions made 1500 years ago in the 7th century are being realized in the 21st century, we will discover the Creator of the
world as only He could have foreseen these events and predicted them as the signs of Doomsday.
History shows that probably other signs, as are mentioned in the Hadith, have already appeared. The sign of dukhan is probably the last but one sign. The final sign that will appear is perhaps the rising of the sun from the West. The Angel Israfeel will then blow the trumpet at some point.
God sends such calamities so that people may heed the warnings and reform themselves. Global warming, scarcity of water, greater frequency of earthquakes, floods, dukhan (smoke), etc., are in the nature of warnings. Now, circumstances tell us that the last hour has come for man to take heed before it is too late for him to reform himself.
Global Warming or Divine Warning?
The earth is a unique planet in the vast Universe. It provides exceptionally everything that is required to support life. It has enabled human beings to inhabit it and develop civilizations. However, according to the Quran, this state of affairs will not last forever.
A time will come when the earth will lose all its greenery and vegetation and become an arid waste.
This will happen sometime before Doomsday. According to the Quran:
“We have adorned the earth with attractive things, so that We may test mankind as to which one is best in conduct, but We shall reduce all this to barren waste.” (
This is what the Quran means by a “barren waste”. We learn from the Quran and Hadith that the present world is not eternal. A time will come when this world will be wound up and replaced by another world that will be eternal. There are such signs in the present world as lead scientists to conclude that the end of history has come very close. Now, through purely scientific surveys, the revelation has been confirmed that the world has, in reality, reached the last stage of its existence.
Scientific studies have underscored those signs predicted in the Quran and Hadith.
APPROACHING SIGNS OF DOOMSDAY
One of the predictions in the Quran is the coming of Doomsday or the end of human history. The study of the Quran and Hadith tells us that before the end of human history on earth, some clear signs will appear, serving as the final warning for man. After the emergence of these signs, God will command the angel Israfil to blow the trumpet. Then, suddenly, human history, having passed through its temporary phase, will enter its permanent phase. That is to say, the blowing of the trumpet will mark the end of the phase of action and the beginning of the phase of reward.
The Predictions in the Hadith About the Final Phase of Human History
A number of the traditions predicting that Doomsday is fast approaching are given here. What is strange about this is that what had been predicted in the Quran and Hadith has only now come to man’s knowledge as facts through scientific observations.
1. According to a tradition, the Prophet of Islam said that Doomsday would not take place until haraj had exceeded its limit. People then asked what haraj was. The Prophet replied, “Killing, killing and more killing.” (Sahih Muslim, Hadith No.
When the Prophet of Islam came to the world during the first quarter of the 7th century, modern weapons were not invented. It was unthinkable at that time that killing and bloodshed could ever become rampant. It has become possible only in the present days when weapons of mass destruction have been manufactured, and it has become possible to kill on a mass scale. As such, we find that innumerable incidents of killing and bloodshed are taking place daily in present times. This state of affairs is an indication that Doomsday has come very close. It is proof enough of the veracity of this prediction that it was made a long time ago when the present kind of bloodshed and violence was unthinkable.
2. According to one tradition, the Prophet of Islam said that the time was soon to come when the river Euphrates would produce a treasure of gold. (Sahih Muslim, Hadith No. 2894) This prediction in the Hadith refers to petrol, which is called liquid
gold in present times. This has been discovered in considerable quantities in the Middle East. It was unthinkable during the times of the Prophet of Islam. Today this prediction has undoubtedly been fulfilled. This event is another sign that qiyamat is no longer far off. Doomsday, heralded by the signs mentioned above, will bring the first phase of human history to an end according to God’s creation plan. The post-Doomsday phase will then commence.
3. According to a tradition, the Prophet of Islam said, “There will be a very great occurrence in future, that is, a huge house will be burnt. This will surely happen.” (Sahih Muslim, Hadith No. 2940) Let us look at the wording of this Hadith. It is not about burning an ordinary house; it is instead about burning a colossal structure, the like of which did not exist in ancient times. This prediction is perhaps about the event on September 11th 2001, in New York, USA, where the famous World Trade Centre, built-in 1970-72, once stood. With its 110 stories, it was Himalayan in stature. It was impossible to demolish or burn it by ordinary methods. On September 11th 2001, two aero planes were hijacked and then crashed into the World
Trade Centre at great speed. As a result, there was a big explosion, and the entire building was reduced to ashes. Many factors were required for such a happening to take place. For the first time in human history, these factors had become available to man. In such a situation, fulfilling this unique prediction in the 21st century is a particular sign that the hour of Doomsday has come very close.
4. According to another tradition, the Prophet of Islam said, ‘Qiyamat will take place only when there is no one left to remember God.’ (Sahih Muslim, Hadith No.
Man’s existence and everything is given to him are all gifts from God. Hence, not acknowledging God
for all His blessings is no simple matter. Such a state of affairs means that people are partaking of God’s blessings to the fullest possible extent, but they do not acknowledge their Benefactor. When such a state of affairs prevails on earth, it means that man has lost any justification for his being given any further opportunity to inhabit this world. In present times, this prediction has been fulfilled. Today there is no dearth of people who recite the name of God by way of lip service. However, such people have no value in the eyes of God. So far as remembering God in the real spirit is concerned, very few people on the earth will come up to the desired criterion.
One clear proof of this is that Muslims have been engaged in activities with the advent of the age of the printing press and the increased frequency of public speaking. However, we do not find people who are immersed in the remembrance of God. People are instead basking in community pride than living in the Glory of God. We do not find any mention of the Glory of God in the real sense in the speeches and writings and the activities of present-day institutions. The reason is that people have discovered the greatness of the community, but they have failed to discover the greatness of God. It is but natural that their lives
should be devoid of the remembrance of God’s Glory in such a situation.
Fitnah Duhaima: An Age of Utter Confusion
A tradition of the Prophet of Islam talks of fitnah duhaima or the age of utter confusion in these words, “There will be the trial of utter darkness which will leave none of this community without giving him a slap.” (Sunan Abu Dawood, Hadith No. 4242)
Fitnah Duhaima means ‘pitch darkness’. The tradition tells us that grave fitnah, fitnah duhaima, will appear at the end of human history. Here the question arises as to what reason there could be for this enveloping darkness. Why would people find themselves in a jungle of intellectual darkness and confusion? When we think deeply about it, we find that this will happen with many writers and speakers.
History tells us that this is the first time there has been any such situation. For the first time in human history, with the advent of the printing press, innumerable books have been printed and published. Then after electronic media came into vogue, a whole new world came into existence—radio, TV, the internet, and social media. Such significant quantities of information of all kinds are being fed into the internet that more
than 5000 pages of information are added to it every 5 minutes. There has been a similar exponential increase in printed books. Through print and electronic media, vast quantities of information have been circulated to all and sundry. Now everyone is living in a jungle of information. In such a situation, differentiating between truth and falsehood has become so difficult that it is almost impossible without the exceptional support of God.
A tradition has been recorded in different collections of Hadith about a prediction made by the Prophet to the effect that a time would come when the deception (fitnah) of words, whether written or spoken, would be more dangerous than the sword. (Sunan Abu Dawood, Hadith No. 4265) This age of the deception of words has already set in our times. Today, the abundance of beautiful words is the greatest source of misguidance.
How will it be possible to save oneself from this dark deception of words? The answer is to be found in a hadith. The Prophet of Islam observed, “Realization of God is the shield against this fitnah.” It means that there is only one way to shake off the spell of beautifully deceptive words, and that is for man to be possessed with the realization of God. Nothing else can save man from this fitnah.
The Final Reckoning
The Quran and Hadith have predicted this great event, Qiyamah or Doomsday before the Day of Judgement or the Final Reckoning. It will be the day when the whole creation will be gathered before the Lord. All voices will be silenced except for the voice of God. Only the truth will have any weight on that day. Nothing else will be of any consequence. On that day, man will be judged.
From the Islamic viewpoint, God had made this world for a limited period. Those signs have appeared, which tell us that this limited period is reaching its end. Then there will be Doomsday. The Prophet Muhammad made it clear that human beings had not been settled on earth for all eternity; that a time would come when the present inhabited world would end and be replaced by another world. Then all the evil people would be sent to the universal dustbin, and all the good people, who obeyed God, would inhabit the eternal world of Paradise. In the 7th century, the Prophet of Islam said that the distance between him and Doomsday was only between his two fingers. (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith No. 5301).
The phenomenon of global warming shows that this distance has now been covered and that the climatic
change, as scientists have predicted, has now reached the point of being irreversible.
Global Warming has shown us that what was to happen has already happened. On the final day, Qiyamah has come very close. Now the time has ultimately come when a man has to change himself: he has to abandon the way of disobedience to God and opt for the path of obedience to Him. Nature is silently calling upon man to mend his ways before he finds that he has no further opportunity to do so.
The Final Hour Is Very Close
From a tradition of Prophet Muhammad, we learn that three blasts (nafakhat) will be sounded before the Qiyamah. The first will sound an alarm, the second will be the death blow, and the third will be the resurrection announcement. (Musnad Ishaq Ibn Rahwayh, Hadith No. 10)
In my view, the sounding of the alarm is nothing but the warning signs like the first blast, revealed by the scientific surveys and expressed in scientific language. The second blast will be the death blow when all people die, and the third blast will herald the resurrection when all human beings are raised and brought before their Creator.
The Quran has this to say:
“The Final Hour is sure to come, without doubt, but most people do not believe.” (
There is no doubt about the coming of the Qiyamah. The signs tell us that now the time has come very close. Now it is the last hour when a man may seek forgiveness from God and rush to seek refuge in God’s mercy
Only One Chance
Now the time has finally come for man to awaken, take lessons from the signs in nature and history, and plan his life in a way that avails him in his post-death period. One who loses this opportunity should know that another such opportunity will not come again.
Man has been given only one chance to build his future. It is now up to him to utilize it or lose it forever. Those who make use of this chance have eternal paradise in store for them, while those who fail to make use of this chance will have a fate such as is described in the Bible:
“And they will be cast into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth for all eternity.” (Matthew,
Only death divides us from Doomsday. We are all proceeding towards a fate that will bring us eternal bliss or eternal torment. Every moment that passes brings us closer to the fate that is in store for us. Every day the sun sets, we lose one day more in our lives, and we will never have another chance like the present to prepare for this awesome day. We have only a comparatively short time in this world but will have to endure the consequences of our life on earth forever: either bliss or severe punishment.
We will soon leave this world where we are free to act and enter another world where we will reap the consequences of our actions; we must examine our lives before this happens. We will all have to stand before God one day. On that day, how fortunate will be those who are included among God’s faithful servants, for they will be honoured in heaven? How unfortunate will be those whom God rejects, for they will have nothing to look forward to except eternal torment and disgrace.
ON THE THRESHOLD OF PARADISE
Standing at the end of human history, we stand on the threshold of Paradise. Man has been seeking
a Paradise on earth for thousands of years due to his natural urges. With the coming of the industrial revolution and the age of consumerism, man thought that he could build a Paradise on earth, that the industrial age would culminate into the perfect world—Paradise—that he longs for. The superficiality of the notion that man could make a Paradise on Earth was severely dashed with the coming of pollution, acid rain and global warming. Moreover, now the Covid-19 pandemic has made man realize to the last extent that he cannot build a Paradise on earth. Instead, they are showing that not only is it impossible to build a Paradise on earth, but the present world has almost reached its end.
Such signs, both in nature and in history, appear continually. It seems that the period—the period set for the present world by its Creator, has now expired, and the time has come for this temporary world to be
terminated so that the eternal world of the hereafter may replace it. These words of the Quran are indicative of this reality.
“On that Day We shall roll up the heavens like a scroll of parchment. As We originated the first creation, so shall We repeat it. This is a promise binding on Us. Truly, We shall fulfil it.” (
Today man stands on the threshold of Paradise. Paradise is the final period of the journey of civilization. Paradise will only be found in a state of perfection in the world hereafter. There man will find a life of joy, peace and happiness forever in this world. There will be no necessity for physical labour; pleasant intellectual activities will suffice to achieve all desired goals.
Therein, all types of limitations and disadvantages will be brought to an end: there will be no fear or grief, nor will there be any noise or pain. All those potentialities which have been apparent to a man from the very first day will be fulfilled in the world of Paradise. In Paradise, man will find an eternal life in which old age, accidents, disease and death are absent. This will be the ideal world where man will be able to utilize the full potential of his personality, thus experiencing complete fulfilment. He will find a life of joy, peace
and happiness forever in this world. There will be no necessity for physical labour; pleasant intellectual activities will suffice to achieve all desired goals.
Man must realize that he stands on the threshold of Paradise. The question is, how can man achieve the Paradise of his dreams? To find an answer to this question, one must become aware of the Creation Plan of God.
The Creation Plan of God
God—the Creator of man, has created man according to His Plan. To become acquainted with this Plan, it is necessary for a man to have a thorough understanding of himself—just as the workings of a machine can only be understood when we study the drawings of the engineer who made it. Besides the engineer’s mind, there is no other thing that can clarify what the machine is meant for. The case of man is the same. The existence of man is such a unique phenomenon that no other such example can be found throughout the vastness of the cosmos. Man is rightly called the ‘best of all creations,’ which means the best and most meaningful ‘being’ among all the things created. Such a ‘meaningful being’ cannot have been created without a purpose. The Creator of man has created him according
to a particular Plan. The Quran, the only preserved religious scripture, sheds light on this Plan.
Enthroned above the waters, it was He who created the heavens and the earth in six Days [periods] in order to test which of you is best in conduct. (The Quran,
We have adorned the earth with attractive things to test mankind as to which one is best in conduct. (The Quran,
He created death and life so that He might test you and find out which of you is best in conduct. (The Quran,
The human being was created as an eternal being, and ‘death and life’ represent both the pre-death and post- death periods of human life. So, death and life cover the entire eternal lifespan of human beings.
The Creator of man has created him according to a particular Plan. His intention is that man must spend a period of trial in this present, imperfect world, and after this, according to his deeds, he will earn the right to inhabit the perfect and eternal world, another name for which is Paradise.
According to His will, God created a perfect world called Paradise: a world in accordance with all of
our desires as human beings, in that it is free of all limitations and disadvantages, free of fear and pain, free of all imperfections. It would be an eternal world with neither death nor old age, an ideal world where we could achieve fulfilment.
Less-than-perfect beings cannot inhabit a perfect Paradise. So, God created perfection-seeking beings— human beings. He intended us to spend a period of trial here. After this, according to our deeds, we will earn the right to inhabit the perfect and eternal world. As part of this test, Paradise is kept hidden from us.
The essence of God’s Creation Plan is to give a person complete freedom–not simply as a gift, but as a test. The result of this test would enable God to know who misused his freedom and who put his freedom to the best use. This was, and still is, the divine scheme of things for man. In the pre-death period of life, an individual has the chance to qualify himself for Paradise so that in the post-death period of life, he may be settled as a deserving candidate in this perfect world.
This world, therefore, has all the components necessary for a test. It has perfection-seeking beings in a less-than-perfect world, beings who have been given complete freedom to choose their actions.
Thus, we have a choice—we can misuse our freedom to do evil or use our freedom wisely, submit to God, and qualify for Paradise. Those who misuse their God- given freedom are chastised thus in the Quran:
“This is the truth from your Lord. Let him who will, believe in it, and him who will, deny it.’ For the wrongdoers, We have prepared a Fire which will cover them like a canopy, and if they beg for water, they will be given water as hot as molten lead, which will scald their faces: how dreadful a drink, and how evil a resting place!” (The Quran,
The Creator of the world has created this world, as one half of a pair—the present world, in which we pass our lives after birth, is the first half; and the next eternal world where we live after death is the other half. The Creator of man has further created him as an eternal creature and has divided his life into two periods—the pre-death period or the life in this world and the post-death period or the life after death. The limited period before death is meant to be a test for man, while the eternal period after his death will be the period for his reward or punishment, based on his performance in the test in this life.
According to this Creation Plan of God, human beings are placed in situations where they have to face hardships from time to time throughout their lives as part of their test. Difficulty and sadness are an integral part of the creation plan of the Creator. No man has the power to extricate himself from this life of trial and tribulation. This arrangement reminds man that the present world has not been made as a place of luxury and comfort, but rather as a period of trial and such as will help determine whether he is eligible or not for the eternal life in Paradise. This is the scheme of existence for this world devised by its Creator. Creation aims to select those who are fit to inhabit the world of Paradise.
What Is Paradise?
Paradise is the name of the ideal world, the desire for which is lodged in the hearts of all human beings. It is Paradise where man’s personality shall achieve fulfilment in the most total sense. Man desires this Paradise with every fibre of his being, and Paradise awaits him in its entirety.
Paradise is a world where man attains his complete fulfilment, where he thinks the way he wants to think; where he sees what he desires to see; where he
listens to the sounds that give pleasure to his ears in the real sense; where he touches those things which gives him the highest degree of pleasure; where he has the company of those people who make his life highly meaningful, where the winds are life-giving zephyrs for him, where he eats such food as he eternally craved for and he sips such drinks as are only beautiful figments of his imagination today.
Those pure souls will qualify for Paradise who, in their life in this world, come up to the standard of citizenship of Paradise—a perfect world of eternal comfort and pleasure, a world which holds far more significant meaning than this one. Perhaps it is this Divine Plan which Jesus Christ was referring to:
“This is how you should pray: Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.” (Matthew,
Which are the pure souls who will qualify for the citizenship of Paradise in the hereafter? Answering this, the Quran states:
“The hearts of the people of Paradise will be filled with the glory of God.” (The Quran,
For one to be deserving of Paradise, one must discover the glory of God in the present world and acknowledge it from deep within his heart. Glorifying God means discovering God through thinking and reflection, as the Lord of the Universe, while He is unseen. This discovery must be intellectually so profound that it should bring about a revolutionary change in his personality. In this way, he becomes a Rabbani (divine) person. (The Quran,
The society of Paradise will be a collection of the best individuals from the whole of human history. Every member of this society will possess the fine qualities of positive thinking, peaceful behaviour, sublime character, truthfulness, sincerity and amiable personality, an idealist in thought and a perfectionist in behaviour.
Those who have developed this kind of personality are competent members of such a society in the present world. Only those persons will find entry into Paradise who have qualified themselves in the present world, as mentioned in the Quran, thus:
“[In the Hereafter] man shall have only that for which he strives.” (The Quran,
Paradise is not anyone’s birth right, nor will one receive entry into it through recommendation or
wishful thinking. Only such a person will find entry into Paradise who qualifies for it. Entry into Paradise is a matter of selection, and God Almighty will make this selection in the world Hereafter.
Eligibility for Citizenship in Paradise
To be held eligible for entry into the perfect world of Paradise in the hereafter, we must discover God’s Creation Plan. According to this Plan, we must spend a period of trial in this imperfect world, and according to our deeds, we will earn the right to inhabit the perfect and eternal world, Paradise. We are, therefore, placed in situations where we face hardships from time to time throughout our lives as part of our test. Our desire for Paradise should make this world seem insignificant to us. We should discover and submit to our Creator while He is unseen and willingly adopt divine ethics. We should develop ourselves intellectually and spiritually so we will be found eligible for the citizenship of the refined world of Paradise by God Almighty.
There are two necessary conditions for entry to Paradise. The first condition is that one discovers God at the level of realization, called maarifah. It means that one’s feelings and emotions are focused on and associated with God alone. Without even seeing God,
one experiences God’s mercy and blessings at every moment. The second condition is that one should reach the world of the Hereafter with a purified personality (
Deserving Candidates of Paradise
God’s Angels are continuously preparing a record of man’s words and deeds in the present life. Based on this record, one who is a thanks giver will gain entry into Paradise, and one who is a denier and does not acknowledge God will be deprived of Paradise forever.
The time prior to death is a testing period. After death will be the time for receiving the reward commensurate with the results of one’s test. In the
Quran (
In the Hereafter, when all human beings are presented before their Creator, their eternal future will be decided according to the record of their past deeds. In the court of the Creator, some will be declared thanks- givers while others will be declared as deniers, that is, those who did not acknowledge God. This decision will be based on what deeds one did in life before death.
The greatest fortune a person may have is that he gains entry into Paradise in the stage of life after death. This entry into Paradise will not be based on anything mysterious. According to the Quran, it will be based on thanksgiving or acknowledgement of God.
In the present world, God’s Angels are continuously preparing a record of man’s words and deeds. According to this record, a thanks giver will gain entry into Paradise. Moreover, one who denies God or does not acknowledge God will be deprived of Paradise forever.
The thanks giver has a well-integrated personality. This personality may be called a godly (rabbani) personality, although it is built by man himself. The more one
develops his consciousness, the more he will develop his godly or spiritual personality. Such a personality is formed through living consciousness rather than wishful thinking or some mysterious procedure.
The Righteous Shall Inherit the Land
Events have shown that the present state of the earth is not an ideal one, even though there exists nature’s life support system in its perfect form. This system may be at its best on the earth, but there is one thing in all this, that is, it is far from ideal. Here, good and bad people exist alongside each other. The presence everywhere of seriously flawed individuals is the source of all kinds of evil. However, all the bad people will be separated from the good in the hereafter. They will be deprived of all the earth’s resources, and the earth will be entrusted solely to the good people. This is the truth which has been mentioned in the following verse: “And indeed We have written in Psalms (Az-Zabur) that My righteous servants shall inherit the land.”(i.e., the land of Paradise) (The Quran,
FINAL DIVINE CALL
Circumstances tell us that with the beginning of the 21st century, all the signs of the approaching doomsday have already appeared. From the religious point of view, one sign is that human perversion has gone beyond all limits, thus causing the man to lose all justification for being allowed to inhabit this earth created by God. During the last period of the Prophet Noah’s time, such conditions prevailed that he felt constrained to pray to God: “If You leave any, they will misguide Your servants, and they will beget none but sinners and deniers of truth.” (
saved from the general annihilation.
Once again, in the age of intellectual darkness, perversion has set in across the world on a vast scale, and the words of Noah, “They will beget none but sinners and deniers of truth”, have become applicable to the world at large. It is almost sure that soon a flood greater than Noah’s flood will engulf the world, destroying man and human civilization. That will be
the Day of Judgement for all humanity. At that time, all human beings will be produced for the final reckoning before the Almighty, the Lord of the Universe.
We learn from the traditions that, during the last stage of the Muslim community, a great dawah mission will be launched when Doomsday has drawn very near.
The Greatest Witness
From the Quran and Hadith, we also learn that, before the end of the world, a Final Divine Call will be given so that the human beings inhabiting this world finally come to know that they have to stand before the Creator of this world for the final reckoning and that after that there will be either eternal heaven or eternal hell.
Sahih Muslim, one of the most authentic books of Hadith, tells us that the Prophet told his Companions that during the last days, a believer from the Muslim community would attain a higher level of realization of religious truths through scientific arguments and convey these truths peacefully to all humanity. This event, in its reality, would be so great that the Prophet observed, “In the eyes of God, this would be the greatest witness in the entire human history.” (Sahih Muslim, Hadith No. 2938)
The present state of affairs tells us that time has already come when certain people shall arise and perform this role. This tradition, along with other such traditions, indicates the opportunity to peacefully convey God’s word that must be availed of before Doomsday strikes. People must rush to perform this role.
Thus this greatest witness to humanity is related to the most extraordinary possibilities available in those times. This tradition means that, during the last days, there will appear great opportunities by availing of which it will become possible to perform the most significant role of conveying the divine message ever performed.
This call before Doomsday is not going to be performed miraculously. Instead, it will be performed through the process of cause and effect’. Now the opportunities for this final divine call have fully come into existence through modern means of communication. People are required to rise and fully avail of these opportunities and communicate the divine message throughout the world.
The Angel Israfil, who holds the trumpet, is perhaps waiting for this final call. According to the hadith, this call will take place before the end of the world, and God has created all the opportunities for it. The only
thing required is to utilize these opportunities and perform this great task.
The coming of the end of human history is no simple matter. It is directly linked with divine law. The present world was not given to man by way of right or reward, nor was it accidentally acquired. No indeed! He was placed here to be tested. After completing the test period, man will lose any justification to live in this world. It is just like being in an examination hall. The candidate can come to the hall for a limited period to take the test. The moment this time is up, he has to hand in his paper—whether he has completed it or not—and leave the room. The same is true of man’s stay in this world, only on a larger and more complex scale.
The Age of the Global Divine Call
Another aspect of the constructive task to be performed in the final stage of human history is dawah work on a global scale. A prediction is made in a hadith about this global dawah: “There will be no house, big or small, in which God will not cause the word of God to enter.” (Musnad Ahmad, Hadith No. 23814)
How will this event take place? In ancient times, it was just not possible for the word of God to enter all
homes. It has become possible only today with modern communications having come into existence, albeit after the appearance of the signs of the Qiyamah. The entering of the word of God into every home is, in fact, a sign of the approach of the Qiyamah. Today through television, the internet, social media and other means of communication, the divine message has reached all homes. In the age of the computer, it has become comprehensible. For the first time in human history, practically every home and office has become possible to have a computer. All kinds of information are being posted on the Internet on different websites, and now at any place in the world, in any office or home, one can access complete information regarding Islam in one’s language. The entry of the word of Islam into every home means potential entry and not actual entry. Undoubtedly as far as potential entry is concerned, God’s Message has entered every home.
This introduction of God’s word will take place through known channels of global communication. For the first time, global means of communication have become available to man, making it possible for him to do dawah work on a greatly enlarged scale. Prior to the age of the scientific revolution, this had simply not been possible.
Nowadays, dajjals or misguided leaders (known in Christian tradition as anti-Christ) have used modern means of communication to fill the entire world with negative propaganda. The whole world is now living under the shadow of negative thinking. This state of affairs has been called in Traditions fitnah duhaima, the age of utter darkness. (Sunan Abu Dawood, Hadith No. 4242)
This darkness, actually denoting intellectual darkness, will spread worldwide through the harmful use of modern means of communication.
Today, Islam is in the news everywhere, but its image has become distorted. The publicity Islam has received mainly has been negative.
The need of the hour is converting that image into a positive one. It is an ongoing process worldwide, for the negative image has aroused global curiosity to know Islam as it is. People want to study the Quran and learn about Islam. In this way, about fifty per cent of the work has already been done. Moreover, the remaining fifty per cent is being undertaken. I am sure that this process will reach its culmination. It will mean that the Qiyamah has come very close— the Qiyamah about which the prophets had warned
us. The Quran is the final revealed book of God. It was revealed to the final prophet, Muhammad, in the first quarter of the 7th century. The word of God entering every home means that the message of the Quran will enter every home. What is the message of the Quran? It is to make man aware of God’s creation plan, according to which the present world has been built for a limited period. A time will come when this world is brought to an end, then Qiyamat, or the Day of Judgement, will occur. All human beings will be resurrected and presented before the Creator of the universe. Then, according to the record of their deeds on earth, their final fate will be decided upon.
For the first time in human history, it has become possible for practically almost every individual in a home and office to access a computer or a smartphone. All kinds of information are being posted on the Internet on different websites, and now at any place in the world, one can access complete information regarding Islam in one’s language. The entry of God’s Message into every home means potential entry and not actual entry. Undoubtedly as far as potential entry is concerned, God’s Message has entered every home. We now have to continue to place more and more information on the internet and social media so that
no one can stand in front of God Almighty on the Day of Judgement and say that they were unaware. (The Quran,
Ikhwan-e-Rasool: Brothers of the Prophet
As narrated by Abu Hurayrah, the Prophet of Islam said, ‘I want to see my brothers.’ The Companions of the Prophet said, ‘O Prophet of God, are we not your brothers?’ The Prophet replied, ‘You are my companions. My brothers have not yet come. They will come in later times.’ (Sahih Muslim, Hadith No.
There is nothing mysterious about the Companions of the Prophet or his ‘brothers.’ The nature of these two groups can be understood by a study of the Quran and Hadith. The nature of the Prophet’s companions can be judged from a verse of the Quran which begins: ‘Muhammad is the Messenger of God. Those who are his companions in the true sense...’ (
best community that has ever been brought forth for the good of mankind.’ (
Ikhwan-e-Rasool is also indirectly alluded to in a verse of the Quran, which reads: ‘We shall show them Our signs in the universe and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that this is the truth.’ (
Keeping this reality in view, it would perhaps be correct to say that the brothers (and sisters) of the Prophet will be those believers who, born in the scientific age, will derive intellectual nourishment from scientific discoveries and thus attain high levels of realization. These will be the people who will perform excellent dawah work at the global level in the final stage of human history.
One example of this matter is the phenomenon of the solar and lunar eclipses. An eclipse obscures the reflected light from one celestial body by the passage
of another between it and the earth. However, in the age of the companions of the Prophet in the first half of the 7th century, the eclipses were misrepresented in the current popular tales as subjects of great mystery and superstition. It was only by rising above superstition that the companions of the Prophet learnt the truth about solar and lunar eclipses, i.e., that they were the divine signs of the Lord of the Universe—heavenly demonstrations of God’s power. Once having accepted this truth, they attained the realization of God. On seeing solar and lunar eclipses, they prostrated themselves before God in prayer and acknowledgement of His greatness.
In the present scientific age, discoveries about the solar system have been made using telescopic observation. Such information is undoubtedly a source of higher realization. In the light of these discoveries, one sees the phenomena of solar and lunar eclipses. Today, one has that great experience of the realization of God which can move hearts and make our body hair stand on end.
According to modern discoveries, the earth, the sun, and the moon are three astral bodies that are widely different in size but so positioned in their orbits in the vastness of space that they cause the occurrence
of solar and lunar eclipses. These can be predicted by mathematical calculation and are visible to the human eye.
The Role of Ikhwan-e-Rasool
Now let us take the role of Ikhwan-e-Rasool. There are two aspects of the role of Ikhwan-e-Rasool: high level of realization and dawah, i.e., the attainment of superior realization in the light of newly discovered realities, and propagating the Islamic call effectively at a global level by modern means of communication. Both these aspects have been foretold in the Quran and Hadith.
The possibility of attaining superior realisation by modern means has already been mentioned in the Quran: “We shall show them Our signs in the universe and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that this (Quran) is the truth.” (
This verse of the Quran was revealed in the first quarter of the seventh century. At that time, it was predicted that the hidden divine signs in the universe would be revealed as a result of human discoveries. These signs would establish the veracity of the Quran at the level of human knowledge.
The history of religion tells us that from the time God created man, he has been sending prophets for man’s guidance. During the age of the prophets, the knowledge of reality was transmitted at the level of revelation. This process continued until the age of the modern scientific revolution. Now, the reality, which was being presented to man at the level of revelation, has become a proven fact to the ultimate extent at the level of human knowledge. In this way, for the first time in human history, the divine book, the Quran, and human knowledge are totally in consonance. It has made it possible to find the truth at the level of total conviction and realization, leaving no margin of doubt.
This prediction has become a reality in present times. In this way, the initial 50 per cent of the task has already been performed. Now the task or the role of Ikhwan-e-Rasool is to learn about these realities and complete the remaining 50 per cent of the task so that the signs of God may become a means of attaining a higher realization of God. Then these will be the people who, in the final stage of human history, before Doomsday, will perform excellent dawah work at the global level.
All that is left to happen now is for Doomsday to take place and Almighty God to come directly into man’s
view. Now, the final time has come for all human beings to awake and arise. The trumpet of Doomsday will awaken those who do not awake today, but that awakening will be of no avail to anyone.
The Role of Muslims
The particular purpose for which God had sent Prophet Muhammad was to convey to people the message and guidance he received from God. Chapter five of the Quran states:
“Messenger, proclaim everything that has been sent down to you from your Lord— if you do not, then you will not have communicated His message. God will protect you from all people.” (
This was the Prophet’s primary mission. If the Prophet had not undertaken this task, it would have meant that he had failed in discharging his divine duties. Moreover, that being so, his prophet hood would have come under the shadow of a doubt. In other words, the prophet hood of Prophet Muhammad could only stand proven in the eyes of God after he had completed the mission of conveying God’s message to the people.
After the end of the prophet hood, the followers of the Prophet have to carry out the task of conveying God’s
message in its original form to mankind on his behalf. In the eyes of God, only then Muslims would genuinely be called the followers of Prophet Muhammad.
There are three levels on which the Muslims must perform dawah work. Every believing man and woman must prove himself or herself to be a preacher of Truth on one of these three levels. In this regard, God has the same criterion for the Prophet as for his followers.
Every believer must be eager to guide other people. So the first level of continuing the prophetic mission deals with intention, that is, niyah. Specifically, it means the individual intention to participate in the prophetic mission. However, such intention is not just some kind of verbal repetition or lip service. It is a feeling which makes the heart tremble. Every believer should become restless and tremble on seeing others being misguided. This feeling should be of such intensity that, while thinking about it, tears should flood his eyes. Moreover, he should pray for the guidance of others while contemplating solitude.
On the second level of dawah work, believers should take every precaution not to become a hindrance in the way of the prophetic mission. They will not act in such a way as to arouse in people’s hearts hatred
or disgust for Islam, nor will they in any way cause annoyance on the subject. They will entirely refrain from any such acts as will cause friction between the addresser (dayee) and the addressee (madu). They will take special care to conduct themselves in this way, even if it means sacrificing their economic, national or political interests.
On the third level, dawah is to be performed directly. Those who can present Islam through public speaking, writing, or modern means of communication should strive to convey the divine religion to the people. They should try to address people’s minds by using arguments that make a powerful impression so that their addressees may fully understand the proper guidance.
The Call of the Quran
In his last sermon, the Prophet Muhammad also urged his followers to convey the message of the Quran ‘even if only a single verse’. (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith No. 3461)
Therefore, the greatest need of the hour is to acquaint all people with God’s message in a language and style which is understandable to them, as the Prophet— and through him, all the believers—is enjoined in the
Quran: ‘O Messenger, proclaim all that is revealed to you from your Lord.’ (
What is the message of the Quran? The message of the Quran is to make man aware of the Creation plan of God. That is, to tell man why God created this world, the purpose of settling man on earth; what is required from man in his pre-death life span, and what he will confront after death. Man is born as an eternal creature. When God created man as such, He divided his life span into two periods, the pre-death period, which is a time of trial, and the post-death period, which is the time for receiving the rewards or punishment merited by one’s actions during one’s lifetime. These actions will take the form of eternal paradise or eternal hell. The purpose of the Quran is to make man aware of this reality. This is the theme of this divine Book, which guides man throughout his entire journey from this life to the next in the Hereafter.
It would not be wrong to say that man is a seeker by birth. These questions lurk in everyone’s mind: Who am I? What is the purpose of my life? What is the reality of life and death? What is the secret of man’s success and failure? etc. According to the Quran, the answer to these questions is that the present world is the testing
ground, and whatever man has been endowed with in his pre-death period is all a part of the test. The Hereafter is the place where the result of the test will be taken into account by the Almighty, and whatever man receives in the life after death, by way of reward or punishment, will be commensurate with his deeds in this world. The secret of man’s success in this life is understanding God’s creation plan and mapping out his life accordingly.
Thus we must strive to perform this task in all sincerity till the Last Day; therein lies our success both in this world and in the world to come.
CONCLUSION
God’s prophets have constantly told us that the present world will not be eternal, that it is perpetually on its countdown, and that a time will come when its term will expire, and it will come to its end. All the scientific evidence tells us that this countdown is approaching its final number. The scientists of the 20th century discovered the law of entropy and concluded that the world’s energy is continuously on the decrease and that this process cannot be reversed. Therefore, it is inevitable that the present world will end after a fixed period. According to their research, the scientists of the 21st century have told us that the time for the end of the present world has come very close. It could even
be a mere 10 to 20 years.
All these revelations and scientific facts covered in the media under ‘global warming are, in fact, ‘divine warning’. It is a declaration by the Creator that, according to His plan, this period of the world has come to its end. It is an Alarm of the coming of Doomsday when the first phase of human history will end. All that is left to happen now is for Doomsday to take place and Almighty God to come directly into man’s view. Now, the final time has come for all human beings to awake and arise. The trumpet of Doomsday
will awaken those who do not awake today, but that awakening will be of no avail to anyone.
Standing at the end of human history, we stand on the threshold of Paradise. Now the time is not far away when the present world will be replaced by its second phase. The first phase, meant purely as a test for humanity, was temporary. The second phase will be for the test result, and it will be eternal.
According to the system of nature, God is getting the record of every man and woman prepared through His Angels. This record will be presented before the Creator in the next stage of life. Those whose records show that they made proper use of their freedom will find a place in Paradise where they will live eternally in comfort and happiness. In this world, good and bad people exist alongside each other. However, all the bad people will be separated from the good in the hereafter. They will be deprived of all the earth’s resources, and the earth will be entrusted solely to the good people. This is the truth which has been mentioned in the following verse: “And indeed We have written in Psalms (Az-Zabur) that My righteous servants shall inherit the land.” (i.e., the land of Paradise) (The Quran,
In the book entitled, The Alarm of Doomsday: The Beginning of the End of Human History, Maulana Wahiduddin Khan explains that God’s prophets have constantly told us that the present world will not be eternal, that it is perpetually on its countdown, and that a time will come when its term will expire, and it will come to its end. All these revelations and scientific facts are a declaration by the Creator that, according to His plan, this period of the world has come to its end. It is an Alarm of the coming of Doomsday when the first phase of human history will end. The beginning of the end of human history is upon us.
The final time has come for all human beings to awaken and arise and discover their Creator and His creation plan for them and replan their lives according to it. The trumpet of Doomsday will awaken those who do not awake today, but that awakening will be of no avail to anyone. The greatest need of the hour is to acquaint all people with God’s message of the Creation plan of God. That is, to tell man why God created this world, the purpose of settling man on earth; what is required from man in his pre-death life span, and what he will confront after death. The Quran guides man throughout his entire journey right from this life to the next in the Hereafter.
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Maulana Wahiduddin Khan (1925-2021) was an Islamic scholar, spiritual guide, and an Ambassador of Peace. He authored over 200 books and recorded thousands of lectures giving the rational interpretation of Islamic concepts, prophetic wisdom, and the spiritual meaning of the Quran in the contemporary style. His English translation, The Quran, is widely appreciated as simple, clear and in contemporary style. He founded Centre for Peace and Spirituality (CPS) International in 2001 to re-engineer minds towards God-oriented living and present Islam as it is, based on the principles of peace, spirituality, and co-existence. Maulana breathed his last on 21 April, 2021 in New Delhi, India. His legacy is being carried forward through the CPS International Network.
What God most earnestly desires from human beings is worship. The Quran says: “I have not created jinn and mankind except to worship Me.” ( 51:56 )
