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The End Times and the Mahdi
“The End Times
(or the Last Days) may not be a familiar concept to many people.
Therefore, we first give a brief explanation of it. The End Times
means 'the last era.' According to Islamic literature, it is a period
of time that is close to Doomsday.
The signs in the
Qur'an and the extensive references to the End Times provided by the
Hadith literature brings us to a very important conclusion. Verses and
hadiths indicate that there are two phases of the End Times. The first
phase is a period when all people will suffer material and spiritual
problems. Following this, Earth will enter upon a period of salvation
called the 'Golden Age,' which is characterized by bounty and
blessings due to the prevalence of true religion. With the end of the
Golden Age, there will be a rapid social collapse and people will
begin to wait for Doomsday.
In this book, we
examine the End Times in the light of verses and hadiths. It is clear
that the signs in question have now started to appear one after
another, just as described in these references. The advent of these
signs heralded fourteen centuries ago are great occurrences that
increase believers' faith in and loyalty to Allah. It is surely not a
coincidence that, in such a short period of time, all of these signs
appeared one after another. These signs are good news to Allah's
servants.
The account of
events related in the following pages are prepared according to the
guidance of the verse, 'Say: 'Praise be to Allah. He will show you
His Signs, and you will recognize them. Your Lord is not unaware of
what you do'' (Surat an-Naml: 93).
Another issue we
need to stress here is that Allah knows the best of everything. As is
in every other subject, we have no knowledge other than that about
which He informs us.
SIGNS OF THE
LAST DAY IN THE QUR'AN
The signs of the
Last Day in the Qur'an
What are they
awaiting but for the Hour to come upon them suddenly? Its Signs have
already come. What good will their Reminder be to them when it does
arrive? (Surah Muhammad: 18)
From this verse we learn that the Qur'an describes signs that announce
the coming of the Last Day. In order to understand the signs of this
'great announcement' we must reflect upon these verses. Otherwise, as
the verse indicates, our thinking will be of no use when the Last Day
is suddenly upon us.
The Hour is near
Allah reveals in
the Qur'an that there can be no doubt that the Last Day is near.
And the Hour
is coming without any doubt ... (Surat al-Hajj: 7)
We did not create the heavens and earth and everything between them,
except with truth. The Hour is certainly coming. (Surat al-Hijr: 85)
There may be some who think that the message of the Qur'an concerning
the Last Day was revealed more that 1400 years ago and that this is a
long time compared to the length of a human life. But here, it is a
question of the end of the world, the sun and the stars, in short, of
the universe. When we consider that the universe is billions of years
old, fourteen centuries is a very short period of time. . . .
The signs described by the Prophet (saas) are
occurring
one after the other
In the hadiths that have
come down to us from the Prophet (saas), news is given concerning the
End Times and the Golden Age of Islam. When we compare these signs
with the events that are taking place in our time, we can see many
indications that we are living through the End Times and which also
herald the arrival of the Golden Age of Islam.
The hadiths used
in the coming sections of this book contain such information given by
the Prophet (saas) in this regard.
At this point,
there may arise some doubt in the reader in regards to the truth and
authenticity of these hadiths about the end. There is a method to
distinguish those that are true from those that are false. As we know,
hadiths about the Doomsday relate to events that are to take place in
the future. For this reason, when a hadith comes true in the course of
time, all doubt as to the source of the words is removed.
Several Islamic
scholars who conducted research on the subject of the End Times and of
the signs of the Last Day have used this criterion. An expert on the
subject, Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, said that the fact that the hadiths
concerning the End Times correspond to events observed in our day
shows the truth of the hadiths.1
Some of the
signs related in the hadiths were observable in some part of the world
in any period during the 1400 year history of Islam, but that would
not have proven that that period was the the End Times. For a certain
period to be called the End Times, all the signs of the Last Day must
be observed to be occurrence in that same period. This is expressed in
a hadith:
Signs following
one another like the pieces of a necklace falling one after the other
when its string is cut. (Tirmidhi)
In the hadiths,
the beginning of the End Times is described as when discord grows, and
war and conflict are on the increase, when there is chaos and moral
degeneration rears its head and people turn away from the morality of
religion. At the time in question, natural disasters will occur all
over the world, poverty will reach unseen levels, there will be a
large increase in the crime rate, and murder and brutality everywhere.
Yet this will be only the first stage. During the second phase, Allah
will rescue mankind from this chaos and replace it with a blessed
existence full of plenty, peace and security.”
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