فَهَلْيَنظُرُونَإِلَّاالسَّاعَةَأَنتَأْتِيَهُمبَغْتَةًفَقَدْجَاءأَشْرَاطُهَافَأَنَّىلَهُمْإِذَاجَاءتْهُمْذِكْرَاهُمْ
“What are the disbelievers waiting for, other than the Hour which will come upon them unawares? Its signs are already here, but once the Hour has actually arrived, what use will it be then to take heed?” (47:18)
“Closer and closer to mankind comes their Reckoning: yet they heed not and they turn away.” (Al-Anbiya’ 21:1)
The Prophet Muhammad (saws) gave news about events from the beginning of time up to the commencement of his (saws) Ummah (nation) then to our present-day and into the future, to the end of the World. He (saws) covered the span of time describing events until the coming of the Hour (The Hour the world will end in). He (saws) similarly gave news of events to occur on the day of Resurrection and finally what would happen after people enter their two abodes, the abode of Jahannam (Hell) and the abode of Jannah (Paradise) as well as a description of life therein.
Umar ibn Al-Khattab (ra) said, “One day the Prophet (saws) stood up amongst us for a long period and informed us about the beginning of creation (and talked about everything in detail) till he mentioned how the people of Paradise will enter their places and the people of Hell will enter their places. Some remembered what he had said, and some forgot it”. (Bukhari)
Abu Zaid Al-Ansaaree (ra) said, “The Prophet (saws) led us in the morning prayer, after which he addressed us until Dhuhr (noon). He (saws) descended, prayed ‘Asr (the late afternoon prayer), and then addressed again, speaking to us until the setting of the sun. He (saws) spoke to us about what was and what will be; he informed us (thereof) and made us memorize (that information).” (Ahmad)
Hudhayfah (ra) said: “The Prophet (saws) stood up one day to speak to us, and told us everything that was going to happen until the Hour, and left nothing unsaid. Some of the listeners learned it by heart, and some forgot it; these friends of mine learned it. I do not remember it completely, but sometimes it springs to mind, just as one might remember and recognize the face of a man whom one had forgotten when one sees him.” (Abu Dawud, Muslim)
He (saws) said to Imam Ali (ra), “You will fight the perfidious people, those who will deviate from justice and those who exit Islam” (Tirmidhi).
He (saws) said “After me, the Caliphate will last thirty years; (Musnad) then, it will be a sultanate. The beginning of this affair is prophethood and mercy; then it will be mercy and caliphate; then it will be rapacious monarchy; then, it will be arrogance and tyranny” (Musnad). He (saws) thus predicted the period of the four Khalif’s and the sixth month long Khalifate of Imam Hasan (as) counting Him (as) among the Rashideen, it was a period whose total lasted exactly thirty years, and following that, the transition of the Khalifate into a Sultanate which began with the Umayyads and ending over a thousand years later with the Ottomans, finally after which the Ummah (nation) would be ruled by Dictators and Tyrants.
He (saws) said, “Uthman will be killed while reading the Qur’an.” (al-Hakim, al-Mustadrak), “Allah will definitely cause him to be dressed in the shirt of the Khalifate but they will try to remove that shirt.” (al-Hakim, al-Mustadrak), He (saws) informed about the second Khalifate and martyrdom of Uthman (ra) who was killed after his home was besieged. These events took place exactly as predicted, and the Quran with his blood-stained on it is preserved to this day. Not just any piece of straw comes near You— to suffer grief for You it needs a man.
He (saws) told his Companions about the conquests of Makkah (Ali al-Qari), Khaybar (Ali al-Qari), Damascus (Waqidi, Maghazi), Iraq (Ali al-Qari), Persia (Ahmad b. Hanbal), Jerusalem (Ali al-Qari), and Istanbul (Ahmad bin Hanbal); He (saws) said that his Ummah would be victorious over all enemies and be helped. He (saws) said they would capture the treasures of the rulers of the greatest empires, the Romans and the Persians (Bukhari). Events took place, in the same manner, He (saws) described.
He (saws) also said, “The earth was laid out before me, and its eastern and western extremities were displayed to me. The realm of my nation shall extend over whatever was laid out before me.” (Muslim) Thus, He(saws) informed them that his Ummah would extend from the east to the west and His (saws) words proved to be true.
The Prophet (saws) said, “From the tribe of Thaqif, a liar will claim prophethood, and a bloodthirsty tyrant will appear.” (Muslim) Mukhtar, who claimed prophethood, and Hajjaj az-Zalim (the Oppressor), who killed more than a hundred thousand people were both from the tribe of Thaqif, as the Prophet (saws) stated.
He also said, according to an authentic narration “If the Religion were at the Pleiades (in Persia), even then a person (Muslim) from Persia would have taken hold of it, or one amongst Persian descent would surely have found it”(al-Ajluni, Kashfu’l-Khafa) Abu Hurairah (ra) narrated: “We were sitting in the company of Allah’s Apostle (saw) when Surat al-Jum`a was revealed to him and when he recited (it) amongst them, (those who were sitting with the prophet) said `Allah’s Messenger?’ but Allah’s Apostle (saws) made no reply until he was questioned once, twice or thrice, and there was amongst us Salman the Persian. Allah’s Apostle (saws) placed his hand on Salman and then said: “Even if faith were near the Pleiades (in Persia), a man from amongst these would surely find it.”
When Muslim’s conquered Persia it became a great center for knowledge and many of the world’s greatest scholars came from there like Imam al Ghazali, Imam Abu Dawud, Imam Bukhari, Ibn Sina, Ibn Haytham one could name well over 200 prominent and well-known Islamic figures, Scholars, Scientists, Philosophers, and Physicians in world history that came from Persia.
The Prophet (saws) said: “Very soon will people beat the flanks of camels in search of knowledge, and they shall find no one more knowledgeable than the knowledgeable scholar of Madina.”
“History has occurred as the prophet (saws) mentioned.”
He(saw) said “My nation will be divided into seventy-three sects, and only one among them will attain salvation He was asked, “Who are they?” He replied, “Those who follow me and my Companions,” (Abu Dawud); thus, He (saws) mentioned the sects of innovation that would emerge afterward and stated that the Muslims should stick to the main body of the Ummah, its the largest group. He (saws) described the reality after this time clearly, He (saws) said “One who defected from obedience and separated from the main body of the Muslims-if he died in that state-would die the death of one belonging to the days of Jahiliya (before Islam)” (Muslim)
He(saws) advised “My community will not come together on misguidance”; “You have to follow the congregation for verily Allah will not make the largest group of Muhammad’s community agree on an error.”, “Whoever among you wants to be in the middle of Paradise, let him cling to the congregation.”, “Shaytan is a wolf-like the wolf that preys on sheep, taking the isolated and the stray among them; therefore, avoid factionalism and keep to the congregation and the collective and the masjid.”, “Allah’s hand is over the group, and whoever dissents from them departs to hell.”
He(saws) said, after him, Muslims would defeat the Roman, Persian, and Yemen empires, He (saws) was informed of this during the Battle of Confederates in 626 A.D, under extreme circumstances, as is described by the Quran:
“[Remember] when they came at you from above you and from below you, and when eyes shifted [in fear], and hearts reached the throats and you (companions) assumed about God [various] assumptions. There, the believers were tested and shaken with a severe shaking. And [remember] when the hypocrites and those in whose hearts is a disease said, ‘God and His Messenger did not promise us except delusion.’” (Quran 33:10-12)
These Empires were all defeated by his companions after his death.
The Prophet (saws) said: “The signs shall appear one after the other like the beads on a string follow one another (when the string is cut).” He (saws) also said: “The signs are like beads strung on a string. If the string breaks, they [quickly] follow one after the other.”
Imam Ahmad reported from Abu Nudrah that Abu Sa’id said: “One day the Prophet (saws) led us in praying the afternoon prayer (salat-ul-asr). Then he stood and addressed us until sunset. He mentioned everything that was to happen until the Day of Resurrection and left nothing unsaid. Some of us remembered it, and some of us forgot it. One of the things he said was: ‘O people, this world is full of attractive temptations. Allah has appointed you as vicegerents (Khalifah) in this world, and He will see how you will act. So, guard yourselves against the temptations of this world and women.’ Towards the end of this speech, he said, ‘The sun is about to set, and what remains of this world, compared to what has passed, is like what remains of this day compared to what has passed.’ “(we are in the last portion of man’s time on earth).
The Modern Labels
WW1 toppled most of the old civilization in the world and allowed for the emergence of a new kind of political leader with devastating effects on humanity, these leaders all became tyrannical and took the entire world into WW2 destroying what was left of human civilization after WW1.
The Prophet [saws] said after WW1 the following would occur “till about, thirty Dajjaals (liars) appear, and each one of them will claim that he is Allah’s Messenger”, He (saws) placed this next in the order of events and is in fact what lead to WW2.
There are a few forms to the Ahadith (narrations) mentioning the liars (Dajjaal’s), the form mentioned above, another is the one that specifies “There will be in my ummah (nation) 30 liars, each one of them claiming that he is a Prophet, but I am the seal of the Prophets” and the general one which mentions the Nayifan, smaller Dajjaals. They may seem the same but in reality, they refer to different things, one narration is speaking about the Liars that will appear in the Muslim Ummah while others refer to liars that will appear around the world and are general liars in society, what they will all lie about is Deen or people’s way of life.
There is a distinction between the Ahadith which mention in “My Ummah” (the Muslim Nation) and the one’s which don’t mention “My Ummah”, the above hadith is of the type which doesn’t specify in “My Ummah” and there is a reason for this.
Most of the classical Ulluma have taken the prophet’s [saws] words, “each one of them will claim that he is Allah’s Messenger” in the literal sense, it means they will bring a New Religion claiming to have revelations from Allah.
In the ancient world, if you wanted power and you were not a prophet of Allah, you either claimed to be a prophet or were speaking with his authority, had a noble lineage, or even claimed to be a god.
The type of leaders we see in the modern world is something entirely new, hence they were categorized and labeled by the ancient worlds’ standards.
If we recall what occurred after WW1, we would see that was the time when new ideologies were introduced to the entire world. New belief systems like communism, capitalism, socialism, marxism, etc. all are ways of governing and living based on something other than religion, they were all forced on people and many resisted these ideologies throughout history.
Because the message each of these leaders brought was both on a national and global scale, in reality, from the prophets (saws) point in time looking at what was occurring to the world after the Great War, they were introducing a new Deen (way of life) to people. This was the underlying truth of the matter, and in fact, it’s fiqh ruling as many scholars perceived, unlike they were looking at the definition of the word Deen and not the label we simply use.
If you stop practicing Islam to live as a socialist or communist or capitalist or secularist then you have left Islam to live life as something else, Islam is a way of life it isn’t a verbal assertion or something you label yourself with it involves regulating your life by the Laws of Islam.
The modern labels and categorizations of these ideologies man invented is not the Islamic one, if the scholars categorized them by Islamic standards, then they would all be labeled as a Deen, a specific way of life and religion.
Allah in the Quran uses similar speech to show that what we worship beside him isn’t simply limited to false gods, “Have you seen him who chooses, for his god his own lust?” (25:43). Allah is referring to people who have become slaves to their lusts, and this slavery has become their way of life (Deen).
Secularism and Communism and the many other ideologies that came from these two spreads around the world through the various leaders (Dajjal’s) that were disseminating them to the public. The manner, in which all these figures were portrayed to the public was almost as prophet-like figures having all the answers to hardship people were facing after the first world war, they asked people to put their faith in them. This blind faith was so extreme that it led to following them into WW2 and the death of most of their followers.
The ideologies spread in each country around the world with similar results, it was exactly like a person bringing a new religion to a people and claiming to have brought it from the highest authority as a prophet. The spread of these Dajjal’s (liars) around the world dealt the final blow to religion in the public sphere, after it had been the center of life throughout the history of the world.
In meaning, these Ideological movements that spread after the First World War fit the prophet’s (saws) words exactly, that these liars each claimed to be a messenger of Allah or in other words they each had a religion (ideology) that replaced religion altogether.
We can think of the modern labels we use in the following way if the prophet (saws) wanted to label these people what words should he use considering that words like Capitalism and Communism haven’t been invented yet, hence in classical Arabic a description of them relating to their actions was given, that his people could understand.
Messenger of Allah (saws) said: “At the end of time there shall come, men who will swindle the world (Dunya in Arabic, comprehensively meaning the entire globe) with Deen (a general word which mean’s “a way of life”), deceiving the people in soft skins of sheep, their tongues are sweeter than sugar and their hearts are the hearts of wolves. Allah [Mighty and Sublime is He] says: ‘Is it me you try to delude or is it against me whom you conspire? By Me, I swear to send upon these people, among them, a Fitnah that leaves them utterly devoid of reason.” (Tirmidhi)
Deen in the Quran
The word Deen in the Quran is the act of accepting the path of Allah or choosing his way of life to live by, it has a more broad and general definition than the term religion which is specific to your type of faith. In this context, Secularism, and Communism which became the Deen of the people, we see from this hadith the Prophet (saws) was saying that a people will come at this point in time who will try to fool the entire world with new ways of living or new ideologies.
“He who created Death and Life, that He may see which of you is best in Deed.”
(67:2)
The remaining events are all in the future and are the Hour’s Major signs.
“Till the sun rises from the West”, will occur after the Dajjaal (Allah’s curse be upon him) emerges along with all the events mentioned in the rest of the Hadith… “And the Hour will be established while two men spreading a garment in front of them but they will not be able to sell it, nor fold it up, and the Hour will be established when a man has milked his she-camel and has taken away the milk but he will not be able to drink it, and the Hour will be established before a man repairing a tank (for his livestock) is able to water (his animals) in it, and the Hour will be established when a person has raised a morsel (of food) to his mouth but will not be able to eat it.” (Sahih Bukhari, Book 92, Hadith 68)
