Muslim have divided the signs that herald the end of time into two categories (2).docx

8/12/2019 Muslim have divided the signs that herald the end of time into two categories (2).docx

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The Minor Signs

Muslim has divided the signs that herald the end of time into two categories: minor

signs and major signs.

Minor Signs:

In Islam, minor signs of the end of time are the signs that take place seriatim (in

continuous series over time).They are normal events that characterize any society

that undergoes cultural changes as the result of social religious, political,

economic or technical evolution. Primitivesocieties are prone to be more stable,

simplistic and homogenous, while developed countries are subject to perpetual

changes, for good or bad. Through this changing process in which drastic

transformation, modified modes, value and social classification may significantly

affect all aspects of daily life of people. What was considered a taboo in the past

may not be currently regarded as a taboo. In other words, the world vies of a given

society becomes more materialistic, individualistic and irreligious.

Such societies experience moral disorder, spiritual decadence, and fierce struggle

between liberalism and conservatism. Thus, according to Islamic ethics, Islamic

societies have suffered from these social maladies since the inception of the region

of the Umayyad epoch. This trend continued to underscore the daily life of the

Islamic communities in the urban areas throughout the region of the Abbasid


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dynasty. The spiritual life became very bleak despite the efforts of Muslims

religious leaders to contain the tide of depravity and immorality. All attempts to

regenerate a righteous society after the model of the Islamic community of the

Madinites as it was during the life of the only or the first civilization to sustain

such moral decay. Great civilizations before: Greek, Roman, Persian, Egyptians

and others, were subject to fatal moral degeneration that corroded their societies in

spite of their highly developed civilizations.

By examining the nature of the minor signs we realize that some of them are

normal events that plague any society at given point in its historical course. While

other signs are categorized as normal events, they are, in reality, extraordinary.

They would baffle the mind if they ever actually happened.

The Normal Minor Signs

a) The increase of ignorance. Ignorance of the fundamentals of Islamicreligion. The ordinances of Islam will cease to be an integral part of the daily

religious life of Muslim communities. There will be a lack of Imams and

spiritual guidance, and mosques will be deserted. Corporal tantalizations

become the idols worshipped by people. It is a tragic return to the era of

ignorance of the pre-Islamic time but in different form. One reasons for such

ignorance is the death of religious learned men. The Hajj journey

(pilgrimage) to the Kaba will be abandoned. Furthermore, the Hour will not

be established until the women of the tribe of Dus resume their dancing


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around the idol Dhialkhulasa.It is a religious inversion in defiance to

Islam,and return to polytheism.

b) The prevalence of drinking alcohol and the practice of open illegal sexualintercourse. This is a violation of the Islamic moral code. In this case, the

Islamic Law becomes dysfunctional since its religious custodians are

powerless or already decreased. The breakdown of the socio-religious values

will create a chaotic, unrestrained society that indulges openly in mundane

pleasures.

c) These immoral practices are vibrantly depicted in this New Testament. Itseems that Muslim traditionalists or even Muhammad Himself, were aware

of the biblical teachings about the evil that would embroil the society in the

last days. Matthew 24:12 indicates that because of increase of wickedness,

the love of God will grow cold in the hearts of many believers,There will be

terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of

money, boastful, proud, abusive, and disobedient to their parents, ungrateful,

unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal,

not lovers of good, treacherous , rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather

than lovers of God- having a form of godliness but denying its power. Such

abominable society reflects not only the secular world but also alludes to the

corruption that would permeate the spiritual life of many of so called

Christians. In reality, a large segment of the traditional Christian world will

relinquish its faith and defy all the biblical values.


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d) Apostasy: The Hour of the end of time will not be established until someMuslims believers are enticed by the Dajjal (Anti-Christ) and follow him.

They will be deceived by the temporary power he enjoys and the miracles he

performs.

e) Jesus predicted that many false prophets will arise and will mislead many( Matthew 24:11). These false prophets are the avant-garde who would pave

the way for the dramatic appearance of the Antichrist. In another place,

Jesus warned the believers that false Christ and false prophets will arise and

will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead ,if possible, even the

elect

(Matthew 24:24).

f) Evidently Muhammad heard of the Antichrist and other false prophets thatwould entice and mislead entire communities from Christans. Those

Christians were zealously anticipating the second coming of Christ like their

predecessors.They watched for the signs of which Jesus prophesized, and

endeavored to the read future.Most probably their preachers, orators, and

hermits such as Umayya bin Abi al-Salt(d.624) who was a contemporary of

Muhammad, Quss bin Sa,ida alAyedi(d.600), whom Muhammad as a

youth heard him preaching in the literary assembly of Suq of Ukaz and

quoted a portion of his sermon, and ,Waraqa bin Nawfal, who was the most

knowledgeable Christian religious scholar in Mecca, and Muhammadsfirstwifescousin; all reflected in their sermons images the Quran later echoed

about the Hour of the resurrection.


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g) The end of time will come when earthquakes will be more frequent, plagueswill be widespread so that no Arab house will escape, Murders crimes will

increase, money will overflow among Muslims and time will pass very

quickly. The wealth will be in abundance so that one will become worried,

for no one will accept his Almsgiving (Zakat), and the person to whom the

charity is offered will reply, I am not in need of it These calamities will

afflict the world.

h) The Hour will approach when women outnumber men so that one man willlook after fifty women. There is no reason given for this imbalance between

men and women. Most probably Muslim traditional lists anticipated that a

large number of men will be killed in wars and leave behind a large crowd of

windows and orphans.

i) The hour will come when the power of authority is entrusted to the hand ofunfit or unqualified people. Among these people who lack honesty,

corruption will prevail. In another hadith, it is stated: When bare footed

naked people become the chief of people. Moreover the last Hour will not

come until the most fortunate of men in the world will be baseborn, son of a

baseborn.

j) The Hour will come when people boast of building luxurious mosques.Al-Bukhari remarks that the Hour will come when the shepherds of black

camels start boasting and competing with each other in the construction of


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high buildings. Some Muslim expounders found in the profound change of

the Saudi Arabia nomadic society that transformed it into unprecedented

sophisticated sedentary life, a fulfillment of this tradition.

They Hour will not be established until a man passes by the grave of another

man and says, If I were in his place. Some Muslim remark that death

becomes the desire of many devout Muslims who suffer from the desire of

many devout Muslims who suffer from the blights and wickedness of the

society, or to spare themselves the wrath of the sovereign God. In Revelation

6:16-17 we read And they said to the mountains and the rocks, Fall on us

and hide us from the presence of Him Who sits on the throne, and from

wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath of the Lamb; for the great

day of their wrath has come and who is able to stand?

k) It is an effete attempt to justify Muhammads reluctance to foretell theirnames since he claimed that he had an intimate knowledge of them. It is the

belief of this writer that disclosing their names would make Muhammad

vulnerable in case it was proven that his prediction was a false prognosis.

There is a precedent in the Quran in which Muhammad was challenged by

the people of Mecca to perform a miracle. He rejected their request claming

that even if he complied with their demand they would not believe. The

Quran also made it clear that God did not allow Muhammad to make

prodigy(Chapter 30:59).

l) The last Hour does not come until Muslims murder their leaders, fightamong themselves with their swords and the worst of the people will inherit


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Later Hulago the Tatar conquered and looted the city of Baghdad and

destroyed other diminutive kingdoms. Soon the Ottoman Empire annexed to

its domain the entire Middle East with the exception of Persia. For over four

hundred years, Arab countries have continued to be subjugated to this

formidable super power. In the twentieth century however,Arab countries,

against all odds, regained their sovereignty, independence, freedom and

survived the vicissitudes of life. Evidently, the Arabs have not been

eradicated and presently they are impacting the world history as they try to

revive the past glory of Islam. Still the Hour has not come yet.

p) The last Hour would not come until habitations Medina would extended toIhab or Yahab. It is rather difficult to comprehend why the expansion of

Madina to these suburbs is a sig of the coming of the Hour. It is natural for a

city in which the tomb of Muhammad is located and regarded as the second

sacred shrine in Islam to expand.Pilgrimage to Mecca and Madina is one of

the pillars of Islam. Consequently, there is a need for expansion, prosperity

and cultural development.

q) The Hour will come when people believe in the stars and rejected theirpreordained fate(the Divine Decree of destiny). There was no time in the

history of the Arabs in which alarge segment of the society has refrained

from practicing divination and astrology. Such pursuit was part of their

conventional life. Fear of the unknown, superstition and the anxiety of the

future made people to resort to such invisible powers to ward off evil.


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r) The Hour will not come until Muslims will fight people whose shoes aremade of hairs an until they fight the Turks whose eyes are small, their faces

are red, the tips of their noses are flat, and their faces as stricken shields. It is

not clear here whether these traditions appertain to the Trucks or the Tatars

or both of them. Historically, however, the Arabs fought against both

peoples and lost, yet the Hour did not come.

s) The hour does not come until the best of the Muslims, the people ofHijaz,who do not fear in God the reproach of the disgruntled, will march against

the Byzantine and they will conquer Constantinople with praises and the

call: God is Greater.This same tradition was related in Sahih of Muslims as a

sound hadith in which the complier presented a different version.On the

authority of Muhammad, Abu Hurayra related that the Hour would not come

until seventy thousands of the children of Isaac(the Jews) invade

Constantinople without employing any type of the arms.All its fortified

walls will fall by praises and the call of God is Greater.Based on the

historical account, Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman

dynasty(Turks) in the fifteenth century and not by the Arabs. Secondly, the

contradiction between the two traditions is obvious since the Children of

Isaac has nothing to do with the conquest of Constantinople. Thirdly , is

seems that the narrator of this tradition was historically confused that he

failed to differentiate between the episodes of the fall of Jericho as it is

recorded in chapter six of the book of Joshua and the myth of the conquest


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of Constantinople. Such contradiction and confusion suggest that this

tradition was a late fabrication by the narrators who sought to amaze their

audience.

t) The Hour will not come until God will cause the believers of the time to diepeacefully and leave the wicked alive to indulge in their lust preterm until

the appointed hour of resurrection. This image reflects the biblical account

of the rapture in which the living believers are taken away from the earth

and ungodly are left to face their destiny after the second resurrection. Since

Islamic theology does not accommodate for the concepts of rapture, the

miraculous death of the believers replaces the supernatural event of the

rapture.

u) The Hour will not come until the city of Mecca is turned into ruins. TheIslamic tradition implies that an obscure Ethiopian man, whose surname is

Thu al-Suwayqatayn, will ravage the city of Mecca, which would be

inhabited by wild animals and predacious birds. There is not a definite

explanation for the tragic end of the most sacred city in the treasures of the

Ka,ba. Other traditions indicate that both the Ka,ba and the Madinat of the

Prophet are going to be subjected to permanent destruction and desolation,

and will never be rebuilt again.


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The Extraordinary Minor Signs

The Last Hour will not arrive till people come forth who eat with theirtongues as cows do.There is no explanation of the origin of these people and

their role in the historical events unless these are the people of Gog and

Magog.

The last Hour will not come before time contracts, a year being like a mouth,a month like a week, a week like a day, a day like an hour and an hour like

the kindling of the fire. Such statement echoes what Jesus has taught in

Matthew 24:22, Unless those days had been cutshort, no life have been

saved.

On the other hand, some traditionalists and narrators found in this excitingfuture drama a fertile ground to fabricate some amazing stories or traditions

to capture the imagination of their audience and to generate some

remuneration. In this book, al-Fitanwa al- Malahim, IbnKathir provides us

with a striking paradigm. This episode addressed in this book is attributed to

Muhammad, yet any objective crictic of the text recognizes the fanciful

creation permeating its event that exposes the innovation of the story tellers.

It is difficult to epitomize this story , but the reader gets the impression that

he is reliving a scene from a mythical world where God the almighty is the

main actor and the producer of a formidable melodrama. This author does

not attempt to present an acrimonious criticism against the Islamic


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eschatology but rather to recapitulate the problems that face the researcher

who endeavors to represent a scholarly study when he is forced to rely on

doubtful resources or references.

Reference:

http://books.google.com.pk/books?id=KZHbG5kmziAC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#

v=onepage&q&f=false

Name of the book: THE LAST TRUMPET

Written by: Samual Shaid
http://books.google.com.pk/books?id=KZHbG5kmziAC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=falsehttp://books.google.com.pk/books?id=KZHbG5kmziAC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=falsehttp://books.google.com.pk/books?id=KZHbG5kmziAC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=falsehttp://books.google.com.pk/books?id=KZHbG5kmziAC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=falsehttp://books.google.com.pk/books?id=KZHbG5kmziAC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false

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Muslim have divided the signs that herald the end of time into two categories (2).docx