Rasul Allah (saws) said Fitnatul Sarra would enter this Ummah because of the Fitnah of Sadam Hussain, but when the prophets (saws) speaks about something they are not speaking about the actual outward crime but the fitnah that will affect people and its reality.
It is because of this Fitnatul Asrar does not mean the fitnah of secrets or espionage but the fitnah that will result from secrets and espionage. The difference here is that you have to look at the spiritual harms of secrets to know what Rasul Allah (saws) was talking about. The fitnah is referring to espionage, but this is also the era of the Ruwaibida the people who will micromanage people’s lives, so secrets here is not just referring to espionage between countries but between everyday people regarding everyday things.
Because of that Rasul Allah (saws) is referring to the secrets people keep in our time, like their loyalty and allegiance, and the fitnah that will result from that, the world being divided into two camps one of religion and one of occultists (Kufar) secretly hiding themselves among people, the prophet (saws) called Fistaat al Munafiqeen.
Foremost among the consequences of Fitnatul Sarra is the fact secrets are the number one thing that empower sihr, the occult, and main in which it is used is for a sahir to misrepresent himself in front of people and be the exact opposite in reality, this creates illusion in people’s minds and empowers it as time goes on until the illusion the person is under becomes very powerful, at this point the person is entirely deluded in their life.
If you understand this then you can understand how the world is being deluded and why the sahireen are hiding their faults and sins and pretending to be upright people with religion, you can also understand why Rasul Allah (saws) called them Fustaat al Munafiqqen, the camp of hypocrites and this is not referring to normal hypocrisy.
The world has always been filled with hypocrites but never has the world been divided into two camps one lead by hypocrites, the nature of the prophets (saws) statement is then entirely different and means there is a nefarious agenda occurring with half the people on earth against the other half, and so this secrecy is how the camp of occultists is empowering their delusions upon people.
Allah would not reserve the lowest depths of hell for normal hypocrites that is not Haq, rather hypocrites part of a world wide agenda against people of faith:
“Verily, the hypocrites shall be in the lowest depth of the fire, and thou wilt find none who would support them” (4:145).
Abdullah ibn Umar said: While we were sitting with the Messenger of Allah he mentioned the Fitan (strife’s, trials & tribulations), mentioning many of them until he mentioned Fitnatul Ahlaas (The trial of the Saddlebag). Someone asked him: ‘O Messenger of Allah, what is fitnatul Ahlaas? He said “It is the usurping of wealth and the fleeing” (Plundering by raiders on horseback, this is the Iraq invasion of Kuwait). Then (after it), will come Fitnatul Sarra (the fitna of secrets): its smoke is under the feet of a man (descendant) from my household (family), who claims he is of me, but he is not because my Awlyia (saintly men) are those who fear Allah (Saddam Hussein). Then people will gather and agree upon a man, (but it will be an agreement that is) like a hip on a rib (meaning this will be a temporary arrangement, as a hip bone does not belong on the rib, if a man bends his body to such a position he cannot stay there for long before needing to do other things in life, so this position is temporary, Osama bin Laden before 9/11 his support ended then). Then there will be the Duhaima (Blind black, dark, catastrophic) trial (Sep. the 11th). It will afflict every single person from this Nation. When it will be said that it is over, it will return; during it, a man will be a believer in the morning and a disbeliever (by) the night. (This will continue) until people will go to two Fustaats (groups) — the Fustaat of Eemaan (Group of faith or religion), in which there is no hypocrisy, and the Fustaat of hypocrisy (Munafiqeen), in which there is no Eemaan (faith or religion). And when that will come to you (when the sorting of people will finally end after Imam Mahdi (ra) Appears and fights all the major wars), wait for the Dajjaal on that day or on the morrow.” (Sunan Abu Dawud, Book 37, Hadith 3. Ahmad related it as well in his Musnad).
Other Ahadith say “Then, the Duhaima Fitna (Dark Black & Cunning trial that catches people off guard will occur) that will not leave anyone without slapping him a slap (testing his faith to see if he will become a kafir); if people say it is finished, it stays longer (this was the question that surrounded America in Afghanistan and what occurred, people wanted it to end, even Americans); a man who is in the morning a Mu’min (Believer) by the evening becomes a Kafir (Disbeliever, because it is sihr which is the only thing that can do this to a person), until people will be divided into two factions: a faction of Iman (belief and religion) without hypocrisy and a faction of hypocrisy without Iman (belief and religion). When this happens (the sorting is finished), expect the Dajjaal that day or the next day’.” (Sunan Abu Dawud, Al-Haakim, and Al-Zahabi)
Selling Sihr
You now understand what creates sihr, illusions as well as delusion in the world and once you understand the principles you can learn to see where it is in the world.
One example I will give of a company selling sihr is IKEA, the well-known furniture company, it designs and markets its self as exclusive because its furniture is designer but in reality, it is far from this using cheap materials in place of truly rare resources.
Anything that is rich its raw materials and manufacture must be the same, IKEA wants to be seen like this to people of no discernment who don’t know what makes something rich or cheap, because these people do not know the issues or what they are looking at when they see IKEA furniture.
IKEA furniture may be well designed but because the materials are not of high value you do not gain the spiritual benefit of a wealthy item, spirituality is attached to the materials, craftsmanship adds to that it does not give the same reality by itself.
This is an example of just one thing being misrepresented as something else and the west first turned to this when they realised they could not keep up with people of actual wealth, like famous Arab and Islamic hospitality which lavished actual wealth on their guests (see the example of Mansa Musa the richest man in history, who was a Muslim).
So, they began to make things that are cheap look expensive, but because the reality is their materials are cheap it became a sihr that did not benefit people seeking actual wealth, from this came the form of elitism we see covering the world today, you are elite simply because you claim it.
When something is rich it carries with it this spiritual reality, wealth begets wealth and likewise this goes for the spiritual reality of objects, hence this was a form of robbery, people thinking they are buying rich but in reality, they are buying dust that did nothing.
From this you can see who in the world is being deluded and who in the world is deluding people. The fitnah of espionage existed in the world long before it entered into Islam, this is the history of Fitnatul Sarra, the overall fitnah created the atmosphere, culture and mindset for all of this to occur, it normalised every kind of vice in the minds of people by justifying them for “supposedly” higher reasons.