From The Prophet’s Time To Ours
The Prophet (saws) spoke about the major events to occur from his time all the way up to our time, the following are the narration’s which establish a clear timeline of these events one after the other and are not the totality of what He (saws) mentioned.
Imam Ahmad reported from Abu Nudrah that Abu Sa’id said: “One day the Prophet led us in praying the afternoon prayer (salatul-‘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 of 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 mans time on earth).
Abu Idrees Al-Joolaanee related that Hudhaifah ibn Al-Yamaan said, “By Allah, indeed I am the most knowledgeable of people regarding every trial that is to occur between me and the Hour… The Messenger of Allah was speaking about the trials in a gathering wherein I was present, and he was enumerating the trials, among which are three that will hardly leave anything. Among them are trials that are like the winds of the summer, among them are small trials, and among them are big ones. All from that group (who were present in that gathering) are gone except for me.” (Muslim)
The following narration outlines the type of governments Islam would be ruled by until the time of the Mahdi (ra)
The Prophet (saws) said: The Prophet hood will remain amongst you for as long as Allah wills it to be. Then Allah will raise it when He wills to raise it (meaning the Prophet will die). Then there will be the Khalifah upon the Prophetic methodology. And it will last for as long as Allah wills it to last. Then Allah will raise it when He wills to raise it. Then there will be biting kingship, and it will remain for as long as Allah wills it to remain. Then Allah will raise it when He wills to raise it. Then there will be tyrannical (forceful) kingship (an era of dictators) and it will remain for as long as Allah wills it to remain. Then He will raise it when He wills to raise it. Then there will be a Khalifah upon the Prophetic methodology. Then he (the Prophet) was silent. (Musnad Imam Ahmad (v/273)
After the Khalifah which was upon the Prophetic methodology, that of Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali and al Hassan (r.a) Islam was governed by Dynasties (biting kingships), these are the Major Dynasties that existed in Islam’s History;
Umayyad’s, 7th –8th century: It was the first Islamic Dynasty and one of the largest Empires in history, it was one of the few states to ever extend direct rule over three continents Africa, Europe, and Asia.
Abbasid’s, 8th –13th century: The Umayyad dynasty was overthrown by another family which originated from Makkah and was directly related to the Prophet (pbuh), the Abbasids in 750 AD built their capital in Baghdad, modern day Iraq. The Abbasids’ rule was briefly ended for three years in 1258, when Hulagu Khan, the Mongol khan, sacked Baghdad, they resumed in Mamluk Egypt in 1261, from were they continued to claim authority in religious matters until 1519, when power was formally transferred to the Ottoman Khalifah that conquered the Mamluks.
Fatimid’s, 10th – 12th century: The Fatimid Caliphate was an Arab Shi’a dynasty that ruled over varying areas of the Maghreb, Egypt, Sicily, Malta and the Levant from 909 to 1171. They existed alongside the Sunni Khalifah.
Mamluk’s, 13th –16th century: The term Mamluk referred to a military caste in Egypt that rose from the ranks of slave soldiers who were mainly of Georgian, Kipchak and Circassian origins, the Mamluk factions seized the sultanate for themselves in Egypt and Syria in 1250 AD. The Mamluk Sultanate was a military Sultanate and one of the strongest in the world, they pushed back the Mongol Hordes, which devastated Islamic Lands, at the Battle of Ain Jalut and fought the Crusaders, effectively driving them out from the Levant by 1291, in 1302 they officially ended the era of the Crusades.
Safavid’s, 14th – 16th century: The Safavid’s reigned in what was formerly the Persian Empire tuning from Sunni Islam to Shia Islam, they instituted the Shi’a Twelver school of Law as the official Madhhab of their empire, they ruled from 1501 to 1722.
Sokoto, 19th century: The Sokoto Khalifate was an Islamic spiritual community in Nigeria. In the 1800s, it was one of the largest and most powerful empires in sub-Saharan Africa until British conquest in 1903, the title of Khaliph is still retained to this day in the region.
Ottoman’s, 16th -20th century: The Ottoman Khalifate, whose capital was Constantinople in modern day turkey, defeated the Mamluk Sultanate in 1517 and took control of most Arab lands. By the eve of the First World War 1914, the Ottoman Khalifa, had become one of the world’s largest and most powerful Empires in History, it was the Last Islamic Khalifa to exist and fell shortly after WW1.
The following Hadith refers to events over the last century from the first World War up to our time and gives the most clear picture of the 20th century.
Allah’s Messenger (saws) said, “The Hour will not be established (1) till two big groups fight each other whereupon there will be a great number of casualties on both sides and they will be following one and the same religious doctrine (in another translation – “each having the same claim”), (2) till about thirty Dajjaal’s (liars) appear, and each one of them will claim that he is Allah’s Messenger (saws), (3) till religious knowledge is taken away (by the death of Religious scholars) (4) earthquakes will increase in number (5) time will pass quickly, (6) afflictions will appear, (7) Al-Harj, (i.e. killing) will increase, (8) till wealth will be in abundance —- so abundant that a wealthy person will worry lest nobody should accept his Zakat, and whenever he will present it to someone, that person (to whom it will be offered) will say, ‘I am not in need of it, (9) till the people compete with one another in constructing high buildings, (10) till a man when passing by a grave of someone will say, ‘Would that I were in his place (11) and till the sun rises from the West. So when the sun will rise and the people will see it (rising from the West) they will all believe but that will be the time when: (As Allah said,) ‘No good will it do to a soul to believe then, if it believed not before, nor earned good (by deeds of righteousness) through its Faith.’ (6.158) 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)
This hadith is chronological in the events it lists, it starts with (1) “till two big groups fight each other whereupon there will be a great number of casualties on both sides and they will be following one and the same religious doctrine (in another translation – “each having the same claim”)”.
Both World Wars saw two large groups all having a similar claim fight each other with massive losses of life. WW1 began in 1914 and lasted until 1918, World War 2 began in 1935 and ended in 1945, it resulted in 50 to over 75 million deaths making it the bloodiest war in human history, but this narration is referring to WW1 because of what occurred between it and WW2 which the prophet (saws) mentioned.
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 (pbuh) said after WW1 the following would occur (2)“till about thirty Dajjaals (liars) appear, and each one of them will claim that he is Allah’s Messenger”, he 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 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 mention 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 other’s refer to liars that will appear around the world and the Nayifan 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.
The prophet (saws) said, “Before Ad-Dajjaal there will be Nayifan (a number anywhere between 3, 9 and 70 smaller Dajjaals.)” (Ibn Kathir al Bidaya Wa Nihaya) indicating there will be Dajjaals (Liars) or malevolent leaders spreading throughout the world.
Most of the classical Ulluma have taken the prophets (pbuh) 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 noble lineage or even claimed to be a god.
The type of leaders we see in the modern world are something entirely new, hence they were categorized and labeled by the ancient worlds standards.
In translation this literal understanding may be correct but the prophet’s (saws) words are not the translation, he spoke classical Arabic, and similar words are used to describe slightly different subjects having specific context’s whose actual meaning isn’t apparent from simply reading it in a book, but becomes clear and obvious when the event actually occurs.
The narrations are mostly descriptive account’s and not simply literal, in the prophets (pbuh) time, they did not use labels in the same manner we do today, when they spoke of ad-Dajaal (Allah’s curse be upon him) they intended the meaning of the word (the Great Deceiver), while we use it as a name without knowing it’s meaning. It is a word that describes a quality of an individual, to deceive, ad Dajjaal (Allah’s curse be upon him) will not be his actual name when he walks the earth, similar to how the Mahdi’s actual name is not the Mahdi (the one who Guides), but both are descriptive terms, hence the liars claiming prophethood is a not a literal claim but descriptive of their actions and their consequences in the literal sense.
The scholars could not have known this context until the event actually occurred, claiming prophet hood is a simile for these leaders actions, which becomes clear and obvious from the chronology of the narration which is established by other event’s mentioned towards the end of the hadith. This was the main thing occurring between WW1 and WW2.
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 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 underlaying truth of the matter, and in fact it’s fiqh ruling as many scholars perceived, unlike us they where 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 your self 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’s 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 spread around the world through the various leaders (Dajjaal’s) that were disseminating them to the public, the most obvious two are Adolf Hitler and Stalin. 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 where facing after the first world war, they asked people to put their faith in them. This blind faith was so extreme it lead to the Point of 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 as 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 prophets (pbuh) 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 word’s 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.
Abu Hurairah narrated that the Messenger of Allah (saws) said: “In 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)
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 became the Deen of the people. So 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.
“Who will swindle the world with Deen”- If we think about this statement from a historical point of view, this was something unthinkable, that Men could fool the entire world, for example the Pharaoh’s were only capable of fooling their own people into thinking they were gods, this was limited to Egypt a small portion of the Earth, yet after WW1 this is exactly what occurred.
The success of these new ideologies was ensured after WW2 wiped out vast populations of the world and the old way of life, and in reality both these wars lead to the event our prophet (pbuh) said would come next and that is (3) “religious knowledge is taken away (by the death of Religious scholars)”, scholars who were born during the Last Khalifah of Islam and had an education under a proper Islamic system now passed away along with the knowledge they had, and eventually the remnants of that system and all who were influenced by it faded with time.
From here the next events that our prophet (pbuh) mentions are what led us from WW2 to our present time, “(4) earthquakes will increase in number” the geological record shows over this time they have steadily increased. “(5) time will pass quickly”… modern transport, telecommunications and entertainment were developed from 1945 onwards which increased the pace of our lives and the blessings in it decreased causing our perception of time to change. We are at a point were an hour is like a fleeting moment because of modern distraction’s, were before an hour was an eternity. “(6) afflictions will appear”, as immorality spread so too did the disorders, suffering and hardships of man…drugs, immorality, music, heedlessness all increased, the delusions of the 60’s, and 70,s caused people to became lost, essentially loosing perspective of what was important in Life and why we were placed in this world to begin with.
“he who created Death and Life, that He may see which of you is best in Deed” (67:2).
This loss of Morality resulted in the following event “(7) Al-Harj, (i.e. killing) will increase,” This would be about a decade after WW2 up to about the Iran-Iraq war (ending in 1988), during this period many civil wars and minor local wars occurred around the world.
WW1 and 2 saw two huge armies fight, now countries had recovered from these wars and became heedless of Allah’s Books so they acted as they thought without knowledge of the consequences of their actions, both on their society and humanity in the long term.
Almost every region on earth experienced war, Vietnam, Indonesia, Iran, India, China, Greece, Korea, Arabia, Cuba, Algeria, Morocco, Brazil, etc…
And as our Prophet (pbuh) said “you will follow the Jews and Christians in their ways even if they crawl down a lizard hole.” occurred during this period as the muslim world forgot life underneath a Khalifa and what real Islam was.
“The Prophet informed us that towards the end of times, there will be Harj. I (Abu Musa Al-Ash’ari) asked: “And what is Harj?” He said: “Lies (deceit) and killings!” We said: “Even more than now?” He said: “It will not be the kuffaar (foreigners) killing you, rather, you will be killing each other (global civil wars), until a person kills his neighbor, and his uncle and his cousin and his relatives!” (psychopathic warlords will appear around the world along with death squads and serial killers),
We said: “And while the book of Allah (Qur’an) will be still with us?!” He said: “While the book of Allah will be still with you.”
We said: “Subhan’Allaah!! And while our intellects will be conscious?!” He said: “No, no, the intellects of the general masses at that time will be deceived! They will be following fools that have no intellects themselves. They will be assuming they have a (legitimate) cause, but they will not have a (legitimate) cause.” (Ahmad, Ibn Majah, Ibn Hibban).
This is the delusion of all modern ideologies, a hundred years ago for example if a leader came to his people and said i have a new way of life it is entirely focused on money and the commercialization of every aspect of life you can think of, by it we will gain more wealth than we could imagine, but everything will lose it’s value…it’s called Capitalism…what would a sane person think back then?
This leader has basically advocated the worship of money and greed, when the entire society is geared towards one single thing by which they name that system then they are worshiping the thing they are obsessed with.
“Have you seen him who chooses, for his god his own lust?” (25:43)
The shortcoming of all these ideologies was that none had a complete system of life and this was because none of them understood all aspects of life on earth. Science in their time was mediocre in comparison to what it is today and they barely understood the world around them.
These leaders were not even advocating a proper way of life, money is only one aspect and doesn’t create a meaningful life, the foundation of any real society…but in these societies this was one of the imbalance’s that existed deluding people into accepting it.
He (saws) said: “No, no, the intellects of the general masses at that time will be deceived! They will be following fools that have no intellects themselves”.
They have no intellects because they have lost perspective and taken society down a rabbit hole that gave them tunnel vision, or a myopic world view, they are no longer psychologically capable of placing value on anything other than what they are focused on…their specific ideology or cause.
During this period the Cold War between two of the world’s super powers occurred, each advocating an ideology…the capitalist system won in the end.
We know that greed leads to miserliness so it isn’t surprising that in single hadith the prophet mentioned how all the things will be occurring together during this time, the Prophet (saws) said, “Time will pass rapidly, good deeds will decrease, miserliness will be thrown (in the hearts of the people) afflictions will appear and there will be much Al-Harj.” They said, “O Allah’s Apostle! What is “Al-Harj?” He said, “Killing! Killing!” (Bukhari) The Prophet (saws) said…“And Harj, in the Ethiopian language, means killing” (Bukhari).
The spread of capitalism around the world caused the next event to occur, “(8) till wealth will be in abundance —- so abundant that a wealthy person will worry lest nobody should accept his Zakat (charity), and whenever he will present it to someone, that person (to whom it will be offered) will say, ‘I am not in need of it,”.
At that point in time prior to our’s, wealthy people still looked to give zakat (charity), it was still a normal part of society because religion was still in the conscious of people and society had not yet degenerated to the point we see today. Ahadith regarding our own life time state that rich people would eventually consider charity a burden, not something that should be worried over.
Many of these minor details all establish and aid in identifying the chronology of events in the narration.
At the beginning of the 80’s and 90’s manufacturing and computerization impacted on each other and began to spread Globally, the prophet in various Ahadith mentioned two different periods in which wealth would increase globally, this is the first, the second will more than likely occur when another major advancement in technology and science is made shortly in our future as narration’s indicate.
If we look at history from the perspective of one industry, to simplify our conceptualization, and that is the computer industry…
When Microsoft and Apple started out people first began to see modern technology and gadgets in the average person’s house become cheaper and more readily available to the wider society, improving the standard of living. By the year 2000 these advancements began to affect the world at large in the exact manner the hadith specified, people no longer looked towards accepting charity as aid, people are still in need of charity but before our time where many people would consider accepting it from the wealthy the average person in our time would not they would se it as being looked down upon, these small gadgets helped people feel more satisfied with what little they had even if it was still materialism.
Advancement in technology and the spread of wealth lead to the next event, (9) “till the people compete with one another in constructing high buildings,” Malaysia entered the global competition in 1998 soon after the first increase in wealth the prophet (saws) spoke of.
“In the early 20th century, corporations built skyscrapers for the promotional value to increase name recognition. Among the early skyscrapers in Manhattan were the Metropolitan Life Insurance Tower at 700 feet, 50 stories, the Woolworth Building, the world’s tallest from 1913-1930 at 792 feet, 60 stories, the Bank of Manhattan at 927 feet, 71 stories, and the heavily decorated Chrysler Building, briefly the world’s tallest in 1930 at 1046 feet, 77 stories”.
“The Chrysler Building soon lost its crown to the Empire State Building, built during the American Depression by a real estate developer, which reached 1,250 feet and 102 stories.”
“The Empire State Building would reign supreme among skyscrapers for 41 years until 1972, when it was surpassed by the World Trade Center at 1,368 feet, 110 stories.”
“Two years later, New York City lost the distinction of housing the tallest building when the Sears Tower was constructed in Chicago at 1450 feet and 110 stories.”
This was the competition in one nation, America, up to this point in time, twenty-four years after the seers tower was constructed, for the first time the tallest skyscraper was no longer in the United States, the world at large began to enter this competition.
In 1998 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, built the Petronas Towers at 1483 feet, 88 stories, making it the tallest building in the world.
“Taipei 101, was completed in Taiwan in 2004, which tops out at 1,670 feet and 101 stories, held the title as the tallest building in the world until January 2010, when the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, became the world’s tallest building at 2,716 feet (828 meters) and 160 stories.”
This clearly marked the point in time when the world began to compete in constructing tall buildings.
“till the people compete with one another”… in the hadith of Jibril, mentioned in full later, it specifies that a Major sign of the hour is the point in time when the Arabs join in with this competition. The Hadith said about the Arabs “and you see poor, naked, barefoot shepherds of sheep and goats competing in making tall buildings.” (bukhari)… referring to the now oil rich bedouins of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf.
That competition did not begin until after the year 2000 when they began to compete with each other on a relative world scale. On April 24, 2000 the tallest building was built in the desert, The Faisaliah building in Riyadh at 269 meters (882 feet) tall. Then in 2003 a new high rise building, the kingdom centre was built also in Riyadh and is 311m (1020 feet) making it the 55th tallest building in the world at that time, taller than any building in Najd this is the point the Arabs bedouins began competing with each other.
The hadith of Jibril was fulfilled in 2012 with the construction of the world’s second tallest building in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, marking the point that two bedouin Arab nation’s began competing with each other on a world scale, it was a sign of the Hour that indicated how close we are to the major events ahead of us as the prophet (saws) stated in other narration’s.
Imam Nawawi explains: “The people of badia (the desert Bedouins) and their like are indigent. There will come a time in which they become rich and build structures to demonstrate their wealth.
Al Hafiz Ibn Hajar said explaining the hadith of Jibril, “everyone tries to build a higher building than the other.”
The scholars understood the competition to be referring to the general state of society in Arab lands and hence the competition would be with each other over a period of time, we can effectively date this event and the ahadith because of it’s public nature.
Hence the narration, “till the people compete with one another”, is referring to the general competition with the world since Malaysia is not an Arab country, this was the first time America no longer had the worlds tallest building and marked the point in time when the world began competing with each other, the Petronas Towers were followed by a number of building’s all constructed to hold the title the world’s tallest building.
This competition that began in 1998 and was visible to every body on earth establishes the timeline of all the earlier events in the narration with certainty, which spanned the twentieth century.
Hence the events mentioned in the hadith prior to this one all occurred in our past, and this competition in construction then leads us to our current era.
(10) “till a man when passing by a grave of someone will say, ‘Would that I were in his place” The chronology of this event is clarified by other narration’s (discussed later), and it is referring to the past decade or so. This period in time was called the “Era of Evil” by the prophet (saws), before it the increase in wealth satisfied people, but now world events have since caused people to wish for death. The prophet (saws) called it the “Duhaima”, the Dark and Blind fitnah (strife, affliction) that will last an era, the evil of which would grow in wave’s and continue to increase right up to the time of the Dajjal (Allah’s curse be upon him) and we are facing it now.
Islam is effectively under siege and muslims are loosing independence in their countries on a daily basis.
The remaining events are all in the future and are the Hour’s Major signs.
“(11) and till the sun rises from the West”, this 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)
