20160115-Imam Khutba-Signs of the Qiyamat

Opening — Khutbah of the Imam

Allah is the greatest, Allah is the greatest, there is no god but Allah. Allah is the greatest, Allah is the greatest, there is no god but Allah. And whoever is misguided, there is no guide for him.

And I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, there is no partner for him. And I bear witness that Muhammad is his servant and his messenger. And the best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him and his family and his companions.

And the worst of things are their plans, and every plan is an invention, and every invention is a misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire.

I remind myself and you, I invite myself and you to what Allah azza wa jal reminds us of — by saying what means: O you who have attained faith, be Allah-conscious, have awe and reverence in your minds and hearts for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in a way that is worthy of who He is. Worthy of His beauty and majesty and of His perfection, infinitely in that beauty and majesty. And do not accept death except in a state of loving surrender to Him azza wa jal.

My dear brothers and sisters, we must seek sincerely to love Allah azza wa jal and to lovingly worship Allah azza wa jal in a way that is worthy of who He is — of His infinite beauty and majesty, of His innumerable unlisted favors and bounties upon us, internal bounties and external.

As we strive to do that — and we must strive — that is the beauty of life and that is the challenge of life: to strive for the divine. For the greatest of all the greatest, for the infinite. What a grand aim it is to strive for the infinite. And those of us who don't will have to strive for the meager, for the dunya, for the finite, for the low, for the cheap.

The Coming of Yawm al-Qiyamah

As we strive — and we must strive — there will be and there have been challenges and tribulations and calamities and hardships. And time and life for human beings on earth is limited. It will come to an end. There will be Yawm al-Qiyamah. The day, the end of the world, the day of resurrection will occur.

إِنَّهُ لَحَقٌّ — as Allah azza wa jal tells us and warns us and gives us the glad tidings, and His Rasul sallallahu alayhi wa alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam — it will happen.

And Rasul sallallahu alayhi wa sallam also told us about warning signs towards that. And sometimes the conditions that we live in may remind us of such signs of the approaching of the sa'ah. And "approaching" is relative, of course — it is relative; Allah alone knows exactly when it will occur. But approach it does. Signs there are. Whether the signs are properly or improperly understood — that also exists.

Hadith: Tribulations Like Bundles of Dark Night

And thus I say to myself and to you: Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 186)

Indeed, as the Hour approaches, there will be fitan — tribulations and challenges and hardships and dissensions and turmoil — so much so that they would be, as he described sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, like bundles of dark night. One bundle dark, another bundle dark, another bundle dark. And they come successively.

And when it is dark, it means you cannot see clearly physically. In fitan, as the time approaches, they will increase and they will come darker and darker. The beginning of the night is less dark than the middle of the night, and the fullness of the night is very dark. To the extent that people — human beings and Muslims as well — will be, many times, oftentimes, or the later we live, the more it becomes very unclear to people. Decision making is unclear. What is right and what is wrong.

To some, especially without depth in their rootedness of iman and knowledge, it will feel dark to navigate. There will be a lot of murkiness and lack of clarity and confusion: I don't know what's going on. What's this? What's that? Especially those of us who are not deeply rooted in our ilm and in our faith.

Signs of the Approaching Hour

He also said sallallahu alayhi wa sallam:

(Reported by al-Tabarani and others)

The Hour shall not come by surprise until these signs occur — of which he mentions in this hadith: الْقُرْآنُ يَصِيرُ عَارًا. Allahu Akbar. That is, one would feel ashamed that they know the Quran. If someone points out, "Oh, you know the Quran?" — "No, no, I don't." Aran — it will become something that one is considered as having as a defect. You shouldn't have that. You shouldn't be one who knows the Quran, who memorizes the Quran, who reads the Quran, or the value of the Quran. "I don't know — I'm a Muslim but I don't know the Quran. I have nothing to do with that."

وَلَا تَقَارَبَ الزَّمَانُ — and time will draw nearer. Meaning that we would do in less time that which used to be done in much more time. To travel from one place to another in days is going to happen in perhaps hours or minutes. And that sallallahu alayhi wa sallam certainly is a prophecy of his. And there are many hadith like this — about the invention of the means of transportation and communication that we are living and having now and will have in the future.

Instead of talking to your mother in Pakistan, or in wherever, or in Australia — to talk to her you needed to travel and it could take years sometimes. Now it is seconds, and you talk. يَتَقَارَبُ الزَّمَانُ. And in another hadith about distances being folded — that is an indication, in this one sentence, prophetic of the invention of the means of transportation that will make distances appear instantaneous.

(Musnad Ahmad; related hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 85)

And those who are not trustworthy, who are not truthful, who are not virtuous, will be trusted — will have leverage in society and in communities. Their word will be more important than the words of the truthful and honest. The dishonest will be raised to the level of honesty.

And the opposite will occur. And the true umanah — those whom Allah knows are sincere, honest, trustworthy — those will be treated the opposite. "They are untrustworthy. Keep them away. They are not good."

And the liar will be identified as truthful. And the truthful will be identified as a liar.

And harj would be very prevalent. They asked, "What is harj, O Messenger of Allah?" Al-harj means also that things are interconnected in a disruptive and disorderly way. But to the question of what is harj, he answered: الْقَتْلُ — killings. There will be a lot of killings. In some hadith, until someone doesn't know where they are killed. Killings amongst Muslims — not only between Muslims and others, but amongst Muslims themselves.

Further Signs: Indecency, Rudeness, and Severing of Family Ties

He said sallallahu alayhi wa alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam: and also prevalent among the signs of the approaching of the Hour would be fahsh — indecency, lack of haya, excess in sexuality in conduct — tafahhush — rudeness and ruthlessness in language and abusiveness in language — su' al-jiwar — bad neighborly relationships — and qati'at al-arham — severing of the ties of kinship.

So much dissension and so much turbulence — fitan — the father is left, and there are dissensions between father and son and children, and between brothers and siblings. Dissensions not just the regular social kind, but serious things also — they would even kill one another. And the fitan will be so absorbed into the hearts of men. He said sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, as it approaches until the Hour arrives.

And in that he said:

In other words — "Oh, he prays! Look at that, he prays!" Just as was said earlier about the Quran: "Look at this guy, he does the Quran." "He prays. He's Muslim." When fitan occurs, sometimes people say: "No, no — I'm not one of those who pray. I don't pray. My name is not Muhammad." Fitan.

What Must We Do? — The Guidance of the Prophet

A lot more he said sallallahu alayhi wa sallam — a lot more that he mentions. But the question is: what to do? What to do, O Messenger of Allah?

First: Race to Do Good Deeds

Of what was mentioned by the ulama, to the best of their knowledge and abilities, what came to us from him sallallahu alayhi wa sallam — he said:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 186)

He said sallallahu alayhi wa sallam: Race. Now, right now. Because they are coming upon us — they are coming, and some are already here. Race! "How do I race, O Messenger of Allah?" By doing good deeds. Before you are absorbed by the fitan, and you wished you had a moment to pray, and you wished you had a moment to give charity, and you wished you had a moment to forgive, and to be patient, and to be kind, and you wished you even had freedom.

بَادِرُوا — don't delay. Don't postpone. Don't procrastinate. Don't wait. Don't think, "Well, I heard this before, they said it before." Maybe. But don't rely on that. بَادِرُوا. Race ahead of the fitan. How? By doing good deeds — external and internal.

Before these fitan come upon us as bundles of dark nights: a person is in the morning a believer, and in the evening changes and becomes an unbeliever — because of fitan. A person is in the evening a believer, and in the morning turns a non-believer — because of fitan. And the challenges of this fitan are of all sorts: intellectual, ideological, philosophical, emotional, psychological, financial, economic, political. Oh yes. People always have reasons why they change their minds, whether those reasons are correct or incorrect — that is a different matter. But it will happen. And he said one would sometimes sell one's religion on account of cheap worldly gains — or status, or belonging, or acceptance, or you name it.

Second: Guard Your Tongue and Hold to What Is Known

In another text sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he also said in terms of what we need to do as these fitan approach. He said sallallahu alayhi wa sallam:

(Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 4343)

When you observe — when you witness — that people have abandoned their trustworthy words: they no more uphold their words and covenants and treaties and contracts and words and vows and pledges. An educated person may say, "Oh yes, I'll do that, I'll do it" — like yes, I do — and they don't uphold their words and commitments. مَرِجَتْ عُهُودُهُمْ. And خَفَّتْ أَمَانَاتُهُمْ — their amanah, their trustworthiness, their honesty, has become lightweight — not something worthy of having. And they become like this — intertwining, disagreeing, confronting, disputing, in fahsh and tafahhush in disagreement, and so on — they don't listen to one another, they don't respect one another, they are selfish, they are rude.

What do we do, O Messenger of Allah? He says: Be in your home — in other words, don't mingle too much with these things. Be in your home. And guard your tongue. وَأَمْلِكْ عَلَيْكَ لِسَانَكَ — own your tongue, control your tongue. Don't be loose and speak whatever you want or whatever the nafs wants you to speak. Keep your tongue.

And خُذْ بِمَا تَعْرِفُ وَدَعْ مَا تُنْكِرُ — because in fitan there will be this saying and that saying, this fatwa and that fatwa, this understanding and that understanding, and so on. Take that which, as a mu'min, as a Muslim of long centuries of veracity and of time-proven haqa'iq — truth — is known. And keep away from that which is abnormal and odd, which you are not used to.

Did you hear that? No fatwa, no opinion on any issue — if it is an issue or a word about which there is nothing from our predecessors — this is what you know. If something comes now that seems to overturn all of that which was tested by the centuries of time and of experience and of challenges — take that which is known and give up the new one. Because the old one you know; the new one, maybe — maybe not. Especially if the heart feels resentful about it, the heart of a mu'min.

وَعَلَيْكَ بِخَاصَّةِ أَمْرِ نَفْسِكَ — and mind your own matters about your nafs, about your salvation, and keep away from the matters of the awam, of the general public.

Third: Be Like the Bee — and Like Red Gold

Number three: He said sallallahu alayhi wa alihi wa sallam — when he also described the fitan as the Hour approaches, he was asked in one of those instances:

What is the condition of the mu'min, O Messenger of Allah? He said sallallahu alayhi wa sallam: The mu'min is like the bee. It landed — you know, when the bee is looking for nectar and it goes, flies from place to place, and it lands on the plant — it does not cause any hurt and any mischief and any destruction. It doesn't spoil anything. It lands and it doesn't hurt and it doesn't change anything.

كَالنَّحْلَةِ وَقَعَتْ فَلَمْ تُفْسِدْ وَأَكَلَتْ فَلَمْ تَكْتَنِزْ — and it eats, and it doesn't eat excessively. Like the mu'min. The mu'min does not receive excessively — receive knowledge, receive information — don't be excessive in the fitan time. وَإِذَا وَضَعَتْ وَضَعَتْ طَيِّبًا — and if it discharges, if it lays something, it lays something pure.

He said: that is the mu'min at that time. In other words, in those tribulations, those horrible challenges — if one is that mu'min, that mu'min will not change negatively. That mu'min will continue to uphold the values — the beautiful values — of the beautiful Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa alihi wa sallam.

He even said:

And he gave a second parable: the mu'min is like a piece of red gold — كَمَثَلِ قِطْعَةِ الذَّهَبِ الْأَحْمَرِ — red gold. It enters the fire and a blow is blown on it — in other words, fire and a blow — it doesn't change at all, and when they take it out: it did not diminish a bit from its weight. Said he sallallahu alayhi wa alihi wa sallam.

Closing Du'a

I say this, and I seek the forgiveness of Allah the Almighty for myself and for you — so seek His forgiveness. طُوبَى لِلْمُسْتَغْفِرِينَ — seek the forgiveness of Allah. What an excellent abode awaits those who seek forgiveness from Allah azza wa jal.

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ وَكَفَى وَصَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَى عِبَادِهِ الَّذِينَ اصْطَفَى

O servants of Allah:

Rise for your prayer — may Allah have mercy upon you.