Is the End Near?

Is the End Near?

We begin by praising Allah and bearing witness that none has the right to be worshipped or unconditionally obeyed except for Him, and we bear witness that Muhammad ﷺ is His final messenger. We ask Allah to send His peace and blessings upon him, the prophets and messengers that came before him, his family and companions that served alongside him, and those that follow in his blessed path until the Day of Judgment — and we ask Allah to make us amongst them. Allahumma ameen.

The Hidden Hour

Dear brothers and sisters, as we come out of the month of Qur'an — where more of us have recited the Qur'an from cover to cover perhaps in that one month than the entirety of Muslims throughout the entire year, throughout the other eleven months — there's something I want you to pay attention to as we enter into a news cycle in which this question of whether World War 3 is around the corner or the end of the world is now abundantly spoken of in the mainstream press, as well as all around us, and even in the sentiment of the Muslims.

And particularly there's this ayah of the Qur'an where Allah says:

Allah mentions to us in Surah Taha that verily the Hour is coming, and it is as if I have hidden it — أَكَادُ أُخْفِيهَا — and the scholars say there is, subhanAllah, no more powerful way that Allah could speak about how hidden the Day of Judgment is.

He has hidden it from الملائكة المقربين — from the closest angels to Him — and from خير المرسلين — from the best of the messengers of Allah. None of them have any idea when the Day of Judgment actually is or when the end of this world actually is. All of them are just as in the dark about when the Day of Judgment is as we are. The entire creation of Allah — أَكَادُ أُخْفِيهَا — it is hidden from everyone but Allah.

And everyone will be repaid exactly as Allah has decreed once that time comes. But it is so hidden yet so imminent at the same time.

Why the Qur'an Does Not Elaborate on the Signs

One of the questions that comes up as you read the Qur'an from cover to cover — and I want you to pay attention to it — you'll notice that the signs of the Day of Judgment are not spoken about much in the Qur'an, even though there tends to be an obsession over the signs of the Day of Judgment amongst the Muslims.

The signs of the Day of Judgment, as you go from cover to cover — the minor ones and the major ones — are not spoken about directly much at all. Allah utilizes a tanbih, as the scholars say — He indicates many of the major signs of the Day of Judgment without a tasrih, without explicitly speaking about them. Now you could look at that and say, why does Allah not speak about it this way? Why does Allah speak about it that way? And that is poor adab with Allah, because Allah is not asked — Allah asks.

But we can say from the wisdoms of that, is that if a person was to pay attention to the lessons of the past, and if a person was to heed the lessons from the present around them, and if a person was to embody the acts of worship that Allah tells us to embody, that everything that is to come would not catch us by surprise — because we would have already prepared ourselves for both the seen and the unseen to come.

That if a person was to understand Allah's power, and if a person was to be amongst those الَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْغَيْبِ — those who believe in the unseen — they don't need the hows, they don't need the whens, they just know that Allah has created. Then whatever is to come would not catch them by surprise, because they would have already embodied and developed the immunity that is necessary to deal with those things as they unfold. And that is just one of the wisdoms.

The scholars mention many of them. They say, subhanAllah, regarding al-Dajjal — the Prophet ﷺ said that there is no fitna from the time that Allah created Adam (peace be upon him) until the end of the world greater than al-Masih al-Dajjal — and some of the scholars said it is tahqeer, it is a form of belittling him, that Allah does not even make mention of him in the Qur'an. And even though every single prophet has warned about him, if a person has iman, if a person has belief and nurtures that sense of belief, then that is the immunity from the fitna — the greater ones and the smaller ones, no matter what they are. And to us, what Allah has said and what the Prophet ﷺ said all comes from a divine place, and we accept it as human beings and we merely prepare ourselves.

Some of the scholars say that of the wisdoms — as we have just read cover to cover and you don't find so much elaboration on the signs of the Day of Judgment within that — of the wisdoms is that when the Prophet ﷺ was sent to this earth, that urgency of the Day of Judgment being around the corner should have already been there without any of the commentary, without any of the other things that the Prophet ﷺ indeed warned us about of the natural disasters and of the corruption to come. Because the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6503; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2951)

"That I and the Hour were sent like these two fingers." Meaning — the scholars say — the closeness of them to come. The Prophet ﷺ's sending and then the final Hour. Meaning this is the final call to mankind through the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. And also that if you took the history of the world, the history of Allah's creation on this earth, and you compared the time that has passed before the Prophet ﷺ to the time that is left of humanity, it is like the time between the tip of the middle finger and the tip of the index finger.

So there is already an urgency with the sending of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ towards the end of time — without any of the other things that are happening, without the wars, without the qatil, without the killing and the murder and the haraj and the lying and the deceit and the treachery and the slander and the this and the that — without all of those things, and before the beast is to come out and before the Mahdi is to come and before al-Dajjal and before Isa (peace be upon him). That when Allah sent the best of His Prophets with the final revelation, that is enough to wake up a human being and to think there isn't that much time left — and so I will already approach the world with a great sense of urgency and say to myself: there isn't that much time left.

World War 3 Has Already Arrived — For Some

Now the next part of that, dear brothers and sisters — and this is something I really want to allude to because I want us to understand this for a moment.

SubhanAllah, in this last week suddenly the discussions about World War 3 are out there, and I'm not going to give you a political analysis on what's going on. I'm just going to point out one simple factor.

If you lived in Gaza right now, the end of times is already here. World War 3 has already happened to you. If you live in Khartoum right now, in Sudan, World War 3 is already happening to you. If you live in Congo, World War 3 is already happening to you. If you live in Idlib, World War 3 is already happening to you.

If you live in a significant portion of the Ummah today — where the Muslim world spans and where disaster is becoming abound, and what you see when you walk out of your tent or what resembles your home and what you feel when you go back is nothing but chaos and instability — then the discussions about what might transpire in the rest of the world are completely irrelevant to you. And that's why it needs to be that much more relevant to us.

If as believers the Ummah is like one body and we are supposed to be feeling the pain of the Ummah, then it is already a state of emergency even before World War 3 arrives at our doorstep — before we start to feel the possibility of us being expelled from our homes or something difficult coming upon us like what's coming upon our brothers and sisters. Allah is actually putting our sincerity to test.

If you don't already feel it, then that's actually a bigger problem than whether or not it materializes to the worst of your expectations. And so when they start talking about the wider region and they start talking about the rest of the world, and you start to see Gaza — though the genocide has not slowed down at all — start to disappear from the headlines, know that this is part of the game that's being played all around. That for them it looks just as bad today as it did yesterday. And you have to ask yourself why it didn't feel as bad for you today as it did yesterday, until there's a sense of fear, of imminence, of destruction and disaster that comes into our own lives.

It's a way that Allah puts our sincerity to test. And one of the reasons why fitn — why tribulations — spread is because they go unchecked. And that is true for the fitn of corruption and for the fitn of spiritual decadence, and people that go astray from Allah and introduce all sorts of other forms of munkar. When they go unchecked, they spread. And this is just one form of that.

The Happy Person Who Avoids Fitna

When a person starts to think about whether the end of times is near and starts to read these ahadith — keep in mind, dear brothers and sisters, there is not a generation of Muslims that has ever been on the face of the earth except that they thought that Yawm al-Qiyamah would appear in their lifetime. From the time of the Prophet ﷺ until now, every single generation of Muslims looked at the ahadith of the Prophet ﷺ and said: this looks like it's here, this looks like it's here, this looks like it's here — it's only a matter of time. And that's actually the point: that a person should not obsess over the signs as much as they seek to prepare themselves for that moment.

And the Prophet ﷺ spoke to this natural mindset — that when fitn are abound, when the different types of tribulations are abound, whether it's the killing or whether it is the corruption, whether it is fasad or fahsha, whether it is the corruption of suffering or the corruption of challenging Allah and challenging the laws and the rules of Allah — the Prophet ﷺ said, in this hadith from al-Miqdad ibn al-Aswad (may Allah be pleased with him):

(Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 4263)

He said ﷺ: "Verily the happy person is the one who avoids these fitn. The happy person is the one who avoids these fitn. The happy person is the one who avoids these fitn."

What does this mean? The scholars say that there are categories here. There are the fitn of al-lisan and the fitn of al-suyuf — there are the tribulations of the tongue and the tribulations of the swords. A happy person is the one who spares themselves from entering into these states of tribulation and entering into these zones where their iman is going to be tested on purpose. A happy person is the one who spares themselves from the drama, who spares themselves from the headaches, who spares themselves from the heartaches, who spares themselves from a dangerous situation — either to their dunya self, their worldly self, or to their deeni self, their religious self.

A happy person is the one who spares themselves as much as possible and whom Allah spares. Indeed there is happiness in that. And the curse of Allah is upon the one who causes fitna — even if they think that they're doing good. The curse of Allah is on the one who brings fitna upon people even if they think that they're doing good. And goodness is for the person who avoids fitna as much as they possibly can. This is a rule from the Prophet ﷺ.

But What of Those Who Are Tested?

But listen to what he says at the end — alayhi al-salatu wa al-salam:

(Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 4263)

The Prophet ﷺ said — after saying the happy person is the one who avoids fitna — "As for the one who is tested and is patient, then what an excellent person that is." Meaning what? SubhanAllah — you think about these people in the world that have these fitn brought upon them, and we look at it and we say: what did they do to deserve this? What did they do to bring this on to themselves? And the answer is that that entire question is wrong.

The Prophet ﷺ flips it. And he says that goodness for the one who avoids it, but for the one who has it visited upon them and who is patient — what an excellent person that is. Fa wahan — in the Arabic language, it is the Prophet ﷺ expressing amazement about the person, or amazement about the award, the reward that will come to them as a result of their patience with Allah.

No one asks to be put in these difficult situations. We all seek places of safety — we all seek places of spiritual safety, hopefully. How many of you moved here so that you could come to a place where you'd have an Islamic environment? How many people look around the world today and say: how do I get to this place and how do I get to that place? How do I protect myself from this? How do I protect myself from that? The different types of fitna — the physical ones and the spiritual ones — that get visited upon us, and we feel this looming sense of the Day of Judgment coming near.

But the Prophet ﷺ is saying despite all of that, for the one who ends up having it visited upon them and who shows patience — what an amazing and excellent person that is, and what a fine reward Allah has prepared for that person.

Flip the Paranoia: Think About Death

The last thing I'll mention here, dear brothers and sisters — because the Prophet ﷺ gave us a mindset, and again, if you're reading the Qur'an, especially coming out of Ramadan, I hope that everyone has started their next recitation of the Qur'an — if you're reading through the Qur'an, you don't find this type of mindset that we find prevalent amongst the Muslims.

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ flipped the paranoia about the Day of Judgment with the urgency of death in two ways. One of them is the hadith of Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him). He says that once upon a time there was a man who came to the Prophet ﷺ and kept saying:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6511; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2952)

"When is the Hour? When is the Hour? When is the Hour?" And the Prophet ﷺ looked around, and Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) said he saw a young boy from Banu Shanu'a, from the land of Shanu'a, and he pointed to that boy ﷺ and said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6511; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2952)

"If this young boy lives long enough, he would not find old age until you have found your Day of Judgment regardless." Meaning what? Whether or not you see death and destruction in the world around you, you will find death regardless. And that is as unpredictable to you as anything else. You can't predict death. You can have all the analysts in your life that you want, but you're not going to be able to anticipate when Allah tests you with that.

And the Prophet ﷺ is saying: instead of sitting there and reading the world and reading when the end of times is, to the point that you start to make your calculations in your head — make your calculations about death and about what you have prepared for that meeting with Allah. Because your Day of Judgment is in that grave regardless. And what you will face there is no less severe than what you will face here.

And that's why he said ﷺ:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1373; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2867)

"That you will be tested in your grave with something similar to the test of al-Dajjal." That the test in your grave, the questioning in your grave, the difficulty of being able to answer those questions —

Allahumma ameen.

The faith that's required. And this is what I want you to think about deeply. The faith that's required for you to be able to pass through the elements of your grave when you're entered into that grave — and it squeezes you, and the hardship of the angels coming to you, and the difficulty of that moment — and still being able to process: Allah, Muhammad ﷺ, al-Islam.

When all of that is happening around you, it is just like the faith that is necessary for you if you encounter al-Masih al-Dajjal in your life — and still being able to see through his tricks and say: Allah, Muhammad ﷺ, Deen al-Islam. It's the same type of mindset. It's the same type of faith.

So whether you're facing al-Dajjal here and the elements of al-Dajjal here, or you're facing death and the elements of the grave there — focus on nurturing that faith in your heart. Focus on sparing yourself from the fitna. And beware of being a person who causes fitna.

And that's why the Prophet ﷺ mentioned to us that when that time comes — even if al-haraj, even if the killing goes about, and even if all of the laws of nature and morality are gone, and the people start to wrong one another, and everyone is wronging the other person — be the one who is mazloom, do not be the one who is dhalim. Be the one who is wronged, don't be the one who is wronging. Be the one who is maqtool — be the one who is killed — don't be the one that's killing.

If everyone else in the world is killing innocent people, then I want to be from the innocent people being killed — I don't want to be a murderer. If everyone else in the world has normalized zulm, normalized oppression and aggression, then I want to be amongst those who are wronged and then have my reward in the hereafter. Then be the one who risks potentially throwing himself into hellfire for wronging someone else.

Conclusion: Prepare for Today, Not Just Tomorrow

Dear brothers and sisters, we need to escape the mindset. Stop thinking so much about what's going to happen then. Think about what could happen to us today. What could happen to us tomorrow.

SubhanAllah — every single morning the phone calls come, every single morning we get the messages about someone that died unexpectedly. A car accident this morning — a young man, may Allah make it easy for him and his family. Elderly people — but the diagnosis was spurred, it got quicker. They were first given a year and now they're given three months. May Allah give them all shifa. May Allah make it easy for their families.

Let's prepare ourselves for that. And let's think about the people that are already living the doomsday of this world that we fear would spread around the world around us. Activate ourselves towards that. Our brothers and sisters in Gaza and in Sudan and our Uyghur brothers and sisters — wherever they are — they're living that nightmare that everyone fears will spread to the world around them.

May Allah allow us to be that ummah of one body and nurture in our hearts that faith that is necessary to face the trials of al-Dajjal and to face the trials of the grave. May Allah protect us from being deluded by ourselves, or being deluded by the shaytan, or being deluded by our circumstances, or being deluded by our power, or being deluded by our sense of security. May Allah forgive us for our shortcomings. Allahumma ameen.

إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأْمُرُ بِالْعَدْلِ وَالْإِحْسَانِ وَإِيتَاءِ ذِي الْقُرْبَىٰ وَيَنْهَىٰ عَنِ الْفَحْشَاءِ وَالْمُنكَرِ وَالْبَغْيِ ۚ يَعِظُكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَذَكَّرُونَ — Indeed Allah commands justice and good conduct and giving to relatives, and He forbids immorality and bad conduct and oppression. He admonishes you that perhaps you will be reminded.

Remember Allah and He will remember you. And thank Him for His blessings and He will increase you. And the remembrance of Allah is the greatest thing. And Allah knows what you do. Establish the prayer.