The End of the
World
It is the love
of the world which is the root of the
evil surrounding us, and the remedy prescribed by
Islam is charity. The Prophet, peace be upon him,
advised:
"Hasten good works before a calamity like a dark
piece of night will befall you, when a man will get up a
believer in the morning and retire in the evening as an
unbeliever: He will sell his religion for the goods of this
world."
(Muslim)
He
predicted that: "Time will become short, knowledge will
decrease, tribulations will appear, stinginess will become
common and turmoil will increase." They asked, "what
is the turmoil?" He said (indiscriminate)
"Killing."
(Bukhari and Muslim)
Further:
"By the One who holds my life in His hand, the world will
not come to an end until mankind will witness a day where the
murderer will not know why he has killed, and the murdered
will not know why he was killed." It was asked, how can
that be? He said (general) "Turmoil, and both the murderer
and the murdered will end up in hellfire."
(Muslim)
"The
hour shall not come to pass until you kill your leader and
strike each other with your swords, and the worst amongst you
will inherit your world."
(Trimidhi)
Further traditions
talk about the increase in earthquakes, the abundance of wealth at people's disposal,
until people will scoff at charity, the competition in erecting tall buildings,
the wish of people passing by a grave, that
they could be in the place of the dead (Bukhari and
Muslim).
There
has certainly been no other human civilisation with such a
high rate of suicides, and never before in human history has
euthanasia been an acceptable proposal. Bleak times indeed,
compounded by cosmic events. The last hour, the end of life on
Earth, will come suddenly, but before then, its inhabitants
will witness the rising of the sun from the West an event so
dramatic that they will all turn to believe, but it will not
benefit them anymore. The Qur'an equally describes the coming
big crunch when the universe as we know it will be
transformed:
"The
day when We roll up the heavens like a scroll of writings. As
we started creation, We shall bring it back. A promise upon Us
which We will carry out."
(Surah
21, Al-Anbiya (the Prophets), Verse 104)
or
"And when the
moon is eclipsed, and the sun and the moon will be made to
collide, on that day man will look for an escape, but there
will be no safety."
(Surah
75, Al-Qiyamah (the Rising), Verse 8-11)
[Next: An Early-Warning System]
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