The Final Hour

This is a summary of a book from Harun Yahya which I read. I hope this serves as a reminder for all of us of the impending doomsday that is definite and hence, inevitable.

The Final Hour.

With the increase in vice and corruption going on around us, it is hard to deny that we are now approaching the Final Hour which had been promised by Allah in the Holy Quran. In certain verses of the Quran, it is related that people had asked the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) about when the end of the world would come:

They will ask you about the Hour: when is it due? …( Surat al-A'raf: 187)
They ask you about the Hour: "When will it come?" (Surat an-Nazi'at: 42)

And in many other verses of the Qur’an, Allah says with certainty that the Final Hour will definitely come, without doubt.

And the Hour is coming without any doubt ... (Surat al-Hajj: 7) We did not create the heavens and earth and everything between them, except with truth. The Hour is certainly coming. (Surat al-Hijr: 85)The Hour is coming-there is no doubt about it …(Surat al-Mu'min: 59)

In addition to informing His creations about the coming of the Last Day, Allah, being the merciful Him, also gave us the signs that will appear before the impending day.

What are they awaiting but for the Hour to come upon them suddenly? Its Signs have already come. What good will their Reminder be to them when it does arrive? (Surah Muhammad: 18)

From this verse we learn that the Qur'an describes signs that announce the coming of the Last Day. It is thus, an obligation upon all of us to ponder over the signs of the last day which had been prophesized in the Qur’an and the traditions of our beloved Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him). Otherwise, as the verse indicates, our thinking will be of no use when the Last Day is suddenly upon us.

Countless hadiths have been narrated by our Beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) prophesizing the signs which will appear before the approach of the Last Day.

Listed below are some of the signs which we are and we will be witnessing in this present age and the future.

• According to the Qur’an, on the Last Day the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) will say that his own people will have abandoned the Qur’an: “My Lord, my people treat this Qur’an as something to be ignored…” (Surat al-Furqan: 30) It is also revealed in the hadiths that, during the End Times, the Qur’an’s guidance will be disregarded and people will stray from it.

Near the establishment of the Hour there will be days during which (religious) knowledge will be taken away (vanish) and general ignorance will spread...
(Bukhari)

There will come a time for my people when there will remain nothing of the Qur'an except its outward form and nothing of Islam except its name and they will call themselves by this name even though they are the people furthest from it.
(Agreed upon)

• The Prophet also prophesised that the Holy Qur’an will be read but the wisdom and knowledge of the Qur’an will not reach the hearts of the Muslims which means, will not be pondered upon by them.

There will come a time upon the Ummat when people will recite the Qur’an, but it will not go further than their throats, (into their hearts).
(Bukhari)

Allah's Messenger (saas) spoke of something and said: “It will happen when knowledge will be no more. “ (Ziyad) said: “Allah's Messenger, how will knowledge vanish despite the fact that we will be reciting the Qur'an and teaching its recitation to our children and our children will teach its recitation to their children up to the Day of Resurrection?" Thereupon he (the Prophet (saas)) said: “Ziyad, do these Jews and Christians not recite the Torah and the Bible but not act according to what is contained in them?”
(Ahmad, Ibn Majah, Tirmidhi)

A comparison is made in Surah Jumuah, verse 5: “The metaphor of those who were charged with the Torah but then have not upheld it, is that of a donkey carrying books…” These verses serve as a warning to Muslims, reminding them that they must not follow the footsteps of the Jews and the Christians who simply read their Holy Books without observing them.

• It is also the sign the Last Day when some muslims start to imitate blindly the ways of the heretical Jews and Christians.

The Prophet (saas) said, “Surely you will follow the ways, of those nations who were before you, span by span and cubit by cubit (i.e. inch by inch) so much so that even if they entered a hole of a lizard, you too would follow them," We said, “O Allah's Messenger! Do you mean the Jews and the Christians?" He replied, “Whom else?"
(Bukhari)