All You Need to Know About Doomsday
By Imam Zaid Shakir · January 6, 2016
Many Muslims are obsessed with the end time Hadiths and prophecies. Many feel that the end is near, some groups and or Shuyukh actively recruit followers based on the certainly that we are living at the very end of history and Doomsday is well nigh upon us. That being the case, many Muslims seek to know the signs of the end and the sound Hadiths we can point to in this regard.
Dear believers, practically, we only need to know three Hadiths concerning the end of time. I will mention them here along with a brief explanation of their significance. Saying this is not to say that eschatological prophetic utterances have no place in our religion. Of course they do. Unfortunately, when their study leads to a morbid obsession with the end times, which can in turn paralyze an individual or render him unable to envision any improvement in his or his people’s lot, then such utterances are no longer serving their intended purpose and can even become dangerous.
1) When the Prophet (peace upon him) was asked by the Angel Gabriel, “Inform me of Doomsday, O Messenger of Allah!” He replied, “The one being asked about it is no more informed than the one asking.” If the Messenger of Allah claimed no definitive knowledge concerning the actual timing of Doomsday, how can any one of us be cocksure that its coming is immediate? This latter question is one we should ask ourselves and others and it should guide the weight we give to eschatological issues in our religion.
2) When asked by one of his companions, “When is Doomsday?” the Prophet (peace upon him) wisely responded, “What have you done to prepare for it?” In other words, were we to know with absolute certainty that Doomsday is tomorrow, would we be ready to meet our Lord? Would our house be in order? Hence, for the believer, knowing the timing of Doomsday is not the most important thing associated with the issue. The most important thing for us is that we are prepared to die in a state of Islam, because we are living in that state. What does it benefit us to know all of the signs of Doomsday, or even to know exactly when it will occur if we are not living a life that would allow us to succeed when our record is laid bare before us?
3) The Prophet (peace upon him) mentioned, “If Doomsday occurs and one of you has a seedling in his hand; let him plant it.” In other words, we are to be courageous; we are to keep working right up to the end; and we are to remain hopeful. As the horror of the day descends we should not allow the seedling to fall from our hands as we shiver in fright. We are to hold on to it and plant it firmly in the ground. Furthermore, we should be hopeful that we will one day eat of its fruits and rest in its shade. If Allah has decreed otherwise that is from His divine wisdom and wise ordainment.
In conclusion, let us remind ourselves that anyone who has ever predicted the immediate coming of Doomsday has always been proven wrong. This is true not only for Muslims, but also for adherents of other religions. One of the most prominent of these predictions, in recent times, was that of the Jehovah’s Witnesses who claimed that the current “system” would end January 1, 1976. Of course, their prediction came to naught as had previous ones. We would all do well to continue undertaking the good deeds that will help us to succeed, whether we live to witness the descent of the hour or not.
Comments (5)
Matthew Rocco
February 9, 2016
Thank you Brother.
Rickey
March 21, 2016
Good post, i surely appreciate this site, keep on it
Eagle
April 18, 2016
Great stfuf, you helped me out so much!
Karess
May 21, 2016
Just what the doctor orddeer, thankity you!
Ahmad
March 21, 2018
“All You Need to Know About Doomsday” shouldn’t have amounted to a half-page article. If that was really all we Muslims needed to know about Doomsday then the Prophet’s, sallallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, myriad hadiths which deal with the subject of Doomsday and its signs would have amounted to the same, but rather it fills volumes. Which shuyukh are you referring to specifically? It’s not proper to leave this vague and general when throwing a jab at some shuyukh in your mind because this can, may and will confuse many Muslims out there following a certain shaykh. I know of some shuyukh myself who are of the majority Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jama‘ah or Sunni Muslims following one of the 4 madh`habs (Hanafites, Malikites, Shafi‘ites, Hanbalites), subscribing to one of the 3 ‘aqeedas (Ash‘arites, Maturidis, Atharis) and who are within a spiritual path and fraternity of the saints of God (Qadiriyyah , Chishtiyyah, Suhrwardiyyah, Naqshbandiyyah, Shadhiliyyah, Rifa‘iyyah, Ba ‘Alawi, Mawlawiyyah, etc.), well-known among the scholars and righteous people of our time who teach this subject and perhaps have a true portion of nubuwwa or prophecy (as true good dreams are a portion of prophecy and glad tidings and increase as the end times near, as per several sahih hadiths) and irth or prophetic inheritance (as that’s the knowledge inherited from the prophets as per another hadith) to “recruit” or rather better put “guide” followers based on this inheritance; i.e. remaining prophecies and good news. Islam is not just a dead scripturally-transmitted tradition like other religions out there. It’s alive with spiritual-transmissions up till the final hour. Your thesis here is “Dear believers, practically, we only need to know three Hadiths concerning the end of time” which is completely inaccurate the way you stated it. Perhaps, it would have been more accurately, better and wisely stated that “there are three central Hadiths concerning the end of time that govern the rest of the body of information on this topic from a certain aspect.” Unfortunately, your very valid and relevant disclaimer within the same paragraph does not justify this egregiously-stated point you are attempting to make in this posted article. Furthermore, to be balanced and fair to the 3 hadiths you presented, there are valid alternate interpretations of them: 1) The Prophet’s, sallallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, reply, “The one being asked about it is no more informed than the one asking,” can mean “I know exactly when the final hour is and so do you, but we will not mention it as it is not permitted by Allah.” This is termed mukhalafat al-mafhum or the counter-intuitive understanding of the cryptic wise reply of the Prophet, sallallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam. The Prophet was given knowledge of all future events as per another sahih hadith reported by Hudhayfah al-Yamani and we know that the mala’ or high-ranking scribe-angles know the contents of the lawh al-mahfuz or Book of Cosmic Destiny as they are constantly deleting and re-writing in it, while “Archangel” Gabriel is one of the highest of them if not the highest. This interpretation is actually the correct kashf-based one according to the true inheritors of the prophets (in opposition to the majority of the exoteric scholars who were not necessarily “complete” inheritors and gave their istinbati /ijtihadi or reason-based sharh), the awliya of Allah as mentioned via quoting the highest living saint of his day—his own shaykh—by the great Maliki jurist, mufassir, and muhaddith Shaykh Ahmad bin al-Mubarak al-Lamti as-Sijilmassi in his book Al-Ibriz min Kalami Sidi Abdal-Aziz ad-Dabbagh or the “Book of Pure Gold from among the Teachings of Our Master Abdal-Aziz ad-Dabbagh.” And the kashf-based statements of the ghawth or supreme Muslim believer of the day is not to be compared to the mukashafat of other saints lower in the hierarchy. Also, why resort to scholarly opinions when this clear information is available now to us all? So, the Messenger of Allah, sallallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, did claim definitive knowledge concerning the actual timing of Doomsday, which allows for our shuyukh to be confident (not cocksure), based on their knowledge, that it is imminent. 2) The wise reply (and all of the replies of the Prophet, sallallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, were wise, as the above one, so no need to single this one out as if to make your point) here was “wise” for the very reason of addressing the particular individual who asked this question (not the question itself). In the hadith literature, many different people asked the Prophet, sallallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, the same exact question while the Prophet’s, sallallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, replies to them was not the same, since he was addressing different individuals and answering to their particular spiritual needs and concerns. That’s what true wisdom entails. So, it’s not for us to give this verbatim reply like turning on an audio recorder in our mind to ever
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