I Begin With The Name Of Allah, The Most Merciful, The One Who Bestows Mercy
Alhamdulillah. Indeed, all praise is due to Allah. We praise Him and seek His Help and forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from our soul’s evils and our wrong doings. He whom Allah guides, no one can misguide; and he whom He misguides, no one can guide.
I bear witness that there is no god except Allah – alone without any partners. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His Abd (servant) and Messenger.
O Allah, send prayers upon Muhammad and the followers of Muhammad, just as You sent prayers upon Ibrahim and upon the followers of Ibrahim, verily you are full of praise and majesty. O Allah, send blessings upon Muhammad and upon the family of Muhammad, just as You sent blessings upon Ibrahim and upon the family of Ibrahim, verily, You are full of praise and majesty.
Dear Brothers and Sisters! Sayyidinah Hudhaifah Bin Yaman (RA), a great Companion of the Messenger of Allah (Peace be upon him), has narrated that the Noble Prophet (Peace be upon him) predicted that seventy-two events shall occur in the period close to the Day of Judgement. And these are:
1. People will begin to miss their prayers and pay no attention to them. If this is said in our times, there will be nothing surprising in it because the majority of Muslims today do not offer their prayers. The Noble Prophet (Peace be upon him) made this prediction at a time when prayers were considered as a line of demarcation between Iman and Kufr. Even the most sinful and vicious person living in that age did not miss his prayers. In his time, i.e. 1440 years ago, the Noble Prophet predicted about the present times that the people will miss their prayers.
2. They shall begin to betray their trusts (Amanah). That is, they will misappropriate the trusts entrusted to them for safe custody.
3. They will begin to eat usurious income.
4. They will begin to consider lying to be lawful. Telling lies will become an art.
5. They shall construct high-rise buildings.
6. They shall sell their Religion (Faith) for worldly gains.
7. They shall violate the bonds of relationships.
8. Justice will become a virtue almost hard to find anywhere.
9. Falsehood will become truth (and vice versa).
10. Silk garments will be worn by men.
11. Oppression and wrongdoing will become rampant.
12. Divorces will become common practice.
13. Sudden deaths will become a common occurrence.
14. One who betrays his trust will be regarded as trustworthy.
15. The trustworthy will be regarded as untrustworthy.
16. The liar will be regarded as truthful.
17. The truthful will be regarded as a liar.
18. Calumny will become a common feature, i.e. people will put false blames on one another.
19. The weather shall be hot despite rains (Climate change).
20. Instead of desiring children, people will hate them. They will pray to Allah not to favour them with children. This is actually happening as a result of the Family Planning Departments of Governments raising the slogan ‘Only Two Issues’ guarantee prosperity.
21. The meaner classes will be happy and prosperous.
22. The respectable classes will be in trouble and cast out of society.
23. Some of the leaders and the ministers will become used to being engrossed in lies from morning until evening.
24. The trustworthy will begin to betray their trusts.
25. The leaders of the people will become wrongdoers.
26. Some of the scholars of Religion and the reciters of Qur’an will become lewd and sinners.
27. The people shall put on skin-garments.
28. The hearts of the wearers of skin-garments will be more foul smelling than dead animals.
29. They will be more bitter than the aloe plant (with bitter leaves).
30. Gold will become widely used.
31. Silver will be in great demand.
32. Sins and wrongdoing will be on the increase.
33. Peace and security will deteriorate (as we see and witnessing at this moment in time).
34. The pages and covers of the Noble Qur’an will be lavishly decorated.
35. The Mosques will be decorated with beautiful writing and designs.
36. Lofty minarets will rise from the Masaajid (Mosques).
37. Even so, the hearts will remain desolate and empty.
38. Wine will be drunk freely.
39. Punishments of the Shari’ah will be suspended.
40. The slave girl shall bear her master. In other words, the daughter shall rule over her mother and behave with her as a master behaves with his slave girls.
41. The bare-footed, the naked and the uncultured shall become kings and leaders. The mean, the untouchable classes and the depressed ones will become Heads of State.
42. Woman and man shall be partners in trade, as women are trying to take part in every walk of life side by side with men.
43. Men will imitate women; and
44. Women will imitate men. In other words, men and women shall adopt each other’s guise and appearance.
45. The people will swear by names other than Allah’s name. It is lawful to swear only by Allah or some attribute of Allah or by the Noble Qur’an. In the later ages people will swear by objects as ‘by your head’, etc. This is unlawful and strictly forbidden.
46. In the times to come even Muslims will bear false witness. The use of the word ‘even’ indicates that unbelievers do bear false witness freely but a Muslim who is not expected to do so, will also commit this sin.
47. Salam (salutations) will be bidden only to those who are known and not to strangers. This is against the injunction of the Noble Prophet (Peace be upon him) who has said in a Hadith: “Salam should be bidden to everyone whether you know or do not know the person.”
48. Religious knowledge will be acquired not for the sake of religion but for the sake of earning worldly resources and worldly honour and status.
49. Work relating to the Hereafter will be done to earn worldly gains.
50. War spoils (Booty) or public property will be taken as personal estate. War spoils has been used here to imply public property which will be enjoyed as personal property.
51. A trust (Amanah) shall be taken and misappropriated as plundered property.
52. Zakah will be paid reluctantly, as if it were a penalty.
53. The meanest man shall become the leader of the people by their consent or votes.
54. Men will disobey their parents.
55. Men will misbehave with their mothers.
56. A man will not hesitate in causing harm to his friends.
57. A man will obey his wife in a wrong way.
58. The voices of the wrongdoers will rise in the Mosques.
59. Women engaged in the singing profession will be held in great esteem and accorded high status.
60. Musical instruments will be kept and preserved with care.
61. Wine will be drunk by roadsides.
62. Wrongdoing, dictatorship and tyranny will be looked upon as acts of pride.
63. Justice will be sold (with bribery) in the Courts of Justice.
64. The number of Police will increase.
65. The Noble Qur’an will be recited in a musical style, so as to enjoy the singing tone and its musical cadence. At that time, the Qur’an will not be recited for the sake of its Da’awah (preaching), for understanding it and for reaping the reward for its recitation.
66. Beast skins will be used.
67. The later people of the Ummah will taunt and curse the former people, i.e. the latter will pass derogatory remarks at the former. As a result of this trend a large section of the people is deriding insolently the Noble Companions of the Prophet and are behaving in the same way with the leaders of Religion who conveyed to us the message of Religion. These elder Scholars of Religion are being blamed as being ignorant of the Hadiths and the Noble Qur’an whereas the later generations claim to have understood those sources of Islam better than the former. The Noble Prophet also said that when these signs appear then:
68. Red windstorm may come from Allah; or
69. Earthquakes may up heave the earth; or
70. They will begin to commit murders on ordinary grounds.
71. The people’s faces may be distorted; or
72. Stones may rain down from the sky or some other torment may descend from Allah – Allah forbid.
All these signs are proving true of our society one by one. The punishment that has come over us is really due to these misdeeds. [See ad-Durrul Mansur, Volume 4, page 52]
* Some Evils Destroying The Ummah…
Respected Brothers and Sisters! The role of the individual in Islam is not limited to fulfilling the five pillars. The Muslim in an Islamic community has a greater responsibility than is usually understood. All of a Muslim’s activities in life are included as acts of worship depending upon the intention underlying them. Nothing is required from a Muslim beyond service to Allah and nothing is accepted from him, which is not a service. Every individual’s responsibilities fall into two parts: his responsibility to adhere to the teachings of Islam and his responsibility to enjoin good and forbid evil – which is social reform. There is a reason why enjoining good and forbidding wrong comes first, even before faith. It emphasises the Muslim’s duty and implies faith can only be realized by certain actions, which maintains a relationship between the individual and society.
Neglecting these duties leads to widespread corruption and an increase in evils that consume the core of the community, such as the following:
1. Indifference: Muslims are commanded to play a positive role in their community and assist in enjoining matters of virtue and preventing evil by as much as they can. Many Muslims stray away from the right path because they do not find anyone to assist them and rescue them from straying in their communities, as those around them act indifferently. One should not underestimate any input he can give in such cases and consider the story of the imprisonment of Imam Ahmad to see how effective a person can be if he takes the initiative and does not act indifferently. When Imam Ahmad, may Allah have mercy upon him, was imprisoned, a thief was with him in the same cell. The thief said to him:
“O Imam Ahmad! I persevere and tolerate the punishment I receive while I am upon falsehood and being punished for a sin. Would someone like you, who is suffering as a result of being upon the truth, not persevere and endure?”
Thus, this thief played an important role in comforting and consoling Imam Ahmad in a difficult situation.
Underestimating the harms of intermixing and neglecting to lower the gaze: If members of a particular community give free rein to their sight, do not adhere to the Hijab and women wear perfume before leaving their homes, the most obvious outcome is the spread of immorality in the community. Immoral films, TV programmes, obscene content on the internet and intermixing between the two sexes are other causes that have led to people committing sins and indulging in immorality. People nowadays mix with the opposite sex in universities, schools and workplaces, while Yunus Bin Ubaid said:
“Never be in seclusion with a woman, even if you wish to teach her the Qur’an, and even if only you would be the one reciting.”
2. Being ill-mannered: Many people possess three very evil qualities, namely: lying, cowardice and miserliness, and these are the worst three qualities a person can possess. There are also many other evil qualities that we must be mindful of and hold ourselves to account regarding, such as backbiting, badmouthing others and tale-bearing, while replacing them with praiseworthy qualities and morals.
The Salaf (our pious predecessors) would rebuke themselves for every word they uttered, words which would be considered very normal to people nowadays. Malik Bin Dhaighan said:
“Rabah Bin Qais once came asking for my father after the Asr prayer, but he happened to be sleeping, so we informed him of this, to which he remarked: ‘Who would sleep at this time of the day?’ Then he left. We sent a man after him to see if he wanted us to wake my father up for him, but this man did not return until it was time to pray Maghrib. When we asked him why he returned so late, he said: ‘I followed him to ask him, but found that he was headed to the graveyard while rebuking himself, saying: ‘What business is it of yours to ask this kind of question? Why do you ask what does not concern you? What is it to you when people go to sleep? People are free to sleep any time they desire, why did you indulge in what does not concern you?…’”
Note how lightly such a question would be taken in our time, and how strongly he rebuked himself for asking it.
3. Severing ties with kinfolk: The most important of kinfolk are one’s parents, and yet we find many people dealing with them in an inappropriate manner or even severing ties with them altogether. As for those who do try to fulfill the needs of their parents, many of them do it begrudgingly, while expressing discontent or complaining that it is a burden upon them. This is in spite of the fact that Allah commands us to not say even the least expression of discontent in this regard, saying:
“…Say not to them (so much as) ‘Uff,’ and do not repel them but speak to them a noble word.” [Qur’an, 17:23]
The mother of Huthail Bin Hafsah said:
“He would collect wood during the summer and peel off the outer layer of bark himself. Then, when winter would come, he would come to me whilst I was praying, light a brazier (in my room) and place the peeled wood in it, as this does not give harmful smoke. He would do so just so that I would be warm during prayer. He would do so even though we had a servant who could do the job. Whenever I thought of stopping him and commanding him to return to his family, I would remember why he was doing it, and thus I would allow him to continue.”
Why was he doing this himself despite him having a servant who could have done it for him? It was nothing but a reflection of his full dutifulness towards his mother.
This type of nobility is not limited to ones parents; rather, one should be kind to all his relatives and even his fellow Muslims and non-Muslims neighbours.
4. Wasting time: The issue of wasting time is a very important one indeed. We must be careful about it and hold ourselves to account regarding it because we spend much of our time uselessly instead of spending it in acts of obedience to Allah, as it should be utilised. Allah the Almighty says:
“And it is He who has made the night and the day in succession for whoever desires to remember or desires gratitude.” [Qur’an, 25:62]
Therefore, time was created so that we would fill it with acts of obedience to Allah but many people do the exact opposite of this. The Salaf (our pious predecessors) were very keen to make use of every second of their time. Imam Al-Hasan al-Basri said:
“I have met some people (Prophet’s Companions) who were stingier with their time than they were with their wealth.”
But people nowadays waste their times in games, late nights, socialising, watching television and in vain talk. They may even go as far as doing so at the expense of their religious obligations, such as their daily prayers, and so on.
5. Wasting wealth: Many men cave in under pressure from their wives and children and therefore spend extravagantly, but when they are asked to spend in charity, one would find that they are so stingy that if they were to pull out two bills to give in charity, one would invariably return to his pocket. However, if this same person were to go to a restaurant or shopping in a big supermarket, he would have no problem in spending multiples of this amount.
Allah will ask us about our wealth because we were informed as such by the Prophet (Peace be upon him). Abu Barzah reported that:
“The Messenger of Allah (Peace be upon him) said: “Man’s feet will not move on the Day of Resurrection before he is asked about his life and how he consumed it, his knowledge and what did he do with it, his wealth and how he earned it and how he disposed of it, and about his body and how he wore it out.” [At-Tirmithi]
This does not imply that people do not spend generously or that there are no people who do any of the above mentioned matters correctly. The purpose of highlighting these points is to serve as a reminder for Muslims – at both the individual and community level – so that we realise the importance of these matters and hold ourselves to account with respect to them, as there are many of us who are failing to do so.
May Allah help us to act upon these injunctions and to keep away from all sins. Ameen
May the blessings and peace of Allah be upon our leader, Prophet Muhammad and all his family and Companions.
Your Brother: Imam Murtadha Muhammad Gusau, writes from Okene, Kogi State, Nigeria. He can be reached through: gusaumurtada@gmail.com or +2348038289761.
