“As life on planet Earth becomes ever more terrifying, as the frequency and scale both of natural and man made disasters, of violence and pollution at every level, of moral and social disorder, and economic instability reach alarming levels, and as the media bring these live into every home, tension and anguish have gripped the human race in an unprecedented manner.
Muslims have been amply forewarned about these days, having received from the Blessed Prophet—may peace be upon him—detailed knowledge of what is now actually taking place, together with instructions on how to cope with these perils. There is a large corpus of Prophetic traditions concerning the Latter Days and the events that lead up to them.
For the Prophet—may God’s blessings and peace be upon him—informed us, his people, of everything we need to know in order to navigate the storms that he knew were sure to come our way.
Not only did he teach us our creed, Sacred Law, and how to enhance our spirituality, but also the signs by which we should be able to recognize which stage of the history of our community we have reached and what ought to be done about it.”
Dr. Mostafa al-Badawi is studied under many shaykhs, foremost among whom is the late Habib Ahmad Mashhur al-Haddad. Dr. Badawi is also a leading contemporary translator of Islamic and Sufi books from Arabic to English, and his work includes Book of Assistance, The Lives of Man, Key to the Garden, and Degrees of the Soul.
Quotes from the Book:
“The main characteristic of the approaches of the Hour is escalating disorder and confusion and that there shall be such turbulence affecting both the world of ideas and that of events that, as other hadiths say, even stable intelligent people will be in danger of losing their bearings.
Only those will be able to find their way that have armed themselves with the knowledge of how to understand these times and guard themselves against their dangers.
When as Muslims we speak of dangers, it must be understood that the gravest of all as far as we are concerned is disbelief, not physical danger. Next to disbelief comes moral confusion leading to corruption of such magnitude as to lead, even in the presence of faith, to punishment in Hell.
This is why the Prophet—may God’s blessings and peace be upon him—warned of this worst kind of danger, saying: ‘Seditions will occur, when a man shall awaken in the morning a believer, becoming a disbeliever by nightfall, save he whom God has given life to by means of knowledge.’
[Ibn Maja, Sunan, Kitab (36) al-Fitan, Bab (9) Mā yakūn min al-fitan, 3954].
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This then is how to approach the subject: first one should familiarize oneself with the details, meditate on them at length, while applying the knowledge to the surrounding phenomena and events, then strive to extract and grasp the patterns, after which one may move on to deduce the principles, which are the all-inclusive cosmic laws involved. Principles, precisely because of their all-inclusive nature, are few, but need effort and time to be adequately comprehended. Having understood these, one is under obligation to transmit this knowledge and discuss it frequently with one’s children, relatives, friends, and as far as possible transmit it to the entire upcoming generation.”
