Signs of the Day of Judgement

Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu!

In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

“Are they waiting for anything except the Hour, to come to them suddenly? But its signs have already come”. (Surah Muhammad – Verse 18)

One of the major signs of Qiyamah is the appearance of Imam Mahdi. He will arrive at a time of immense corruption. He will spread peace on earth and rule with justice amongst the Muslims. Many signs have been mentioned in the Ahadith which will take place before Imam Mahdi will come. A few of them are:

·       Hazrat Anas has said: When people will regard these 5 things as permissible they will be destroyed: abuse and curse, men will wear silk garments, singing and dancing, liquor and homosexuality.

Shooting star (comet)

It has been narrated that:

A comet will be appearing in the east, giving out illumination before he arrives. The birth of that star will follow the eclipse of the sun and the moon.

This has already taken place in 1986 – the Halley’s Comet – a bright and shining star which soared across the night sky radiating its light from east to west. This event happened 5 years after the lunar and solar eclipses of 1981 and 1982.

Big phenomena and appalling incidents

Big phenomena (appalling incidents) will happen in his time to come.

As time draws closer to when Imam Mahdi is revealed, these kinds of events will increase. They include huge fires, tsunamis, earthquakes, mass shootings, poisonous gas leaks, chemical attacks etc.

Modern technology

The sign of that day is that a hand will be extended in the sky and people will stop to look at it.

It doesn’t literally mean a hand – in the early days this Hadith may not have been understood. But in today’s day and age, technology is taking us forward in places that our minds cannot even comprehend.

Interpret hand as meaning power – what possible form of power could there be in the sky? It refers to the radio waves being transferred in the sky carrying signals to the TV, radio, mobile phones and internet.

Mobile Phones

“The Last Hour will not come before the end of a man’s whip speaks to him”. (Tirmidhi)

“... and his thigh informs him of what his family have done after him”.

The Prophet (saw) is making a comparison in appearance. Is there a modern device that talks and resembles a whip? The most logical explanation is the mobile phone with its antenna, a walkie talkie or similar communications devices.

The hadith says that the whip will inform him of his family’s actions. We will all agree that the most common and convenient form of communication is a mobile phone. Also the phone is mostly kept in a person’s pocket, side by side to their thigh.

We should now realise that even our day to day necessities are also a sign of the Day of Judgement. There is nothing bad about them but they should be seen as a sign to do good and prepare for that Day.

Time and Travel

“Great distances will be travelled in short spans of time”. (Ahmad)

Near to the end of time, great distances will be travelled in a small amount of time by means of vehicles such as aeroplanes, high speed trains, fast cars etc. Journeys that would have normally taken months now take a few hours in relative comfort.

International communication that would take weeks before is now done in a matter of seconds through the Internet. Everyday jobs have also been made easier for us through modern appliances.

“The Last Hour will not come before time contracts, a year being like a month, a month like a week, a week like a day, a day like an hour, and an hour like the kindling of a fire”. (Tirmidhi)

“The Last Day will not be established until ... time will pass by quickly”. (Bukhari)

These things are not bad at all but they all serve as a reminder that time is slipping through our hands each day. We must prepare ourselves and gather our good deeds for the Final Hour.

Competition and Fame

“There will be no Judgement until very tall buildings are constructed”.

“The Hour will not be established until the people compete with one another in constructing high buildings”. (Bukhari)

If we look at history, we see that multi-storied buildings only began to be built at the end of the 19^th century. Skyscrapers are now part of the 20^th and 21^st century landscape, and have become a symbol of prestige.

The words of the Prophet (saw) have come true. People are always competing to build the tallest building and tower etc. It is sad to see that this is occurring in many Muslim countries too. 

The main objective of a Muslim should be to work towards elevating his rank in the eyes of Allah for the Hereafter.

Decline of Religious Values

According to the Quran, on the Last Day, the Prophet (saw) will say that his own people will have abandoned the Quran:

“My Lord, my people treat this Quran as something to be ignored”. (Surah Furqan – Verse 30)

It is said in the Hadith that during the end times, the Quran’s guidance will be disregarded and people will stray from it.

“There will come a time upon the Ummah when people will recite the Quran, but it will not go further than their throats, (into their hearts).” (Bukhari)

Despite the fact that the Quran is recited in our mosques and homes, the knowledge it contains is not considered. As the words flow from our lips, its greatness is not felt in our hearts.

The Prophet (saw) spoke of something and said, “It will happen when knowledge will be no more.” The companions asked, “Allah’s Messenger (saw), how will knowledge vanish despite the fact that we will be reciting the Quran, and teaching its recitation to our children, and our children will teach its recitation to their children up to the Day of Judgement?” The Prophet (saw) replied, “Do these Jews and Christians not recite the Torah and the Bible but not act according to what is contained in them?” (Tirmidhi)

Muslims today have fallen into the traps of Shaytan, because he has made the lives of the non-Muslims look good to us and made us weak in our religion.

“Near the establishment of the Hour, good deeds will decrease.” (Bukhari)

We should ask ourselves: How often do we pick up the Quran and recite it with value, thinking about the meaning of its verses? Or has it just become an ordinary book left to gather dust on the highest shelf of the bookshelf? Or maybe the Quran has just become a book that is only noticed and recited during Ramadan?

Indecency

“There will be prevalence of open illegal sexual intercourse” (Bukhari)

There are many examples of the morals of society going down – homosexuality, prostitution, pre-marital relationships, adultery etc.

Muslims now think these things are normal because they have become so common in society.

This is all a wake up call for us to realise that the Last Day is closer than ever.

Earthquakes

“The Hour will not be established until .. earthquakes will be very frequent”. (Bukhari)

Major earthquakes have increased, and they are the thing that many countries fear the most.

There is a chapter in the Quran called Surah Zilzaal (the Great Shaking or Earthquake), and it describes the violent shaking of the earth, and says that following it, the Day of Judgment will arrive when we will all be held accountable for our actions, even for the smallest of things:

“Whoever does an atom’s weight of good will see it, whoever does an atom’s weight of evil will see it”.

We have mentioned only a few of the signs – there are many more, and there have been countless books written about them.

We need to realise how merciful Allah has been by actually giving us all these signs, and giving us the time to repent and do good deeds.

Allah has sent a teacher to this world as a gift. He was the Prophet Muhammad (saw), and we need to embed his teachings into lives in order to be successful. 

May Allah make us all successful in this world, but most importantly, the Next - Ameen!

Wasalaam!