Signs of the Last Hour

The following information is a summaryof a lecture given by a scholar
of Riverside, Gharm-Allah El-Ghamdy, around the fall of 1991. Editor's
notes are in brackets []. It is hard to tell whether certain of these
events have already occurred, or when they will precisely occur. Allah
knows best.
Though Allah only knows when the Last Hour before the Day of
Resurrection will come, He has given us 'clues' about its approach
through information in the Qur'an and the hadith of the Prophet. The
signs can be separated into two categories: minor and major. This
article does not cover all the signs, but most of the important ones
are here. All these signs are, of course, based on hadith and/or
Qur'an, mainly theformer.
Minor Signs (in no particular order)
1. "The coming of the LastProphet, Muhammad ibn Abd-Allah (SAW)."
[This has already happened, of course.]
2. "The slave will become the master."
3. "Shepherds will compete in the construction of tall buildings."
[The modern ex-nomads of Saudi Arabia are an excellent example of
this.]
4. "Knowledge of Islam will be taken away while ignorance will
increase. This removal of knowledge will be because old scholars will
die and fewer and fewer new scholars willreplace them. The leaders of
the Muslims will be chosen from ignorant people, and they will rule
accordingto their whims." [Today, studying Islam formally is
considered to be an inferior career in most of the Muslim world. The
leaders of the Muslim world are more known for their political or
military prowess (oppressive ability?) than Islamic knowledge.]
5. "Drinking and fornication will increase heavily."
6. "The population of menwill decrease, and women increase till fifty
women shall be forevery man."
7. "Thirty people will claim to be prophets, followed by Al-Dajjal
(the anti-Christ roughly)."
8. "There will be such an abundance of wealth that people will not be
able to find recipients for zakat."
9. "Killing will increase."
10. "Time will be shortened so that a year will be like a month, a
month like a day, a day like an hour." [This perception of the
seemingly dwindling amount of time is veryapparent, especially inFirst
World countries.]
11. "Two great countries will fight and kill each other, both claiming
the same thing."
12. "Earthquakes will increase in number." [Welcome to California. :-]
13. "A person will pass by the grave, and wish totrade places out of despair."
Major Signs (in rough chronological order)
1. "Al-Dajjal will come, claiming to be God holding Heaven and Hell.
His purpose is to deceive, and unbelievers will follow him. He is
short, red-faced, blind in the right eye, and has hair which sticks
up. He will go around the world, but will be unable to enter Madinah
or Makkah." [There are numerous detailed ahadith on this man.]
2. "Al-Mahdi will come at the time of Al-Dajjal. He will call to the
true Islam, and will be a military leader. His name will be exactly
like that of the Prophet:Muhammad ibn Abd-Allah, and his father's name
will match the Prophet's father's name also. He will be descended from
Fatima, the daughter ofthe Prophet."
3. "Isa (Jesus) will come atthe time of Al-Dajjal and al-Mahdi as
well. He will descend at the time of Fajr prayer on amasjid in
Damascus, thecapital of Syria. He is of medium height, red-faced, and
his hair is as if he just took a shower. He will call people back to
Islam, but he will also be a military leader. The People of the Book
will revert to Islam, and wealth will be super-abundant. Isa will
break the cross, kill the swine, and personally slay Al-Dajjal. He
will stay on Earth for a long time thereafter, and then die."
4. "An animal will come and call people back to Islam." [The
descriptionof the animal is unknown (Arabic: 'Dab-ba'). Reference to
this animal is mentioned in the Qur'an.]
5. "Gog and Magog (two hidden tribes of people) will break free of the
dam that holds them back, and ravage the earth. They will drink all
the water, andkill people until Allah sends against them a worm which
will wipe them out." [This is roughly before/during the time of Isa,
although it is not entirely clear.]
6. "Three places in the world will sink and be swallowed up by the
earth. One in the west, one in the east, and one in the Saudi Arabian
peninsula." [This may refer to a series of giant, epic earthquakes.]
7. "Fire will come from the area of Aden in Yemen, and sweep
northwards." [There are claims that this already happened in some
medieval event.]
8. "The sun will rise from the west ." [This description is not
meantto be a symbolic one...but it is known that it is one of the
last,if not the very last one before the following.]
9. "Smoke will appear all over the earth which will cause believers to
catch something similarto a slight cold, whereas the unbelievers will
be hit harder by it. Finally, a cold wind will come and kill all
believers, leaving only unbelievers on the earth who will then witness
the LAST HOUR . The angel Israfil will blow a trumpet, and the
resurrection of all human beings will begin." [At this point, the Day
of Resurrection commences in which the skies and earth are destroyed
by Allah.]
This list is far from complete; there are manyother signs. A couple
more of interest are: Constantinople (Istanbul) will fall before Rome
to Islam (note that this means Rome will indeed fall), and the Muslim
political system will go from Prophetic leadership to a just Khilafah
to a 'biting' authority to an oppressive authority and finally back to
a just Khilafah. It seems that today we are in the next to last stage
of this chain;now is a good time to actively work for the
reestablishment of the Muslim state and Khilafah.
Finally, the Prophet has said that when the Signs start to come, they
will come FAST - like a string of beads falling one afterthe other.
And Allah Knows Best.