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"In the name of Allah the Beneficent, the Merciful.Muhammad (May Allah be pleased with him) said

"Peace be upon him, who follows the right path. Furthermore I invite you to Islam, and if you become a Muslim you will be safe, and Allah will double your reward, and if you reject this invitation of Islam you will be committing a sin by misguiding your Arisiyin (peasants). (And I recite to you Allah's Statement:)
'O people of the scripture! Come to a word common to you and us that we worship none but Allah and that we associate nothing in worship with Him, and that none of us shall take others as Lords beside Allah. Then, if they turn away, say: Bear witness that we are Muslims (those who have surrendered to Allah).' (3:64).


Monday, August 16, 2010

Why do Muslims Pray Five Times a Day?

Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, was forty years of age when Angel Gabriel appeared to inform him that he was a Prophet of the One God. Prior to that event he was, himself, unaware of this status of his, yet he never worshipped the idols of Arabia. There were others, known as Hunafa, who also refused to worship idols. They worshipped One God, made the annual pilgrimage (Hajj) to His Holy Temple in Makkah built by Abraham. And they sacrificed animals annually in commemoration of Abraham’s trial of sacrifice of his (then) only son, Ishmael, peace be upon him.

Sometime after that first visit, the Angel came one day and taught the Prophet how to perform ablution before prayer, i.e., wash hands, mouth, nostrils and entire face, then wash arms up to the elbows, then pass wet hands on the head, and, finally, wash the feet. The angel also taught him how to stand bare-footed in prayer, to bow down and to prostrate before the Lord-God. Some eleven years later, the Prophet was summoned in a miraculous celestial journey by night from Makkah to Jerusalem and then into the heavens to the special Divine presence. He then received the obligation of ‘five times daily prayers’ directly from the Lord-God Himself, and he returned to announce to all those who had faith in Allah Most High that the institution of (five times daily) prayers was the vehicle through which they, too, could journey to the divine presence.

Angel Gabriel subsequently came to him one day and led him in prayer five times - once in the early morning (after dawn but before sunrise), once in the early afternoon (after the sun had crossed the zenith but before mid-afternoon), once in the later afternoon (but before the setting of the sun), once after the sun had set, and finally in the early hours of the night (after twilight had ended). On each occasion he led the prayers at the earliest time possible. He then returned the next day and again led the Prophet in the same five times prayers, but this time he chose the latest possible time for each prayer. He then announced that these were the five times of compulsory prayer, and that each prayer was to be performed within the timeframe just established. In addition to these compulsory prayers there are, of course, voluntary prayers that could be performed at any time, but best of all in the early hours of the morning before dawn.

Since there is but One God, and hence but one Truth, and only one true religion (i.e., the religion of ‘Abraham’ from whose name the name ‘Brahma’ appears to have originated) the implication is that whoever worships the One true God must pray these five times compulsory prayers every day. Anyone who does not perform the five times daily prayers would eventually live an essentially pagan life since the compulsory five times daily prayers are the very foundation of the religious way of life.

When Jesus, the true Messiah, peace be upon him, returns, he, also, will pray to Allah Most High five times a day in the same way that Angel Gabriel taught Prophet Muhammad to pray, and in the same way that Muslims pray to this day (without chairs, benches, pews, etc.) They stand barefooted before Allah Most High in prayer, then bow down, sit flat, and prostrate themselves with their faces on the blessed earth. They do so ‘five times a day’, and will continue to do so, Insha Allah, in defiance of that godless world-order that is waging war on them, and regardless of the price they pay for that defiance. And they do so with the absolute conviction that Truth must eventually triumph over its wicked godless enemies.

They also recite in every prayer the opening Surah (chapter) of the Qur’an in which they ask to be guided “on the straight path – the path of those whom Thou hast blessed, not the path of those who earn Thine anger, nor of those who go astray.” It should be clear to our readers that those who are today waging unjust war on Islam in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Holy Land and elsewhere, most certainly earn Allah’s anger, and those misguided Muslims or non-Muslims who support such people, while worshipping at the alter of a US Visa, or for whatever other foolish reason, are most certainly a people who have gone astray.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Iqbal, the Sufi Epistemology and The End of History

We attempt in this essay to examine the appearance of an epistemological paradox in the thought of Dr. Muhammad Iqbal.

There was that knowledge which he imparted to his native people, Indian Muslims who were subjected to brutal anti-Muslim British colonial rule, which touched their very souls and fired them with a scorching reaffirmation of commitment to Islam the religion. It was communicated in their native languages - Urdu and Persian. Had it been communicated in English, the European world of scholarship that was waging war on Islam would have rejected and sneered at it. Iqbal would have suffered a loss of prestige amongst his European peers.

And then there was that other knowledge which he communicated in English, and which included his views concerning the ‘End of History’. It impressed European scholarship, as well as his western-educated countrymen. Had some of it been communicated in Urdu or Persian, such as his rejection of belief in the advent of Imam al-Mahdi, of Dajjal the false Messiah or Anti-Christ, and in the return of the true Messiah, Jesus the son of the Virgin Mary (peace and blessings of Allah Most High be upon them both), it would have created serious and abiding problems for him amongst the Muslim masses. To this day, there are many Muslims who are inspired by Iqbal, but remain blissfully ignorant of his real views concerning the ‘End of History’.

The dualism in Iqbal’s thought and works is compounded by the fact that he sometimes says one thing in English, and then proceeds to say something quite different in Urdu or Persian.

For example, he agrees with the Turkish Ijtihad (if it may be called such) to the effect that the Imamate or Caliphate (which was abolished by Mustafa Kamal’s Turkish Grand National Assembly in 1924) can be vested in a body of persons or an elected Assembly. Provided that a modern Parliament can be constituted of good Muslims, Iqbal would be willing to accept it as a valid substitute for the Caliphate. Yet Iqbal, in verse, urges the restoration of the Caliphate, and seeks that mobilization of the Islamic spirit that would make it possible:
“Taa Khilafat kee bina dunyah main ho phir ustawaar, Laa kahein say dhoond kar aslaaf ka qalb-o-jigar.”
(In order to strengthen or vitalize the cause of (the restoration of) the Caliphate in this world, It is imperative that we locate and rebuild the heart and liver, i.e., the courage, faith and mettle of the first Muslims.)

Iqbal is fairly explicit in his rejection of belief in the advent of Imam Al-Mahdi and in the return of the true Messiah, Jesus the son of the Virgin Mary. This is what he says:

“The doctrine of the finality of prophethood may further be regarded as a psychological cure for the Magian attitude of constant expectation which tends to give a false view of history. Ibn Khaldun, seeing the spirit of his own view of history, has fully criticized and, I believe, finally demolished the alleged revelational basis in Islam of an idea similar, at least in its psychological effects, to the original Magian idea which had reappeared in Islam under the pressure of Magian thought.”
(Iqbal, Dr. Muhammad., Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, ed. by M. Saeed Shaikh, Lahore, Institute of Islamic Culture, 1986) p. 115

Indeed, in his letter to Muhammad Ahsan he adds belief in the advent of Dajjal the false Messiah to the list of Magian ideas which, he claims, have infiltrated into Islamic thought. This is clear from his use of the word masihiyat. (Iqbalnama, Vol. II, p. 231. Quoted in M. Saeed Sheikh, “Editor’s Introduction” to Iqbal’s Reconstruction, op. cit., p. xi).

Yet Iqbal, in verse, is fairly explicit in the affirmation of belief in the advent of Imam Al-Mahdi:
“Out of the seclusion of the desert of Hejaz, The Guide of the Time (Khidr-e-Waqt) is to come. And from that far, far away valley, The Caravan is to make its appearance.”

The view has been expressed that Iqbal’s Khidr-e-Waqt was none other than the founder of Pakistan Muhammad Ali Jinnah. We disagree. By no stretch of the imagination can Jinnah be conceived of having emerged from a distant valley in the Hejaz. Nor could Sultan Abdul Aziz bin Saud, who placed the Hejaz under Anglo-American clientage, be conceived as Khidr-e-Waqt. Who then, other than Imam al-Mahdi, was Iqbal referring to?

We trace this apparently disturbing dualism in Iqbal’s thought and works and suggest that it resulted from an epistemological ambivalence in his thought. Different epistemologies function at different levels of consciousness. Iqbal’s theoretic consciousness, operating with the English language, appears to have functioned with one epistemology. His aesthetic and spiritual consciousness, operating with his native languages, seems to have functioned with another. Unless one succeeds in integrating all levels of consciousness in the personality, an epistemological ambivalence and a dualism in thought can appear.

It would be a disservice to Iqbal to suggest that he deliberately chose this duality of views in order to mislead his European audience. Such would imply that he also, in the process, mislead an entire generation of his native Muslim people who readily absorbed his views expressed in English. Iqbal is too great a scholar to have used Islamic scholarship to mislead his reading audience, which included so many of his own Muslim people.

SUFI EPISTEMOLOGY
The Sufis have a consistent record of not only recognizing, but also of using the heart as a vehicle for the acquisition of knowledge. That experience of the heart, through which it “sees” and penetrates “truth,” is frequently referred to as “religious experience.” In its wider sense, religious experience also includes that intuitive grasp which delivers to the believer the “substance” or “reality” of things. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah Most High be upon him) referred to it when he warned: “Fear the firasah (i.e., intuitive capacity for penetrating the substance of things) of the believer, for surely he sees with the light of Allah.” And Iqbal himself directed attention to it in his famous couplet:
“Hazaron saal Nargis apni baynuri pay roti hai, Bari mushkil say hota hai,chaman main, deedawar paida.”
“For thousands of years, The narcissus (flower) has bemoaned its blindness; It is with great difficulty that a discerning sage (i.e. one who sees what others cannot see), Appears in the garden (of life).”

Iqbal’s deedawar—i.e., the discerning sage—is clearly he who sees with an inner light. Iqbal is, himself, a true expression of a deedawar.

The epistemology that recognizes ‘religious experience’ as a source of knowledge is herein referred to as the Sufi epistemology. The knowledge itself that comes from such a source is known as ‘Ilm al-Batin.

All through history, it was always important for the seeker of knowledge to be able to penetrate the ‘substance’ or ‘reality’ of things. But that would become absolutely essential in an age in which ‘appearance’ and ‘reality’ would be in total conflict with each other. ‘Appearance’ would be so dangerous that, if accepted, would lead to the destruction of faith. And so, in that age, survival would depend upon the capacity to penetrate beyond external form to reach internal substance, and thus be saved from being deceived and destroyed. Islam has declared that such an age would appear before the end of the world. And this reconfirms the abiding importance of the Sufi epistemology.

Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah Most High be upon him) advised that Surah al-Kahf (Chapter 18) of the Qur’an be recited every day of Juma’ah (i.e., Friday) for protection from the Fitnah (deception, trial) of Dajjal whose modus operandi is to deceive. The story in Surah al-Kahf of Moses (‘alaihi al-Salam) and Khidr (‘alaihi al-Salam) reveals the inadequacy of that epistemology which admits of knowledge only through observation. Moses is mistaken on all three occasions. Khidr on the other hand, who sees with the light of Allah Most High, corrects the mistakes which Moses made.

The story also indirectly points an ominous finger at the misguided community of Moses, i.e., the Jews, as the people who would experience the greatest deception, would be deceived and would then fail to read accurately the historical process. In consequence of being deceived they would blindly follow the most dangerous of all Pied Pipers, i.e., Dajjal the false Messiah or Anti-Christ, to their final destruction in history. My view is that this deception has already taken place, and the final destruction of the Euro-Jewish State of Israel is now certain.

Iqbal is himself an excallent example of a scholar with a matchless capacity to penetrate beyond appearances to grasp the reality of things. He made a thorough and penetrating study of modern western civilization and came to the conclusion that its appearance was quite different from its reality. Just three months before his death he tore away the veil or appearance of “progress,” and delivered a stinging denunciation of the modern West. Many, including the likes of Shaikh Muhammad Abduh, as well as today’s secular liberals, have declared that they have seen Islam itself in the modern West. Iqbal was not deceived:

“The modern age prides itself on its progress in knowledge and its matchless scientific development. No doubt, the pride is justified…. But in spite of all these developments, tyranny of imperialism struts abroad, covering its face in the masks of Democracy, Nationalism, Communism, Fascism, and heavens know what else besides. Under these masks, in every corner of the earth, the spirit of freedom and the dignity of man are being trampled underfoot in a way of which not even the darkest period of human history presents a parallel.”
(Iqbal, Dr. Muhammad, New Year’s Message, Broadcast from All India Radio, Lahore, Jan. 1, 1938.Quoted in Syed Abdul Vahid, Thoughts and Reflections of Iqbal, Lahore, Ashraf, 1964. p. 373)

EPISTEMOLOGY OF THE MODERN WEST
Modern western civilization emerged in consequence of sudden unprecedented change that overtook Europe. A civilization which was previously based on faith (in Christianity), and which had given collective and dramatic expression of that faith in the Crusades, experienced a radical change which transformed it into a civilization based on materialism. The new epistemology, which paved the way for the collective acceptance of materialism, was one that specifically denied the possibility of knowledge being acquired through religious experience, or through revelations from the unseen. Observation and experimentation were the only valid means through which knowledge could be acquired; hence that which could not be observed could not be known. The new epistemology naturally paved the way for a dramatic conclusion, to wit, a world which could not be observed and known, did not exist. Hence there is no reality beyond material reality.

IQBAL’S EPISTEMOLOGICAL RESPONSE
Iqbal realized that the acceptance of this western epistemology would result in the complete destruction of religion in the world of Islam. Knowledge would be secularized, and the secularized mind would be cut off from the unseen world — the world of the sacred. The heart would then lose that sacred light without which its sight is, at best, dim. Even the best scholars in the world of Islam would then be in danger of being deceived by western Pied Pipers, and all of mankind would dance to their tunes. Islam would be so secularized that a Protestant version of Islam would emerge. An age, which had already experienced the total dominance of western civilization over all of mankind, posed a great danger of precisely such an epistemological penetration of the Muslim mind.

Iqbal’s response was to devote two of the seven lectures that were subsequently compiled in a book as “The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam”, to a vigorous defense of the Sufi epistemology, and to place these two lectures at the very beginning of the series of lectures. They occupy the same prominent position as the first two chapters of the book.

In “Knowledge and Religious Experience” and “The Philosophical Test of the Revelations of Religious Experience”, Iqbal presented the most well-reasoned and persuasive challenge to the new western epistemology ever penned by a Muslim. These first two chapters of the Reconstruction were produced and prominently placed for precisely this purpose, i.e., to stimulate Islamic scholarship to probe with Allah’s light, and to penetrate beyond the seductive appearances presented by the modern age, in order to reach its poisonous reality.

More than sixty years have passed since that challenge (in the first two chapters of Reconstruction), and neither has western scholarship condescended to respond to it nor has Islamic scholarship cared to follow in the epistemological trail which he blazed. Indeed, this failure on the part of Islamic scholarship is partly responsible for the terrible plight in which the world of Islam now finds itself. The western world, with its secularized system of education, its politics of power-lust, greed and polarization of society, and its economics of exploitation, has enjoyed almost total success in deceiving the world of Islam and in thus leading it down the road of impotence, anarchy, intellectual confusion, and the ruination of faith.

IQBAL’S AMBIVALENCE
From his adolescent days as a college student in Lahore to his university education in Europe, Iqbal’s exposure to western thought was continuously intimate. He also lived in an age that was forced to observe the literal explosion of western scholarship on the stage of the world. History had never witnessed anything comparable to that scholarship which dramatically extended the frontiers of knowledge in nearly every conceivable branch of knowledge. The scientific revolution of the West was something unique in the world of knowledge. More often than not Iqbal’s respect for western scholarship grew into outright admiration. Our view is that this admiration for western scholarship provoked a corollary. It revealed itself in the startling accusation that “…during the last five hundred years religious thought in Islam has been practically stationary” (Iqbal, Reconstruction, op. cit., p. 6).

And the consequence of that profound admiration was found in the Reconstruction, which is littered with references to, and quotations from, his peers in the world of western scholarship. There was no such peer within his own community, and so there is not a single reference in the Reconstruction to a contemporary Muslim scholar in the huge and intellectually influential Indian Muslim community.

This ambivalence, this love-hate relationship which found expression in the first two chapters of the Reconstruction, as in the endless references to Western scholars, was also revealed in Iqbal’s choice of language for addressing Muslims on as important a subject as the reconstruction of their religious thought. He chose to address the Western-educated Muslim intelligentsia in English. It must have been an absolutely amazing spectacle to behold Iqbal, seventy years ago, addressing his largely uncomprehending Muslim audience (one needs to have some knowledge of philosophy in order to comprehend these lectures) in chaste English and in a manner which conformed to Western linguistic etiquette and sensibilities. It must have been an equally amazing sight to behold the same Iqbal using the native Urdu and Persian languages to convey through poetry a message whose form and substance was quite alien to the Western mind.

We believe that Iqbal was not, himself, immune from the negative influence of the very Western epistemology of which he warned so strongly. His poetry, which came directly from the heart, witnessed the unsurpassed use of the Sufi epistemology and was uncluttered by any Western logical or epistemological restraints. The same cannot always be said of his thought when expressed in English. Our purpose in this paper is to direct attention to a subject which, more than any other, illustrates Iqbal’s epistemological ambivalence. That subject is “the end of history.”

ISLAM AND THE END OF HISTORY
Is there an Islamic view of the end of history? Did Iqbal ever address it?

It is appropriate, in the context of the subject we are here examining, to note that Islam has chosen terminology located in time for referring to the end of the world. The Islamic word is “the Hour” (al-Sa’ah). The supreme importance of this subject of “the Hour,” i.e., the end of history, was established in the famous visit of Archangel Gabriel (‘alaihi al-Salam) when he appeared before the Prophet (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) in the Masjid in the form of a man. He asked questions, the Prophet (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) answered them, and Gabriel (‘alaihi al-Salam) then confirmed that the answers were correct. Sometime after his departure the Prophet (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) informed the Muslims of the identity of the visitor, and of the fact that he had come (at that very late stage in the life of the Prophet) to instruct them in their religion. He had asked five questions, and two of these related to the end of history. The first question was: when will the end come? And the Prophet (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) had replied to the effect that the one who was being questioned had no more knowledge of the subject than the questioner. The second question was: tell me of the signs by which we would know that the end is at hand (i.e., what are some of the signs by which we would recognize the age that would witness the end of history?) He replied to the effect that a slave girl would give birth to her mistress (and this has now become a possibility because of surrogate parenting), and that the barefooted shepherds of yesterday would be competing with each other in constructing high-rise buildings. (Some of the foremost scholars of Islam in this age have declared that this sign has now materialized.)

This extraordinary Hadith amply demonstrated the supreme importance that Islam has attached to the subject of the end of history. It also clearly establishes that we now live in the last age.

The Islamic view of the last age is quite comprehensive. It includes the belief that the earth would function as habitat for a limited duration (al-Baqarah 2:36). The earth would one day be transformed into a dust bowl (al-Kahf 18:8). This implies that the end-time, which witnesses the death of the earth, would be preceded by an age of a constantly diminishing supply of (fresh) water, leading, eventually, to extreme scarcity of water. The Prophet (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) described that last age as the age of Fitan (i.e., tests and trials), and the Qur’an warned that all of mankind would be targeted, and that Allah’s Punishment would be terrible. (Qur’an, al-Anfal, 8:25).

The constantly diminishing supply of water would take place in consequence of the release into the world by Allah Most High of evil beings whom He created, namely Gog and Magog (Ya’juj and Ma’juj). The last two Suwar (chapters) of the Qur’an were specifically devoted to warning the believers of the very great dangers which would emerge in the world in consequence of the release of “evil created by Allah.” The evil would appear as “evil beings” created by Allah Most High to test and to punish. They are Ya’juj, Ma’juj and Dajjal. The Prophet (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) described Ya’juj and Ma’juj to be such thirsty beings that they would drink up all the water of the world. “They would pass by a river”, he said, “and they would drink it dry”. (Kanz al-Ummal, Vol. 7, Hadith No. 2157). The last age would thus be characterized by over-consumption, waste, and disrespect for water. Mankind would witness, in the last age, riots and wars fought over water.

When we look around us in the world, it appears to be quite clear that the countdown has already begun. There is an ominous and growing shortage of water in nearly all parts of the world today. The head of the U. N. Environment Program has recently expressed his fear that the world is heading towards a “period of water-wars between nations.” A Pakistani government minister has warned of the eventual likelihood of riots over water in the city of Karachi. The Kalabagh Dam project threatens bloodshed. The Farrakha Dam, built by India, threatens to drown Bangladesh. Turkey and Syria may one day wage war over water which is one of the gravest issues that divide them. Israel, the Palestinian Arabs, and the neighboring Arab Sates (particularly Jordan) have serious and growing differences over the sharing of dwindling water supplies. The Israelis are actually waging a water war on the Palestinian Arabs, Muslims as well as Christians.

It would therefore appear that the release of Ya’juj and Ma’juj has already taken place. Iqbal agrees. Indeed, he appears to be one of the very few scholars of Islam to have ever had the vision and the courage to make a formal declaration that the release has taken place and that we now live in the last age, or the age that will witness the end of history. The declaration was made in Urdu verse, and, predictably, there is not even a hint of it in any of his writings or statements made in English. This is the verse:
“Khul gayay y’ajuj aur m’ajuj ka lashkar tamam, Chashmay Muslim dekhlay tafseer harf-e-yansiloon.”
“The hordes of Gog and Magog, Have all been released; The Muslim can (now) perceive with his very eyes (right in front of him), The meaning of yansiloon.”

The word yansilun, which occurs at the end of the verse, and to the Tafsir (interpretation) of which Iqbal has directed the attention of the Muslims, refers to a passage of the Qur’an in Surah al-Anbiyah in which Allah Most High declares that when Ya’juj and Ma’juj are released they will spread out in every direction (min kulli hadabin yansilun). Here is the passage:
“And there is a ban on a town which We destroyed, that they shall not return (i.e., the people of the town are banned from returning to reclaim the town as their own), until Ya’juj (Gog) and Ma’juj (Magog) are released (from the barrier which Dhu al-Qarnain built in order to contain them), and they spread out in every direction.”
(Qur’an, al-Anbiyah, 21:95- 96)

This indicates that Ya’juj and Ma’juj would not only become the dominant force in the world, but that their power would subdue all of mankind. Indeed, their power would be such that, according to a Hadith al-Qudsi, Allah Most High has Himself declared: “None but I can destroy them.” (Kanz Al-Ummal , Vol. 7, Hadith No. 3021).

Our view is that Iqbal arrived at this amazingly accurate conclusion eighty years ago in consequence of his use of the Sufi epistemology. He not only made a critical and an acute observation of the historical process, and of the world which confronted him, but he also had the courage to make an intellectual leap for a startling intuitive grasp which delivered to him, for one dazzling moment in time, the very substance of the subject. The uneducated say many things without knowledge. But when a scholar of the Qur’an makes a declaration such as this, it must rest on the foundation of knowledge. Conventional Islamic scholarship, unable or unwilling to reach out for that intuitive grasp of the subject, is yet to pronounce on the release of Ya’juj and Ma’juj. This writer met in Lahore with the late commentator of Iqbal, Prof. Muhammad Munawwar, who confirmed that Iqbal considered the modern Judeo-Christian west to be the civilization of Ya’juj and Ma’juj..)

We believe that Iqbal was absolutely correct. Consider the following:
The Caliphate is an institution central to the collective integrity of the Muslim Ummah. Although the seat of the Caliphate was oftimes filled in a manner which did not conform to the Shari’ah of Islam, the office of the Caliphate survived for some 1300 years. There is an indication of a prophecy of the destruction of the Caliphate, and of its restoration at the time of the advent of Imam Al-Mahdi, in the famous Hadith in which the Prophet (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) spoke of the return of Prophet Jesus (‘alaihi al-Salam):
“How will you be when the Son of Mary descends amongst you and your Imam will be from amongst yourselves.” (Sahih Bukhari)

Within seven years of Iqbal’s pronouncement concerning the release of Ya’juj and Ma’juj in 1917, the unprecedented power and influence of today’s dominant western civilization led to the destruction of the Ottoman Islamic Empire and, subsequently, to the collapse of the Caliphate.

Secondly, the Hajj is an institution which is even more central in importance to Islam, and which has survived for thousands of years. The Prophet (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) has prophesied the abandonment of the Hajj in the context of the aftermath of the release of Ya’juj and Ma’juj. The fulfillment of that prophecy appears to be imminent. It should come to pass as soon as the Jews deliver on their promise to destroy Masjid al-Aqsa in order to rebuild the Temple of Solomon (‘alaihi al-Salam). When it does come to pass it will confirm, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that Iqbal was absolutely correct in this pronouncement concerning the release of Ya’juj and Ma’juj.

Thirdly, the basic characteristic of Ya’juj and Ma’juj is their Fasad (i.e., their conduct which corrupts, spoils, ruins) (Qur’an, al-Kahf, 18:94). The age of Ya’juj and Ma’juj would thus be one of immense and unprecedented corruption. Everything will be corrupted—religion and religious scholars; government and political life; the market, the economy, and the world of finance or money; law and justice; transportation, the environment, even the ecological system of the earth; sex, marriage and family life; sports and entertainment; education, youth, the role of women in society, and so on. When we look around us in the world today we find ample evidence of this universal corruption, indicating that Iqbal was correct, and that the countdown has begun.

Fourthly, another basic characteristic of Ya’juj and Ma’juj is their godlessness and immorality (khabath). The godlessness was described in a Hadith al-Qudsi in which we were informed that only one of every 1000 of the end-time would enter into heaven (and that person would be a follower of the Prophet). The rest, 999 out of every 1000, would all be the people of Ya’juj and Ma’juj and would all be sent to Hell. (Sahih Bukhari, 4:567; 6:265; 8:537)

The immorality was described in a Hadith in which the Prophet (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) conveyed to this wife, Zainab (radiallahu ‘anha), the news that the advent of Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj would be in consequence of the increase of Khabath in the world (Sahih Bukhari, 4:797; 9:181; 9:249).

The Qur’anic use of the term Khabath includes that sexual perversity which characterized Sodom and Gomorrah. There is sufficient godlessness, immorality, and sexual perversity in the world today to qualify for the description given by the Prophet (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam). Again Iqbal is correct.

A fifth characteristic of Ya’juj and Ma’juj, and one which also follows from the above, is that they would transform all of mankind into one single global society in which all would follow essentially the same way of life. It would be godless and decadent. Already that single godless, decadent society has won over the elite society around the world. The process is now moving inexorably to win over the masses as well. The actual Hadith is that Ya’juj, the community (Ummah), would expand to incorporate another four hundred communities (Umam). Ma’juj, the Ummah, would do the same. And so the world of Ya’juj and Ma’juj would be an ever-expanding globalized world of information, communication, entertainment, and culture, etc. It would culminate in one decadent global society with the mental and spiritual illumination of Kentucky Fried Chicken and Coca Cola. A world government will preside over it. Television has played, and still plays, a crucial role in the relentless pursuit of that goal—a goal that now appears to be quite within reach. This confirms Iqbal’s declaration.

Sixthly, perhaps the most significant clue of the release of Ya’juj and Ma’juj, and ominous consequences of that release for the world of Islam, is located in the Hadith (referred to above) in which the Prophet (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) spoke to his wife, Ummul Mu’minin Zainab (radiallahu’anha), about the release of Ya’juj and Ma’juj. His words were: “Woe unto the Arabs, because of an evil which is now approaching.” In other words, the release of Ya’juj and Ma’juj would result in great calamities and suffering in the Arab world in particular. The clue is expressed quite explicitly in the Qur’an, however, when Allah Most High declared of a town (or city) which He had destroyed, that its restoration would never be possible until the release of Ya’juj and Ma’juj makes it possible (see reference to verses 95 & 96 of Surah al-Anbiyah above).

My own use of the Sufi epistemology led me to the conclusion that the town was Jerusalem (i.e., the State of Israel) and hence I interpreted the verse to the effect that the State of Israel, destroyed by Allah Most High twice in history, would be restored when Ya’juj and Ma’juj are released, and as a consequence, that restoration formed part of the Divine Plan through which Dajjal the false Messiah or Anti-Christ would deceive the Jews and lead them to their final destruction. Indeed, this is precisely why he is known as al-Masih al-Dajjal. The identification of the “town” with Jerusalem is not far-fetched at all. There are several Ahadith which link Ya’juj and Ma’juj with Jerusalem (i.e., the State of Israel). For example, the Prophet (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) said that when Ya’juj and Ma’juj are released they would pass by the Sea of Galilee (which is in Israel) (Kanz Al-Ummal, Vol 7, Hadith No. 3021).

Then there is a very long Hadith in Sahih Muslim in which we are told that Ya’juj and Ma’juj would attack the true Messiah, Jesus the son of the virgin Mary (peace and blessings of Allah Most High upon them both) in Jerusalem.

It should be noted that the Jordan-Israeli Peace Treaty of October 1994 recognized Jordan’s contractual rights to a certain amount of water from rivers shared by both countries. Israel may fulfill treaty obligations by pumping water from the Sea of Galilee. The water level in the Sea of Galilee has now reached so low (at the time of writing this essay in 1998) that further pumping of water would cause damage to its capacity to store water. Consequently, Israel has been forced to suspend its fulfillment of its treaty obligation concerning the supply of water to Jordan. Israel has recently told Jordan that the latter’s share of water will be reduced by 60% during the coming summer due to “low rain fall.” In response, the Jordanian Foreign Minister has urged Israel to fulfill its commitment and to carry out the signed agreement. The countdown has begun!

The restoration of the State of Israel not only confirmed the release of Dajjal the false Messiah and of Ya’juj and Ma’juj, but it also constituted a veritable dagger plunged into the very heart of the Arab Muslim world. This, in turn, fulfilled the ominous prophecy: “Woe unto the Arabs.” We may add, in passing, that the feminist revolution of the modern age (in which night wants to become day) confirms that Dajjal is now in the last stage of his mission.

I was pleasantly surprised to find this conclusion confirmed by eminent Sufi Sheikhs. It is just possible that Iqbal came to the same conclusion and this was one of the reasons why he called for attention to be devoted to tafseer harf-e-yansilun (i.e., the interpretation of verses 95 and 96 of Surah al-Anbiyah of the Qur’an). After all, the Zionist Movement was established in 1898, and the alliance between the Zionists and the modern West was painfully revealed to Iqbal in the Balfour Declaration of 1917.

IQBAL’S EPISTEMOLOGICAL AMBIVALENCE AND THE END OF HISTORY
The major actors in the last stage of history, viz., Ya’juj and Ma’juj, Dajjal, Imam al-Mahdi, and the return of the true Messiah, Jesus the son of the Virgin Mary (peace and blessings of Allah Most High be upon them both), and the respective roles which they play, all combine to form an integrated inseparable whole.

What is truly alarming is that despite Iqbal’s confirmation of the release of Ya’juj and Ma’juj, he rejected belief in Dajjal the false Messiah, Imam Al-Mahdi and the return of the true Messiah, Jesus the son of the virgin Mary (peace and blessings of Allah Most High be upon them both). What possible explanation could there be for this truly unfortunate situation? Also, how do we explain the surprising fact that apart for that one solitary verse on Ya’juj and Ma’juj Iqbal is otherwise completely silent on the subject?

My view is that if Iqbal were alive today, the unfolding events in the world, and, in particular, in the Holy Land, would have forced him to change his views with respect to Dajjal the false Messiah, Imam Al-Mahdi and the return of Jesus the true Messiah.. Did he not himself say: “Only stones do not change”! It was because the reality of Ya’juj and Ma’juj was established by the Qur’an that there was no way that Iqbal could have dismissed the subject. The corollary is that if Ya’juj and Ma’juj had not been established in the Qur’an, and were dependent on the Ahadith, they would have suffered the same fate as belief in the advent of Imam al-Mahdi, Dajjal, and the return of Jesus (‘alaihi al-Salam). When Iqbal turned to the study of these subjects he appears to have experienced an epistemological transformation. The spiritual or religious consciousness was used to study the subject of Ya’juj and Ma’juj. The light of Allah Most High illumined the path for a dazzling display of the intuitive penetration of truth. On the other hand, it was the theoretic consciousness which was used to study the other verities which were not established by the Qur’an. I also suspect an impact of Iqbal’s philosophical training, as well as the western epistemology, on Iqbal’s theoretic consciousness, when he directed attention to the verities of the last age which were located in the Ahadith. This appears to be a subject worthy of serious study by a psychologist who is also capable of examining spiritual realities.

Surah Fatiha and Spiritual Quest

We begin with Allah's Blessed name; we praise Him and we glorify Him as He aught to be glorified and we pray for peace and blessings on all His noble messengers and in particular the last of them all, the blessed Prophet Muhammad. Nabi Muhammad warned; he warned of an age that is to come, which would be a terrible age, more terrible than any age that mankind would ever had experienced since Adam came on earth. Very few would survive that age. A terrible, evil, mastermind will attempt to take control of the world. And that terrible, evil, mastermind of whom Allah had hinted when He said:



قُلْ أَعُوذُ بِرَبِّ الْفَلَقِ
{1}

مِن شَرِّ مَا خَلَقَ {2}


That terrible, evil mastermind will attempt to impose his evil, oppressive dictatorship over the whole world and mislead mankind' and deceive mankind. That evil mastermind will have a PhD in deception. That in that age things will not be what they appear to be. That appearance and reality would be completely opposite to each other. That he would take the road to heaven and make it look like the road to hell; and he would take the road to jahannam and make it look like the road to heaven. Those who see with only external knowledge; that's all; the PhD from the University of Cape Town will be unable to penetrate his deception. Will form judgment on the basis of external knowledge; of external observation and would be deceived; would believe that they are on the road to heaven; when in fact they are on the road to hell and they don't know it. The purpose of the spiritual quest' the ultimate purpose, in this world, of the halaqatul zikr, is to be able to see what otherwise cannot be seen. The ultimate purpose in this life of the spiritual quest is therefore spiritual knowledge. Spiritual knowledge comes when external knowledge and internal knowledge are harmoniously integrated with each other. Allah ? speaks in the Holy Qur'aan about a people who have no internal knowledge; who do not pursue the spiritual quest or who pursue the spiritual quest but are not conscious of what is the goal of the spiritual quest. Who believe perhaps that the spiritual quest is ultimately for the purpose of being able to perform karamah; actions which look like what the Prophets performed as miracles; and who do not understand that the spiritual quest is ultimately, for the purpose of acquiring internal knowledge. And He says of such people who are spiritually blind. He says [in the Holy Qur'aan in the 7th Sura, al-Araaf [The Heights], Verse 179:]



لَهُمْ قُلُوبٌ لاَّ يَفْقَهُونَ بِهَا


They have hearts but they do not understand


وَلَهُمْ أَعْيُنٌ لاَّ يُبْصِرُونَ بِهَا


They have eyes but they do not see


وَلَهُمْ آذَانٌ لاَّ يَسْمَعُونَ بِهَا


They have ears but they do not hear


أُوْلَـئِكَ كَالأَنْعَامِ


[They are like cattle]



These people, who would be the multitudes in that last age, they have a status equivalent to cattle. Even with a PhD from the University of Cape Town! Yes! They have a status equivalent to cattle.


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Woman and Paradise in Islam

The secular feminist revolution rose upon the world from the West with an essentially godless agenda to liberate women from the “shackles” of the ages by totally transforming her status, role and function in society. In so doing it has turned the previous religious and sacred order upside-down in such a way that the sun now appears to be rising from the west.

Secularism led to materialism which in turn denied woman any reality beyond her material reality. Consequently the young beautiful woman became the goddess of the age. But she was a goddess who was shamelessly exploited in advertising to sell everything. She became a thing enjoyed, exploited, abused, degraded and discarded when her physical beauty and sex appeal began to wane. Then a host of schoolgirls would rush in to replace her. Even the national calypsonian gave his view on the subject quite some time ago when he sang of the prostitute, “… and if you catch them broken (i.e., in financial difficulty), you can get them all for nothing.”


Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) prophesied the deception that would enslave women. He said, “women would be dressed and yet be naked”, thus anticipating an age of increasing feminine nudity that would be integrally linked to the feminist revolution. Carnival bandleaders in Trinidad are now complaining that they cannot use enough cloth to make creative designs since women increasingly demand the skimpiest of costumes. The ‘naked’ woman’s body was used to usher a sexual revolution that would culminate, according to the Prophet, with “the majority of children being born out of wedlock” and “people having sexual intercourse in public like donkeys.” When we see sex publicly simulated in Trinidad carnival we know that the feminist revolution will soon climax with woman being transformed into a donkey. Despite this colossal failure, the modern godless world has insisted on opening a ‘gender’ battlefield in quest of ‘equality’ while waging war on Islam. The latest target is the innocent Hijab that is maliciously attacked because it obstructs the way for the Muslim woman to be absorbed into the godless melting pot.

Islam has never sought to put an equal sign between the sexes. ‘Woman’ can neither be studied nor understood in a context independent of ‘man’. The two are inseparable. The Prophet declared that women were “… the twin-halves of men.” The Qur’an confirmed this inter-dependence when it declared “They are your garments, and you are their garments.” And in a passage with sublime literary beauty the Qur’an (al-Lail, 92:1-4) first directed attention to the ‘night’ and that which it shrouds and conceals with such mystery and splendor, and then turned to the ‘day’ with its bright light which exposes everything and leaves nothing concealed, and then proceeded to explain that the ‘male’ and the ‘female’ are functionally analogous to the ‘day’ and the ‘night’. In the same way that ‘day’ and ‘night’ are functionally different yet interdependent, so too are the ‘male’ and ‘female’.

When this philosophy of gender was applied to Muslim society the ‘night’ never attempted to become ‘day’. Rather ‘night’ and ‘day’ eternally longed for each other. And so we were never subjected to the abominable phenomenon (that European civilization is now exporting to the rest of the world) of the ‘day’ mating with ‘day’ and vice-versa. Women in such a society not only fulfilled all their sacred functional duties as wives and as mothers, and thus contributed in a significant way to preservation of the health, strength and stability of the family, but, in addition, they preserved both their femininity as well as their fertility. And so the Muslim woman remained truly and enchantingly a woman! An age that produced the celibate priest had obstinately insisted that one had to turn away from woman in order to turn to God. Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah Most High be upon him) responded by declaring “Three things have been made dear to me in this world of yours – perfume, women and prayer.” And so Islam rejected both celibacy and the ‘object’ while recognizing woman, like prayer, to be a medium through which a man might journey to paradise.

One people today totally dominate and control the entire world, its politics, economy, culture, news, sports, entertainment, fashions, travel, etc. They possess absolute power that no possible combination of rivals can now challenge. Moreover, there is no secular evidence to suggest that their powerful grip over the whole world can ever be successfully challenged. They do much more than control the world. They change, unfold and reinvent themselves, and then change the world as well, until it becomes their carbon copy. They have broken down all the barriers that have for ages separated people from each other, and a single global society has emerged for the first time in human history with a single language, English. They are the Judeo-Christian Euro-world-order (i.e., modern secular western civilization), and they are an absolutely unique phenomenon in history.

They are an ominous ‘world-order’, ominous for Arabs and Muslims in particular, and for non-Europeans in general. But even those European people who would live lives of piety, faith and righteousness are not spared. The ‘world-order’ wages relentless war on the religious way of life in general, and on Islam in particular. They use their absolute power to corrupt, to oppress, and to engage in acts of injustice and wickedness with no parallel in history.

Jewish Christian ‘white’ war crimes now inflicted on Arab Muslim Iraq are but a continuation of ‘white’ apartheid inflicted on black Christian Africa. Their greed is indescribable. They suck the wealth of all of mankind through legalized theft, and they even take from the poor the little that they possess. Eventually they imprison all of mankind in a new economic slavery. They are essentially godless and amazingly decadent, and possess such powers of deception that ‘appearance’ and ‘reality’ are always opposite to each other in everything they do.

Finally, they are a world-order that is strangely and mysteriously obsessed with liberating the Holy Land. Europe became Christian and then waged ‘white’ Holy Wars called ‘the crusades’ for a thousand years until success was finally achieved when a British army, led by General Allenby, defeated the Ottoman Islamic Empire’s army and triumphantly entered Jerusalem in 1917. Allenby then declared “today the crusades have ended”. In fact the crusades will not end so long as Muslims resist oppression in the Holy Land.

Europe also became Jewish and created the ‘white’ Zionist Movement which then fanatically pursued the goals of the Jewish return to the Holy Land and the restoration of a State of Israel. The European Jew was a native of the Khazar tribes of Eastern Europe and was a convert to Judaism. He was not Israelite. Yet the European Jews successfully led the way, employing means more crooked than straight, for the restoration of a State of Israel in the Holy Land. They used the same means to literally force the Israelite Jews, long resident in the Muslim world, to migrate to that secular State of Israel.

The Judeo-Christian Euro-world-order has protected and strengthened that Israel to such an extent that it has now become a super-power. Indeed it will soon become the ‘ruling state in the world.

Can all of this be an accident of history? Can it be something without meaning and explanation?

There are scholars and writers who might shrug their shoulders and dismiss all of the above as mere chance. And then there are others who would be convinced by the evidence presented from the Holy Qur’an that today’s strange world-order is that of Gog and Magog. Dajjal (the Anti-Christ) deceived the Jews into defying every moral and religious law while pursuing an unrelenting effort to make Israel the ‘ruling state’ in the world. But they make that effort while riding the back of the ‘Gog and Magog world-order’. In the end they will face the Messiah they had rejected, and whose crucifixion they had demanded. Allah Most High, Who created Gog and Magog, and Who gave to them their indestructible power, would Himself now destroy Gog and Magog. A Muslim army would then attack and destroy the Euro-Jewish State of Israel, and the Jews in the Holy Land would then face, at the hands of that Muslim army, the greatest of punishments. The ‘oppressor’ would be punished, and history would thus end with the triumph of Truth over falsehood.

We now present in summary, the evidence from the Qur’an that supports our identification of Gog and Magog with the present world-order.

In Surah al-Kahf of the Qur’an (Chapter 18 entitled ‘the Cave’), as well as in Prophetic commentary (Ahadith), Gog and Magog are described as two people who descended from father Adam (peace and blessings of Allah Most High be upon him) and who were created by Allah Most High, and endowed with great power. “None but I can destroy them”, said Allah (Sahih Muslim). Surah al-Kahf has described how they were contained behind an iron barrier because they used their power to commit acts of Fasad (acts of wickedness, oppression, corruption). The Surah also implied that they would use power to wage war on those who lived lives of faith and righteousness, and that they would act malevolently against those who lived the primitive way of life, or who eked out a bare subsistence living (as in Haiti). Thus the picture emerged of an absolutely godless and ruthless people who had the hearts of beasts.

The Surah went on to inform that when the Last Age commenced, “Allah would bring down the barrier” and Gog and Magog (who are a major sign of the Last Age) would be released into the world. Surah al-Anbiyah then revealed that they would eventually “spread out in every direction” - indicating that with their invincible power they would take control of the whole world and that, for the first time in history, one people would rule all of mankind:


He said: “This (wall) is a mercy from my Lord: but when the warning of my Lord comes to pass, He will reduce it to dust (and Gog and Magog would thus be released into the world); and the promise of my Lord is true.”
(Qur’an, al-Kahf, 18:98)


“But there is a ban on a town which We have destroyed: that they (the people of the town) shall not return (to reclaim that town as their own); until Gog and Magog are let through (their barrier), and they swiftly spread out in every direction (replicating themselves amongst all the peoples of the world).”
(Qur’an, al-Anbiyah, 21:95-96)


But since that world-order would witness oppression and war on religion, it would be in total conflict with the heavenly order above. No believer could possibly be comfortable with ‘mainstream society’ in such a world.

In Surah al-Anbiyah above, the Qur’an referred one more time to Gog and Magog while making mention of a ‘town’ that Allah destroyed, and its people were expelled and then banned from returning to reclaim that ‘town’ as their own until Gog and Magog were released and had spread out in every direction. Those whose spiritual vision is illumined by ‘light’ that comes from Allah Most High can recognize both the ‘town’ and the Gog & Magog world order. That light gives them the capacity to penetrate the ‘internal reality’ of things.

The ‘town’ is Jerusalem. Allah Most High destroyed that ‘town’ and expelled the Jews from it. They were then banned from returning to it to reclaim it as their own. Today they have returned and have reclaimed it as their own. But they have done so while riding on the backs of an essentially godless people whose power is such that they have taken total control of the whole world, and they relentlessly use that power to oppress mankind, and to wage war on Islam in general and on Arabs in particular.

From the time of medieval Euro-Christendom to the age of secular western civilization, Europe has progressively displayed the characteristics of the world order of Gog and Magog, and has also fulfilled their basic mission. European people in Europe, North America, Australia, and in the Holy Land today dominate the whole world. They use power to oppress and to corrupt.

They liberated the Holy Land, and brought the Jews back to reclaim it as their own. They created the secular godless Euro-State of Israel and presented it to the non-European Jews as David’s Holy Israel. It is an indication of the utter spiritual blindness of the non-European Jewish people that they allowed themselves to be deceived and led down the road to their final destruction by Gog and Magog.

Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, has provided additional information on Gog and Magog. For example, he said, “None of them dies without leaving a thousand more behind.” And so the reality of contemporary globalization that is corrupting and enslaving mankind can now be understood.


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