Many of the hadiths of our Prophet (saas) refer to a period of the movement of the antichrist prior to the Day of Reckoning, when anarchy, disorder and oppression reign. Accounts also reveal that the movement of the antichrist will be the worst corruption in the history of the world, and our Prophet (saas) warns of the threat of the movement of the antichrist as follows:
“There has been no creation (creating more trouble) than the antichrist, from the creation of Adam to the Last Hour. (Al-Barzanji, Al-Isha'ah li-ashrat al-sa'ah, p. 225)
The appearance of the antichrist is described as one of the major portents of the End Times in accounts from our Prophet (saas). The antichrist will turn masses of people away from Allah and inflict unhappiness and unease on them, and a loveless, insecure and oppressive environment is described as one of the many portents heralding the imminent end of the world. However, there will be good news accompanying the emergence of the antichrist. That is that a great spiritual power will appear in opposition to the antichrist, and it is Hazrat Mahdi (as) who will save mankind from the devilish spirit of the movement of the antichrist and will bring people back to the radiance of Islam.
Hazrat Mahdi (as) whose coming before the Day of Reckoning is foretold by our Prophet (saas) will be descended from him, and will be the greatest ever mujaddid and mujtahid, the greatest ever commander, the greatest kutb-u azam, the lord of time and a luminous individual who is spiritual leader of the Islamic world. His physical features, moral values, lineage, activities and the timing of his coming are all described in detail in many trustworthy hadiths, and all Sunni scholars are unanimously agreed on the reliability of those hadiths. The Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Sunan at-Tirmidhi, Sunan Abu Dawud, Sunan Ibn Majah, Imam Rabbani, Suyuti, Bediuzzaman Said Nursi and many other scholars have comprehensively set out in their works how the coming of Hazrat Mahdi (as) is true and certain.
Indeed, as can be seen from the works of these Islamic scholars, Hazrat Mahdi (as) will appear in Hijri 1400, and there will be hundreds of signs of his holy coming. We are now in Hijri 1431, and more than 200 physical portents have come about just as described in the hadiths. This once again shows we are in a very precious, significant and radiant age.
Both the antichrist and Hazrat Mahdi (as) are at work, and a great intellectual struggle has begun between truth and falsehood. Therefore, people living at this time must decide which side of this mental struggle to support. Being on the side of Hazrat Mahdi (as) means to support the great intellectual struggle against the antichrist in order to be one of the helpers and supporters of this holy individual. And that is very easy. One can be a student, forerunner and follower of Hazrat Mahdi (as) by telling people of the evidence of the existence of Allah, spreading Qur’anic moral values, announcing the glad tidings of the coming of Hazrat Mahdi (as) and intellectually demolishing Darwinism, the supposed scientific foundation for all destructive ideologies.
In addition, our Muslim brothers must not forget that to ignore the system of the movement of the antichrist means, to fail to comprehend we are in the age of Hazrat Mahdi (as), to turn one’s back on the hundreds of signs of the Day of Reckoning that have taken place and to remain silent in the face of persecution means to support the system of the antichrist. There is no need to speak or act against religion in order to support the antichrist. Silence in the face of his actions also effectively means to support him, and that imposes a huge responsibility on people. It is therefore terribly dangerous for Muslims at such a time to adopt a logic that is incompatible with the hadiths and verses by saying things like, “And where is the antichrist? Why bother referring to the antichrist? Why concentrate so much on the movement of the Mahdi?” Most important of all, that is heedlessness one will be unable to explain away in the hereafter.
The movement of the antichrist has now inflicted a worse corruption than has ever been seen before on all societies. The antichrist has made people captive, wreaked an economic crisis on them and made them unable to leave their homes, trust their friends, live in peace or even breathe. The system of the antichrist is killing mothers, fathers, children and loved ones, it is tearing families apart, impoverishing them, taking away their honor and character and condemning them to live alone and unhappy, deprived of love and respect. But some people living in the midst of these scourges still behave as if there were no movement of the antichrist, no such affliction, and reject the urgent need for the movement of the Mahdi.
What all our Muslim brothers must see is this: by his actions, the antichrist has flooded the world with blood, and is still doing so. People who say “The antichrist will not come at this time” or “The coming of Hazrat Mahdi (as) is hundreds of years off” should look at the state of the world from a more honest perspective.
The oppression and persecution China has been inflicting on East Turkestan for the last 60 years is still going on. In East Turkestan, where 36 million Uighur Muslims have been subjected to genocide over the last 60 years, 796 MUSLIMS WERE SENTENCED TO DEATH AND MARTYRED IN JUST ONE MONTH LAST YEAR, 10,000 MUSLIMS DISAPPEARED OVERNIGHT AND 100,000 OF OUR UIGHUR SISTERS WERE FORCIBLY TAKEN AWAY FROM THEIR HOMES. These sisters of ours are forced into illicit relation under threat of death. The fate of 10,000 Muslims who disappeared in one night is still unknown. The streets of Sinjan were filled with bodies. Uighur Turks have been forced to migrate. The dead bodies of the 156 Uighur Turks killed in the events in Urumchi, the majority of whom were killed by a single bullet from the security forces, were laid out on the ground. Uighur Turks are chased out of mosques with sticks and forbidden to recite prayers.
Muslims are bombed as they pray in mosques in Nepal. Houses, businesses, associations and mosques belonging to Nepalese Muslims are set on fire. In Afghanistan, 1,013 civilians were killed in six months. Muslims in Palestine are literally prisoners in their own motherland and live under the threat of martyrdom every day. Hundreds of civilians were recently killed in Chechnya and thousands more forced to abandon their homes. According to the latest research in Iraq, uranium has been used with no allowance made for the civilian population. Incidences of cancer have risen by four times in Fallujah, 12 times in the under 14 age group, cases of leukemia have risen by 38 times and a significant rise in brain tumors has also begun in adults. There was a 17-fold increase in cases of leukemia after Hiroshima, but a 38-fold rise in Fallujah. Never a day goes by without bombs exploding in Pakistan. Bombs rock Peshawar and Lahore just about every day.
Somalia is on the brink of starvation, and it has been stated that one in four children under five go to bed hungry. It has been calculated that 1 million people are on the verge of starvation. Young girls are raped by the Buddhist Thai army in Pathani, scholars are murdered and mosques burned. Muslim blood is shed every day in Pathani.
Everyone in this time clearly sees and experiences the oppression of the movement of the antichrist. The antichrist reveals himself through clashes on the streets and brother killing brother. The burial of the bodies of martyrs on a daily basis in different parts of Turkey is the antichrist’s way of saying, “I am here.”
Those who say, "Where is the antichrist?” or “I cannot see the antichrist” should look at what is going on in Fallujah, Afghanistan, Palestine, East Turkestan, Sudan or Nepal. That is where they will find the answer to the question, “Where is the antichrist?” The antichrist is in America, Afghanistan, Iraq, Nepal, East Turkestan, and Kashmir and all over the world. He is continuing to kill people and shed their blood with all his might.
The antichrist has revealed himself, in all his satanic aspects. But even though the antichrist shows himself everywhere, some people still expect him to have the word “antichrist” written on his forehead, to be a monstrous creature with horns on his head, and are gravely mistaken when they say, “I will not believe in the movement of the antichrist until I see such an entity.” The antichrist has now unsheathed his claws and is slashing with that at Muslims and people all over the world.
In his works, the great Islamic scholar Bediüzzaman Said Nursi said that the antichrist, the worst corruption of the End Times, would spread evil by encouraging Darwinist and materialist movements, and warned Muslims on the subject:
A tyrannical current born of naturalist and materialist philosophy will gradually become strong and spread at the end of time by means of materialist philosophy, reaching such a degree that it denies Allah. ... And the greatest of them, the antichrist, who will come to lead them, will manifest awesome wonders, a sort of spiritualism and hypnosis; he will go even further, and imagining his tyrannical, superficial rule to be a sort of dominicality, he will proclaim his godhead [surely Allah is beyond that]. (Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, Letters, Fifteenth Letter)
But despite all these facts, one can almost count the number of people in the world of 7 billion people who espouse the moral values of the Qur’an, the delights of Islam and the movement of the Mahdi on the fingers of one hand. Most people ignore all the corruption and disorder in the world, while others are solely concerned with maintaining their own interests.
But like all things, of course, this is also part of Allah’s destiny. Allah has charged Hazrat Mahdi (as) with demolishing the system of the antichrist, leading people to peace and security and to causing the warmth, love and trustworthiness of Islamic moral values to rule the world. Indeed, it is a miracle from Allah that even though it is quite easy to wage an intellectual struggle against the movement of the antichrist most people make no effort on the subject. The majority of religious scholars avoid the issue and never mention this, the worst corruption of the End Times. Not to mention the name of the antichrist or to say that he will be coming only very much later, when Muslims are being martyred en masse all over the world, is equivalent to not imparting the glad news of the coming of Hazrat Mahdi (as). So much so that to date almost nobody has criticized or struggled against the movement of the antichrist.
Yet Hazrat Mahdi’s (as) victory is certain in destiny, By Allah’s leave, the antichrist will be defeated in his war aimed at turning people from religious moral values. Muslims who wish to support Hazrat Mahdi (as) and his followers, the people of Allah, in their honorable victory must oppose Darwinism, materialism and irreligion with all their might, using knowledge, art, science and culture, in the awareness we are living in the End Times.
It is of the greatest importance and urgency for our Muslim brothers to tell people of the proofs of the existence of Allah, to spread the scientific evidence that Darwinism is a fraud, to impart the glad tidings of Hazrat Mahdi (as) and strive for the immediate establishment of Turkish-Islamic Union in order to overcome the movement of the antichrist.
There is no doubt that the Golden Age that will take place in the End Times is drawing closer every day, Very soon, insha’Allah, everyone will attain a world in which people fully live by love, compassion and affection, in which abundance, wealth, well-being and peace prevail, and in which we see the highest levels of art and beauty. Women, children and the elderly will be able to move around safely, and everywhere there will be a climate of joy, vivacity and friendship. Our Prophet (saas) tells us of this happy and enlightened time in a hadith:
“...At a time when the world will be in harj u marj, corruption will appear, people will be attacked, the old will not have mercy on the young, and the young will not show respect to the old, Allah will send someone [Hazrat Mahdi (as)] to eradicate hostility, conquer the castles of perversion, uphold faith in the End Times just as I upheld it formerly; someone who will fill this Earth with justice where violence prevailed before. (Al-Muttaqi al-Hindi, Al-Burhan fi Alamat al-Mahdi Akhir az-Zaman, p. 12)
