Ramadan 2014, The 1st Day

The month of Ramadan is the one in which the Qur'an was sent down as guidance for mankind, with Clear Signs containing guidance and discrimination. Any of you who are resident for the month should fast it. But any of you who are ill or on a journey should fast a number of other days. Allah desires ease for you; He does not desire difficulty for you. You should complete the number of days and proclaim Allah's greatness for the guidance He has given you so that hopefully you will be thankful. (Surat al- Baqara, 185)

Narrated Abu Huraira: Allah’s Apostle said, “When the month of Ramadan starts, the gates of the heaven are opened… (Sahih Bukhari, Book No: 31, Hadith No: 123)

Muslims are facing difficulties in Iraq, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Chad, Southeast Turkey and everywhere. Everyone must constantly talk about Islamic Union and Turkish-Islamic Union during Ramadan. The imams must make Muslims pray for that in the mosques. It must be on everyone’s lips. Everyone must demand it. You know it will happen if everyone keeps demanding it. For example, our Religious Affairs Department says let us help such and such a country. But I say since the permanent solution is there and everyone knows that Turkish-Islamic Union is the urgent solution to all problems, why do they not talk about that? (A9 TV, August 2, 2011)

The Month Of Ramadan, When We Wıll Know The Happıness Imparted By The Moral Values Of The Qur’an

Allah fortifies the moral values of the Qur’an upon His believing servants with the obligation of fasting observed during the month of Ramadan. I pray Almighty Allah to root the hearts of all Muslims in Qur’anic virtues in this month of Ramadan.

The month of Ramadan is one of abundance, described in the Qur'an, itself sent down as a guide to all of mankind, as "better than a thousand months" (Surat al-Qadr, 3) and which contains the Laylat al-Qadr (Night of Power). Throughout this month all the Muslims of the world carry out their fasting obligation as one and thank their Lord for the blessings He has given them.

The excellent moral virtues of the Noble Qur’an direct people towards love, altruism, trustworthiness, nobility, humility, patience, maturity, deep reflection, good conscience, modesty and many other values that elevate the human soul. Our Almighty Lord, Who created us from nothing, as well as the world we would inhabit, the air we would breathe, the food we would eat and the water we would drink, has also shown us the lifestyle by which our soul can be at peace. Islam is the only true faith by which human beings can live in happiness. Allah bestows joy both in this world and in the Hereafter on anyone who scrupulously abides by Islamic moral values—a joy that will be uninterrupted.

Everyone living on the earth looks for ways of achieving happiness. Some imagine that they will be happy when they become rich, others when they find a good job, or when they live where they most desire, or when they enter university. The fact is, however, that nobody has ever attained true happiness by such means. Even someone who imagines himself to be the happiest of men will still have various preoccupations that trouble him, that make him uneasy, and which he prefers not to think about.

Unhappiness has become a familiar state of mind in societies that do not live by Qur’anic moral values. Distress and unease are emotions that people who live remote from faith feel every day. These people, who live unaware of the true religion sent down by Allah, imagine that this darkness of the soul is merely a fact of life.

It is noteworthy how people who live in societies that turn their backs on religious moral values are glum and intolerant of one another, are listless and lack the excitement bestowed by happiness. People who turn away from human values and seek only their own interests become ever unhappier. Consciousness decreases the further one turns from proper virtues. Until eventually people cease even to wonder where the origin of their unhappiness lies and just put up with this troubled life.

Believers, on the other hand, never lead such troubled lives. That lifestyle is unique to people who have chosen unbelief over faith.

Allah has revealed that their likeness is that of people who are under “a storm-cloud in the sky, full of darkness, thunder and lightning:”

Or that of a storm-cloud in the sky, full of darkness, thunder and lightning. They put their fingers in their ears against the thunderclaps, fearful of death. Allah encompasses the unbelievers. The lightning all but takes away their sight. Whenever they have light, they walk in it but whenever darkness covers them, they halt. If Allah wished, He could take away their hearing and their sight. Allah has power over all things. (Surat al-Baqara, 19-20)

People who have no faith are thus deceived into following a very brief, momentary path, and imagine that they can cope by way of it. Yet as revealed in the above verses, true salvation from all troubles lies only in turning to Allah, serving Him and living in the way He wishes.

Today, one in every four individuals is a Muslim; it makes us happy to learn that day-by-day the religion of Islam is spreading rapidly in every corner of the world, from America to Australia. By the will of the Lord, as our Prophet, Muhammad (saas) foretold, the Golden Age, the last period of the End Times, will come. Muslims know that the recent wars happening in the world, the acts of terror, anarchy, violence and injustice are all signs of the End Times described in minute detail 1,400 years ago by our Prophet (saas) in his hadith (Sayings).

By Allah's will, believers who have witnessed this miracle of our Prophet (saas), will also witness the wonderful things that he has revealed in great detail about the Golden Age. Here is one hadith that stresses how, in that period to come, there will be no bloodshed, chaos or discontent:

As the bowl is filled with water, the earth will fill with peace. No enmity will remain between people. All hostility, strife, jealousy will absolutely disappear. (Sahih Muslim)

May it please Allah that this Ramadan will have a wholesome effect on all sincere hearts. And it should not be forgotten that many important achievements in Islamic history were made in the month of Ramadan, with the permission and aid of Allah.

Darwinism: The Worst So-Called Scientific Deception

Materialism and the various ideologies and movements stemming from it represent one of the worst forms of corruption opposed to religion in the present day. The idea that encapsulates all these and that is their supposed scientific starting point and foundation is Darwinism. Since it was first proposed, Darwinism has become the basis for materialist and anti-religious ideologies and movements, and has literally been turned into a religion by the supporters of such ideologies. The great Islamic scholar Bediuzzaman Said Nursi drew attention to the fact that Darwinism will become the religion of the Dajjal (the Antichrist) in the End Times in these words:

“An impious movement emerging from the philosophy of naturalism and materialism will spread and strengthen by way of philosophy during the End Times, even to the extent of claiming divinity.”^[i]

 Described by Bediuzzaman as “an impious movement emerging from the philosophy of naturalism and materialism,” Darwinism is a teaching that ascribes an independent power to nature, that claims that all of life is the work of blind chance rather than being created, and that seeks to turn people away from belief in Allah (God). The Concise and Expounded al-Kutub as-Sitta (The Six Books), a collection of the hadith of our Prophet (saas) and interpretations thereof, provides the following clarification of the subject:
 
“The most evident and worst characteristic of the corruption caused by the Dajjal in the End Times is its hostility to religion. Various humanist views and values that will appear in the End Times will seek to replace religion. This new religion will base itself on denial in order to eliminate every kind of current divine dominion... This is an anti-religious faith whose basic deity will be a material and human.”^[ii]

 Darwinists have always tended to portray the theory of evolution as scientific. They maintain that life formed out of inanimate substances and developed by way of evolution, and that all species gradually descended from one another. However, Darwinism has never proven a single one of these stages, and is a system of belief nonetheless loudly heralded as scientific. According to Darwinism, “chance” is the great fictitious mechanism of this whole fictitious process. Chance is the false deity of Darwinism. And Darwinists imagine that this deity can do the impossible. According to Darwinists, this false deity produced a living cell from muddy water, turned fish into tigers and bears into whales, and created their lungs out of nothing. Again according to Darwinists, who assume that human beings are entities descended from apes, this false deity bestowed intelligence, memory and skills on human beings and created human consciousness, which cannot be replicated in any form, from nothing. So much so that in doing all these things, chance somehow manages to behave in a controlled, planned and rational manner and to immediately take precautionary measures when necessary. According to Darwin’s theory of evolution, chance is a false creator behaving intelligently and in a planned manner.

This heretical theory that deifies blind chance has somehow been imposed on vast masses of people through demagoguery and fraud. The reason for this is the Dajjal. The characteristics set out in many of the hadith concerning the Dajjal become crystal clear when considered in terms of an ideology. That is why all ideologies and systems of thought that make illogical and groundless claims, that lead people to denial and turn them away from religious moral values and that encourage conflict between people are all manifestations of the Dajjal. Darwinism is the main ideology adopting this system of Dajjal. Allah, our Lord, describes those who follow the heretical system of the Dajjal as follows in a verse from the Qur’an:

The evildoers are indeed misguided and insane. (Surat al-Qamar, 47) 

[i] Ismail Mutlu, Portents of Doomsday in the Light of Bediuzzaman's Analyses, Mutlu Publishing, Istanbul, 1996, p. 117

[ii]  The Concise and Expounded Al-Kutub as-Sitta, Prof. Ibrahim Canan, 13th vol., Ankara, 1992, pp. 457-458

The hadiths of our Prophet (saas) provide very detailed information and signs about the End Times, which will occur shortly before Doomsday. According to these reports, several highly significant events will take place one after the other during this period. In the first stage of the End Times, terrible corruption and chaos will rule; in the second stage, these will be replaced by peace and security as people come to live by true religious moral values.

Our Prophet (saas) imparted glad tidings regarding the Mahdi, who will be sent during the End Times. For example, this great individual will liberate Muslims from cruelty and suffering; eliminate corruption; and usher in an era of peace, justice, plenty, happiness, and well being. According to reliable hadiths, he will return Islam, which has been distorted via superstitions and practices, to its true essence; meet with Prophet ‘Isa (as); and, by Allah’s will, will enable Islam’s moral values to prevail on Earth.

These great tidings enhance all believers’ enthusiasm and excitement. Many of the prophetic hadiths and scholarly manuscripts that have come down to us have transmitted the joy and enthusiasm of those tidings and have kept the subject alive and of interest among believers. The portents that we are seeing in our own time show us that the Mahdi’s coming is close at hand. Indeed, the current climate of chaos, oppression, terror, and war, as well as the strife, famines, and earthquakes, are all portents of this great event.

Portents Of Mahdi’s Coming Taking Place One After The Other

Those hadiths that reveal the portents of the Mahdi’s coming describe them as occurring one after the other “like the dots on a prayer-beads.” We can see that this is the case, for as stated in the hadiths, chaos and anarchy are on the rise all over the world, sedition is growing, slaughter and terrible catastrophes are taking place in many lands, poverty and hunger are increasing, and people are suffering terribly. The fact that these portents are coming to pass at one particular time shows that the Mahdi, the blessed person for whom Muslims have awaited for centuries, will come soon. (Allah knows the best!)

Some of the reports related to this subject are as follows:

I asked Abu Abdullah Husain ibn Ali: “Are there portents of this?” – in reference to the Mahdi’s appearance. He said: “Yes.” I asked: “What are they?” He said: “The destruction of the [tribe of the] Bani Abbas, the emergence of the Sufyani (Abu Sufyan), and sinking in Bayda.” I said: “I am afraid this will all take a long time,” to which he replied: “These things will happen one after the other, like the dots on a tasbih (prayer beads).” (Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti, Portents of the Mahdi of the End Times, Kahraman Publishings, p. 3)

Signs of the Doomsday follow one another, like the pieces of a prayer beads falling one after the other when its string is cut. (Tirmidhi Hadiths)

Painful situations and grievous sights will be seen. Strife will go on and on… (al-Suyuti, Portents of the Mahdi, p. 36)

Fitnas (seditions) will follow one another in the near future. Then, there will be other fitnas and even more following them. (Mukhtasar Tazkirah al-Qurtubi, p. 374, no. 684)