IT IS UNLAWFUL, ACCORDING TO THE QUR’AN, TO BE SADDENED OR DOWNHEARTED, WHEN PEOPLE HAVE TRUE FAITH ALLAH WILL PLACE MUSLIMS IN THE HIGHEST POSITION
DO NOT GIVE UP AND DO NOT BE DOWNHEARTED. YOU SHALL BE UPPERMOST IF YOU ARE BELIEVERS. (SURAH AL ‘IMRAN, 139)
1.
DO NOT GIVE UP AND DO NOT BE DOWNHEARTED.
Allah explicitly states in the Qur’an that Muslims must never give up or be downhearted. This is Allah’s command. Any other state of mind is unlawful, since it violates this command of Allah’s. Allah tests people in the life of this world with many events that may appear to be evil. The responsibility of Muslims is to be aware that everything that befalls them is specially ordained by Allah in destiny, and to submit to Allah and display fortitude at all times. The End Times we are living in the last age, when the system of the dajjal will be at its most intense, when corruption will reach a peak, and thus the worth of Muslims who sincerely turn to Allah will increase many times over. Our Prophet (saas) says that Muslims will face various difficulties in the End Times, and that these hardships are portents of the coming of Hazrat Mahdi (as) and the Prophet Jesus (as), the holy figures of the End Times.
The hardships described in the hadeeths that will be faced by Muslims in the End Times include great wars, a rise in anarchy, death and killings, increased earthquakes and natural disasters, a rise in poverty and the economic crisis. Our Prophet (saas) described this problematic climate as follows in one hadeeth:
There will be confusion, corruption and fear in the Maghreb (the West). Famine and high costs of living will spread to their fullest extent. Corruption will multiply. (Death Resurrection, Hereafter and the Signs of the End Times) p. 440)
In verse 139 of Surah Al ‘Imran, Allah commands all Muslims, and especially those of the present day, never to be downhearted or saddened, despite this problematic climate of the End Times.
2.
...YOU SHALL BE UPPERMOST IF YOU ARE BELIEVERS
Because in the following part of the verse, Allah reveals that no matter what situation true believers may happen to find themselves in, they are superior in terms of faith, reason and conscience, and He will definitely raise them to the very highest positions, both spiritual and physical. This will take place as Islamic moral values come to rule the world, in the End Times, in which Allah will use Hazrat Mahdi (as) as His instrument. There will then follow a time of great beauty, plenty and abundance, known as the Golden Age. As in other verses of the Qur’an, here, too, Allah makes the global dominion of Islam conditional upon true faith and the avoidance of polytheism.
