Chapter 6:
Some Christians’ Error Regarding Armageddon

The End Times is When the Corruption of the Antichrist will Take Place

We are now living in the End Times. This important period is the last time before the Day of Judgment. This blessed age is described in detail in the hadiths of our Prophet (pbuh) and in passages from the Gospel and the Torah. This period before the Day of Judgment, the End Times, will be when the corruption of the antichrist, disasters, oppression, disorder and unhappiness, slaughter, war, degeneration, economic crises, material collapse, terror and violence will all reach the most intense levels and all people will seek a savior from them. A great many people will spread evil in this time, will tend to forget God and religious observances and will seek false solutions to problems through war, slaughter and evil, and will cause all manner of disorder and corruption.

With the spread of the corruption of the antichrist in the End Times, disasters being visited on societies and people begging God for a savior, our Lord will send us the holy individuals of the End Times. These holy personages are Jesus (pbuh) and Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh). With their coming, peace will descend on the earth, the corruption of the antichrist will disappear and there will come a Golden Age, the like of which has never been seen before. Wars will come to an end in this time, not a drop of blood will be shed, there will be no use for guns and other weapons, and nobody will be oppressed any more. Hazrat Mahdi will bring an environment of peace to the world.

He will rule with justice and not so much as wake anyone who is asleep. This great and important truth is revealed thus in the hadiths of our Prophet (pbuh):

People will seek refuge in Hazrat Mahdi as honeybees cluster around their sovereign. He will fill the world that was once full of cruelty with justice. His justice will be as such that he will not wake a sleeping person or even shed one drop of blood. The world almost turns to the time of the Age of Bliss. (Ibn Hajar al-Haythami, Al-Qawl al-Mukhtasar fi `Alamat al-Mahdi al-Muntadhar, pp. 29 and 48)

In his [Hazrat Mahdi's] time no one will be woken up from their sleep or have a bleeding nose. (Ibn Hajar al-Haythami, Al-Qawl al-Mukhtasar fi `Alamat al-Mahdi al-Muntadhar, p. 44)

Those swearing allegiance to him [Hazrat Mahdi] will swear allegiance between Rock and Pillar (around Ka'bah). They never wake a sleeping person, never shed blood. (Ibn Hajar al-Haythami, Al-Qawl al-Mukhtasar fi `Alamat al-Mahdi al-Muntadhar, p. 24)

There will be no war in the time of Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh):

The (components of) battle will abandon its load (arms and equipment). (Sunan Ibn Majah, 10/334)

(The components of) war will abandon its load (namely, arms and the like). (Al-Sharani, Mukhtasar Tazkirah al-Qurtubi, p. 496)

He will do away with enmity and hatred... The world will be filled with peace as a bowl is filled with water. There will be unity of religion, and none other than God will thenceforth be worshiped. War will also relinquish its burden. (Sunan Ibn Majah, 10/334)

There will be no more enmity between anyone. And all enmity, conflict and envy will disappear. (Ash-Sharani, Mukhtasar Tazkirah al-Qurtubi, p. 496)

All evils will disappear and be replaced by goodness in the time of Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh):

Through Hazrat Mahdi's love, compassion, moral virtue and profound faith, his time will be one when "the goodness of good people increases, and even the wicked are treated well." (Al-Muttaqi al-Hindi, Al-Burhan fi Alamat al-Mahdi Akhir az-Zaman, p. 17)

Earth will be filled with peace just like water fills the pot. No hostility will remain and all hostilities, quarrels, envy will absolutely vanish. (Sahih Muslim, 1/136)

The Torah also reveals that wars will come to an end in the time of Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh):

Those who believe, those who are Jews, and the Christians and Sabaeans, all who believe in God and the Last Day and act rightly, will have their reward with their Lord. They will feel no fear and will know no sorrow. (Koran, 2:62)

There will therefore be no more bloodshed and no more wars in the time of Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh) and Jesus (pbuh). The corruption of the antichrist will have come to an end. Peace will come to the nations of the world. Nobody will seek war in that time; that is because the main reasons for war - superstitious ideas, the Darwinist-materialist mindset and the self-interest, selfishness and soullessness that this mindset brings with it - will have disappeared.

The radical faith and ideologies that turn people away from true devotion, and thus the mindset underlying violence and lovelessness, will also disappear. The Golden Age that will take place with the appearance of Jesus and the Mahdi will be the happiest, most comfortable, most peaceful and most plentiful period ever. The Mahdi is alive and Jesus has descended. We now await the appearance of these two blessed personages. Both are currently engaged in an intellectual struggle against the corruption of the antichrist secretly or openly. When they appear we will be heading directly toward peace and comfort. Before that, however, we are told of a time when corruption and war afflict the whole world. The time we are living in is the time of corruption and conflict preceeding the appearance of the Mahdi and Jesus.

Some Evangelicals believe that a war known as Armageddon will take place in the future in the Middle East, and specifically in Mesopotamia. Their worst error lies in the fact that Armageddon has long since broken out in the Middle East, and is still continuing.

The Sinister Objectives Behind the Scenarios of Armageddon

Some Christians claim that blood reaching as high as horses' halters will be shed during Armageddon, which is reported in the Gospel to take place in the time of the coming of the Messiah (pbuh). They say that there will be a time of disaster lasting seven years, that during the war in question - which is expected to take place in the near future - three-quarters of the Jews and all Muslims will be slaughtered, that Israel and part of the Middle East will be totally devastated, and that all these things are portents of the coming of Jesus (pbuh).

According to these terrifying scenarios, as long as the Jews cannot win the war against Muslims known as Armageddon, Jesus will not return to Earth. For that reason, some Christians regard it as essential for there to be a major war - and for that war to be won by the Jews - in order for Jesus to return to Earth. Then when the war is over, all Jews apart from 144,000 who believe in Jesus are expected to be killed. They believe that as a result of these bloody wars, all Muslims and almost all Jews will be annihilated, and that only those Christians loyal to Jesus and those 144,000 elect Jews will be saved.

The Evangelical Christians in question completely misinterpret the battle of Armageddon that the Gospel foretells will take place in the End Times and describes in some detail. In their view, turmoil needs to be created in the same region in order for this great future war to happen, for the shaping of the Middle East and in order to accelerate the coming of this war and therefore of Jesus. They maintain that the constant bloodshed in the Middle East, brother fighting brother and unending tension are all essential for the coming of Jesus. They are making preparations for a savagery in the End Times in which blood will flow in rivers, that will involve the Southeast of Turkey, Iraq and Syria and extending as far as the Middle East and in which, according to their belief, Muslims and most Jews will be annihilated. For a great many Evangelical Christians, this expectation of bloodshed has become an indispensable aim and an objective that grows stronger by the day. That is because, under their superstitious belief, the region needs to be drowned in blood as a matter of urgency and Armageddon needs to take place if Jesus is to appear.

As a result of this dreadful expectation, rather than attempting to eliminate war, conflict and disagreements, some evangelical Christians support policies that literally encourage bloodshed and even incite war. They foolishly describe this savagery as birth pangs and believe that they need to support that savagery for the coming of Jesus.

	The expectation of blood as high as horses' necks is a terrible one compatible with neither the Torah nor the Gospels nor the Koran. This scenario was put forward by various groupings unwilling to see believers united and unified, and has caused some Christian evangelicals in particular to behave in a prejudiced manner toward Muslims.
	But as for those who believe and do right actions, We will not let the wage of good-doers go to waste. (Koran, 18:30)

Yet these Christians are making a very great error. Armageddon has already begun in the Middle East, and is still raging. The 2003 Iraq War was the beginning of this great war, known as Armageddon in the Bible, a sign of the End Times described with all the relevant portents in the hadiths and the Torah. Ever since that date the conflict in the Middle East has been unending and Muslim blood has constantly been shed, and is still being spilled today. The numbers of Muslims martyred can be put in the millions, and the great majority of Muslim countries are wracked by conflict, civil strife, turmoil and terror. The Armageddon anticipated by the Evangelicals has therefore been raging in the Middle East since 2003. This war has been taking place over a long period of time. There is therefore no great war that will occur in the future other than the one currently taking place in the Middle East. The expectation of an even greater war in the future is leading the Christians in question into a number of errors concerning the Middle East.

The ironic part is that some Christians who seek to portray Muslims as being in favor of war and slaughter and themselves as supporting peace and love actually harbor such an excited expectation of war. According to Islamic belief, however, it is the Muslim Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) who foretells that there will be no wars in the time of the Mahdi (pbuh), who will appear immediately before the coming of Jesus (pbuh) in the End Times and who will bring about the global reign of Islamic moral values together with Jesus. In other words, in stark contrast to global propaganda, it is Islam that pictures an End Times favoring peace, tranquility, justice, love and affection.

The way that some Christians suggest that the shedding of the blood of millions and the destruction of whole countries is essential for the coming of Jesus and who heedlessly describe the coming of the Mahdi, eagerly awaited by all Muslims, as the system of the antichrist is a very dangerous mentality.

In this scenario, the side that is mistaken are those Evangelical Christians who misinterpret certain passages in the Gospel, which has already been badly distorted, and excitedly expect to see blood as high as horses' bridles. Rivers of blood are already being spilled in the Middle East, and the horrifying scenario in question is already being played out. To believe in another war and another even more horrifying scenario in the future, to provoke the Middle East to that end and to advocate the reshaping of the Middle East, merely serves the purposes of the antichrist.

This is all a trick being played by forces that appear to be Christian and wish to take power by pointing to passages that were added to the Gospel at a later date or else that are misinterpreted as evidence. They are working this trick by pretending to be religious. The army of the antichrist has no compunctions about repeating this trick that it has successfully used so many times in the past. The aim is to prevent devout Muslims, Christians and Jews being brothers and engaging together in an intellectual struggle against Darwinism, materialism and atheism.

As a result of this stratagem employed over such a long period of time, the devout have been weakened and the proponents of the system of the antichrist have been strengthened. In this way, it has been easy for them to propagate a Darwinist and materialist mindset that disregards spiritual values, that regards selfishness as the only legitimate value and that thinks of life as an unending struggle and an arena in which only the strong survive. Armageddon is currently the most savage of these forces' plans. People who are unaware of this stratagem may well have a totally mistaken idea of Islam, a religion of peace and love.

The Negative View of Islam is a Deliberately Planned Scenario

With this bloody scenario of the End Times they have developed, some circles affiliated with the antichrist that have led to an expectation of a great war by pointing to various passages from the Gospel as supposed evidence are, in fact, trying to establish a false impression of Islam. Through various publications that support scenarios of war, false reports, biased commentaries and provocative statements they are attempting to portray sincere Muslims as the supporters of the antichrist. That is the underlying reason for the hate-filled attitude toward Islam and biased perspectives on the part of some evangelical Christians. These people depict themselves as religious and claim to be basing their ideas about the End Times on the Gospel, and are seeking, in their own eyes, to attribute provisions favoring war and cruelty to Islam, a faith that actually describes a world in which all people will live in peace and security. The aim of these forces is to camouflage the people who are encouraging war and policies intended to lead to a major war in the Middle East by focusing people's attention toward Muslims instead. It is to prevent unity between the People of the Book and Muslims, which if it were to happen, would represent a huge force against atheism, irreligion and materialism.

As a result of this ugly trickery, some sincerely devout Christians are falsely acquainted with Islam, misinterpret it and are unaware of the beauty of Islam and the fact it is a religion of peace and love. This stratagem is also leading to an artificial separation between Muslims and Christians. As a result of this pernicious plan, true believers in the same God are unable to unite: On the contrary, an artificial strife and hatred is being established between them. This state of affairs is producing the ideal basis for the system of the antichrist, which seeks to disseminate irreligion, Darwinism, anarchy, violence, war, murder and degeneracy, to cunningly continue with its activities. The global arena belongs to that system as members of the three great faiths, Muslims, Christians and Jews, squabble among themselves.

The weakening of believers means the strengthening of the supporters of the antichrist. That is why believers need to be weakened and divided among themselves if the supporters of the antichrist are to be able to spread atheism, materialism and moral degeneracy and to strengthen their own ideologies. That is why the supporters of the antichrist are striving so hard to thwart an alliance between sincere believers and to divide them in this way. As a result of this cunning stratagem, devout Christians become tools, albeit unaware and of course unwillingly, in these forces' policy of spreading irreligion.

It is a matter of the greatest urgency for all true believers to be on their guard against this foul trickery and to wage, in a spirit of unity, the essential intellectual struggle against those ideologies that oppose belief in God and seek to distract whole societies from religious moral values. It must never be forgotten that the greatest threat to people being able to live in peace, tranquility, justice and security is the system of the antichrist, which seeks to spread irreligion, and perverse ideologies such as Darwinism and materialism throughout the world.

The description of the antichrist in the Gospel is in complete agreement with the hadiths related by our Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Therefore, the antichrist described in Islamic sources and expected for centuries by the Muslim world possesses the same characteristics as the antichrist expected by the Christian world, and will employ the same deceptive methods and wage a foul campaign to spread the same perverse ideologies. To put it another way, Christians must act together with Muslims against their common enemy, the antichrist.

Armageddon has long since begun and is still raging

As explained above, the Armageddon that is said to take place in the future ha s in fact long since started and is still continuing . Armageddon has begun with the Iraq War that took place in recent years and is still continuing. The portents in both Islamic and Christian sources completely confirm this. Those forces that support the antichrist that say, "There will be a great and bloody war" are in fact well aware of this, but they deliberately conceal it.

Iraq was invaded by troops from the USA, Great Britain, Australia, Spain, Denmark and Poland in 2003. During the invasion many people, military and civilian, Muslims, Christians and members of other faiths, were martyred or killed.

The invasion of Iraq in the End Times is described as follows in the Gospel:

The invasion of Iraq by various countries, the slaughter that will result in Iraq, the fighting that will come to Sham, in other words Syria, and the Battle of Armageddon in the Middle East are described down to the finest detail in the hadiths:

In the End Times Baghdad will be destroyed by flames … (Risalat al-Khuruj al-Mahdi, Vol. 3, p. 177)

Baghdad was one of the cities exposed to the most intense bombing from the day the invasion of Iraq began. This heavy bombing caused Baghdad to burn in flames, just as described in the hadith. Images of Baghdad in newspaper and television reports exactly matched the situation noted in the hadith.

The Messenger of God (pbuh) said: "… There will be such scourges and afflictions that nobody will have a place to shelter. These scourges will prowl around Sham and settle on Iraq. They will tie the hands and feet of the Arabian peninsula … As people try to eliminate these scourges in one place, they will spring up in another." (Al-Muttaqi al-Hindi, Kanz al-Ummal, Qitab-al Qiyama qism al-Afal, vol. 5, pp. 38-39)

1. Iraq is weeping (Daily Türkiye, 23 March 2003) 2. Iraq is in flames (Daily Zaman, 22 March 2003) 3. Baghdad is burning (Daily Habertürk, 22 March 2003) 4. Iraq is being divided into three (Daily Milliyet, 4 May 2003) 5. Iraq will be divided into three (Daily Yeni Şafak, 4 November 2003)

The reference in the hadith to "... scourges prowling around Sham and settling on Iraq" emphasizes unending conflict in Syria and Iraq. Indeed, Syria and Iraq are today the scenes of the worst turmoil in the Middle East.

… Doomsday will not take place until Iraq is attacked. And innocent people in Iraq will seek places of shelter toward Sham. Sham will be rebuilt, and Iraq will be rebuilt. (Al-Muttaqi al-Hindi, Kanz al-Ummal, Qitab al-Qiyama qism al-Afal, vol. 5, p. 254)

The hadith notes that Iraq and Syria will be rebuilt. Indeed, Iraq, and also Syria since 2011, have both been largely destroyed by the ongoing conflict. Rebuilding became an inescapable necessity in both countries.

The people of Iraq will be divided into three groups. Some will be looters. Some will abandon their families and flee. Some will fight and die. When you see these things, prepare for the Reckoning. (Yusuf al-Maqdisi, Fara Idu Fawaid al-Fiqr Fi al-Imam al-Mahdi al-Muntadhar)

As reported in the hadith, one group of people will join the "looters" following the disorder in Iraq and the invasion of certain Iraqi regions. Indeed, during the clashes, some people engaged in widespread activities described as pillaging or "looting." The hadith goes on to say that some people will prefer to immediately flee because of all the oppression going on, and will even never think of their families they abandoned. It then goes on to say that some people will join in the fighting and be killed. There was indeed much conflict during the occupation of Iraq first by the USA and later by various radical groups, many people lost their lives and many others fled the region.

1) They have looted Baghdad worse than Hulagu (Daily Türkiye, 23 March 2003) 2) Flight from hunger and death (Daily Yeni Şafak, 30 March 2003) 3) Iraq is being swamped by debt (Daily Tercüman, 15 April 2003) 4) The embargo is hitting only the Iraqi people (Daily Milli Gazete, 22 June 2003)

Abu Nadre said; We were with Jabr, and he said: "The time is coming when neither a 'kafiz' (a measure) nor a 'dirham' (a measure of weight) will be sent to the people of Iraq." We said: "because of whom will that happen?" He said: "The non-Arabs will not permit it." He then said: "Neither a dinar nor a 'müdy' (a measure of weight) will be sent to the people of Iraq." "Who will that be because of?" we asked. "Because of the Rum" he said. (At-Tajj, Ali Nasif al-Hussaini)

Iraq was invaded by non-Muslim foreign states, and beforehand, as described in the hadith, a long-term embargo was imposed on Iraq by those same foreign states.

"No measure or dirham will be given to Iraq. No measure or dirham will be given to Sham, either. No measure or dinar will be given to Egypt. You will return to where you began," he said, and repeated this three times. Abu Hurairah's flesh and blood witnessed this. (Muslim, Fitan 33, (2896); Abu Dawud, Haraj 29, (3035))

The Iraqis will have almost no more weighing devices and no money with which to buy anything. (Al-Muttaqi al-Hindi, Kanz al-Ummal, Qitab al-Qiyama qism al-Afal, vol. 5, p. 45)

Armageddon has already begun and is still ongoing

It is significant that the hadiths refer to three countries. Iraq, Syria and Egypt are three major Middle Eastern countries where conflict is increasing for a number of reasons. As stated in the hadiths, the economies of all three countries have been seriously harmed by the fighting in question. The Iraqi dinar was also demonetarized in the wake of the invasion. The Egyptian economy has suffered grave harm following the internal conflict that broke out. In Syria, there is no longer any economy left to speak of.

As is clear from passages from the Gospel and the hadiths related from our Prophet (pbuh), the war that began in Iraq and then spread over a wide part of the Middle East completely matches with all the descriptions of Armageddon. Armageddon is one of the signs of the End Times that will take place before the coming of Jesus (pbuh) and Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh). All the plans dreamed up prospectively about Armageddon will be thwarted with the coming of the Mahdi and Jesus. The expectation of bloodshed and violence on the part of some Muslims and Christians who have become supporters of the forces of the antichrist will all be in vain. The appearance of Jesus will not herald war or bloodshed, but rather the end of war, and peace and prosperity for the Middle East and the world.

True Muslims, true Christians and true Jews will forge an alliance for peace and praise the name of God together. In contrast to all the scenarios of savagery, the time of the coming of Hazrat Mahdi will be one of love, peace, security and tranquility.

In the time of Hazrat Mahdi, wars and slaughter will come to an end. There will be no crime and the prisons will be empty. Tanks and guns and shells will all be melted down.

Not only will there be no war or disorder in the time of Hazrat Mahdi, not a single person's nose will even be made to bleed. With his affection, love, justice and fine moral virtues, Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh) will lead the whole world to brotherhood, peace and love. The world will enter a Golden Age in which peace and plenty prevail and people live in peace and blessings.

Almighty God praises love, peace and brotherhood in all three faiths. The fact that the perverse mindset that seeks to depict the time of Hazrat Mahdi, sent by God as a blessing on all believers, as a time of slaughter and terror is a stratagem of the antichrist. Every sincere Muslim and Christian must ponder on this rationally and be aware of this trickery.

... The noblest among you in God's Sight is the one with the most fear [of God]. God is All-Knowing, All-Aware. (Koran, 49:13)