Signs of Jesus’ (pbuh) Second Coming -
The Signs from the Islamic Resources 061-070

The Signs from the Islamic Resources 7/12

61. Earth’s Collapse

The first sign of the Hour is Earth’s collapse. (Mukhtasar Tazkirah al-Qurtubi, p. 518)

When the latter generations of these people insult the former ones, expect red winds, Earth’s collapse, or the raining of stones from the heavens. (Tirmidhi)

At the End Times, when entertainment and dancers pervade and drinking is considered permissible, Earth will collapse, stones will pour [from the sky], and people will strip off their humane qualities. (Ahmad Diya'al-Din al-Kamushkhanawi, Ramuz al-Ahadith, vol. 2, p. 302, no. 8)

62. Conversion of Homes into Graves

He asked: “What becomes of you when death meets people and homes become graves?” (Mukhtasar Tazkirah al-Qurtubi, p. 392, no. 726)

63. Winds and Tornadoes

Doomsday will not happen until 10 portents are seen. The tenth is a tornado that will hurl people into the sea ... (Muhammad ibn `Abd ar-Rasul Barzanji, Al-Isha`ah li Ashrat as-Sa`ah, p. 288)

The tenth is a wind that will hurl people into the sea ... (Muhammad ibn `Abd ar-Rasul Barzanji, Al-Isha`ah li Ashrat as-Sa`ah, p. 288)

Natural disasters also destroy major cities. Statistics reveal that our time has seen an increase in both the number and the seriousness of natural disasters. In the last 10 years, disasters caused by climactic changes have become a novel phenomenon. A dangerous and unwanted byproduct of the Industrial Age is global warming. Industry is gradually disturbing the balance in the world's atmosphere, giving rise to climactic changes. According to the American National Climatic Data Center, many disasters occurred in 1998.46 For example, several observers called Hurricane Mitch one of Central America’s worst natural disasters.47 This hurricane hit Honduras and Nicaragua on 26th October 1998, and killed more than 10,000 people.48

The following are the most important disasters arising from climactic changes that have occurred in recent years:

Approximately 500 to 1,000 people were killed by the storms that hit western Bangladesh on 13 May 1996. A further 30,000 people were injured and 100,000 people lost their homes.

On 27 March 1997, 27 people died in a tornado that hit Texas.

On 20 May 1998, 12 people died in a tornado that hit Georgia, USA.

The floods that affected middle and eastern Europe on August 2002 caused 114 casualties. During the severest hurricane of the last 40 years in South Korea on September 21, 2003, around 200 people died only in 2 days.51

In the last few years, hurricanes, storms, typhoons, and other such disasters have devastated quite a few areas. In addition, floods have caused mudslides that then engulfed entire villages or parts of cities. Earthquakes, volcanoes, and tidal waves also have caused great devastation. All of this destruction is an important sign.

64. Violent Rain

The Hour will not come until there has been rain which destroy all dwellings. (Ibn Ahmad Hanbal) An increase in rain and a reduction in grass ... occur because Doomsday is near. (Muhammad ibn `Abd ar-Rasul Barzanji, Al-Isha`ah li Ashrat as-Sa`ah, p. 137)

The Hour does not come until all mud-brick buildings, except for the stone ones, collapse. (Ibn Ahmad Hanbal, Musnad vol. 13, p. 291, no. 7554)

Heavy rains and the subsequent floods are among the great natural disasters that cause many casualties. Especially in recent years, such events have caused serious material damage and killed many people throughout the world. The floods that affected Europe in recent years are an example. Heavy downpours hit almost all of Europe, causing floods and submerging portions of many large cities.

The seasonal monsoon rains that strike India, Nepal, and Bangladesh in 2002 left behind 900 dead. In China, on the other hand, mudslides caused by heavy summer rains killed 1,000 people in August 2002.52

65. An Increased Amount of Lightning

Thunderbolts will increase so much as the Hour approaches that when a man comes to a people, he will ask, “Who amongst you was struck by a thunderbolt this morning?” and they will say, “So and so and so and so was struck.” (Ibn Ahmad Hanbal)

Earthquakes will destroy your homes, lightning will burn your herds, turning them into coals. (Nu`aym ibn Hammad)

The hadiths relate that the increased amount of lightning is a sign of Doomsday. As weather statistics indicate, the loss of possessions and the increased number of deaths due to lightning have become far more frequent in recent years. For example, in 1998 11 soccer players were killed in Congo when lightning struck their field. Similarly in 2001, lightning hit a football field in Mexico and killed 6 people. Aside from these incidents, lightning kills many people and animals each year.

66. Abandoning the True Religion and the Qur’an’s Moral Values

A time will come when the Qur’an will remain only with its picture, and Islam will remain only in name. Despite being the people who are most distant to Islam, they will be given Islamic names, and though prosperous in appearance, their mosques will be in ruins in the sense of guidance. (al-Hakim, ad-Daylami)

A time will come when the Qur’an will remain in one valley and the people in another. (al-Hakim, Tirmidhi)

A time will come when people’s faces are the faces of human beings, but their hearts are the hearts of evil. They are shedders of blood and do not avoid offensive acts. If you adhere to them, they protect you. If you trust them, they act treacherously. Their children are immoral, and their teenagers are unabashed. Their elderly, on the other hand, do not enjoin the good or forbid the evil. (al-Hatib)

A time comes when people will adopt the views of those who try to impose things unrelated to the religion as if they were of the religion, and thus unconsciously associate partners with God, when people will study to earn a living and make their religion a tool for mundane interests. (Son Zamanla İlgili Hadisler [Hadiths Related to The End Times], p. 68)

The hadiths dealing with the signs of the Last Day provide us with a detailed description of the period in which these signs will appear. For example, according to the above hadiths, the first stage of the End Times is a period during which religious morality seems to be applied, but in reality is one that almost completely rejects the Qur’an’s moral values; a period during which the Qur’an’s clear statements are overlooked, non-Islamic judgments are given in God’s name, religion falls into discord, worship is performed for show, religion is used for personal profit and gain, faith depends on imitation, and so-called Muslims are in the majority while real scholars and sincere Muslims are in the minority.

God states that on the Last Day, the Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace) will say: "My Lord, my people treat this Qur'an as something to be ignored …" (Surat al-Furqan, 25:30). The hadiths also reveal that, during the End Times, the Qur'an's guidance will be disregarded and people will stray from it.

67. Not Pondering over the Qur'an in a Sincere Manner

The Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace) said that although the Qur'an will be read, its knowledge and wisdom will be ignored. This is another sign of the End Times.

It would happen near the time when the knowledge is taken away. I asked: “God’s Messenger, how would the knowledge become extinct while we recite the Qur’an and we would teach it to our sons and then our descendants would teach it to their sons till the Day of Resurrection?” He replied: "… Do these Jews and the Christians not recite the Torah and the Bible without acting upon [the dictates] that are mentioned in them?” (Sunan Ibn Majah)

There Ummah will experience a time when people will recite the Qur'an, but it will not go further than their throats [into their hearts]. (Sahih Bukhari)

68. Muslims' Yearning for non-Muslims

The Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace) said: "Surely you will follow the ways of those nations that were before you, span by span and cubit by cubit [i.e., inch by inch], so much so that even if they entered a lizard’s hole, you would follow them." (Sahih Bukhari)

The Hour will not come until my people adopt every inch of the centuries-old traditions one by one. They asked: “O Messenger, as is in the case of Persians and Greeks?” The Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace) replied: “Including those people who are like them.” (Sahih Bukhari)

"I swear … that you also will follow in the footsteps of the nations that preceded you [e.g., Jews and Christians]. (Tirmidhi)

The hadiths of our Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace) state that Muslim communities will yearn for and imitate non-Muslim ones. This hadith might be pointing out the prevalence of those ideologies and movements that are incompatible with Islamic morality and yet are widespread within the Muslim community. Following the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, the spread of radical nationalist movements, especially in the Arab countries, is an example of this situation. Radical nationalism is a movement against Islamic morality, for it considers other nations as foes and demands a form of loyalty and love – which are actually legitimate feelings – to one’s nation, even to the extent of harming other nations. It is an aggressive ideology. According to the Qur’an’s morality, one’s love and respect for another is not based on race, lineage, or material wealth, but rather on his or her faith in and reverence for God. Believers are brothers and sisters, no matter from which race or nation they may be, and so have to remain in solidarity with each other.

Western ideologies that sneaked into the Islamic world are not limited to radical nationalism. At the beginning of the twentieth century, other Western movements that were incompatible with Islamic morality were introduced into the Islamic world by some Muslims who blindly embraced them and were thus deluded. This is one of the major reasons for the Islamic world’s instability and chaos, which has been going for more than 50 years. By God’s Will, when Prophet Jesus (pbuh) returns, this situation will change and all Muslims will adhere only to the Qur’an and the Sunnah, and thus enjoy the true peace, stability, and security brought about by religion’s true morality.

69. Fitna Alienates People from the Qur'an

Surat al-An`am, 6:26 speaks of those who keep others away from the Qur'an. The hadiths also indicate that corrupt manners of thought will be prevalent before Doomsday comes, and that systems that are far removed from truth and justice will come into being. These developments will cause great discord and draw people away from the ways of God.

Be prompt in doing good deeds [before you are overtaken] by turmoil [fitna] which would be like a part of dark night. (Sahih Muslim)

Before the Last Hour, there will be commotions [fitna] like pieces of a dark night in which a man will be a believer in the morning and an infidel in the evening, or a believer in the evening and infidel in the morning. (Sunan Abu Dawud)

70. Propagandists Distancing People from Islam’s Morality

… At that period, there will be some summoners [propagandists] who will call people to the gates of Hell. Whoever answers the call of these summoners, they will cast him into Hell. “O Messenger, can you tell us the characteristics of this group of summoners?” The Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace) answered: “I will answer, they are a group of people from our nation who speak our language.” (Mukhtasar Tazkirah al-Qurtubi, p. 382, no. 698)

There exists a great blind and deaf fitna [that is, the kind of fitna that makes one blind from seeing the truth and deaf from hearing the just], grand evil. Within this fitna, there exist some summoners [propagandists] who call people toward the gates of Hell. (Mukhtasar Tazkirah al-Qurtubi, p. 380, no. 696)

In the near future, there will be horrible fitnas that will render one blind, deaf, and mute from seeing the truth; rendering them deaf from hearing the just words … In the turmoil of fitnas, the interference of language into the fitna and its propaganda will, like a sword blow, ensure its spread. (Mukhtasar Tazkirah al-Qurtubi, p. 390, no. 720)

As the hadiths reveal, our Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace) informed us that some people will make propaganda in favor of immorality and irreligion. The present-day moral and social structures of some countries reveal the truth of this news. In fact, such propaganda spread by advanced communication tools can distance people from religion’s morality.

In addition, the deafening and muting effects brings to mind the oppression exerted upon contemporary Muslims in many countries, whose regimes put pressure on the freedom of thought and hinder people from expressing their thoughts and beliefs. As we know, Muslims in some Arab and African countries cannot express their thoughts freely and are oppressed because of their faith.