 According to Ibn Jaze' al-Kalbi, one of the major themes or forms of composition found in the Qur'an is the hereafter. In particular, the Qur'an often describes the last day, al-Yawm ul-Akhir. This expression is also found in the New Testament. The Johan and Jesus often speaks of certain events happening and te eskateh hemera on the last day. Therefore, the study of last things, or eskatology, is a branch of theology that deals with death, also known as the lesser hour, the signs of the last day, the last day itself, also known as the day of judgment, or the greater hour, and finally, paradise and the fire, the ultimate destinations of human beings. With respect to our death, or the lesser hour, the proof of Islam, Imam Abu Hamad al-Ghazali, offered this powerful and poignant statement in his famous Ikhya ul-Middin. Praise be to God, who with death did break the necks of tyrants, shattering with it the backs of Persia's kings, cutting short the aspirations of the Caesars, whose hearts were long averse to recalling death, until the true promise came to them and cast them into the pit, from the loftiest of palaces to the deepest of graves they passed, and from the light of the cradle to the gloom of the sepulcher, from dallying with maidens and boys into sustaining insects and worms they passed, from reveling in food and drink into wallowing in the earth, from the friendliness of company into the forlorness of solitude, and from the soft couch into the woeful perdition. See if they had found any strength and protection from death, or taken against it a barrier and refuge. See the verse, Do you perceive even one of them, or hear from them so much as a whisper? Imam Al-Ghazali, Book 40, Kitab Zikr Al-Moot Speaking of the hour, as in the hour of our judgment, Allah SWT tells us in the Qur'an, Indeed, the hour is coming. There is no doubt about it. However, most of the people do not believe. As Muslims, we have confidence in ultimate accountability, that we will all stand judgment before Allah SWT, who is the all-knowing, the all-wise, and all-just sovereign lord of the universe. Our belief in the Day of Judgment is based upon clear statements in our sacred texts. It is according to the Sam-Iryat, sacred tradition transmitted to us that describes supra-rational events. And indeed, I would argue that belief in a Day of Judgment is rational. Human beings constantly seek to establish justice in the world. Injustice is repugnant to us. This desire seems to be somehow innate, inherent, in part of our collective conscience as a species. We establish courts and judges and witnesses. Establishing courts of justice is one of the seven Noahidic laws. These are laws that strike the human intellect as being self-evidently true, axiomatically correct. Does anyone really believe that rapists and murderers and oppressors who were never brought to justice in this world simply get away with it? An atheist once told me that people will always get what they deserve. Like karma, I inquired. He said, yes, like karma. I replied, I thought you were materialist. Karma is a sophisticated metaphysical process. Who was regulating and controlling that process? There was no rejoinder. Sometimes it is difficult for people to come to grips with the logical conclusion of their worldview. If we take materialistic atheism to its logical conclusion, then it is impossible to be objectively immoral. In other words, there can be no true, right, or wrong. On atheism, we are just random, fizzing molecules and stardust. Imagine a stone rolling down a hill. The stone strikes the earth as it bounces. Just atoms colliding with atoms. Now imagine a man pulling a trigger and firing a bullet into another man. Again, just atoms colliding with atoms. On atheism, there is no real difference between what the stone did and what the man did with the gun. What makes one set of atoms moral and the other set of atoms immoral? The answer is nothing. On atheism, murder is simply a breach of a subjective societal norm. It cannot be objectively wrong because there is no higher standard of morality and there's nothing beyond the physical. Nothing and no one is watching us or taking an account of our actions. Apparently, we are just a bunch of carbon-based primates living on some backwater planet on the edge of some random solar system. As Richard Dawkins famously said, there is quote, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good. Nothing but blind, pitiless indifference, end quote. Now Dawkins and the rest of his neo-Atheist ilk imagined that without religion, the world would be a much better place. But consider the following thought experiment offered by the modern philosopher David Berlinsky, whose book The Devil's Delusion directly confronts Dawkins' The God Delusion. Imagine that there was a magic button. If someone were to press this button, mountains of gold would magically come into his possession. However, there's a catch. One human being somewhere in the world would fall down dead. You don't know who or where. So here's the question. To whom would you entrust this button? To an atheist who doesn't believe in ultimate accountability? Who doesn't affirm that there's any authority above that of human beings? Who says that there's no law above human invention? Who contends confidently that there's no such thing as evil? Or would you entrust it to a theist who believes in God? A theist who affirms ultimate accountability? A theist who says, I truly fear if I were to disobey my lord the torment of a tremendous day. Which worldview makes for a more prosperous peaceful and just society? I think the answer is obvious. In the Qur'an, sometimes the rationale for a certain commandment is mentioned explicitly. Allah SWT says, Indeed, the prayer prevents one from indecency and wrong action. If you have to pray five times a day at different times with ulu, engaging in fahsha in munkar become very, very difficult. Imam al-Qurtubi and Imam al-Zamakhshari mention in their tafasir that the Prophet SAW said of a young man who prayed, but was inclined towards indecent acts, soon his prayer will prevent him from doing that. The prayer you see is time tested, but we have to be patient and constant. The prayer comes from Allah SWT, so we must trust the process. It works. The worst thing we can do is leave the prayer. The Prophet SAW said, Between disbelief and belief is leaving the prayer. Or we might say, leaving the prayer takes one from a state of confidence to a state of ingratitude. Tarkus Salah, or abandoning the prayer, is also a major sign of the hour according to Sayyidina Ali. Another major sign of the hour, not unrelated to abandoning the prayer, is the coming of the imposter Messiah or Antichrist. The belief in the coming of the imposter Messiah is an important aspect of Islamic eschatology that is often unfortunately neglected. The Prophet SAW warned us about his emergence due to the Prophet's profound concern for the well-being of his nation. The Prophet is, in the words of Allah SWT, deeply concerned about you. Kind and merciful to the believers. We read in the hadith, The Messenger of Allah SAW used to seek refuge in Allah from the punishment of hell, the punishments of the grave, and from the imposter Messiah. Of course, the Prophet SAW is free from these things, protected from these things. But he is teaching us by example, There is for you in the Messenger of God, a beautiful example of conduct. He is the great teacher. He said, I was only sent as a teacher. The Prophet is even reported to have said, The imposter Messiah will not appear until the people become negligent in talking about him, and until the preachers on the pulpits stop mentioning him. In an extraordinary hadith recorded in the Sunan of Abu Dawud, the Prophet Muhammad SAW is reported to have said, Let him who hears of the imposter Messiah keep a distance from him. For I swear by Allah that a man will come to him thinking he is a firm believer, and end up following him because of confused ideas. Because of heretical matters, Shubu Hat roused in him by the imposter Messiah. The imposter Messiah and not just the actual physical person, but the culture, the system, the zeitgeist of the imposter Messiah raises Shubu Hat in the religion. In other words, people who identify as Muslim will eventually leave Islam and follow the imposter Messiah because the imposter Messiah will confuse them and cause them to doubt their religion. The imposter Messiah will raise suspicions concerning normative, that is to say, traditional Islam in light of the current zeitgeist. He will attempt to redefine Islam, and we know that if words lose their definitions, then they can mean whatever we want, whatever makes us feel good. This is happening right now on a massive scale. Even words like man, woman, marriage, family, even beauty and virtue are becoming more and more difficult to define. One of the ways in which we can protect ourselves from the antichristic influence is to establish the prayer. Again, the worst thing we can do during these times is to abandon the prayer. Abandoning the prayer leaves us wide open for attack. Let us not render ourselves low-hanging fruit for the culture of the imposter Messiah, a culture which advocates a myopic worldview, a worldview in which the world is all there is. A worldview where the only thing that matters is matter. A materialistic and hedonistic worldview of absolute autonomy that is complete self-rule, something that looks like paradise, but in reality leads to the fire. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, There shall come a time upon the people in which the one who is patient upon his religion will be like the one clutching onto a burning ember. One could argue that this is certainly true in today's world. Many people of traditional religious practice and belief, the youth in particular, feel tremendous pressure to capitulate to the status quo of society, this liberal world order, in order to mitigate internal feelings of alienation. However, we should remember that as believers, we are not meant to feel all that comfortable in this world. At Dunya Sijnul Mutmin, the world is the prison of the believer. This discomfort is completely normal. Our real comfort is in the next world. The Prophet said glad tidings to the strange ones. I often find myself repeating the following ayat from the Qur'an. It gives me solace. Allah says to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and by extension to all of us. Indeed, we know that what they say causes your heart to be constricted. But glorify the praise of your Lord and be of those who prostrate. Wa'abud rabbaka hatta ya'atiyaka al-yaqeen. And worship your Lord until certitude comes to you. In almost all of the exegesis of the Qur'an, say here that al-yaqeen means death. Worship of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is a lifelong practice of a believer. So I mentioned the imposter Messiah, but what about the true Messiah? What is his role in Islamic eschatology? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us in the Qur'an about our Master Isa ibn Maryam alayhim sallam. And indeed, he, Isa alayhi sallam, is a portent or sign of the hour. So never be in doubt about it and follow me. This is a straight path. Many exegesis of the Qur'an, including Imams At-Tabari al-Qurtubi and Ibn Qathir, mention that this verse indicates the Urujur, or Parousia, that is the return of the Messiah, Jesus, peace be upon him, to the earth toward the end of time. This is in line with many sound ahadith in which the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam spoke explicitly about the return of Jesus. To the surprise of many Christians, Muslims actually believe in the second coming of Christ. The quote-unquote Muslim Messiah is not the Mehdi. This is a common piece of misinformation that some Christian polemicists seem to insist on advancing. The Mehdi is the guided one from the progeny of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi sallam, who will be a leader of the believers at the end of time. But Jesus, the son of Mary, is al-Masih, the Messiah. The Qur'an says this explicitly, and Jesus, peace be upon him, will vanquish the imposter Messiah. Furthermore, the Qur'an tells us that Allah subhanahu alayhi sallam spoke to our master, Musa alayhi sallam. Allah subhanahu alayhi sallam said, Indeed, I am Allah. There is no God save me. So worship me and establish the prayer for my remembrance. Interestingly, just as a side note, the pronoun Anna, meaning I am, is repeated here by Allah subhanahu alayhi sallam when he introduces himself to Musa alayhi sallam. This subtlety in the text is also found in the Torah. The verb Ehye, meaning I am, is repeated by Hashem when he introduces himself to Moshe in Exodus 314. Ehye, Asher, Ehye, I am who I am. The purpose of this repetition seems to be to stress the core attribute of God, existence, that God is the necessary and non-contingent existent, the very ground of being itself. So after introducing himself to Musa alayhi sallam as the only God, and commanding Moses to worship him, Allah subhanahu alayhi sallam commands Moses not simply to pray, but to establish the prayer, to make prayer the pillar of his life. Such is the importance of the canonical prayers. Then Allah subhanahu alayhi sallam spoke to Moses, peace be upon him, saying, Indeed the hour is coming. I almost conceal it entirely, that every soul shall be requited for what it strove. No one knows exactly when the hour, the greater hour, will be established. There are only portents. The exact date is a secret that resides with Allah subhanahu alayhi sallam alone. Allah says in the Qur'an, They ask you concerning the hour, when will it be established? Say knowledge of this lies only with my Lord. There is also the famous hadith of the man who questioned the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam saying, When is the hour? The Prophet responded with a better question. And what have you prepared for it? The man said, Nothing except that I love Allah in his messenger. The Prophet responded, You will be with those whom you love. Then Anas, who narrated the hadith, said, Nothing made us more joyous than the statement of the Prophet, You will be with those whom you love. Of course, there is also the famous hadith of Gabriel. When Gabriel, peace be upon him, asked the Prophet to inform him about the hour, the Prophet responded, The one being questioned knows no more than the questioner. In the earliest New Testament Gospel, the Gospel of Mark, even the Mark in Jesus, who most Christians believe to be God, admits that even he does not know the hour. The Mark in Jesus says, But concerning that day in the hour, Nobody knows. Not even the angels in heaven. Nor the son. But only the father, only Rabbul Alameen, Mark 1332. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam is the final Prophet of God. He is the first major sign of the greater hour. He sallallahu alayhi sallam once said while holding up two fingers together, The hour and I are like this. That was 1400 years ago, but still a drop in the ocean of time, relatively speaking. In the Gospels, the Prophet Jesus, peace be upon him, is reported to have given a few signs or portents of the hour. He said, And you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places and famines. These are the beginnings of the sorrows. But be on your guard, for they will deliver you over to councils. And you will be beaten in synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them. And brother will deliver brother over to death. And the father his child, and children will rise against their parents and have them put to death. Mark chapter 13, and there are parallel passages, and Matthew and Luke. It is in the Islamic prophetic eschatological tradition, however, where we find some truly astonishing predictions, attributed to our master Muhammad sallallahu alayhi sallam. If we return to the Hadith of Gabriel, we see that Gabriel continued to question the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam. After asking the Prophet about the hour, Gabriel said, Tell me about the Amarat of the hour. That is, the signs of the hour. The Prophet responded, And tell me about the Amarat of the hour. The slave girl will beget her mistress. Of course, there are many ways in which one may interpret this Hadith. The Prophet was gifted with Jwami ul-Kalim wa Jwahir ul-Hikam. Speech comprehensive in signification, and inundated with sapiens. The most obvious meaning is that children will disobey and disrespect their parents. A second interpretation states that due to numerous end time wars and conflicts, many slaves will be taken, and they will have children. These children would be free, and thus be masters over their own mothers. A third interpretation offered by modern scholars is that the Prophet s statement indicates a complete breakdown of normal society. The utter dismantling of millennia old social orders and societal hierarchies. This is a phenomenon that is happening before our very eyes. Self-entitled cultural zealots shaking their fists at thousands of years of human civilization and traditional scholarship and attempting to construct a radically egalitarian utopia in this world, by any means necessary. In other Hadith of varying grades, the Prophet also spoke of the prevalence of massive violence and sudden death. The prevalence of sexual degeneracy leading to unprecedented epidemics. He said that women will walk around in public, naked, yet clothed. He spoke of a time when men will marry other men, when fornication will be in public, and when illegitimate children will wreak havoc. He said people will be suffocated by usury. He said music will be heard everywhere, and all kinds of alcohol will become prevalent. He said time will become short, sacred knowledge will be withdrawn, temptations will emerge, extreme avarice will descend, and haraj will prevail. The companions asked what is haraj? He said utter brutality and bloodshed. I leave you with this. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam advised us as to how to protect ourselves from the imposter messiah in his culture. Abu Dardaw r.a reported in the Hadith of Zinsahi Muslim that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam said man hafeetah ashera aayatin min awwali surat al-kahaf rusima min ad-dajjal. Whoever memorizes the first ten verses of surat al-kahaf will be protected against the imposter messiah. He also reported in this Hadith in Tirmidhi man qara'a thalafa aayatin min awwali kahaf rusima min fitnat ad-dajjal. Whoever reads three aayat from the beginning of surat al-kahaf will be protected against the tribulations of the imposter messiah. He also said sallallahu alayhi sallam If the imposter messiah emerges and I am among you then I will contend with him on your behalf. But if he emerges and I am not among you then every person must contend for himself. But there's another way to translate this. If the imposter messiah emerges and I am in you wa ana fikum then I will contend with him on your behalf. One of my teachers said fikum could also mean that we have internalized the love of the Prophet in our hearts the reverence of the Prophet in our hearts the beauty and majesty of the Prophet in our hearts the teachings and sunnah of the Prophet in our hearts if he sallallahu alayhi sallam is hayun fi qulubina alive in our hearts then indeed the Prophet is contending on our behalf wa allahum ustaan may allah subhanahu wa ta'ala help us protect us and accept our efforts may allah subhanahu wa ta'ala take our souls while confidence in him and in his messenger remain in our hearts and may he cause us to inherit the gardens of paradise