Signs of the Last Day and the End of History
Insights from Sheikh Imran Hosein
Hinduism declares that the movement of history is cyclic, i.e., going round and round in circles and thus constantly repeating itself. When one cycle is completed, another one commences. In the view of many Hindu scholars today, as well as in the popular Hindu religious consciousness, the movement of history is now located at a point in time when one cycle is coming to an end and another is about to begin. Thus for the Hindu this is, in a sense, a last age, i.e., the end of this present cycle of history.
While Hinduism is prepared to recognize truth manifesting itself in the form of many rivers allowing to the same sea, the fact is that Hinduism is also firmly insistent that when those rivers all reach that common sea it is the Hindu conception of truth that is certain to prevail. The logical implication is that a cycle cannot end without validation of the Hindu conception of truth.
What is that conception of truth? And what are the implications for the rest of mankind if such a conception of truth were to be validated? For the purposes of our present essay we need not look at more than one or two of those implications.
HINDUISM AND THE HOLY LAND OF BHARAT
Hinduism is built on the concept of a holy land, i.e., Bharat, that includes not only present-day India, but also much of the surrounding regional territory. Hinduism clings with evergreen nostalgia to a golden age in the distant past in which the gods and goddesses of Hinduism lived on earth and the truth of Hinduism dominated the then known world from that holy land. Hindus believe that Hinduism has an exclusive religious right to dominance in that holy land of Bharat, and that Hindus therefore have a religious obligation to ensure that the Hindu conception of truth prevails in that holy land.
Eight centuries of Muslim rule over that holy land, followed by the partition of the holy land to accommodate the creation of a Muslim
Pakistan, Muslim Bangladesh, Muslim Maldives and a Buddhist Sri Lanka, inflicted a wound on the integrity of that holy land and, by implication, on the Hindu religious consciousness. It also set the stage for a struggle for restoring the integrity of holy ‘Bharat’. History would end, in the Hindu religious view, with such a validation of the Hindu conception of truth that would require Muslim Pakistan and Bangladesh and other surrounding territories that were once ‘Bharat’ to be reabsorbed within the holy land, and that an undivided holy land of ‘Bharat’ under Brahmin Hindu political, economic and religious dominance be restored.
The Brahmin Hindu conception of truth is firmly based on the belief that mankind was created unequally. The Brahmin Hindu is born into the highest caste and is thus the elite of mankind. The rest of non-Brahmin mankind are inferior to him. That belief in inherent superiority and inferiority of human beings naturally lends itself to the establishment of a system of dominance. The implication, in so far as the historical process is concerned, is that history cannot end without the political dominance of a Brahman-ruled ‘Bharat’ over all others within its sphere of influence. The political and economic life of South Asia is moving in precisely that direction.
There are political implications that emerge from this Hindu conception of the end of history. The first is that the approach of an end of the present cycle would necessarily give rise to the emergence of a Hindu religious nationalism that would impact ominously on political and economic relations with non-Hindus (particularly Muslims). That is already occurring.
Secondly it makes it inevitable that those Hindus with faith in the Hindu conception of the end of history would make common cause with those who are now waging war on Islam around the world. They would do so because of the perception of Islam as the major obstacle that stands in the way of Hinduism realizing its historic destiny. They would do so in order to realize the end of history that would validate Hinduism by way of restoring the integrity and undivided unity of the holy Hindu motherland of ‘Maa Bharat’ (mother India). It is precisely for this reason that India is now becoming, after USA, Israel’s most strategic ally in the world.
Let us hasten to note that there are Hindus who would reject this conception of the end of history with Brahmin dominance over the rest of mankind, and would insist that justice, and that fraternity with all of mankind who reciprocate such values, must be the goal of Hinduism in the end of history. It would always be possible for Muslims to build friendship and alliance with such Hindus.
HINDUISM AND REINCARNATION
In addition to the belief that history moves in cycles, Hinduism is also based on the belief that life itself is cyclical. We are born, we live, we die, and then we are reborn or we reincarnate.
There has never been any concrete evidence to support belief in reincarnation. Somebody in Sweden might claim to remember his previous life when he lived in such and such place, and might then produce memories of that previous life that cannot normally be explained. Hindus have often used evidence such as this to demonstrate the validity of re-incarnation. But it is not persuasive to others if someone in Sweden has that memory of a previous life. How does it affect the rest of mankind? A man might argue, “If I am to be convinced about this cycle of life in which one is reborn again and again, then I should have personal knowledge of my own previous life (if I did have one). But the fact is that I have no such memory.”
Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah Most High be upon him) has prophesied an event that would occur in the Last Age that Hindus would certainly hail as a spectacular validation of the Hindu claim to truth. What is it?
The Prophet has declared, as only a true Prophet could declare, that a man who would appear to be someone’s dead father (who died some 30 or 40 years ago) would stand in front of him. He would have the physical appearance of that dead father. He would speak with that father’s voice and he would say things that only his father could know. When that happens most of mankind would be completely convinced that the dead was reborn. Would such a thing really happen? Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) has prophesied such a ‘Sign of the Last Age’. Here are his words:
“And there will be raised with him (i.e., with Dajjal the false Messiah or Anti-Christ) Satans who would assume the form of those who are dead, and would then speak to those who are alive (i.e., to close relatives of a dead person) “Don’t you recognize me? I am your father; or I am your brother; or some other close relative.” (Kanz al-Ummal).
The Satans who would be raised with Dajjal would be Jinn (i.e., invisible beings who were created from smokeless fire) who are Kuffar (disbelievers). It would be these Jinn who would assume human form and would appear before someone in the form of his dead father and would then speak in the voice of his father and would claim, “I am your father. Don’t you recognize me son?” Cloning appear to me the first step of the road that would lead to that momentous event. After the cloning of sheep, human cloning would become a natural development. When that happens, in another twenty-five years or so, a preserved cell of a long-dead father would be used to create his clone, and a Jinn would then speak through that clone in the voice and with the memory of the real father. Then perhaps this prophecy of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) would also be fulfilled. Hindus would certainly respond to such an event by enthusiastically embracing it as a validation of Hinduism’s claim to truth. But Muslims with knowledge would be able to recognize the fraud.
Source: Signs of the Last Day and the End of History
to be continued....
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