Epistemology and Methodology

  

Dajjal (Anti-Christ), the Qur’an and the Beginning of History

Epistemology and Methodology

 

Methodology of Connecting the Beginning of History with the End

When the Ayah, or verse, of the Qur’an declared that Allah Most High, in addition to being the first and last, is also the outwardly manifest as well as the inwardly hidden, and that He has full knowledge of all things, it implies that knowledge of the beginning, and of the end, and of that which connects them together, can be accessed only through an epistemology which harmoniously integrates Zahir, i.e.,  the externally observable historical process, with Batin, i.e.,  the internal reality of that externally observable historical process. Hence it integrates visible historical events with their hidden or concealed eschatological reality. 

 

The verse of the Qur’an (al-Hadid, 57:3) has thus provided a quartet of ‘beginning’, ‘end’, ‘observable’ and ‘hidden’ which have to be fully integrated by the research student into a harmonious whole for the proper study of both history and eschatology. Only those who are firmly grounded in knowledge can therefore penetrate and grasp the movement of history and the events which unfold at the end of history.  This explains why we cannot attempt to understand Dajjal, the False Messiah, who is a major actor at the end of history, without studying the beginning of history to attempt to locate at the beginning, that which connects to our subject in the end of history. This, perhaps, explains why so few are even conscious of the implications of such monetary events as the IMF ban of the use of gold as money. There are many Christians who cannot see the mark of the beast in the present bogus monetary system of paper, plastic and electronic or digital money!

 

The Qur’an has directed attention to the epistemology with which this subject must be studied. It has done so in a passage in Surah al-Kahf of the Qur’an which describes the encounter between Nabi Musa (Moses) and an elusive mystical sage known as Khidr (ʿalayhi as-salām). The word Khidr in Arabic means Green. An Orthodox Christian friend once commented to this writer that Khidr bears an uncanny resemblance to Jesus. We have analyzed that passage of the Qur’an in our book entitled Surah al-Kahf and the Modern Age.

 

There is another reference in Surah al-Kahf to the importance of epistemology in respect of methodology for study of history. Two major evil actors in the historical process are to be released into the world in the end-time. They are Gog and Magog. (See my book entitled An Islamic View of Gog and Magog in the Modern World). The Qur’an informs us that when the time comes for their release, Allah Most High will destroy a barrier built by Dhul Qarnain, which effectively contained them and protected mankind from their evil. When that happens, then disbelieving people who suffer from an incapacity to see and to hear, would find themselves living in a hellish world spread out before them:

 

(Qur’an, al-Kahf, 18:100–101)

On that day Allah Most High will present hell to the disbelievers, plain to view; those whose eyes were hoodwinked from His reminder, and who could not bear to hear the truth which He sent down. 

 

It should be obvious that the Qur’an has referred in the above to internal sight as well as to an internal capacity to hear.

 

We now return to Surah al-Hadid to note that the first two verses of the Surah, which precede the third verse concerning the first and last, expand a conception of the philosophy of history to include a vertical dimension, i.e., above with below, which complements the horizontal dimension of first with last:    

(Qur’an, al-Hadid, 57:1–2) 

All that is in the heavens or parallel universes, and on earth or the material universe, glorify Allah; for He alone is Mighty and Wise!  To Him belongs sovereignty over the heavens, or the parallel universes, and the earth, or the material universe; He gives life and He takes life, i.e., He causes death; and this should provide evidence enough that He has power over all things.

 

The implication of the above two verses of the Qur’an, when studied in the context of the third verse, is that cosmology continuously impacts upon the historical process in such wise that events here-under cannot be fully understood without reference to cosmological reality located in the world above, i.e., al-Ghaib or the unseen world. The most dramatic evidence of the relationship between these two worlds can be found in true dreams and visions, —and hence the abiding importance of Surat Yusuf of the Qur’an. 

 

But even more important for our subject is the need for us to recognize that it is not possible to connect the dots of history—from the beginning to the end—without such interaction with the world above that would deliver both spiritual ‘strength’ and ‘spiritual light’. Unless we can see with the ‘internal eye’ we would not recognize an even more important eschatological implication with which, we hope, Orthodox Christian eschatology will agree, —to wit, that there is more to the end of history than the mere unfolding of events already prophesied. Rather, the Lord-God can intervene in the historical process with events that will occur at the end of history concerning which neither Islamic nor Christian eschatology have any information or knowledge at this time. 

 

If anyone is to have any knowledge of coming events, it can only come through true dreams or visions. This reconfirms the strategic importance of dreams and visions which is the topic of one of my books.  At the request of one of my students, I now disclose precisely such a dream which I saw when I was 26 years of age and still studying at the Aleemiyah Institute of Islamic Studies in Pakistan. I saw a mighty river which was in very high flood and with dangerous currents, and I saw all my fellow students (as well as many others) struggling in the dangerous currents of the river, and in great danger of drowning; and I saw myself swimming to them one by one, and taking hold of them, and swimming with them to safety.  I went to Maulana Ansari next morning and narrated to him my dream. He responded immediately to declare that I was destined to do precisely that in real life.

 

In consequence of this dream, and my teacher’s interpretation of the dream, I have consistently persisted in my mission in the cause of truth all through life, even though I have so often been a lone voice crying in the wilderness!

 

We now turn to the description in the Qur’an of enigmatic events that occurred at the beginning of history which, we believe, have significant eschatological implications, — significant for Judaism, Christianity and Islam, as well as all the rest of mankind. All these events occurred in a transcendental realm of existence before the commencement of man’s biological or material life on earth, i.e., in the material universe. 

 

to be continued

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