Showing posts with label Kahf. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kahf. Show all posts

Sunday, 29 October 2023

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

Source




Sunday, 16 July 2023

Stages of Release of Gog and Magog into the world

 


An Islamic View of Gog Magog in the Modern World
 
 

Stages of Release of Gog and Magog into the world

Once we have confirmed that the release of Gog and Magog has taken place we need to determine the manner of their release. There are several indications that their release into the world would be gradual, i.e., in stages. This is clear from the Hadith which describes them passing by the Sea of Galilee: 

 

 “The first of them will pass by Lake Tiberias (i.e. the Sea of Galilee) drink out of it, and when the last of them passes, he will say: ‘There was once water here .  .  .  .’”  (Sahih Muslim)

 

It is also clear from the verses of the Qur’an (alAnbiyah’:21:95-6) which declare that after they are released Gog and Magog will have to spread out in all directions or descend from every height and only then would the people of the ‘town’ be brought back to reclaim the ‘town’ as their own. As a consequence we are now in a position to determine their precise stage of release. 

 

Since the water level in the Sea of Galilee is now so low that the Sea can be considered to be dead (a fact that readers can easily verify with a Google search) it follows that the release of Gog and Magog is now close to the final stage. 

 

This is further confirmed by our recognition of ‘Jerusalem’ as the ‘town’ mentioned in the two verses of Surah al-Anbiyah’ (95 and 96). The fact that the Israelite people have now returned to reclaim that ‘town’ as their own indicates that Gog and Magog have now successfully spread out in all directions and taken control of the world. 

 

There are truly ominous implications which emerge from our recognition that Gog and Magog are close to the final stage of their release, and it concerns the following: 

 •       the state of the world, and 

 •       the fate of the Arabs. 

 

When the blessed Prophet (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) experienced the vision reported by Zainab bint Jahsh indicating that the release of Gog and Magog had commenced (see chapter three for Hadith) he woke up with the words “La ilaha illa Allah! Wailun lil Arab min sharrin qad iqtaraba” “Woe unto the Arabs because of evil which is drawing close.” Zainab (radiallahu 'anha) responded to the disclosure of the information concerning the release of Gog and Magog and the danger to the Arabs by asking, “shall we be destroyed even though there are righteous people in our midst?” The Prophet replied with the words, “N’am iza kathura al-khabath” “Yes! When khabath prevails (in the world)”. Khabath (kha ba tha) means refuse, garbage, scum, etc. But Khubth (kha ba tha) means wickedness, viciousness, etc. Hence not only would the Arabs be eventually destroyed but, also, their destruction would take place at a time when wicked evil people prevail in the world and the world would also have become the equivalent of a global garbage dump of moral filth, corruption, vulgarity and indecencies. 

 

What this Hadith has done is to establish a time-line for the destruction of the Arabs, i.e. as Khabath increases in the world their destruction at the hands of Gog and Magog would draw closer and yet closer. It is clear, even as we write this book, that the world is now ruled by the wickedest people ever experienced in history, that it is already collapsing to a state equivalent to a garbage dump, and also that the destruction of the Arabs has already commenced. 

 

The world will now witness the paradoxical drama of a destruction of the Arabs in the Holy Land and elsewhere in the Arab world, prophesied by the Arabian Prophet Muhammad pbuh more than fourteen hundred years ago, confirming his claim that he was indeed a Prophet of the One God, and thus confirming Islam’s claim to Truth. 

 

There is only one way through which Muslims can preserve their faith in such a world and it is given in Surah al-Kahf of the Qur’an (the Surah which protects from Dajjal). That way to salvation is to disconnect from the godless world. The process of disconnection or withdrawal from the godless and oppressive Gog and Magog world-order, and the global society that they create, can best be achieved if Muslims were to follow the example of the young men in Surah al-Kahf who fled from precisely such a world and sought refuge in a cave.  

 

The Qur’an itself directs the Muslim to disconnect from the abode of evil: 

“So separate us from this sinful rebellious people!” (Qur’an, al-Maidah, 5:28)

 

The blessed Prophet (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) as well, anticipated that such a time of disconnection would come, and gave the following advice: 

Narrated Abu Sa'id Al-Khudri: Allah's Apostle said, "There will come a time when the best property of a Muslim will be sheep which he will take to the tops of mountains and the places of rainfall so as to flee with his religion from the afflictions.  (Sahih Bukhari)

 

If Muslims seek guidance from the story of the young men in Surah al-Kahf they would eventually realise that they can effectively protect themselves and their families from the godlessness and evil that now surrounds if they were to retreat to remotely-located Muslim Villages disconnected from the Gog and Magog society.  

 

Muslims must concentrate on establishing micro-Islamic communities wherever they can.  If an authentic Muslim Village is to be established and if it is to provide Muslims with the means of preserving their faith in today’s increasingly godless world, then it must fulfill the following conditions:

 

• The public life of a Muslim Village must be established on the firm foundations of the Qur’an and Sunnah. Whatever is not based on the Qur’an and Sunnah cannot be recognized essential for survival. If a Muslim religious practice cannot be so established then, regardless of how beneficial it may be, or how long Muslims may have observed it, it should not be brought into the Masjid and into the public life of the Muslim Village, nor should it be allowed to become the grounds for division and conflict between Muslims. Only thus would the Muslim Village survive the sinister contemporary effort directed at purging Muslim communities of all practices (both harmless and harmful) that are not based on the Qur’an and Sunnah and the way of the Aslaf (plural of Salaf, i.e. early Muslims).  One implication of the above would be that the Halaqa of Dhikr of the collective recitation of Suah al-Kahf on every day of Jumu’ah would be held in a private location within the village.

 

• The Muslim Village must be self-sufficient in food production and energy.  Surah al-Kahf of the Qur’an points to solar energy as the means through which the village can achieve energy independence: 

“Thou wouldst have seen the sun when it rose declining to the right from their Cave and when it set turning away from them to the left while they lay in the open space in the midst of the Cave.  Such are among the Signs of Allah .  .  .  . Thou wouldst have deemed them awake whilst they were asleep and We turned them on their right and their left sides .  .  .  .” (Qur’an, al-Kahf, 18:17-18)

 

The ‘turning’ of the youths to the right and left was achieved through the ‘sun’. Phototropism of a plant takes place through attraction to sunlight.  The plant turns to face the sunlight.  And so it was in consequence of attraction to the sunlight that the bodies of the sleeping youths were turned from side to side over such a long period of time.  Also, the plant transforms sunlight into energy and this is called photosynthesis. It was through this supply of energy that their vital organs were kept alive through this long sleep. A Muslim Village will have to master both these processes of phototropism and photosynthesis so that it can harness solar energy for the purpose of achieving energy independence.

 

• The Surah also warns concerning absolute purity in food, hence abstinence from chemical fertilizers, genetically reengineered food, hormones in milk and meat, etc.  Surplus production of this organic food of the Muslim Village can be marketed out of the Village and this would form part of the foundation of the Village economy.  An effective marketing strategy can include, for example, an explanation of the link between food, sexuality and sexual virility. In the process of producing pure and healthy food a Muslim Village would demonstrate capacity to do what the rest of the people are increasingly incapable of doing.  The same would be true for the capacity of a Muslim Village to cure alcoholism and drug addiction, to reverse the decline in sexual morality, and preserve the family unit at a time when it is collapsing around the world, etc.   

 

• A Muslim Village would also have to establish a micro-market which would be as independent as is possible from the macro-market, and which would use real money (i.e. gold and silver) rather than the artificial paper money (to be later replaced by cashless electronic money) of the macro-market.  In this way the micro-market would survive when the fraudulent international monetary system based on paper money collapses. I expect the international monetary system based on paper money to collapse at that time when Israel wages her great war of territorial expansion to embrace the entire area from ‘the river of Egypt’ (Nile?) to the river ‘Euphrates’ in Iraq.  That war is likely to take place at any time now.  One of the most important characteristics of the micro-market of a Muslim Village is that it would ensure circulation of wealth throughout the village economy.  In this way the poor of the village would not remain permanently poor and the rich would not remain permanently rich. Since all forms of Riba would be prohibited in the village (this includes both ‘front door’ and ‘back door’ Riba) so-called Islamic banks would not be allowed to do business in the Muslim Village. 

 

• A Muslim Village would have to make a determined effort to pursue al-Ihsan (or Tasawwuf) in order to achieve internal spiritual insight.  Thus village life would have to be one of great simplicity, austerity and piety. There will have to be a strict enforcement of the Shariah.  In addition, a Muslim Village would have to take complete control over education. The Qur’an must remain at the center of the system of education throughout all stages of education.  The Muslim school in a Muslim Village would have one great advantage over the Muslim school located outside.  The children of such a Muslim school would be supported by a Muslim community that would be living Islam!  Only such children can truly be trained and educated as Muslims!

 

• All those Muslims who reside in a Muslim Village must collectively constitute One Jama’at under the leadership of One Amir.  The Amir must be someone who would know the Din (religion) and live the Din. He must also know the world today.  Regardless of whether he is Arab, African, Turk, Indian, Malay or other, he must enforce the Din on the members of the Jama’at and they must respond with asSam’u wa at-Ta’atu (listening and obeying). This will preserve the internal integrity and discipline of a Muslim Village.  

 

• A Muslim Village cannot be used, and must not be used, as a stepping-stone for the eventual control over the State.  Islam cannot take control of the State and the Islamic Khilafah cannot be restored while a Gog and Magog world-order survives. However armed resistance of oppression and occupation in the territory stretching from Khorasan to the center of oppression in Jerusalem must never cease since there is a guarantee of eventual success mentioned elsewhere in this book. 

 

• The only purpose of a Muslim Village is to preserve the faith of the believers. Thus, the Village would not be armed except with the weapons needed to defend it against robbers, bandits, rapists and thieves!  It would have no capacity to defend itself if attacked by the State.  In addition, the Village would encourage Hindus, Christians and others to reside with Muslims in the Village on the condition that they are not hostile to Islam and they agree to abide by the public norms of conduct of the Village.  In this way, non-Muslims would themselves be able to dispel the rumor-monger and the ‘doubting Thomas’ concerning the peaceful non-threatening nature of the Muslim Village.  But the Muslim Village, despite not being armed, would still have to develop the means of ensuring the safety and collective security of all villagers. This cannot be a Village in which people have to live like prisoners with iron bars on every window of their homes, and with expensive security and burglar-alarm systems installed in every home.  Security in the Village should be such that even a woman can walk in and around the Village at night in complete safety and security. This security of the Muslim Village would make a tremendous political statement to the rest of the beleaguered world.

 

The entire guidance, which emerges from the Qur’an and Sunnah and which must be applied to the task of establishing the micro-Muslim communities in Muslim Villages, needs to be extracted and classified. This is precisely the task that our teacher of blessed memory, Maulana Dr Muhammad Fadlur Rahman Ansari (rahimahullah) has accomplished in his magnificent work entitled ‘The Qur’anic Foundations and Structure of Muslim Society’. He has also articulated the concept of Islamic spirituality with great care and with quite some detail, and in so doing he has answered critics who had not even emerged at the time that the book was written.  But ‘spirituality’ cannot be achieved unless there is a prior moral struggle for the achievement of moral purity.  One of the major achievements of his book is its detailed exposition and classification of the Islamic moral code and the beautiful explanation and guidance that it provides of the methodology of Tazkiyah (i.e. moral purification) and of Dhikr (i.e. the fragrance which only true love can deliver when it embraces the heart and provokes, in the privacy of the heart, a constant remembrance of the beloved).

 

“The Qur’anic Foundations and Structure of Muslim Society” constitutes a textbook, workbook and a navigator for the survival of Muslims in the stormy seas of the present age. It can be used as a manual that would guide Muslims as they now seek to establish authentic Muslim communities in remotely-located Muslim Villages that are disconnected from the Gog and Magog world-order and hence facilitate withdrawal from modern-day godless decadent secular society.  

 

to be continued . . . .