Signs of the Last Hour
The following information is a summary of a lecture given by a scholar of Riverside, Gharm-Allah El-Ghamdy, around the fall of 1991. Editor's notes are in brackets []. It is hard to tell whether certain of these events have already occurred, or when they will precisely occur. Allah knows best.
Though Allah only knows when the Last Hour before the Day of Resurrection will come, He has given us 'clues' about its approach through information in the Qur'an and the hadith of the Prophet. The signs can be separated into two categories: minor and major. This article does not cover all the signs, but most of the important ones are here. All these signs are, of course, based on hadith and/or Qur'an, mainly the former.
 
  Minor Signs (in no particular order)
  1. "The coming of the Last Prophet, Muhammad ibn Abd-Allah (SAW)." [This has already happened, of course.]
  2. "The slave will become the master."
  3. "Shepherds will compete in the construction of tall buildings." [The modern ex-nomads of Saudi Arabia are an excellent example of this.]
  4. "Knowledge of Islam will be taken away while ignorance will increase. This removal of knowledge will be because old scholars will die and fewer and fewer new scholars will replace them. The leaders of the Muslims will be chosen from ignorant people, and they will rule according to their whims." [Today, studying Islam formally is considered to be an inferior career in most of the Muslim world. The leaders of the Muslim world are more known for their political or military prowess (oppressive ability?) than Islamic knowledge.]
  5. "Drinking and fornication will increase heavily."
  6. "The population of men will decrease, and women increase till fifty women shall be for every man."
  7. "Thirty people will claim to be prophets, followed by Al-Dajjal (the anti-Christ roughly)."
  8. "There will be such an abundance of wealth that people will not be able to find recipients for zakat."
  9. "Killing will increase."
  10. "Time will be shortened so that a year will be like a month, a month like a day, a day like an hour." [This perception of the seemingly dwindling amount of time is very apparent, especially in First World countries.]
  11. "Two great countries will fight and kill each other, both claiming the same thing."
  12. "Earthquakes will increase in number." [Welcome to California. :-]
  13. "A person will pass by the grave, and wish to trade places out of despair."
Major Signs (in rough chronological order)
  1. "Al-Dajjal will come, claiming to be God holding Heaven and Hell. His purpose is to deceive, and unbelievers will follow him. He is short, red-faced, blind in the right eye, and has hair which sticks up. He will go around the world, but will be unable to enter Madinah or Makkah." [There are numerous detailed ahadith on this man.]
  2. "Al-Mahdi will come at the time of Al-Dajjal. He will call to the true Islam, and will be a military leader. His name will be exactly like that of the Prophet: Muhammad ibn Abd-Allah, and his father's name will match the Prophet's father's name also. He will be descended from Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet."
  3. "Isa (Jesus) will come at the time of Al-Dajjal and al-Mahdi as well. He will descend at the time of Fajr prayer on a masjid in Damascus, the capital of Syria. He is of medium height, red-faced, and his hair is as if he just took a shower. He will call people back to Islam, but he will also be a military leader. The People of the Book will revert to Islam, and wealth will be super-abundant. Isa will break the cross, kill the swine, and personally slay Al-Dajjal. He will stay on Earth for a long time thereafter, and then die."
  4. "An animal will come and call people back to Islam." [The description of the animal is unknown (Arabic: 'Dab-ba'). Reference to this animal is mentioned in the Qur'an.]
  5. "Gog and Magog (two hidden tribes of people) will break free of the dam that holds them back, and ravage the earth. They will drink all the water, and kill people until Allah sends against them a worm which will wipe them out." [This is roughly before/during the time of Isa, although it is not entirely clear.]
  6. "Three places in the world will sink and be swallowed up by the earth. One in the west, one in the east, and one in the Saudi Arabian peninsula." [This may refer to a series of giant, epic earthquakes.]
  7. "Fire will come from the area of Aden in Yemen, and sweep northwards." [There are claims that this already happened in some medevial event.]
  8. "The sun will rise from the west." [This description is not meant to be a symbolic one...but it is known that it is one of the last, if not the very last one before the following.]
  9. "Smoke will appear all over the earth which will cause believers to catch something similar to a slight cold, whereas the unbelievers will be hit harder by it. Finally, a cold wind will come and kill all believers, leaving only unbelievers on the earth who will then witness the LAST HOUR. The angel Israfil will blow a trumpet, and the resurrection of all human beings will begin." [At this point, the Day of Resurrection commences in which the skies and earth are destroyed by Allah.]
This list is far from complete; there are many other signs. A couple more of interest are: Constantinople (Istanbul) will fall before Rome to Islam (note that this means Rome will indeed fall), and the Muslim political system will go from Prophetic leadership to a just Khilafah to a 'biting' authority to an oppressive authority and finally back to a just Khilafah. It seems that today we are in the next to last stage of this chain; now is a good time to actively work for the reestablishment of the Muslim state and Khilafah.

 Finally, the Prophet has said that when the Signs start to come, they will come FAST - like a string of beads falling one after the other.

 And Allah Knows Best. 

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