The Last Day

CONTENTS Acknowledgements

ix

1 Rise and Shine 1 Introduction 1 Light and Time 8 The Days of God 20 Revelation and the Last Day 28 The Promised One and the Last Day 35 The Glorious Qur’án 37 Ḥadíth 42 Read! 46 Heaven and Hell 49 Prophecy and the Future 52 2 The Passage of Time Traditional Tribal Religion The Ancient Religion and the Age of Empires Ancient Egypt India

59 63 68 70 74

3 Spiritual Revolutions 82 Buddha 85 Zoroaster 92 Tai-Chi – Lao Tzu and Confucius 93 The Greek Philosophers 102 4 The Prophets of the Desert 110 Abraham 111 Joseph 116 Moses 117

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Judges, Kings and Prophets Jesus

120 129

5 Muhammad After the Light Seal of the Prophets

145 156 164

6 The Perfection of His Light A Drop in the Limitless Ocean The Light of Revelation Extinguished?

Blessed are the Meek Blessed are the Strangers Decline of the Muslim Ummah Signs of the Times

170 170 177 181 192 201 205

7 The Day of Sorting The Day of Resurrection The Day of Gathering The Day of Judgement and the Cosmic Signs

214 214 222 227

8 Clearing Away the Confusion The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Gog and Magog Beauty and the Beast The Caller

242 243 243 248 255

9 The Break of Dawn 271 The Last Surahs 271 Surah of Dawn (Fajr) 273 A Time and a Place 276 The Time has Come 281 The Second Coming 286 Faith 310 Knowing the Tree by Its Fruit 320 Salám – Peace 328 Bibliography References and Notes Index

331 335 341

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THE PASSAGE OF TIME The history of humanity is more clouded and unclear the further back in time we go. History is that which we have recorded or remembered and only began to become clearer when we were instructed in the use of the ‘pen’. For many civilizations this is the dividing line between clear history and vague pre‑history.

Prior to the written script all things were passed down from one generation to the next through oral traditions, legends, stories, myths and songs. We learn from the history and pre‑history of the world that mankind has always had religion in some form and that people have always worshipped God. We are taught that God has sent something like 124,000 nabís or Prophets, of which some 315 were rasúls or Messengers entrusted with a ‘Book’, to show to all people that He is ‘Lord of the East and the West: there is no God but Him . . .’(Q 73:9) And there never was a people, without a warner having lived among them (in the past). And if they reject thee, so did their predecessors, to whom came their apostles with clear Signs, Books of dark prophecies, and the Book of Enlightenment. In the end did I punish those who rejected Faith: and how (terrible) was my rejection (of them)! (Q 35:24–6) We did aforetime send Messengers before thee: of them there are some whose story we have related to thee, and some whose story we have not related to thee. It was not possible for any messenger to bring a Sign except by the leave of God, but when the Command of God [Amru’lláh] issued, the matter was 56

rise and shine decided in truth and justice. (Q 40:78)

And furthermore: To every people [ummah] there is a messenger . . . and to every people is a term appointed . . . (Q 10:47–9) We have never sent a messenger who did not use his own people’s language to make things clear for them . . . (Q 14:4)

Looking back with our modern minds to the ancient past, we find it hard to understand those pre‑historic religious forms and to discern anything positive and meaningful from them. But in truth those forms were the height of divine guidance for their time or day, and for the people; and more than this, they were the foundation for the superstructure of monotheistic religion that followed. It is not necessary to spend too much time explor‑ ing the mysteries of the ancients and immersing ourselves in the details of their cultures and ways but a brief explora‑ tion of the salient features of their civilizations and religions is highly instructional in what they teach us about the progress of humanity and the progressive nature of God’s Revelation. While a deep and thorough exploration of human history and pre‑his‑ tory would certainly enhance our developing theme, it is simply not practical, within the scope of this work, to go into such great detail, so we will limit ourselves to a very brief religious history of the world.

The world is very big and diverse. Nowadays we have modern technology: transportation that enables us to travel easily to any place; telecommunications and the Internet to communi‑ cate with people around the world; TV, radio, print media and again the Internet to learn what is happening in faraway places and maintain a knowledge base. We have mapped the whole world and know most of its lands and peoples and we can inter‑ act either through translations or through a common language and share in a sort of global consciousness and culture. But not 57

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so long ago, before the realization of the tools and methods of modern technology, the world was vast and the peoples and nations of the world lived in exclusive, separate realities that, if at all, only briefly interacted through competitive trade or conflict.

The diversity of conditions in which people lived made their respective experience of reality very different. They lived in hot jungles, cold mountaintops, dry deserts, warm savannas, icy glaciers, temperate meadows and shaded valleys – places that were warm and hot or cool, cold or icy; humid or dry; low or high; fertile or lifeless; rainy or drought stricken; stable or vola‑ tile. They had different climates, shelters, foods, landscapes, temperatures, flora and fauna, and developed different activi‑ ties, abilities, skills, physical characteristics, social structures, cultures, languages, needs and desires, fears and anxieties.

There is an inherent quality or active force in nature – some call it evolution, some call it God, some call it simply Nature – but whatever you call it, it is that adaptability which enables all organisms, plants and animals and human beings to change and adjust to their given conditions and environment, and to co-exist with all others who share it. In material and intellectual qualities they adapt to their environments and become suited to the chal‑ lenges they face and better equipped to survive. This adaptability is a God-given gift and a quality inherent in all natural systems and organisms. We look at all the amazing diversity of nature and its forms and marvel at how perfectly each one is designed to fill some niche in the organic market, distributing the energy captured from the sun by photosynthesis – perfect links in the food chain. We look at all the various peoples of the world and marvel at how diverse are their physical attributes but what we do not realize is that this is a result of the perfect adaptability of the human form. The height, colour, size, hair, facial features, body fat distribution, etc. are all shaped through epigenetic responses adapting the human form to suit the living conditions in which people find themselves over prolonged periods. Just one example is how people whose ancestors lived in hot, sunny climates have darker skins than those whose ancestors lived in 58

cool, cloudy conditions.

Human movement and settlement are largely determined by the water and nutrition supplying capacities of any chosen habitat. If people are hungry, thirsty and struggling to survive, then they will up and move, in search of better conditions. But where there are abundant and reliable food and water sources, people will stop roaming and they will settle, gather, hunt, farm, develop, trade and communicate; and this changes many things: their activities and interactions, their accommodations and facilities. Every social aspect of life changes.

Religion, which gives rise to culture, essentially describes a moral code, or how we should relate to one another. Religion and culture are sources of the peace, stability and order within any society. Religion gives people an understanding and awareness of God appropriate to their level of development, gives them suitable forms of worship and rituals to keep them connected to God, and gives them laws and rules, norms and structures that minimize conflict and maximize opportunities for loving inter‑ action. People are often competitive and divisive, while religion has always tended to bring about unity and cooperation. You will notice that through human history, the forms of religion change as social conditions change. And this makes perfect sense because religion is ultimately designed and engineered

by God to answer the questions ‘How are we supposed to live together?’, ‘How do I conduct myself as an individual within a family within a given society?’ Every Revelation and religion and culture give rise to a form of social hierarchy and power appro‑ priate to the perpetuation of its principles and noble teachings.

Religion is not static – it is progressive. Ancient religions are not false or heathen or wicked – they are simply outdated and no longer relevant to new human aspirations and societies.

Traditional Tribal Religion In Africa, and many other parts of the ancient world, the scat‑ tered nomadic tribes moved about as hunter‑gatherers, and 59

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