End Of The World (Part 2)

• Signs Of End Of The World Are Of Three Kinds:

Most of the signs of the Last Hour mentiomed in the Qur'an are such as will manifest themselves very close to the Hour. Then,  the Prophet صلی اللہ علیہ و سلم  
has described in the Ahadithall kinds of tokens,  the near ones and the distant, the minor and tge major. Allamah Muhammad Abdur Rasool Barzanjt رحمۃ اللہ علیہ has enumerated three kinds of signs of end of the world in his book.

1. The distant tokens.
2. The in-between tokens, also called the small (minor) signs. 
3. The near tokens also calledthe major signs. 

In this blog In-Sha-Allah i will share only the first kind (the distant signs).

• The First Kind (The Distant Signs) 

The distant signs are those that have manifest  themselves already in the past. They are called distant because there is a greater time lag between them and the Last Hour. These include, the coming of the Messenger of Allah صلی اللہ علیہ و سلم, the event of splitting of the moon, the death of the Messenger صلی اللہ علیہ و سلم, and the battle of siffeen. All these have already transpired and in the light of the Qur'an and Hadith are signs of the Last Hour.

• Mischief of the Tartars:

  The Mischief of the Tartars is one of these signs and it was foretold in authentic Ahadith.  The words of Bukhari are:

Sayyidina Abu Hurairah رضی اللہ عنہ said that the Messenger of Allah صلی اللہ علیہ و سلم  said, "The Hour will not come until you fight the Turks whose eyes will be tiny, faces red and noses small and flat. Their faces (in their roundness and thickness) will be like shields covered with layers upon layers of leather. And The Hour will not come until you fight a peoplewhose shoes are made of hair"

Besides, a Hadith in Saheeh Muslim describes them as "wearing dress of hair".
The people against whom the Hadith says the Muslim will fight are Tartars who poured down upon Muslims all over from Turkistan as a wrath of Allah. The details the Prophet صلی اللہ علیہ و سلم gaveof these people were found in their entirety in the mischief of the Tartars.  It was at its peak in 656 AH when Baghdad fell to them serving as a warning to Muslims to mend there ways. They killed to mend there ways. They killed Muata'sim The Last Khalifah Of Bani Abbas, and many countries of the Islamic world fell to them and were badly uprooted.
The commentator of Saheeh Muslim had seen this with his own eyes for he lived between 631 AH and 676 AH. He wrote in explaining these Ahadith:

These predictions are miracle of the Messenger of  Allah صلی اللہ علیہ و سلم  because the war with the Turks did take place. They have all the characteristics which The Messenger of Allah صلی اللہ علیہ و سلم had described.
They have tiny eyes, red faces, snub and broad noses, wide faces which are like such shield as are hammered with layers upon layers of leather. They wear shoes made of hair.
In short, they exist in our times with these characteristic.  Muslims have fought them frequently and areat war with them even now.
We pray to Allah that He let the result be favourable to tge Muslims against these people and also against otger people.  And may He continued to shower compassion and favour on the Muslims.
May He blessed His Messenger who does not speak on his own but speaks the words of revelation which is sent to Him.

• The Fire Of Hijaaz:

 The great fire of the Hijaaz is also among the signs of the Last Hour. The Prophet صلی اللہ علیہ و سلم had fore warned of it.

Bukhari and Muslim have transmitted this Hadith from Sayyidina Abu Hurairah رضی اللہ عنہ and these are the words
"The Messenger of Allah صلی اللہ علیہ و سلم said. "The Hour will not come until a fire comes out from the land of Hijaaz which brightens the necks of the camel in Busra. "
Busra is a well-known city of Syria betqeen Madinah and Damascus, 48 miles from Damascus.
Thus great fire spread in the surroundings of Madinah about a year before the invasion of the Tartars. It was exactly as described in these Ahadith. It began on friday 6th Jumadi-ath-thani 654 AH and spread over miles of land. It turned mountains that came in its way into piles of ashes. It kept burning with fury until Sunday, 27 Rajab (for 52 days) and it took about three months to cool down completely.
The light of the fire was visible as far away as Makkah, Yanboo, Tayma and even Busra which is very far away though it isbut exactly as the Hadith says. The news spread all over the Islamic world.
Accordingly, the narrators of Hadith and historians of that era wrote about the fire in their worksand the poets composed poetry describing it in much detail.
Allamah Nawawi رحمۃ اللہ علیہ who has commented on Saheeh Muslim and was an elder of those days has ezplained the said Hadith in these words:
"The fire that is mentioned in the Hadith is a distinct token of the Last Hour. There has been a fire in Madinah in our times in 654 AH. It was a very great fire. It began in the eastern of Madinah behind Harrah. The news spread  gradually to all the folk of Syria and all the cities and the people of Madinah who were there informed me themselves"
Another respected man of that era, Qadi al-Qadah Sadruddin Hanfi,  was a ruler of Damascus. Before he became ruler, he was a teacher in madrasah. When the fire flared up, he was in Busra and he himself narrated to the renowned exegettle Ibn Kathir the following account:
"When the fire was burning, I heard a villager tell my father in Busra that they saw the necks of the camel in the brightness of the fire"
There is long list of the distant tokens of the Last Hour which he had enumerated and they did happen as he had said.
Allamah Bazranji رحمۃ اللہ علیہ has mentioned many other events in Al-Isha'ah. We have presented only a few examples, yet the discourse has lengthened. We hope it will not be without benefit.