Islamic eschatology ( ar, علم آخر الزمان في الإسلام, ) is a field of study in
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
concerning future events that would happen in the
end times
Eschatology (; ) concerns expectations of the end of the present age, human history, or of the world itself. The end of the world or end times is predicted by several world religions (both Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic), which teach that nega ...
. It is primarily based on hypothesis and speculations based on sources from the
Quran
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Classical Arabic, Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation in Islam, revelation from God in Islam, ...
and
Sunnah. Aspects from this field of study includes the
signs of the final age, the destruction of the universe and
Judgement Day
The Last Judgment, Final Judgment, Day of Reckoning, Day of Judgment, Judgment Day, Doomsday, Day of Resurrection or The Day of the Lord (; ar, یوم القيامة, translit=Yawm al-Qiyāmah or ar, یوم الدین, translit=Yawm ad-Dīn, ...
.
The general
consensus of
Muslim scholars
This article is an incomplete list of noted modern-era (20th to 21st century) Islamic scholars. This refers to religious authorities whose publications or statements are accepted as pronouncements on religion by their respective communities and ...
agree there would be tremendous and distinctive signs before the world ends. Among which would be an era of
trials and tribulations, a time of
immorality
Immorality is the violation of moral laws, norms or standards. It refers to an agent doing or thinking something they know or believe to be wrong. Immorality is normally applied to people or actions, or in a broader sense, it can be applied to ...
followed by
mighty wars, worldwide unnatural phenomena and the return of justice to the world. Defining figures are also prophesied such as the
Mahdi
The Mahdi ( ar, ٱلْمَهْدِيّ, al-Mahdī, lit=the Guided) is a Messianism, messianic figure in Islamic eschatology who is believed to appear at the Eschatology, end of times to rid the world of evil and injustice. He is said to be a de ...
, and the
Second Coming
The Second Coming (sometimes called the Second Advent or the Parousia) is a Christian (as well as Islamic and Baha'i) belief that Jesus will return again after his ascension to heaven about two thousand years ago. The idea is based on messi ...
of
Jesus
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
who bring about a heavenly victory against the
Antichrist
In Christian eschatology, the Antichrist refers to people prophesied by the Bible to oppose Jesus Christ and substitute themselves in Christ's place before the Second Coming. The term Antichrist (including one plural form)1 John ; . 2 John . ...
ending with the release of
Gog and Magog
Gog and Magog (; he, גּוֹג וּמָגוֹג, ''Gōg ū-Māgōg'') appear in the Hebrew Bible and the Quran as individuals, tribes, or lands. In Ezekiel 38, Gog is an individual and Magog is his land; in Genesis 10, Magog is a man and epo ...
to the world. Once all the events are completed, the universe shall be destroyed and every human being would be resurrected to be held accountable for their deeds.
Sources for Islamic Eschatology
![End times](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/End_times.svg)
Alike with other tenets of Islamic faith, sources of Islamic Eschatology are taken from two primary sources namely the
Quran
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Classical Arabic, Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation in Islam, revelation from God in Islam, ...
itself and
Sunnah literature which are accounts of the traditions of
Prophet Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monoth ...
during his lifetime. These two foundational sources would pave the way for interpretations by later scholars such as
al-Ghazali
Al-Ghazali ( – 19 December 1111; ), full name (), and known in Persian-speaking countries as Imam Muhammad-i Ghazali (Persian: امام محمد غزالی) or in Medieval Europe by the Latinized as Algazelus or Algazel, was a Persian polymat ...
,
Ibn Kathir, and
Muhammad al-Bukhari
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monoth ...
.
Signs of the End Times
The arrival of
Judgement Day
The Last Judgment, Final Judgment, Day of Reckoning, Day of Judgment, Judgment Day, Doomsday, Day of Resurrection or The Day of the Lord (; ar, یوم القيامة, translit=Yawm al-Qiyāmah or ar, یوم الدین, translit=Yawm ad-Dīn, ...
is prophesied to be preceded by apocalyptic signs of its arrival in various
hadith collections.
[ Smith & Haddad, ''Islamic Understanding'', 1981: p.5]
*Senseless immorality would prevail. The prevalent of tyrants, alcohol, usury, satanic music, fornication, homosexuality, and disobedience by wives, murders, lying and cheating, disinterest in and ignorance of religion.
*Unnatural phenomenons would occur. The rise of frequent sudden deaths, excessive lightning, destructive rainfall, terrible drought, a huge cloud of smoke, the opening up of huge cracks in the earth, the sun rising in the west, the breeze that take the souls of the faithful.
*The appearance of dark, satanic evils such as the
Antichrist
In Christian eschatology, the Antichrist refers to people prophesied by the Bible to oppose Jesus Christ and substitute themselves in Christ's place before the Second Coming. The term Antichrist (including one plural form)1 John ; . 2 John . ...
,
Gog and Magog
Gog and Magog (; he, גּוֹג וּמָגוֹג, ''Gōg ū-Māgōg'') appear in the Hebrew Bible and the Quran as individuals, tribes, or lands. In Ezekiel 38, Gog is an individual and Magog is his land; in Genesis 10, Magog is a man and epo ...
, and
Sufyani
Sufyani ( ar, سفیاني) is an evil figure in Islamic eschatology, usually portrayed in hadith as a tyrant who will spread corruption and mischief. According to Shia Hadith, Sufyani will rise in the month of Rajab. The predicted location of hi ...
.
*The arrival of messianic saviors such as the
Mahdi
The Mahdi ( ar, ٱلْمَهْدِيّ, al-Mahdī, lit=the Guided) is a Messianism, messianic figure in Islamic eschatology who is believed to appear at the Eschatology, end of times to rid the world of evil and injustice. He is said to be a de ...
and
Jesus
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
, who along with divine intervention, will restore justice.
The signs are divided into two categories.
Minor signs are uneventful signs that happen in the timeframe of centuries. Major signs are seismic events that happen very rapidly and is the immediate precursor to the end.
Savior and evil-doing figures that appear in the major signs include:
*''
Al-Masih ad-Dajjal
Al-Masih ad-Dajjal (), otherwise referred to simply as the Dajjal, is an evil figure in Islamic eschatology similar to the Antichrist in Christianity, who will pretend to be the promised Messiah, appearing before the Day of Judgment accordi ...
'' (),
is blind in one eye, and will deceive starving masses -- especially the Jews -- by performing miracles.
[ Wood, ''The Way of the Strangers'', 2016: p.255] He will raise an army that will kill and conquer, and corner his nemesis, the
Mahdi
The Mahdi ( ar, ٱلْمَهْدِيّ, al-Mahdī, lit=the Guided) is a Messianism, messianic figure in Islamic eschatology who is believed to appear at the Eschatology, end of times to rid the world of evil and injustice. He is said to be a de ...
, along with a small army of Muslim fighters in Jerusalem. Jesus will descend from heaven just in time to kill him and defeat his army.
* The
Mahdi
The Mahdi ( ar, ٱلْمَهْدِيّ, al-Mahdī, lit=the Guided) is a Messianism, messianic figure in Islamic eschatology who is believed to appear at the Eschatology, end of times to rid the world of evil and injustice. He is said to be a de ...
( ar, ٱلْمَهْدِيّ, al-mahdīy), i.e. the "Rightly Guided One", is a messianic figure descended from Muhammad through
Ali
ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam ...
, who (with the help of Jesus) will defeat the
Dajjal
Al-Masih ad-Dajjal (), otherwise referred to simply as the Dajjal, is an evil figure in Islamic eschatology similar to the Antichrist in Christianity, who will pretend to be the promised Messiah, appearing before the Day of Judgment accordin ...
, reestablish Islamic law, rid the world of ''bid'a'' (religious innovation), and fill it with justice;
[ Smith & Haddad, ''Islamic Understanding'', 1981: p.67] (Sunni and Shia disagree on details such as whether he is currently alive, will kill the Dajjal himself, what he looks like, his exact ancestry, etc.)
*
Jesus
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
( ar, عِيسَى ٱبْنُ مَرْيَمَ, lit=
Isa, son of
Maryam, translit=ʿĪsā ibn Maryam) will make a second coming, descending to earth, but unlike in Christianity it will be to assist the Mahdi by killing the dajjal, "break
ngthe cross, kill
ngthe pigs, and abolish
ngthe Jizya tax",
[WARREN LARSON ''Jesus in Islam and Christianity: Discussing the Similarities and the Differences'' p. 335] i.e. put an end to Christians misconceptions about his being the Son of God and there being no need to follow dietary laws.
Jesus and the Mahdi will then rule the earth in perfect justice for a time before Judgement Day. (Shia believe it is the Mahdi who will kill the dajjal; others believe "the Mahdi" is not a distinct person but just the title given to Jesus.)
*
Gog and Magog
Gog and Magog (; he, גּוֹג וּמָגוֹג, ''Gōg ū-Māgōg'') appear in the Hebrew Bible and the Quran as individuals, tribes, or lands. In Ezekiel 38, Gog is an individual and Magog is his land; in Genesis 10, Magog is a man and epo ...
( ar, يأجوج ومأجوج) are mentioned in the Quran as doing "great mischief on earth", and being suppressed by a figure called
Dhul-Qarnayn
, ( ar, ذُو ٱلْقَرْنَيْن, Ḏū l-Qarnayn, ; "He of the Two Horns") appears in the Quran, Surah Al-Kahf (18), Ayahs 83–101 as one who travels to east and west and sets up a barrier between a certain people and Gog and Magog ...
("the two-horned one") who builds a wall to contain their mischief, warning their local victims that when the time comes (believed to mean the
end times
Eschatology (; ) concerns expectations of the end of the present age, human history, or of the world itself. The end of the world or end times is predicted by several world religions (both Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic), which teach that nega ...
), Allah will remove the barrier.
Non-Quranic Islamic apocalyptic literature describes Gog and Magog as a subhuman pestilence who are released from thousands of years of imprisonment to do much killing, pillaging and devouring of vast resources until being wiped out after "God commands an insect or worm to burrow into their necks and kill them".
[ Wood, ''The Way of the Strangers'', 2016: p.258]
*The
Sufyani
Sufyani ( ar, سفیاني) is an evil figure in Islamic eschatology, usually portrayed in hadith as a tyrant who will spread corruption and mischief. According to Shia Hadith, Sufyani will rise in the month of Rajab. The predicted location of hi ...
( ar, سفیاني) is a tyrant whose career of murdering innocent women and children will be cut short when he and his army are swallowed up by the earth on their way to seize and kill the Mahdi.
Small Resurrection
Small Resurrection (''al-qiyamah al-sughra'') happens, when the soul is separated from the body. The soul then turns to the afterlife (''akhira'' or ''malakut''), where it is interrogated by two angels Munkar and Nakir.
Resurrection and final judgement
![Ibn arabi judgement day](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/Ibn_arabi_judgement_day.svg)
In Islam, "the promise and threat" (''waʿd wa-waʿīd'')
of
Judgment Day ( ar, یوم القيامة, Yawm al-qiyāmah, Day of Resurrection or ar, یوم الدین, italic=no, Yawm ad-din, Day of Judgement),
has been called "the dominant message" of the
Quran
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Classical Arabic, Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation in Islam, revelation from God in Islam, ...
,
[ Smith & Haddad, ''Islamic Understanding'', 1981: p.63]
and is considered a fundamental tenet of faith by all Muslims, and one of
the six articles of Islamic faith.
The two themes "central to the understanding of Islamic eschatology" are:
# the resurrection of bodies joined with spirits in a "reunion of whole, cognizant, and responsible persons", and
# a final judgment of the quality of each persons life "lived on earth and a subsequent recompense carried out with absolute justice through the prerogative of God's merciful will".
[ Smith & Haddad, ''Islamic Understanding'', 1981: p.64]
The trials, tribulations and details associated with it are detailed in the
Quran
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Classical Arabic, Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation in Islam, revelation from God in Islam, ...
and the
hadith
Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approval ...
(sayings of
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...
); these have been elaborated on in
creed
A creed, also known as a confession of faith, a symbol, or a statement of faith, is a statement of the shared beliefs of a community (often a religious community) in a form which is structured by subjects which summarize its core tenets.
The ea ...
s, Quranic commentaries (
tafsịrs), theological writing,
[ Smith & Haddad, ''Islamic Understanding'', 1981: p.vii] eschatological manuals to provide more details and a sequence of events on the Day.
[ Islamic expositors and scholarly authorities who have explained the subject in detail include ]al-Ghazali
Al-Ghazali ( – 19 December 1111; ), full name (), and known in Persian-speaking countries as Imam Muhammad-i Ghazali (Persian: امام محمد غزالی) or in Medieval Europe by the Latinized as Algazelus or Algazel, was a Persian polymat ...
, Ibn Kathir, Ibn Majah
Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Yazīd Ibn Mājah al-Rabʿī al-Qazwīnī ( ar, ابو عبد الله محمد بن يزيد بن ماجه الربعي القزويني; (b. 209/824, d. 273/887) commonly known as Ibn Mājah, was a medieval sch ...
, Muhammad al-Bukhari
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monoth ...
, and Ibn Khuzaymah
Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Khuzaymah ( ar , أبو بكر محمد بن إسحاق بن خزيمة, 837 CE/223 AH – 923 CE/311 AH) was a prominent Muslims, Muslim Hadith studies#Muhaddith: scholar of hadith, Muhaddith and Shafi'i school, ...
.
Resurrection of the dead
After the final signs of The Hour -- the defeat of the Sufyani
Sufyani ( ar, سفیاني) is an evil figure in Islamic eschatology, usually portrayed in hadith as a tyrant who will spread corruption and mischief. According to Shia Hadith, Sufyani will rise in the month of Rajab. The predicted location of hi ...
; the end of the just reign of the Mahdi and/or Jesus; the rising of the sun from the west; the peaceful death all believers from inhalation of a lethal breeze -- a trumpet will blast signaling the destruction of earth (Q.); a second blast will signal the death of any being still living (except God).[ Smith & Haddad, ''Islamic Understanding'', 1981: p.71]
The dead will then be resurrected and Afterlife commence with yet another trumpet blast, (different sources give different numbers of trumpet blasts)
The first to arise will be Muhammad, followed by the other members of the Muslim community.[ Smith & Haddad, ''Islamic Understanding'', 1981: p.74] with all gathering at the place of assembly 'al-maḥshar''[ Smith & Haddad, ''Islamic Understanding'', 1981: p.75] In between resurrection and the actual judgement will be an agonizing wait (Q., Q.) for the unbelievers.
Separation of the righteous and the damned
At divine judgment
Divine judgment means the judgment of God or other supreme beings within a religion.
Ancient beliefs
In ancient Sumerian religion, the sun-god Utu and his twin sister Inanna were believed to be the enforcers of divine justice. Utu, as th ...
, the resurrected will stand in a grand assembly, each person's ''Book of Deeds'' -- where "every small and great thing is recorded" -- will be read, and ultimate judgment made. The resurrected will then walk over the bridge of As-Sirāt
As-Sirāt ( ar, الصراط ''aṣ-ṣirāṭ'') is, according to Islam, the bridge which every human must pass on the Yawm al-Qiyamah ("Day of Resurrection") to enter Paradise. It is mentioned in the Quran, and is described in hadith.
As- ...
, those judged worthy for the Garden continuing to their heavenly abode, those damned to The Fire, falling off the bridge into the pit of Jahannam.["Reward and Punishment", ''Encyclopedia of the Qur'an''(2005)] There will also be a punishment of the grave (for those who disbelieved) between death and the resurrection.
Not everyone consigned to hell will remain there, as it is believed by both scholars and lay Muslims that "all but the ''mushrikun
''Shirk'' ( ar, شرك ''širk'') in Islam is the sin of idolatry or polytheism (''i.e.'', the deification or worship of anyone or anything besides Allah). Islam teaches that God does not share his divine attributes with any partner. Associati ...
'', those who have committed the worst sin of impugning the '' tawḥīd'' of God, have the possibility of being saved;"[ Smith & Haddad, ''Islamic Understanding'', 1981: p.81] and God's intercession to save sinners from hellfire is a "major theme" in popular Islamic stories about Judgement Day.[ Smith & Haddad, ''Islamic Understanding'', 1981: p.25]
Eschatological theological questions
Scholars did not always agree on questions of who might go to hell; whether the creation of heaven and hell would wait until Judgement Day; whether there was a state between heaven and hell; whether those consigned to hell would be there for eternity.
Basis of belief
"Fear, hope, and finally ... faith", have been given (by Jane I. Smith, Yvonne Y. Haddad) as motivations offered by the Quran for the belief of Muslimsin an Afterlife,[ Smith & Haddad, ''Islamic Understanding'', 1981: p.x] although some ( Abū Aʿla al-Mawdūdī) have asserted it is simply a matter of reason:
The fact is that whatever Muhammad (peace be upon him) has told us about life after death is clearly borne out by reason. Although our belief in that Day is based upon our implicit trust in the Messenger of God, rational reflection not only confirms this belief but it also reveals that Muhammad's (peace be upon him) teachings in this respect are much more reasonable and understandable than all other view-points about life after death.
Early Muslim thought on damnation
One of the primary beliefs pertaining to Islamic eschatology during the Early Muslim Period was that all humans could receive God's mercy and were worthy of salvation. These early depictions even show how small, insignificant deeds were enough to warrant mercy. Most early depictions of the end of days depict only those who reject ''Tawhid'', (the concept of monotheism), are subject to eternal punishment. However, everybody is held responsible for their own actions. Concepts of rewards and punishments were seen as beyond this world, a view that is also held today.
Resurrection theories
Although Islamic philosophers
Muslim philosophers both profess Islam and engage in a style of philosophy situated within the structure of the Arabic language and Islam, though not necessarily concerned with religious issues. The sayings of the companions of Muhammad contained ...
and scholars were in general agreement on a bodily resurrection after death, interpretations differ in regard to the specifications of bodily resurrection. Some of the theories are the following:
* The return to the same material body, someone had during lifetime, that will be restored.
* Conjunction of the soul
In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being".
Etymology
The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...
with a Mithali body, which is congenial to the worlds of Barzakh
Barzakh (Arabic: برزخ, from Persian ''Barzakh'', "limbo, barrier, partition") is an Arabic word meaning "obstacle", "hindrance", "separation", or "barrier". In Islam, it denotes a place separating the living from the hereafter or a phase/"st ...
and the Akhirah
al-Ākhirah ( ar, الآخرة, derived from ''Akhir'' which means last, ultimate, end or close) is an Arabic term for "the Hereafter".
In Islamic eschatology, on the Day of Last Judgment, the natural or temporal world (''dunya'') will come to ...
.
* Resurrection with a Hurqaliyati body, accordingly a second invisible body, that survives death.
Literal or allegorical
According to scholars Jane I. Smith, Yvonne Y. Haddad, "the vast majority of believers", understand verses of the Quran on Jannah (and hellfire) "to be real and specific, anticipating them" with joy or terror.[ Smith & Haddad, ''Islamic Understanding'', 1981: p.84]
Besides the material notion of the paradise, descriptions of it are also interpreted as allegories
As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory th ...
, whose meaning is the state of joy believers will experience in the afterlife. For some theologians, seeing God is not a question of sight, but of awareness of God's presence. Although early Sufis, such as Hallaj
Al-Hallaj ( ar, ابو المغيث الحسين بن منصور الحلاج, Abū 'l-Muġīth Al-Ḥusayn bin Manṣūr al-Ḥallāj) or Mansour Hallaj ( fa, منصور حلاج, Mansūr-e Hallāj) ( 26 March 922) ( Hijri 309 AH) was a Per ...
, took the descriptions of Paradise literal, later Sufi traditions usually stressed out the allegorical meaning.
On the issue of Judgement Day, early Muslims debated whether scripture on should be interpreted literally or figuratively, and the school of thought that prevailed ( Ashʿarī) "affirmed that such things as" connected with Judgement day as "the individual records of deeds (including the paper, pen, and ink with which they are inscribed), the bridge, the balance, and the pond" are "realities", and "to be understood in a concrete and literal sense."[ Smith & Haddad, ''Islamic Understanding'', 1981: p.65]
Modernist, postmodernist thought
According to Smith and Haddad, "The great majority of contemporary Muslim writers, ... choose not to discuss the afterlife at all". Islamic Modernist
Islamic modernism is a movement that has been described as "the first Muslim ideological response to the Western cultural challenge" attempting to reconcile the Islamic faith with modern values such as democracy, civil rights, rationality, e ...
s, according to Smith and Haddad, express a "kind of embarrassment with the elaborate traditional detail concerning life in the grave and in the abodes of recompense, called into question by modern rationalists".[ Smith & Haddad, ''Islamic Understanding'', 1981: p.100][Smith/Haddad, ''Islamic Understanding'', 100, quoted in Christian Lange, p.19, Lange, "Introducing Hell in Islamic Studies", 2016: p.19][ Lange, "Introducing Hell in Islamic Studies", 2016: p.18] Consequently, most of "modern Muslim Theologians" either "silence the issue" or reaffirm "the traditional position that the reality of the afterlife must not be denied but that its exact nature remains unfathomable".[
The beliefs of Pakistani modernist ]Muhammad Iqbal
Sir Muhammad Iqbal ( ur, ; 9 November 187721 April 1938), was a South Asian Muslim writer, philosopher, Quote: "In Persian, ... he published six volumes of mainly long poems between 1915 and 1936, ... more or less complete works on philoso ...
(died 1938), were similar to the Sufi "spiritual and internalized interpretations of hell" of ibn ʿArabī, and Rumi
Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī ( fa, جلالالدین محمد رومی), also known as Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Balkhī (), Mevlânâ/Mawlānā ( fa, مولانا, lit= our master) and Mevlevî/Mawlawī ( fa, مولوی, lit= my ma ...
, seeing paradise and hell "primarily as metaphors for inner psychic" developments. Thus hellfire is actually a state of realization of one's failures as a human being", and not a supernatural subterranean realm. Egyptian modernist Muhammad ʿAbduh, thought it was sufficient to believe in the existence of an afterlife with rewards and punishment to be a true believer, even if you ignored "clear" (''ẓāhir'') hadith about hell.
Gender equity
Some postmodernists have found at least one ''sahih
Hadith terminology ( ar, مصطلح الحديث, muṣṭalaḥu l-ḥadīth) is the body of terminology in Islam which specifies the acceptability of the sayings (''hadith'') attributed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad by other early Islamic fig ...
'' (authentic) hadith on hell unacceptable—the tradition of the Prophet Muhammad stating, "most people in hell are women" has been explained as an attempt to "legitimate social control over women" (Smith and Haddad),[ Smith & Haddad, ''Islamic Understanding'', 1981: p.163] or perpetuate "the moral, social, political, sectarian hierarchies" of medieval Islam (Lange). Amina Wadud notes that the Qur'an does not mention any specific gender when talking about Hell, Q., for example, states that "the guilty are immortal in hell's torment"; and when discussing paradise, includes women, Q., for example, states that "Beautiful of mankind is love of the joys (that come) from women and offspring..."
"Limbo" or ''al-aʿrāf'' in Islam
In terms of classical Islam, "the only options" afforded by the Qur'an for the resurrected are an eternity of horrible punishments of The Fire or the delightful rewards of The Garden. Islamic tradition has raised the question of whether or not consignment to the Fire is eternal, or eternal for all, but "has found no reason to amend" the limit of two options in the afterlife.[ Smith & Haddad, ''Islamic Understanding'', 1981: p.90] But one verse in the Quran has "led to a great deal of speculation concerning the possibility of a third place".[
*There will be a barrier 'ḥijāb''between Paradise and Hell. And on the heights 'al-aʿrāf''of that barrier˺ will be people who will recognize ˹the residents of˺ both by their appearance. They will call out to the residents of Paradise, "Peace be upon you!" They will have not yet entered Paradise, but eagerly hope to (Q.).][
"What some have called" the "Limbo" Theory of Islam, as described by Jane Smith and Yvonne Haddad, implies that some individuals are not immediately sent to The Fire or The Garden, but are held in a state of limbo.][ Smith and Haddad believe it is "very doubtful" that the Qur'anic meant for ''al-aʿrāf'' to be understood as "an abode for those ... in an intermediate category, but this has come to be the most commonly
held interpretation".][ Smith & Haddad, ''Islamic Understanding'', 1981: p.90-91]
As for who the inhabitants of the inhabits ''al-aʿrāf'' are, the "majority of exegetes" support the theory that they are persons whose actions balance in terms of merit and demerit -- whose good deeds keep them from the Fire and whose evil deeds keep them from the Garden. They will be the last to enter the Garden, at the mercy of their Lord.[ Smith & Haddad, ''Islamic Understanding'', 1981: p.91]
The Current existence of the Afterlife
There was considerable debate regarding whether heaven and hell exists at the current moment.[ Smith & Haddad, ''Islamic Understanding'', 1981: p.92] The Mu'tazila argued that since the Quran states that once the trumpet sounds, all except God will be destroyed, this would include the destruction of heaven and hell. However, the Ash'ariya argued that although the trumpet's sounding will precede all being destroyed, creation was a "constant process". Māturīdism also defends the idea that paradise and hell are coexisting with the temporal world. The attributes of paradise and hell would already take effect on this world (''dunya''). Abu al-Layth al-Samarqandi
Abu al-Layth al-Samarqandi (Arabic أبو الليث السمرقندي, Abū l-Laiṯ as-Samarqandī; b. 944; d. 983) was a Hanafite jurist and Quran commentator, who lived during the second half of the 10th century. He authored various books on ...
(944–983) states that the purpose of simultaneous existence of both worlds is that they inspire hope and fear among humans.
Evidence that Jannah and the Fire already exists is supported by a number of verses in the Quran. It is implied someone has gone to the Garden or the hell (3:169, 36:13-26, 66:10, 3:10-11, 6:93).[ In the Story of Adam and Eve, they once resided in Garden of Eden, which is often considered to be Jannah. This identification, however, is not universal. Al-Balluti (887 – 966) reasoned that the Garden of Eden lacked the perfection and eternal character of a final paradise:] Adam and Eve lost the primordial paradise, while the paradisiacal afterlife lasts forever; if Adam and Eve were in the otherworldly paradise, the devil
A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of t ...
(''Shaiṭān'') could not have entered and deceive them, since there is no evil or idle talk in paradise; Adam slept in his garden, but there is no sleep in paradise.
Besides the Quranic allusions, ''hadiths'' are taken into consideration to evaluate the afterlife's coexistence with the temporary world. Reports pertaining to the Night Journey (''Mi'raj
The Israʾ and Miʿraj ( ar, الإسراء والمعراج, ') are the two parts of a Night Journey that, according to Islam, the Islamic prophet Muhammad (570–632) took during a single night around the year 621 (1 BH – 0 BH). With ...
'') state that Muhammad saw visions of both destinations and creatures inhabiting it. Thus, heaven and hell are usually regarded as coexisting with the current world.[ Lange, "Introducing Hell in Islamic Studies", 2016: p.12] According to another common tradition, Muhammad is supposed to have taken a pomegranate
The pomegranate (''Punica granatum'') is a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub in the family Lythraceae, subfamily Punicoideae, that grows between tall.
The pomegranate was originally described throughout the Mediterranean Basin, Mediterranean re ...
from jannah, and shared it with Ali
ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam ...
, as recorded by Nasir al-Din al-Tusi
Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Tūsī ( fa, محمد ابن محمد ابن حسن طوسی 18 February 1201 – 26 June 1274), better known as Nasir al-Din al-Tusi ( fa, نصیر الدین طوسی, links=no; or simply Tusi in the West ...
. However, some scholars, like Ghazali Ghazali is an international surname and given name with different spellings (e.g. Gazali, Gazzali, Gazzaly, Gassaly, Garzali), it may refer to:
* Ahmad Ghazali (c. 1061–1123 or 1126), Persian mystic
* Lynda Ghazzali, Malaysian porcelain painter
...
, reject that Muhammad grabbed the fruit, argued he had only a vision instead.
The Concept of Eternity
In Classical Islam, there was a consensus among the theological community regarding the finality of Jannah
In Islam, Jannah ( ar, جَنّة, janna, pl. ''jannāt'',lit. "paradise, garden", is the final abode of the righteous. According to one count, the word appears 147 times in the Quran. Belief in the afterlife is one of the six articles of f ...
(also called Heaven, paradise, the Gardens); after Judgement Day, faithful servants of God would find themselves here for eternity.[ Smith & Haddad, ''Islamic Understanding'', 1981: p.93] However, some practitioners in the early Muslim community held that the other abode of the hereafter (hell/Jahannam), or at least part of that abode, might not be eternal.[ This belief was based upon an interpretations of scripture that since the upper, less tortuous levels of Hell were reserved for Muslims who were only in hell for as long as God deemed necessary. Once Muslims had their sins purged and were allowed into heaven, these levels would be empty and the need for their existence gone.][ These interpretations are centered on verses 11:106–107 in the Quran, stating,
:"As for those who are wretched, they shall be in the Fire, wherein there shall be for them groaning and wailing, abiding therein for so long as the heavens and the earth endure, save as thy Lord wills. Surely thy Lord does whatsoever He wills".
This possibility that God may yet commute a sentence to Hell, interprets (parts of) hell as being similar in function to Purgatory in Christianity, with the exception to this comparison being that Hell in this context is for the punishment of the sinner's complete body, as opposed to the only the soul being punished in Purgatory.][ Arguments questioning the permanence of Hell take the view that Hell is not necessarily solely there to punish the evil, but to purify their souls, whereas the purpose of the Garden is simply to reward the righteous.][ Smith & Haddad, ''Islamic Understanding'', 1981: p.94]
Evidence against the concept of hell being in part temporary, is the Quran verse stating that Hell will endure as long as Heaven will, which has been established as eternal.
Predestination
Orthodox Islam teaches the doctrine of ''Qadar'' ( ar, قدر, aka Predestination
Predestination, in theology, is the doctrine that all events have been willed by God, usually with reference to the eventual fate of the individual soul. Explanations of predestination often seek to address the paradox of free will, whereby G ...
, or divine
Divinity or the divine are things that are either related to, devoted to, or proceeding from a deity.[divine< ...](_blank)
destiny
Destiny, sometimes referred to as fate (from Latin ''fatum'' "decree, prediction, destiny, fate"), is a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual.
Fate
Although often ...
in Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
), whereby everything that has happened and will happen in the universe—including sinful human behavior—is commanded by God.[ Guillaume, ''Islam'', 1978: p.132] At the same time, we human beings are responsible for our actions and rewarded or punished for them in the Afterlife
The afterlife (also referred to as life after death) is a purported existence in which the essential part of an individual's identity or their stream of consciousness continues to live after the death of their physical body. The surviving ess ...
.
''Qadar''/predestination/divine destiny, is one of Sunni Islam's six articles of faith and is mentioned in the Quran.
*"Nothing will ever befall us except what Allah has destined for us" (Q.).[
*"Allah leaves whoever He wills to stray and guides whoever He wills." (Q.).][ Ibn Warraq, ''Why I Am Not a Muslim'', 1995: p.124]
Of course, the fate of human beings in the Afterlife is especially crucial. It is reflected in Quranic verses such as
* Had We willed, We could have easily imposed guidance on every soul. But My Word will come to pass: I will surely fill up Hell with jinn and humans all together. (Q.).[
Muhammad also talked about the doctrine of predestination multiple times during his mission.] Thus the consensus of the Sunni Muslim community has been that scripture indicates predestination.
Nonetheless, some Muslim theologians have argued against predestination, (including at least some Shia Muslims, whose article of faith
A creed, also known as a confession of faith, a symbol, or a statement of faith, is a statement of the shared beliefs of a community (often a religious community) in a form which is structured by subjects which summarize its core tenets.
The ea ...
includes ''Adalah'' (justice), but not ''Qadar''. At least some Shia -- such as Naser Makarem Shirazi
Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi (, born 25 February 1927 in Shiraz, Iran) is an Iranian Shia ''marja and religious leader.
Biography
He was born in the city of Shiraz, Iran. According to his website, his father was Ali Mohammad, his gr ...
-- denounce predestination).
Opponents of predestination in early Islam, (''al-Qadariyah
Qadariyyah ( ar, قدرية, Qadariyya), also Qadarites or Kadarites, from (), meaning "power"); was originally a derogatory term designating early Islamic theologians who rejected the concept of predestination in Islam, ''qadr'', and asserted t ...
'', ''Muʿtazila
Muʿtazila ( ar, المعتزلة ', English: "Those Who Withdraw, or Stand Apart", and who called themselves ''Ahl al-ʿAdl wa al-Tawḥīd'', English: "Party of ivineJustice and Oneness f God); was an Islamic group that appeared in early Islamic ...
'') argued that if God has already determined everything that will happen, God's human creation cannot really have free will over decisions to do good or evil, or control of whether they suffer eternal torment in Jahannam
In Islam, the place of punishment for unbelievers and other sin in Islam, evildoers in the afterlife, or hell, is an "integral part of Islamic theology",#ETISN2009, Thomassen, "Islamic Hell", Numen, 56, 2009: p.401 and has "occupied an important p ...
—which is something that (the opponents believe) a just God would never allow to happen.[
While ''Qadar'' is the consensus of Muslims, it is also an issue scholars discourage debate and discussion about. Hadith narrate Muhammad warning his followers to “refrain from speaking about ''qadar''”;] and according to the creed of Al-Tahawi
Abu Ja'far Ahmad al-Tahawi ( ar, أبو جعفر الطحاوي, translit=Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī) (843 – 5 November 933), or simply aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī (Arabic: ), was an Egyptians, Egyptian Arabs, Arab Hanafi jurist and Traditiona ...
, "the principle of providence" is such a secret that God did not let even angels, prophets and messengers in on the mystery.
Who will enter Heaven or hell
Scholars do not all agree on who will end up in Jannah and who in Jahannam, and the criteria for deciding. Issues include whether all Muslims, even those who've committed major sins, will end up in Jannah; whether any non-Muslims will be saved or all will go to Jahannam.
According to the Quran, the basic criterion for salvation
Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its c ...
in the afterlife
The afterlife (also referred to as life after death) is a purported existence in which the essential part of an individual's identity or their stream of consciousness continues to live after the death of their physical body. The surviving ess ...
is the belief in the oneness of God
Tawhid ( ar, , ', meaning "unification of God in Islam (Allāh)"; also romanized as ''Tawheed'', ''Tawhid'', ''Tauheed'' or ''Tevhid'') is the indivisible oneness concept of monotheism in Islam. Tawhid is the religion's central and single mo ...
( ), angels
In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God.
Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles include ...
, revealed books, messengers, as well as repentance
Repentance is reviewing one's actions and feeling contrition or regret for past wrongs, which is accompanied by commitment to and actual actions that show and prove a change for the better.
In modern times, it is generally seen as involving a co ...
to God, and doing good deeds (''amal salih''). This is qualified by the doctrine that ultimately salvation can only be attained through God's judgment.[Moiz Amjad.]
Will Christians enter Paradise or go to Hell?
". '' Renaissance - Monthly Islamic journal'' 11(6), June, 2001.
Muslim scholars mostly agree that ultimately all Muslims will be saved (though many may need to be purified by a spell in hellfire[ Lange, ''Paradise and Hell in Islamic Traditions'', 2016: p.40] but disagree about the possibility for salvation of non-Muslims.
The idea that jinn
Jinn ( ar, , ') – also Romanization of Arabic, romanized as djinn or Anglicization, anglicized as genies (with the broader meaning of spirit or demon, depending on sources)
– are Invisibility, invisible creatures in early Arabian mytho ...
as well as humans could find salvation was widely accepted,[ Lange, ''Paradise and Hell in Islamic Traditions'', 2016: p.140-1] Like humans, their destiny in the hereafter depends on whether they accept God's guidance. The surah Al-Jinn says:
:And among us are those who have submitted ˹to Allah˺ and those who are deviant. So ˹as for˺ those who submitted, it is they who have attained Right Guidance. And as for the deviant, they will be fuel for Hell.’” (Q.)
Angels, who are not subject to desire and do not commit sin, are found in both paradise and the Fire -- punishing sinners in hell, and praising and serving humans (and jinn) in paradise.[ Lange, ''Paradise and Hell in Islamic Traditions'', 2016: p.141]
Scholars
Muslim scholars arguing in favor of non-Muslims' being able to enter paradise cite the verse:
*"Indeed, those who believed and those who were Jews or Christians or Sabians—those who believed in Allah and the Last Day and did righteousness—will have their reward with their Lord, and no fear will there be concerning them, nor will they grieve," (Q.).
Those arguing against non-Muslim salvation regard this verse to have applied only until the arrival of Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...
, after which it was abrogated by another verse:
* "And whoever desires other than Islam as religion—never will it be accepted from him, and he, in the Hereafter, will be among the losers. (Q.).
Although the Quran acknowledges the Bible as gospel, rejecting Muhammad and his message is seen as a rejection of salvation by them.
According to Mohammad Hassan Khalil, on the subject of whether self-proclaimed non-Muslims might be allowed into Jannah, Islamic theologians can be classified as
*'Exclusivists' -- who maintain that only Muslims will be saved and that adherents of all other beliefs will burn in Hell.
*'Inclusivists' -- who also affirm that Islam is the path to Heaven, but that some others are actually on the same path (and will go to Jannah) though they call themselves non-Muslims and call their path by a different name.
* 'Pluralists' -- assert that there are several religious traditions or interpretations that are equally effective saving their adherents from damnation, regardless of the circumstances.
* 'Universalists' -- 'believe that all of Hell's inhabitants will be admitted into Heaven following a significant period of time' suffering in hell.
(In addition there are those who could be described as 'interim inclusivists' or 'ultimate universalists'.)
Based on these categories, four "well-known and particularly influential Muslim thinkers" can be sorted as:
* al-Ghazālī -- "optimistic" or "liberal inclusivist",
* Ibn al-ʿArabī -- "liberal inclusivist" to "quasi-universalist",
* Ibn Taymiyya
Ibn Taymiyyah (January 22, 1263 – September 26, 1328; ar, ابن تيمية), birth name Taqī ad-Dīn ʾAḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm ibn ʿAbd al-Salām al-Numayrī al-Ḥarrānī ( ar, تقي الدين أحمد بن عبد الحليم ...
and
* Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya
Shams al-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr ibn Ayyūb al-Zurʿī l-Dimashqī l-Ḥanbalī (29 January 1292–15 September 1350 CE / 691 AH–751 AH), commonly known as Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya ("The son of the principal of he school ...
-- both universalists, (despite their status as "darlings" of "many who call themselves Salafīs"),
* Rashīd Riḍā -- was a lenient inclusivist to cautious universalist.
* Ibn Hazm
Abū Muḥammad ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd ibn Ḥazm ( ar, أبو محمد علي بن احمد بن سعيد بن حزم; also sometimes known as al-Andalusī aẓ-Ẓāhirī; 7 November 994 – 15 August 1064Ibn Hazm. ' (Preface). Tr ...
-- "proclaimed that even the most upright and flawless moral-ethical monotheist is damned to Hell if he knows anything about a person named Muḥammad or a religion called Islam and does not join, while even the most brutal and immoral person who converts sincerely to Islam the moment before he dies, is saved". Furthermore, "any Muslim who does not agree is not a Muslim himself."
Ash'arism
Ashʿarism (/æʃəˈriː/; Arabic: أشعرية: al-ʾAshʿarīyah), one of the main Sunni
Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagr ...
schools of Islamic theology
Schools of Islamic theology are various Islamic schools and branches in different schools of thought regarding ''ʿaqīdah'' (creed). The main schools of Islamic Theology include the Qadariyah, Falasifa, Jahmiyya, Murji'ah, Muʿtazila, Bati ...
, founded by the Islamic scholar
In Islam, the ''ulama'' (; ar, علماء ', singular ', "scholar", literally "the learned ones", also spelled ''ulema''; feminine: ''alimah'' ingularand ''aalimath'' lural are the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of reli ...
, Shāfiʿī jurist
A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...
, Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī in the 10th century, is known for an optimistic perspective on salvation for Muslims, repeatedly addressing God's mercy over God's wrath.[ However, according to Ash'arism, God is neither obligated to punish disobedience nor to reward obedience.]
Ash'aris hold revelation necessary to understand good and evil, as well as religious truths. Accordingly, revelation is necessary to reach moral and religious truths and thus, people who hear from a prophet or messenger are obligated to follow the revealed religion. However, those who have not received revelation are not obligated, and can hope for salvation.
;Al-Ghazali
Ash'arite scholar al-Ghazali
Al-Ghazali ( – 19 December 1111; ), full name (), and known in Persian-speaking countries as Imam Muhammad-i Ghazali (Persian: امام محمد غزالی) or in Medieval Europe by the Latinized as Algazelus or Algazel, was a Persian polymat ...
divided non-Muslims into three categories for purposes of the Afterlife according to Mohammad Hassan Khalil:[
#Those who never heard the message of Islam, who live in far away lands, such as the Byzantines ("Romans"). These will be forgiven.
#Those who were only exposed to a distorted understanding of Islam and had no opportunity to hear the correct version. These too will be forgiven.
#People who heard of Islam because they lived in neighboring lands and/or mixed with Muslims. These have no hope of salvation.][
Of these three, only the last group would be punished.]
Ghazali Ghazali is an international surname and given name with different spellings (e.g. Gazali, Gazzali, Gazzaly, Gassaly, Garzali), it may refer to:
* Ahmad Ghazali (c. 1061–1123 or 1126), Persian mystic
* Lynda Ghazzali, Malaysian porcelain painter
...
distinguished between the "saved" and "those who will attain success". Therefore, righteous non-Muslims will neither enter hell nor Jannah, but will stay in al-Araf (a realm between Jannah and Jahannam inhabited by those who are neither entirely evil nor entirely good).
Maturidism
Māturīdism ( ar, الماتريدية: ''al-Māturīdiyyah'') is also one of the main Sunni
Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagr ...
schools of Islamic theology
Schools of Islamic theology are various Islamic schools and branches in different schools of thought regarding ''ʿaqīdah'' (creed). The main schools of Islamic Theology include the Qadariyah, Falasifa, Jahmiyya, Murji'ah, Muʿtazila, Bati ...
developed and formalized by the Islamic scholar
In Islam, the ''ulama'' (; ar, علماء ', singular ', "scholar", literally "the learned ones", also spelled ''ulema''; feminine: ''alimah'' ingularand ''aalimath'' lural are the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of reli ...
, Ḥanafī jurist
A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...
Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī in the 10th century. Māturīdi scholars are thought to have been less optimistic about the chances of sinners entering paradise than Ash'aris, but more optimistic than Muʿtazila.[ They agree that Muslims who have committed grave sins will be punished but generally acknowledge that even these people will eventually enter paradise.][ Lange, ''Paradise and Hell in Islamic Traditions'', 2016: p.177] Regarding the fate of non-Muslims, scholars have different opinions. Māturīdism holds people responsible for believing in a creator due to their intellectual capacities, even if they haven't heard about any prophetic mission.["Zhussipbek, Galym, and Bakhytzhan Satershinov. "Search for the theological grounds to develop inclusive Islamic interpretations: Some insights from rationalistic Islamic Maturidite theology." Religions 10.11 (2019): 609.]
While some (like Rifat Atay Rifat (also transliterated as Rifaat, ar, رفعت, , a conjugated form of the Arabic verb رفع with the meaning "lifted", "elated", "joyous") is a masculine name. Variants also include Refat, Rafat, Refaat, etc. Notable people with the name in ...
) regard Māturīdism to be exclusivistic, only allowing people who are Muslims to enter paradise, others argue that Māturīdi understood that "to believe in Islam" meant having a subjective conceptualization of God and his laws by reason alone. This fits the doctrine, upheld by Māturīdism, that human reason suffices to grasp good and evil, and arrive at religious truths. Accordingly, people are judged by their degree of understanding God's universal law, not by their adherence to a particular belief system. In modern times, Yohei Matsuyama largely agrees with this interpretation. According to Abu'l-Qasim Ishaq, children cannot be considered unbelievers, thus all of them go to paradise.
Muʿtazila
Muʿtazila
Muʿtazila ( ar, المعتزلة ', English: "Those Who Withdraw, or Stand Apart", and who called themselves ''Ahl al-ʿAdl wa al-Tawḥīd'', English: "Party of ivineJustice and Oneness f God); was an Islamic group that appeared in early Islamic ...
( ar, المعتزلة ') emphasized God's justice, free will
Free will is the capacity of agents to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded.
Free will is closely linked to the concepts of moral responsibility, praise, culpability, sin, and other judgements which apply only to actio ...
, and the responsibility of each human being for their actions. They have been called the "best known exponents" of ''Qadariyah
Qadariyyah ( ar, قدرية, Qadariyya), also Qadarites or Kadarites, from (), meaning "power"); was originally a derogatory term designating early Islamic theologians who rejected the concept of predestination in Islam, ''qadr'', and asserted t ...
'', the idea that human free will was necessary "as a guarantee of divine justice".[ Smith & Haddad, ''Islamic Understanding'', 1981: p.22] Compared to Maturidi and Ashʿarī, Muʿtazila had the least amount of "salvific optimism".[ Lange, ''Paradise and Hell in Islamic Traditions'', 2016: p.177-78]
The "divine threat" (''al-wa'id'') and "divine promise" (''al wa'd'') became key tenets of the Mu'tazilites, who stressed that they applied to both Muslims and non-Muslims. This meant that those who committed grave or heinous sins ( Kabirah), even Muslims, might denied entry to paradise forever. The only way for a grave sinner to be forgiven, many theologians believed, is by repentance
Repentance is reviewing one's actions and feeling contrition or regret for past wrongs, which is accompanied by commitment to and actual actions that show and prove a change for the better.
In modern times, it is generally seen as involving a co ...
(''tawba''). Mu'tazilites believed God's justice obligated Him to forgive those who had repented (other schools believed He was not so constrained). The Mu'tazilites stress on individual accountability meant a rejection of intercession
Intercession or intercessory prayer is the act of praying to a deity on behalf of others, or Intercession of saints, asking a saint in heaven to pray on behalf of oneself or for others.
The Apostle Paul's exhortation to Saint Timothy, Timothy sp ...
(''Shafa'a'') on behalf of the prophet Muhammad. Another controversial belief of many (but not all) Mu'tazilites was that paradise and hell would be created only after Judgement Day. This meant rejection of the commonly accepted idea that paradise and hell coexist with the contemporary world. Their reasoning was that since God does everything for a purpose, and since paradise and hell are created to reward or punish people, they will only be created after judegement has been passed on people and they are assigned to these abodes.
Twelver Shia
Like most Sunni, Shia Islam hold that all Muslims will eventually go to Jannah.
On the fate of non-Muslims in the hereafter, Shia Islam (or at least cleric Ayatullah Mahdi Hadavi Tehrani of Al-Islam.org), takes a view similar to Ash'arism. Tehrani divides non-Muslims into two groups: the heedless and stubborn who will go to hell and the ignorant who will not "if they are truthful to their own religion":
#Those who are termed 'Jahil-e-Muqassir' (lit. 'culpable ignorant' -- ''jahil'' suggesting unbelief rather than literal ignorance). These are non-believers to whom the message of Islam has reached and who have understood its truthfulness. However, they are not prepared to accept the truth due to their obstinacy and stubbornness. This group deserves to be punished in Hell.
#Those who are termed 'Jahil-e-Qasir' (lit. 'inculpable ignorant'). These are non-believers to whom the message of Islam has not reached, or it has been presented to them in a very incomplete and untruthful manner. Such people will attain salvation if they are truthful to their own religion.
(At least one Twelver Shia
Twelver Shīʿīsm ( ar, ٱثْنَا عَشَرِيَّة; '), also known as Imāmīyyah ( ar, إِمَامِيَّة), is the largest branch of Shīʿa Islam, comprising about 85 percent of all Shīʿa Muslims. The term ''Twelver'' refers t ...
scholar 'Allama al-Hilli, insists that not only will non-Muslims be damned but suggests Sunni Muslim will be as well, as it is not possible for any Muslim to be ignorant of "the imamate and of the Return", and thus "whoever is ignorant of any of them is outside the circle of believers and worthy of eternal punishment." This statement is not indicative of all Shia eschatological thought.)
Also like mainstream schools, and unlike Muʿtazila, Twelver Shia hold that Jannah and hellfire "exist at present ... according to the Qur`an and ahadith". However, they will not "become fully apparent and represented" until Judgement Day. As for three other issues in Islamic eschatology:
*the differences between Adam and Eve's Garden of Eden
In Abrahamic religions, the Garden of Eden ( he, גַּן־עֵדֶן, ) or Garden of God (, and גַן־אֱלֹהִים ''gan-Elohim''), also called the Terrestrial Paradise, is the Bible, biblical paradise described in Book of Genesis, Genes ...
,
*"the heaven or hell of one's actions which envelopes a person"; and
*the ''Barzakh
Barzakh (Arabic: برزخ, from Persian ''Barzakh'', "limbo, barrier, partition") is an Arabic word meaning "obstacle", "hindrance", "separation", or "barrier". In Islam, it denotes a place separating the living from the hereafter or a phase/"st ...
'' state of "purgatory" in Islam after death and before Resurrection; in Shia Islam,
these three "types" of jannah (or Jahannam) are "all simply manifestations of the ultimate, eternal heaven and hell".
Contemporary debate of non-Muslim fate
Modernist scholars Muhammad Abduh
; "The Theology of Unity")
, alma_mater = Al-Azhar University
, office1 = Grand Mufti of Egypt
, term1 = 1899 – 1905
, Sufi_order = Shadhiliyya
, disciple_of =
, awards =
, infl ...
and Rashid Rida
Muḥammad Rashīd ibn ʿAlī Riḍā ibn Muḥammad Shams al-Dīn ibn Muḥammad Bahāʾ al-Dīn ibn Munlā ʿAlī Khalīfa (23 September 1865 or 18 October 1865 – 22 August 1935 CE/ 1282 - 1354 AH), widely known as Sayyid Rashid Rida ( ar, ...
rejected the notion that the People of the Book
People of the Book or Ahl al-kitāb ( ar, أهل الكتاب) is an Islamic term referring to those religions which Muslims regard as having been guided by previous revelations, generally in the form of a scripture. In the Quran they are ident ...
would be excluded from Jannah, based on Q. (see above).[Der Koran, ed. and transl. by Adel Theodor Khoury, Gütersloh 2004, p. 67 (footnote).] The Fate of the unlearned
The fate of the unlearned, also known as the destiny of the unevangelized, is an eschatological question about the ultimate destiny of people who have not been exposed to a particular theology or doctrine and thus have no opportunity to embrace it ...
is also a matter of dispute within Islamic theology.
Turkish theologian Süleyman Ateş
Süleyman Ateş (born 3 January 1933) is a Turkish theologian, philosopher, and writer.
He was 12th Director of religious affairs of Turkey. He graduated at Ankara University and passed out the highest degree. He attended an assistant program ...
cites the Quran to argue that there are good and bad people in any religion, and that some Muslims may not enter paradise, but those who believe without doubt in the hereafter and a God without partners, and who do good and useful deeds may enter paradise, whatever their religions.
On the other hand, those who argue that only Islam is the "completed" and "perfected", and that it is necessary to believe in the ''all'' teaching of God -- the prophets
In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings from the su ...
, the angels
In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God.
Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles include ...
etc. -- insist that only Muslims can enter paradise.
The fate of Jews
While "some traditional and contemporary commentators" have interpreted the Quran as condemning all Jews, Farid Esack argues this condemnation is neither "universal" nor "eternal", and asks, 'if the Qur'an is to consign the Jews to eternal damnation, then what becomes of the sacred text as a means of guidance for all humankind? Would that vision too be damned?'
An example of a line criticizing the Jews can be found in Surah 5:
*"The Jews say, 'God's Hand is shackled.' Shackled are their hands, and they are cursed for what they say. Nay, but His two Hands are outstretched, He bestows as He wills. Surely that which has been sent down unto thee from thy Lord will increase many of them in rebellion and disbelief. And we cast enmity and hatred among them till the Day of Resurrection. As often they ignite a flame for war, God extinguishes it. They endeavor to work corruption upon the earth. And God loves not thee workers of corruption." (Q.)
A Sahih hadith concerning Jews and one of the signs of the coming of Judgement Day has been quoted many times, (it became a part of the charter of Hamas
Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Bri ...
).
* The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews, when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdullah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (the Boxthorn
''Lycium'' is a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family, Solanaceae. The genus has a disjunct distribution around the globe, with species occurring on most continents in temperate and subtropical regions. South America has the most ...
tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews.
However, some scripture praises the dedication of Jews to monotheism, and this verse of the Qur'an in surah 3, can be interpreted as taking a more reconciliatory tone:
*"They are not all alike. Among the People of the Book is an upright community who recite God's signs in the watches of the night, while they prostrate. They believe in God and the Last Day, enjoin right and forbid wrong, and hasten unto good deeds. And they are among the righteous. Whatsoever good they do, they will not be denied it. And God knows the reverent". (Q.)
After reconciling the different descriptions, one can conclude that the transgressions of the "apes and pigs" are not indicative of the entire community, and that while some Jews are on their way to damnation, others are not.
Islamic eschatology among Muslims in 20th and 21st centuries
Prior to the 20th century, Islam had "strongly emphasized the hereafter" (''ākhira''). Desire to counter colonialism and "achieve material and technological parity with the West" turned modern thinkers to stress this world (''dunyā''), without suggesting ''ākhira'' was less important.[
The focus on end times/]Eschatology
Eschatology (; ) concerns expectations of the end of the present age, human history, or of the world itself. The end of the world or end times is predicted by several world religions (both Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic), which teach that negati ...
in Islam has tended to occur among those less exposed to scholarly learning. In the 1980s however, it again became much more popular generally. Islamic leaders and scholars have always urged Muslim to be prepared for Judgement Day, but "the particulars of the end of the world are not a mainstream concern in Islam," according to Graeme Wood.[ Wood, ''The Way of the Strangers'', 2016: p.250]
However, in 2012 poll conducted by the Pew Research Center
The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan American think tank (referring to itself as a "fact tank") based in Washington, D.C.
It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the w ...
found that 50% or more respondents in several Muslim-majority countries
The terms Muslim world and Islamic world commonly refer to the Islamic community, which is also known as the Ummah. This consists of all those who adhere to the religious beliefs and laws of Islam or to societies in which Islam is practiced. In ...
(Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...
, Turkey, Malaysia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Tunisia
)
, image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa
, image_map2 =
, capital = Tunis
, largest_city = capital
, ...
, Algeria
)
, image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Algiers
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, relig ...
, and Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...
) expected the Mahdi
The Mahdi ( ar, ٱلْمَهْدِيّ, al-Mahdī, lit=the Guided) is a Messianism, messianic figure in Islamic eschatology who is believed to appear at the Eschatology, end of times to rid the world of evil and injustice. He is said to be a de ...
(the final redeemer according to Islam) to return during their lifetime. The expectation is most common in Afghanistan (83%), followed by Iraq (72%), Turkey (68%), Tunisia (67%), Malaysia (62%), Pakistan (60%), Lebanon (56%), and Muslims in southern Thailand (57%).
Stories of end times and doomsday tend to be passed on as bedtime stories or informal talk among the lay Muslims, rather than in the Imam's Friday ''khutbah
''Khutbah'' ( ar, خطبة ''khuṭbah'', tr, hutbe) serves as the primary formal occasion for public preaching in the Islamic tradition.
Such sermons occur regularly, as prescribed by the teachings of all legal schools. The Islamic traditi ...
''. "Even Muslims with low levels of knowledge have heard parts of parts of it", according to scholar Jean Pierre Filiu. In Islamic bookstores, their "dramatic and sensational stories of final battles between good and evil, supernatural powers, the ultimate rise of a Muslim elite," are naturally more attention getting than more orthodox/studious works on prayer, purity or the lives of exemplary Muslims. More official Muslim sources have often either kept quiet about apocalyptic hadith or outright denied their existence—an example being Nihad Awad
Nihad Awad (Arabic: نهاد عوض) is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
Early life
Nihad Awad was born in Amman New Camp, a Palestinian refugee camp in Amman, Jordan. He studied at Seco ...
of the Council on American-Islamic Relations
A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or natio ...
who stated "There is no apocalyptic bloodbath in Islam."[
Popular Islamic pamphlets and tracts on the End Times have always been in circulation, but until around 2010 their "impact on political and theological thinking was practically nil" among Sunnis.][ Stern, ''ISIS'', "The coming final battle", 2015: p.220] Interest in the End Times is particularly strong among jihadis and "since the mid-2000s, the apocalyptic currents in jihadism have surged."[ As of 2011, the belief that the end of the world is at hand and will be precipitated by an apocalyptic Great Battle has been noted as a "fast-growing belief in Muslim countries" though still a minority belief.
;Shiʿi Islam
According to J.-P. Filiu, the uprising of the (Shiʿi) ]Mahdi Army
The Peace Companies ( ar, سرايا السلام, or Saraya al Salam) are an Iraqi armed group linked to Iraq's Shia community. They are a 2014 revival of the Mahdi Army ( ''Jaysh al-Mahdī'') that was created by the Iraqi Shia cleric Muqtada a ...
in Iraq and July 2006 war between Israel and (Shiʿi) Hizbullah are "at least in part" a consequence of "mounting eschatological expectations" coming from copious literature preaching that the return of the Hidden Imam was imminent; literature emanating from the Shiʿi seminaries and scholars of holy city of Najaf
Najaf ( ar, ٱلنَّجَف) or An-Najaf al-Ashraf ( ar, ٱلنَّجَف ٱلْأَشْرَف), also known as Baniqia ( ar, بَانِيقِيَا), is a city in central Iraq about 160 km (100 mi) south of Baghdad. Its estimated popula ...
, Iraq, from Lebanon, and from Iran during the administration of its president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ( fa, محمود احمدینژاد, Mahmūd Ahmadīnežād ), born Mahmoud Sabbaghian ( fa, محمود صباغیان, Mahmoud Sabbāghyān, 28 October 1956), .[ Filiu, ''Apocalypse in Islam '', 2011: p.141] One Shiʿi Ayatollah, Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr
Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr ( ar, آية الله العظمى السيد محمد باقر الصدر; 1 March 1935 – 9 April 1980), also known as al-Shahīd al-Khāmis (the fifth martyr), was an Iraqi philosopher, and the ideological founde ...
, revered as " the fifth martyr" of Shiʿi Islam (killed by Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolution ...
), went to the trouble of trying to explain how the Hidden Imam could be over 1000 years old, and why the present is a propitious time for the reappearance of him.[ Filiu, ''Apocalypse in Islam '', 2011: p.142-3] Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi army waged a violent struggle against the American military through 2004, and its ranks swelled with thousands of recruits. Muqtada's political faction won seats in parliament.[ Filiu, ''Apocalypse in Islam '', 2011: p.148] During Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency (2005-2013), he shared with Iranians his "avowed conviction" that believers must actively work for the Mahdi's reappearance, despite this bringing him "into conflict with the highest authorities of Shiism".[ Filiu, ''Apocalypse in Islam '', 2011: p.151]
Popular apocalyptic literature
"Dramatic and sensational stories" of the apocalypse first made an impact in the mid-1980s when Said Ayyub's ''Al-Masīh al-Dajjāl'' (The AntiChrist) started a whole new genre of Islamic "apocalyptic fiction"[ or "millenarian speculation"][ Filiu, ''Apocalypse in Islam '', 2011: p.92] throughout the Arab world. The book was so successful Ayyub went on to write a half-dozen other spinoff books, inspired imitators who enjoyed even greater success (Muhammad Izzat Arif, Muhammad Isa Dawud,[ Filiu, ''Apocalypse in Islam '', 2011: p.89-92] and Mansur AbdelHakim).[ Filiu, ''Apocalypse in Islam '', 2011: p.122]
The book (and the genre) was noteworthy for rupturing the "organic link between Islamic tradition and the last days of the world",[ Filiu, ''Apocalypse in Islam '', 2011: p.88] using Western sources (such as Gustave Le Bon
Charles-Marie Gustave Le Bon (; 7 May 1841 – 13 December 1931) was a leading French polymath whose areas of interest included anthropology, psychology, sociology, medicine, invention, and physics. He is best known for his 1895 work '' The Crow ...
and William Guy Carr
William James Guy Carr ( R.D. Commander R.C.N. (R)) (2 June 1895 – 2 October 1959) was an English-born Canadian naval officer, author, and conspiracy theorist.
Though he first came to notice with books about his military experiences as a s ...
) that previously would have been ignored; and lack of Sahih Bukhari
Sahih al-Bukhari ( ar, صحيح البخاري, translit=Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī), group=note is a ''hadith'' collection and a book of '' sunnah'' compiled by the Persian scholar Muḥammad ibn Ismā‘īl al-Bukhārī (810–870) around 846. Al ...
(i.e. top quality) hadith (he does quote Ibn Kathir and some hadith "repeated at second hand"); and for an obsessively anti-Jewish point of view ("in all great transformations of thought, there is a Jewish factor, avowed and plain, or else hidden and secret",[ Filiu, ''Apocalypse in Islam '', 2011: p.85] "the Jews are planning the Third World War in order to eliminate the Islamic world and all opposition to Israel",[ Filiu, ''Apocalypse in Islam '', 2011: p.86-87] and cover art featuring a grotesque cartoon figure with a Star of David
The Star of David (). is a generally recognized symbol of both Jewish identity and Judaism. Its shape is that of a hexagram: the compound of two equilateral triangles.
A derivation of the ''seal of Solomon'', which was used for decorative ...
and large hooked nose).[ Filiu, ''Apocalypse in Islam '', 2011: plate 1]
Unlike traditional popular works of Islamic eschatology that kept close to scripture and classical manuals of eschatology in describing ''al-Dajjāl'', Said Ayyub portrayed the Dajjāl as 1) the true Jewish messiah
The Messiah in Judaism () is a savior and liberator figure in Jewish eschatology, who is believed to be the future redeemer of the Jewish people. The concept of messianism originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible a messiah is a king or Hig ...
, that Jews had been waiting for, 2) a figure who will appear or reappear not only in end times, but one who has been working throughout the history of humanity to create havoc with such diabolical success that human history is really "only a succession of nefarious maneuvers" by him. Intermediaries of al-dajjal (according to Ayyub) include St. Paul the Apostle
Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...
, who (Ayyub maintains) created Christianity by distorting the true story of Jesus, the Emperor Constantine
Constantine I ( , ; la, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, ; ; 27 February 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to convert to Christianity. Born in Naissus, Dacia Mediterranea ...
who made possible "the Crusader state in service to the Jews", the Freemasons
Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...
, Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
, the United States of America, Communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
s, Israel, etc. He concludes that the dajjal is hiding in Palestine (but will also "appear in Khurasan as the head of an expansionist state") and the Great Battle between Muslims and his forces will be World War III fought in the Middle East.[ Filiu, ''Apocalypse in Islam '', 2011: p.83-89]
Later books, ''The Hidden Link between the AntiChrist, the Secrets of the Bermuda Triangle, and Flying Saucers'' (1994), by Muhammad Isa Dawud, for example, move even farther away from traditional themes, disclosing that the Anti-Christ journeyed from the Middle East to the archipelago of Bermuda
)
, anthem = "God Save the King"
, song_type = National song
, song = " Hail to Bermuda"
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, mapsize2 =
, map_caption2 =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name =
, e ...
in the 8th century CE to make it his home base and from whence he fomented the French Revolution and other mischief, and now sends flying saucers to patrol Egypt and prepare for his eventual triumphal return to Jerusalem.[ Filiu, ''Apocalypse in Islam '', 2011: p.93-94]
The success of the genre provoked a "counteroffensive" by pious conservatives (Abdellatif Ashur, Muhammad Bayyumi Magdi, and Muhammad Shahawi) disturbed by the liberties Said Ayyub and others had taken with Islamic doctrine.
Jihadist references
In the early 1980s, when Abdullah Azzam
Abdullah Yusuf Azzam ( ar, عبد الله يوسف عزام, translit=‘Abdu’llāh Yūsuf ‘Azzām; ) was a Salafi jihadist, a Palestinian scholar, and theologian of Sunni Islam. During the Soviet–Afghan War of the 1980s, he advocated "de ...
, called on Muslims around the world to join the jihad in Afghanistan, he considered the fight "to be a sign that the end times were imminent". Also around that time, popular Islamic writers, such as Said Ayyub, started blaming Islamic decline in the face of the Western world, not on lack of technology and development, but on the forces of the Dajjal.
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...
used "apocalyptic predictions in both its internal and external messaging" according to Jessica Stern, and its use of "the name Khorasan
Khorasan may refer to:
* Greater Khorasan, a historical region which lies mostly in modern-day northern/northwestern Afghanistan, northeastern Iran, southern Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan
* Khorasan Province, a pre-2004 province of Ira ...
, a region that includes part of Iran, Central Asia, and Afghanistan, and from which, it is prophesied, the Mahdi will emerge alongside an army bearing black flags", was thought to be a symbol of end times.[ But these claims were "mostly symbolic",][ and according to Wood, ]Bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was a Saudi-born extremist militant who founded al-Qaeda and served as its leader from 1988 until his death in 2011. Ideologically a pan-Islamist, his group is designated a ...
"rarely mentioned" the Apocalypse
Apocalypse () is a literary genre in which a supernatural being reveals cosmic mysteries or the future to a human intermediary. The means of mediation include dreams, visions and heavenly journeys, and they typically feature symbolic imager ...
and when he did, "he implied he would be long dead when it arrived" (a reflection of his more "elite" background according to Will McCants).[ Wood, ''The Way of the Strangers'', 2016: p.252] According to J.-P. Filiu, out of the mass of Al-Qaeda documents seized after the fall of the Taliban, only one letter made any reference to the apocalypse.[ Filiu, ''Apocalypse in Islam '', 2011: p.185]
A prominent jihadist, Abu Musʿab al-Sūri, (called a "sophisticated strategist" and "articulate exponent of the modern jihad
Jihad (; ar, جهاد, jihād ) is an Arabic word which literally means "striving" or "struggling", especially with a praiseworthy aim. In an Islamic context, it can refer to almost any effort to make personal and social life conform with Go ...
"), somewhat independent and critical of Al-Qaeda, was also much more interested in end times. He wrote, "I have no doubt that we have entered into the age of battles and tribulations 'zāman al-malāhim wal-fitan'' He devoted the last 100 pages of his magnum opus on jihad (''A Call to Global Islamic Resistance'', made available online around 2005) to matters such as the proper chronology and location of related battles and other activities of the Mahdi
The Mahdi ( ar, ٱلْمَهْدِيّ, al-Mahdī, lit=the Guided) is a Messianism, messianic figure in Islamic eschatology who is believed to appear at the Eschatology, end of times to rid the world of evil and injustice. He is said to be a de ...
, the Antichrist
In Christian eschatology, the Antichrist refers to people prophesied by the Bible to oppose Jesus Christ and substitute themselves in Christ's place before the Second Coming. The term Antichrist (including one plural form) 1 John ; . 2 John . ...
, the mountain of gold to be found in the Euphrates river, the Sufyani
Sufyani ( ar, سفیاني) is an evil figure in Islamic eschatology, usually portrayed in hadith as a tyrant who will spread corruption and mischief. According to Shia Hadith, Sufyani will rise in the month of Rajab. The predicted location of hi ...
, Gog and Magog
Gog and Magog (; he, גּוֹג וּמָגוֹג, ''Gōg ū-Māgōg'') appear in the Hebrew Bible and the Quran as individuals, tribes, or lands. In Ezekiel 38, Gog is an individual and Magog is his land; in Genesis 10, Magog is a man and epo ...
, etc.[ Filiu, ''Apocalypse in Islam '', 2011: p.186-191]
Abu Musʿab al Zarqawi, the founder of what would become the Islamic State
An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...
"injected" the apocalyptic message into jihad.[ ]ISIS
Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingd ...
has evoked "the apocalyptic tradition much more explicitly" than earlier jihadis. Dabiq, Syria
Dabiq ( ar, دابق ) is a town in northern Syria, about northeast of Aleppo and around south of Syria's border with Turkey. It is administratively part of the Akhtarin ''nahiyah'' (subdistrict) of the A'zaz District of Aleppo Governorate. ...
-- a town understood "in some versions" of the eschatological "narrative to be a possible location for the final apocalyptic battle" -- was captured by ISIS and made its capital. ISIS also declared its "intent to conquer Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...
" -- Muslims conquering Constantinople being another end times prophesy.[ Interviews by the '']New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'',[ Stern, ''ISIS'', "The coming final battle", 2015: p.222] and Jurgen Todenhöfer[ Wood, ''The Way of the Strangers'', 2016: p.268] with many dozens of Muslims who had traveled to fight with Islamic State, and by Graeme Wood with Islamic State supporters elsewhere, found "messianic expectation" a strong motivator to join Islamic State.[
;Shiʿi Islam
While Al-Qaeda and Islamic State are Sunni, Shia insurgents/militants have also been "drawn to the battlefield" by "apocalyptic belief", according to William McCants, who quotes a Shia fighter in Iraq saying, “'I was waiting for the day when I will fight in Syria. Thank God he chose me to be one of the Imam's soldiers.'”]
Some dissident Shiʿa in Iraq, oppose not only Sunni, US and Iraqi government forces, but the Shiʿi religious hierarchy as well. In Najaf, in late January 2007, at least 200 were killed in the Battle of Najaf,
when several hundred members of an armed Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
i Shi'a
Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that the Prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his S ...
messianic sect
A sect is a subgroup of a religious, political, or philosophical belief system, usually an offshoot of a larger group. Although the term was originally a classification for religious separated groups, it can now refer to any organization that b ...
known as the Soldiers of Heaven
The Soldiers of Heaven or ''Jund As-Samāʾ'' ( ar, جند السماء), were an armed Iraqi Shi'a messianic sect who suffered major losses, Filiu, ''Apocalypse in Islam '', 2011: p.161 and their leader Dia Abdul Zahra Kadim killed, in the lat ...
or ''Jund As-Samāʾ''( ar, جند السماء), allegedly attempted to start a "messianic insurrection" during the holy day of Ashura
Ashura (, , ) is a day of commemoration in Islam. It occurs annually on the 10th of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar. Among Shia Muslims, Ashura is observed through large demonstrations of high-scale mourning as it marks the ...
in the holy city of Najaf
Najaf ( ar, ٱلنَّجَف) or An-Najaf al-Ashraf ( ar, ٱلنَّجَف ٱلْأَشْرَف), also known as Baniqia ( ar, بَانِيقِيَا), is a city in central Iraq about 160 km (100 mi) south of Baghdad. Its estimated popula ...
;[ Filiu, ''Apocalypse in Islam '', 2011: p.160] planning to disguise themselves as pilgrims and kill leading Shi'a cleric
Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...
s. The group allegedly believed that spreading chaos would hasten the return of the 12th Imam
Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Mahdī ( ar, محمد بن الحسن المهدي) is believed by the Twelver Shia to be the last of the Twelve Imams and the eschatological Mahdi, who will emerge in the end of time to establish peace and justi ...
/Mahdi
The Mahdi ( ar, ٱلْمَهْدِيّ, al-Mahdī, lit=the Guided) is a Messianism, messianic figure in Islamic eschatology who is believed to appear at the Eschatology, end of times to rid the world of evil and injustice. He is said to be a de ...
,["US-Iraqi Forces Kill 250 Militants in Najaf"]
The Age
''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...
, 29 January 2007[Cult plotted attack on Shiite clerics, Iraqis say]
- CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
January 29, 2007 or alternately, that their leader, Dia Abdul Zahra Kadim
Dia Abdul Zahra Kadim (Arabic: ضياء عبدالزهراء كاظم); c. 1970 – January 29, 2007), also known as al-Ali bin Ali bin Abi Talib (Arabic: العلي بن علي بن أبي طالب) was the leader of an armed extremist Shia Islam ...
, was the awaited Mahdi. The next year during Ashura a reported 18 officers and 53 militia members were killed in clashes between "millenarian rebels" and police,[ Filiu, ''Apocalypse in Islam '', 2011: p.162] the violence blamed on followers of one Ahmad al-Hassan
Ahmed Al-Hasan has been called the most prominent of figures claiming to be the messianic Promised al-Yamani, in the chaos following the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.
In Twelver Shi'ism Islam, the majority religion of Iraq, al-Yamani is "the ...
, a man claiming the Hidden Iman had designated him as his (the Hidden Imam's) representative (''wassi''), and who accused Ayatollahs/Shia clerics of being guilty of "aberration and treason, of occupation and tyranny".[ Filiu, ''Apocalypse in Islam '', 2011: p.159]
Islamic State claims of prophecy fulfilment
Jihadis of the Islamic State
An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...
see the fulfillment of many of the "lesser signs" of the coming of Judgement Day in current events.
Its generally agreed that Israel Arab wars have been wars between Muslims and Jews (which were prophesied), and that moral standards have declined leading to rampant fornication, alcohol consumption, and music listening.[ "A slave giving birth to her master" can happen when the child of a slave woman and the slave's owner inherits the slave after the owner's death—slavery being practiced in the ]Islamic State
An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...
(until its defeat).[ An embargo of Iraq][ is alleged to be foretold in the hadith "Iraq would withhold its dirhams and qafiz". That Muslim states are being led by those who do not deserve to lead them,] is an article of faith among jihadis and many other Muslims. ISIS alleges that worship of the pre-Islamic deity ''al-Lat'' is being practiced by its Shia enemy Hezbollah
Hezbollah (; ar, حزب الله ', , also transliterated Hizbullah or Hizballah, among others) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group, led by its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah since 1992. Hezbollah's parami ...
. The naked shepherds who will build tall buildings is interpreted to refer to Gulf State builders of skyscrapers are "only a generation or two out of desert poverty".[ Wood, ''The Way of the Strangers'', 2016: p.249]
But the Islamic State is also attempting to fulfill prophecies itself to hasten end times.
Zarqawi published "communiqués detailing the fulfillment of specific predictions" found in a famous book on jihad and end times called, ''A Call to a Global Islamic Resistance'' by Abu Musab al Suri. His successor, Al-Baghdadi, took "the fulfillment of apocalyptic portents even more seriously".[ Stern, ''ISIS'' "The coming final battle", 2015: p.224]
According to Hassan Abbas, at least part of ISIS's motivation in killing and otherwise provoking Shia is to "deliberately ... instigate a war between Sunnis and Shi'a, in the belief that a sectarian war would be a sign that the final times has arrived"; and also explains the ISIS Siege of Kobanî
The siege of Kobanî was launched by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant on 13 September 2014, in order to capture the Kobanî Canton and its main city of Kobanî (also known as Kobanê or Ayn al-Arab) in northern Syria, in the ''de facto'' ...
: "In the eschatological literature, there is reference to crisis in Syria and massacre of Kurds—this is why Kobane is important."(The town of 45,000 was under siege by ISIS from September 2014 to January 2015.)[ Stern, ''ISIS'' "The coming final battle", 2015: p.220-221]
Thus, "ISIS's obsession with the end of the world" helps explain its lack of interest in the "ordinary moral rules" of the temporal world, according to Jessica Stern.
If you are "participating in a cosmic war between good and evil", (and if everyone will be dead and then resurrected relatively soon anyway), pedestrian concerns about saving the lives of the innocent are of little concern.[ Stern, ''ISIS'' "The coming final battle", 2015: p224-225]
Questions and criticism
Among the problems critics see with some of the concepts of, and attention given to, the eschatology of Islam, are its affect on the socio-economic health of the Muslim world, the basis of the scripture (particularly the hadith) dealing with end times, and the rational implausibility of some of the theological concepts such as resurrection of the dead.
Mustafa Akyol
Mustafa Akyol (born 20 February 1972) is a Turkish writer and journalist. He is the author of ''Islam without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty'', long-listed in 2012 for the Lionel Gelber Prize, a literary award for the world's best non-ficti ...
criticizes the current focus of the Muslim community on apocalypticism and the use of the forces of the Dajjal
Al-Masih ad-Dajjal (), otherwise referred to simply as the Dajjal, is an evil figure in Islamic eschatology similar to the Antichrist in Christianity, who will pretend to be the promised Messiah, appearing before the Day of Judgment accordin ...
to explain stagnation in the Muslim world in the past two centuries vis-à-vis the West (and now East Asia). He argues that if supernatural evil is believed to be the cause of the problems of Muslims, then practical solutions such as "science, economic development and liberal democracy" will be ignored in favor of divine intervention. (On the other hand, a sahih hadith reports Muhammad saying that "If the Final Hour comes while you have a shoot of a plant in your hands and it is possible to plant it before the Hour comes, you should plant it.")
Western scholars (William McCants
Will McCants (born 1975), also known as William Faizi McCants, is a scholar of militant Islamism. He is a fellow at the Center for Middle East Policy and director of the Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World at the Brookings Institutio ...
, Jane Smith, Yvonne Haddad, Jean-Pierre Filiu
Jean-Pierre Filiu (born in Paris, 1961) is a French professor of Middle East studies at Sciences Po, Paris School of International Affairs, an orientalist and an arabist.
Life and career
Before joining Sciences Po in 2006, Jean-Pierre Filiu ...
) agree that the apocalyptic narratives are strongly connected to the early jihad wars against the Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
and civil wars against other Muslims.
McCants, writes that the ''fitan'' ("tribulations") of the minor and lesser signs come from the ''fitan'' of the early Islamic civil wars (First Fitna
The First Fitna ( ar, فتنة مقتل عثمان, fitnat maqtal ʻUthmān, strife/sedition of the killing of Uthman) was the first civil war in the Islamic community. It led to the overthrow of the Rashidun Caliphate and the establishment of ...
(656–661 CE), Second Fitna
The Second Fitna was a period of general political and military disorder and civil war in the Islamic community during the early Umayyad Caliphate., meaning trial or temptation) occurs in the Qur'an in the sense of test of faith of the believer ...
(c. 680/683–c. 685/692 CE), Third Fitna
The Third Fitna ( ar, الفتنة الثاﻟﺜـة, Fitna (word), al-Fitna al-thālitha), was a series of civil wars and uprisings against the Umayyad Caliphate beginning with the overthrow of Caliph al-Walid II in 744 and ending with the vict ...
(744–750/752 CE)), where Muhammad's companions (Sahabah
The Companions of the Prophet ( ar, اَلصَّحَابَةُ; ''aṣ-ṣaḥāba'' meaning "the companions", from the verb meaning "accompany", "keep company with", "associate with") were the disciples and followers of Muhammad who saw or m ...
) and successor generations (Tabi'un
The tābi‘ūn ( ar, اَلتَّابِعُونَ, also accusative or genitive tābi‘īn , singular ''tābi‘'' ), "followers" or "successors", are the generation of Muslims who followed the companions (''ṣaḥābah'') of the Islamic proph ...
and Taba Tabi'in) fought each other for political supremacy. "Before and after each tribulation, partisans on both sides circulated prophecies in the name of the Prophet to support their champion. With time, the context was forgotten but the prophecies remained." Smith and Haddad also write that "the political implications of the whole millennial idea in Islam, especially as related to the understanding of the ''mahdi'' and the rise of the 'Abbasids in the second Islamic century, are very difficult to separate from the eschatological ones."[ Smith & Haddad, ''Islamic Understanding'', 1981: p.70]
They also argue that it's "difficult to determine whether" the Prophet Muḥammad "actually anticipated the arrival" the ''Mahdi'' as "an eschatological figure" -- despite the fact that "most of the traditions about the ''Mahdi'' are credited to Muḥammad.[
Filiu has also stated that "the apocalyptic narrative was decisively influenced by the conflicts that filled Islam's early years, campaigns and jihad against the Byzantine Empire and recurrent civil wars among Muslims."][ Filiu, ''Apocalypse in Islam '', 2011: p.28]
Consequently, the reliability of hadith on end times has been questioned.
Skepticism of the concept of the resurrection
Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. In a number of religions, a dying-and-rising god is a deity which dies and is resurrected. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions, which ...
of the dead has been part of both "the compatriots" of Muhammad and the "rational and scientifically-infused" inhabitants of the contemporary world.
The fact of the resurrection of the body has been of continuing importance to Muslims and has raised very particular questions in certain circles of Islamic thought, such as those reflected in the later disputations between philosophy and theology.
It was not really a point of issue for early Islam, however, and bodily resurrection has never been seriously denied by orthodoxy. It is, as many have observed, basic to the message of God as proclaimed by the Prophet and articulated clearly by the Qur'an, especially in those passages in which the contemporaries of the Prophet are presented as having scoffed or raised doubts. It continues to be, ... a point of conviction for many of the contemporary interpreters of Islam to a world in which a rational and scientifically-infused populace continues to raise the same eyebrows of skepticism as did the compatriots of the Prophet.
Early skeptics being quoted in the Quran as saying: "Are we to be returned to our former state when we have become decayed bones? They say, that would be a detrimental return!" (Q79: 10–12).[ Smith & Haddad, ''Islamic Understanding'', 1981: p.1]
Visitation of tombs
Death is also seen as a homecoming. When people visit tombs, they are having a specific spiritual routine. The correct way to visit someone's tomb is to recite parts of the Quran and pray for the deceased.
Literature on Islamic eschatology
The writings of five medieval Sunni scholars on Islamic eschatology stand out for their "depth and originality", according to Jean-Pierre Filiu
Jean-Pierre Filiu (born in Paris, 1961) is a French professor of Middle East studies at Sciences Po, Paris School of International Affairs, an orientalist and an arabist.
Life and career
Before joining Sciences Po in 2006, Jean-Pierre Filiu ...
. Taking a work by each of them on the subject of the signs of end times, (or that includes the subject of the signs of end times), Filiu points out their characteristics, differences, and influences (where the Mahdi will first appear, where Jesus will descend to, how many human and angel warriors will fight with the Mahdi, etc.).
* Ibn Arabi
Ibn ʿArabī ( ar, ابن عربي, ; full name: , ; 1165–1240), nicknamed al-Qushayrī (, ) and Sulṭān al-ʿĀrifīn (, , 'Sultan of the Knowers'), was an Arab Andalusian Muslim scholar, mystic, poet, and philosopher, extremely influenti ...
(1165–1240 CE), ''Al-futūhāt al-makkiyya'' (Meccan Illuminations);[ Filiu, ''Apocalypse in Islam '', 2011: p.31-34] Among other things, Ibn Arabi wrote that "70,000 Muslim, all descended from Isaac" would follow the Mahdi and chanting "Allahu Akbar!", and crumble the ramparts of Constantinople; The Great Battle would take place on the plain of Acre.[ Filiu, ''Apocalypse in Islam '', 2011: p.32]
* Al-Qurtubi
Imam Abū ʿAbdullāh Al-Qurṭubī or Abū ʿAbdullāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Abī Bakr al-Anṣārī al-Qurṭubī ( ar, أبو عبدالله القرطبي) (121429 April 1273) was an Andalusian jurist, Islamic scholar and muhaddith. He ...
(1214-1273 CE), ''Al-tadhkira fī ahwāl al-mawtā wa umūr al-ahkīra'' (Remembrance of the Affairs of the Dead and Matters of the Hereafter);[ Filiu, ''Apocalypse in Islam '', 2011: p.34-37] Known for his opposition to both partisanship in Islam and the Umayyad dynasty, Al-Qurtubi prophesied the Mahdi would emerge in Morocco and preach there for ten years before rescuing the Muslims of Spain and moving on to conquer the Byzantines.[ Filiu, ''Apocalypse in Islam '', 2011: p.35-36]
* Ibn Kathir (c. 1300–1373 CE), ''Ashrāt al-sāʿat'' (Signs of the Hour);[ Filiu, ''Apocalypse in Islam '', 2011: p.37-41] Popular among the ulama
In Islam, the ''ulama'' (; ar, علماء ', singular ', "scholar", literally "the learned ones", also spelled ''ulema''; feminine: ''alimah'' ingularand ''aalimath'' lural are the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of religious ...
and common people of Syria for his preaching of strictness, Ibn Kathir had a highly developed vision of the signs of the Last Hour. The Mahdi was distinct from the Shia Hidden Imam; there would be great battles between Muslims and Byzantines, and then with the forces of the Dajjal.[ Filiu, ''Apocalypse in Islam '', 2011: p.38-39]
* Ibn Khaldun
Ibn Khaldun (; ar, أبو زيد عبد الرحمن بن محمد بن خلدون الحضرمي, ; 27 May 1332 – 17 March 1406, 732-808 AH) was an Arab
The Historical Muhammad', Irving M. Zeitlin, (Polity Press, 2007), p. 21; "It is, of ...
(1332–1406), ''Kitāb al-ʿibar'' (Book of Examples);[ Filiu, ''Apocalypse in Islam '', 2011: p.41-44] Despite his association with modernism, Ibn Khaldun thought none of what was mentioned in the Quran of "the hour" and its signs was "subject to the least ambiguity"; he endorsed apocalyptic hadith in the collections of Bukhari and Muslim (but not other collections), as well as the "classical scenario" of end times.[ Filiu, ''Apocalypse in Islam '', 2011: p.41-42]
* Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti
Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti ( ar, جلال الدين السيوطي, Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī) ( 1445–1505 CE),; (Brill 2nd) or Al-Suyuti, was an Arab Egyptian polymath, Islamic scholar, historian, Sufi, and jurist. From a family of Persian or ...
(1446-1505), fatwa on "the descent of Jesus, son of Mary at the end times" from ''Al-hāwī lil-fatāwī''.[ Filiu, ''Apocalypse in Islam '', 2011: p.44-48] Al-Suyuti preached against the millenarian claim that the earth would end in 1000 A.H. (1591 C.E.), believing Judgement Day would come in 1500 A.H. (2076 C.E.).
* Ibn al-Nafis (1213-1288 CE), ''Theologus Autodidactus
''Theologus Autodidactus'' ("The Self-taught Theologian"), originally titled ''The Treatise of Kāmil on the Prophet's Biography'' ( ar, الرسالة الكاملية في السيرة النبوية), also known as ''Risālat Fādil ibn Nātiq'' ...
'' (circa CE 1270). In the form of a theological fiction novel, he wrote on Islamic eschatology where he used reason, science
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
, and early Islamic philosophy
Early Islamic philosophy or classical Islamic philosophy is a period of intense philosophical development beginning in the 2nd century AH of the Islamic calendar (early 9th century CE) and lasting until the 6th century AH (late 12th century CE) ...
to explain how he believed al-Qiyamah would unfold.[Dr. Abu Shadi Al-Roubi (1982), "Ibn Al-Nafis as a philosopher", ''Symposium on Ibn al-Nafis'', Second International Conference on Islamic Medicine: Islamic Medical Organization, Kuwait (]cf.
The abbreviation ''cf.'' (short for the la, confer/conferatur, both meaning "compare") is used in writing to refer the reader to other material to make a comparison with the topic being discussed. Style guides recommend that ''cf.'' be used onl ...
br>Ibn al-Nafis As a Philosopher
''Encyclopedia of Islamic World'')
Contemporary literature
* Imran Nazar Hosein (b.1942 CE) wrote numerous books that deal with Islamic eschatology (''Ilmu Ākhir al-Zamān'' – Knowledge of the later days), among which the most famous is ''Jerusalem in the Qur'an''.Jerusalem in the Qur'an
by Imran N. Hosein.
*Said Ayyub's ''Al-Masīh al-Dajjāl'' (often translated as The AntiChrist) came out in August 1986, (see above) was enormously popular and started a new genre of Islamic "apocalyptic fiction"[ that added western themes such as ]flying saucers
A flying saucer (also referred to as "a flying disc") is a descriptive term for a type of flying craft having a disc or saucer-shaped body, commonly used generically to refer to an anomalous flying object. The term was coined in 1947 but has g ...
, the Bermuda Triangle
The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is an urban legend focused on a loosely defined region in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean where a number of aircraft and ships are said to have disappeared under mysterio ...
and European Antisemitism to traditional Islamic eschatology.
See also
References
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
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ISIS, 2022
Further reading
* "''Fath al-Bari
''Fatḥ al-Bārī fī Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī'' ( ar-at, فتح الباري, lit=Grant of the Creator) is a multi-volume commentary on the Sunni hadith collection ''Sahih al-Bukhari'', composed by Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani Shafi. Conside ...
''" (from ''Sahih al-Bukhari
Sahih al-Bukhari ( ar, صحيح البخاري, translit=Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī), group=note is a ''hadith'' collection and a book of '' sunnah'' compiled by the Persian scholar Muḥammad ibn Ismā‘īl al-Bukhārī (810–870) around 846. Al ...
'' by ibn Hajar al-Asqalani
Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī or ''Ibn Ḥajar'' ( ar, ابن حجر العسقلاني, full name: ''Shihābud-Dīn Abul-Faḍl Aḥmad ibn Nūrud-Dīn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī al-Kināni'') (18 February 1372 – 2 Febru ...
).
* Esposito, John, ''The Oxford Dictionary of Islam'', Oxford University Press, 2003, .
* Richard C. Martin, Said Amir Arjomand, Marcia Hermansen, Abdulkader Tayob, Rochelle Davis, John Obert Voll, ''Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World'', MacMillan Reference Books, 2003, .
* Lawson, Todd (1999).
Duality, Opposition and Typology in the Qur'an: The Apocalyptic Substrate
'. Journal of Quranic Studies. 10: 23–49.
{{Theology