Important Principle to Understand the Prophetic Traditions Concerning the Signs of the Last day, The Unusual Events at the End of Time, and Rewards and Merits of Certain Actions that have not been Understood Well Enough

 

The Prophetic Traditions concerning the signs of the Last Day, the unusual events at the end of time, and the rewards and merits of certain actions have not been understood well enough. Thus some scholars who rely on their intellectual capacities have asserted some of these Traditions to be either weak or false. Some of the scholars with weak belief and strong egotism and self-pride have gone so far as to deny them.

In order to disperse the doubts concerning such Traditions, but without going into a detailed discussion, I will try to explain twelve principles.

First principle: This is the point which I have explained elsewhere. To summarize it:

Religion is a means of testing human beings, which distinguishes elevated spirits from base ones. It therefore speaks of the matters which everyone will see or experience in the future in such a way that they neither remain altogether unknown, nor do they become so evident that everyone will feel compelled to confirm them. It opens up a door to the reason but does not deny man the use of his free will. Because, if a sign of the Last Day were to appear so evidently that everyone were compelled to affirm it, then a disposition like coal would remain equal with one like diamond. The meaning of holding man responsible for his beliefs and actions and the purpose for testing him would be negated. It is because of this that different Traditions have been related concerning many issues like that of the Mahdi (the Muslim Messiah) and Sufyan­—the Anti-Christ expected to appear in the Muslim world—and there has been much dispute over them.

Second principle: Islamic issues are not all of the same degree of importance. If one issue demands certain proof, for another the prevailing opinion is sufficient; a third requires merely assent and acceptance and non-rejection. For this reason, secondary issues or historical events, which are not among the principles of faith, do not require conviction and decisive proof. Rather, for compliance one should not reject and oppose them.

Third principle: In the time of the Companions of the Prophet (upon him be peace and blessings) most of the Jewish and Christian scholars accepted Islam, and their former knowledge also became ‘Muslim’ together with themselves. Some of their former knowledge which was contrary to the truth was later imagined to belong to Islam.

Fourth principle: While relating the Traditions, some narrators tended to make some explanations and included the meanings that they deduced from the Traditions. In later times these additions came to be considered to be part of the texts of the Traditions. Nevertheless, since man is not free of error, some of their opinions or deductions which were contrary to the truth were supposed to be Traditions and were declared to be weak.

Fifth principle: There were among the scholars of Hadith—the Traditionists—some about whom the Prophet (upon him be peace and blessings) declared: Among any community are those who are inspired.130 Thus, the meanings which some inspired, saintly Traditionists obtained through inspiration and communicated to others came to be supposed as Traditions in later times. Whereas, due to certain obstructions, some of the inspirations occurring to saints may be defective and therefore contrary to the truth.

Sixth principle: There are certain narrations which, having acquired a wide circulation among people, have become like proverbs. Their literal meanings, the words used, are not important. Their meaning and intent is what is given consideration. Thus, the noble Messenger, (upon him be peace and blessings), would sometimes make reference, in the form of comparisons or metaphors, to some of the narrations or fables of this kind, for the purpose of guidance. If there is any error in the original, literal meanings of these sorts of sayings, it belongs to the customs and traditions of people, and to the way they have been circulated among them.

Seventh principle: There are many similes and parables that with the passage of time or due to their passing from the hand of learning to the hand of ignorance have been supposed to be physical facts, and have become mistaken. For example, two angels of God called ‘The Ox’ and ‘The Fish,’ are represented as an ox and fish in the world of symbols or immaterial forms and are among the supervisors of the animals of the land and the sea. They were imagined to be a huge ox and a physical fish, and the hadith relating to them was criticized. As another example, once in the presence of the Holy Prophet (upon him be peace and blessings) a rumbling was heard. The noble Messenger declared: That is the sound of a rock that has been rolling down for seventy years and only now has reached the bottom of Hell.131 Anyone who hears this Tradition and does not know the truth of the matter may be misled into rejecting it. However, some twenty minutes after the Tradition was spoken, someone came and told the noble Messenger (upon him be peace and blessings): ‘Such-and-such well-known hypocrite died twenty minutes ago.’ The noble Messenger (upon him be peace and blessings) had described most eloquently that the whole life of the hypocrite, who was then seventy years old, had been spent, as a rock in Hell, descending to the lowest of the low in unbelief. Almighty God had caused that rumbling to be heard by the noble Prophet and his Companions at the moment of his death, for which He had made a sign.

Eighth principle: In this world of testing and arena of examination, Almighty God, the Absolutely Wise One, conceals for many purposes certain most important things amidst the multiplicity of things. For example, He has hidden the Night of Power in the whole of Ramadan, and the hour when prayers are never rejected in the whole of Friday. He has hidden His favorite friends among all the people, and the appointed hour of death in a person’s whole life-time, and the time of Doomsday in the whole life of the world. For if the time of a man’s death had been made known to him, he would pass half of his life in absolute heedlessness, and in the second half of it, he would be in terror like that of going step by step to the gallows. Whereas the benefit of preserving the balance between this world and the next, and all the time reasoning between hope and fear, required that living and dying are possible every moment. Therefore, twenty years of life the end of which is unknown to man is preferable to a thousand years of life of whose end man was pre-informed.

Doomsday is the last appointed hour of the world, which is macro-human. If that hour had been known to man, the people of all the early and middle ages would have been absorbed in absolute heedlessness, and those of the latter centuries would have been in terror. Just as in his personal life man is concerned with the survival of his home and town, so too in his social life and as a member of the human species he is concerned with the existence of the earth and the world.

The Qur’an announces: The Hour has approached. (54:1) That this announcement was made fourteen centuries ago does not mean that the Hour is not near. For Doomsday is the death of the world, and in proportion to the life of the world, one or two thousand years are like one or two hours in proportion to a year. The Hour of Doomsday is not only the appointed hour of mankind that the Hour should be proportioned to a human-time scale and therefore seen, from fourteen centuries ago, as remote. It is because of this that the Absolutely Wise One conceals the time of Doomsday in His Knowledge among the ‘five things of the absolutely Unseen.’132 It is due to this uncertainty that in every age including the Age of Happiness, which is the truth-seeing age of the Prophet (upon him be peace and blessings), people have always been frightened of the coming of Doomsday. Some of them have even judged that its signs have already appeared.

Ninth principle: The results of some of the issues of faith are concerned with this narrow and conditioned world, while others are related to the world of the Hereafter, which is wide and unconditioned. In order properly to reinforce encouragement towards good deeds and restraint from evil ones, some Traditions about the virtues and rewards of certain religious acts are couched in most eloquent terms, which some unthinking people have supposed to be exaggerated. However, they are all pure truth and there is no exaggeration in them.

For example, a Tradition which has been most unfairly criticized says:

‘If the world had as much value as a fly’s wing for God, the unbelievers would not have had so much as a sip of water from the world.’133 What is alluded to here is not the whole of the world itself, but everyone’s private world which is limited to their short lives and cannot be equal to an everlasting divine favor to the extent of a fly’s wing from the eternal world. The phrase for God refers to the eternal world; that is, by virtue of being everlasting, a light from the eternal world to the extent of a fly’s wing is greater than the amount of transient light which fills the earth.

Furthermore, the world has two facets, rather, three facets. One is that the world consists in the mirrors where Almighty God’s Names are reflected. The other facet is concerned with the other world; that is, the world is the arable field sown with the seeds of the other world. The third looks to transience and non-existence; it is the world of the misguided, of which God does not approve. Thus, the Tradition above means not that world which consists in the mirrors to Divine Names or in the missives of the Eternally Besought-of-All. Nor is it the physical world itself where every thing and event is a sign for or a message from Almighty God—and which is the realm where man may gain the eternal world. Rather, it means that the world of the worldly, which is opposed to the Hereafter and the source of all wrongs and the origin of misfortunes, is not worth one everlasting particle out of what the believers will be rewarded with in the Hereafter. Thus, what relation does the meaning as understood by the unfair heretics have to do with this most exact and serious truth? What does the meaning which those unfair atheists suppose to be most exaggerated have to do with this?

To conclude: O unfair one with weak belief but strong dialectics! Consider these nine principles. Then do not make a Tradition that you suppose to be contrary to the truth and opposed to reality, the pretext to point the finger of objection at the Traditions. Do not use this as a ruse to slight the reliability and authenticity of the Prophetic Traditions and the purity and infallibility of the noble Messenger (upon him be peace and blessings)! Because, first of all, the content of those ‘Ten principles’ causes you to give up the denial of the Traditions, and they warn you: ‘If there is a real flaw, it is ours; it cannot be attributed to the Traditions. If, by contrast, it is not a real flaw, then the problem arises because of your misunderstanding.’ In short, denial and rejection require to contradict and refute those ‘Ten principles.’ Therefore, if you are fair, after pondering over these ‘Ten principles’ with due care and attention, do not attempt to deny any Traditions that you judge to be contrary to the truth! Say instead, ‘There must be a way to explain or interpret this,’ and do not criticize it.

Tenth principle: Just as the Qur’an contains difficult and allegorical verses which need interpretation or else demand absolute submission, the Traditions also have difficulties that sometimes require extremely careful interpretation. The examples above may be sufficient for you.

One who is awake can interpret the dream of another who has slept, and sometimes one who is sleeping hears the speech of those near him who are awake, and gives them a meaning in accordance with his world of sleep. In the same way one who is stupefied in the sleep of heedlessness and false reasoning must not deny in his ‘dream’ but interpret the vision of the one who was always and truly awake. The Prophet manifested the meaning of, ‘His eye never wavered nor did it swerve,’ and ‘My eye sleeps, but my heart sleeps not.’ If a mosquito bites someone who is sleeping, he may dream that he has received terrible wounds in war. If he were to be questioned, he would say: ‘Truly I have been wounded. They fired guns and rifles at me.’ Nevertheless, those sitting by him would laugh at his anguish in sleep. Thus, the view of heedlessness and philosophy in its ‘sleep’ certainly cannot be the criterion for the truths of Prophethood.

 

The Prophet deals with everything from the viewpoint of God’s Divinity and Unity, and Hereafter

Eleventh principle: Since the way of Prophethood and faith, and the doctrine of Divine Unity deal with everything from the viewpoint of Unity, the Hereafter, and God’s Divinity, they see the truth and reality from the same perspective. However, modern scientific views and philosophy are concerned with nature, causality, and things in their multiplicity. Since these two points of view are extremely distant from each other, even the greatest aim of philosophers and scientists is small and insignificant to the degree of being imperceptible in comparison with the aims of the scholars of religious methodology and theology.

It is for this reason that scientists have advanced greatly in detailed explanation of the structure and nature of beings, but they are more backward than a simple believer in the exalted divine sciences and eschatology. Those who do not understand this significant fact think that when compared to scientists and philosophers, the meticulous scholars of Islam are backward. Whereas, how can those whose minds see no further than their eyes and who are submerged in the multiplicity of things reach those who have achieved the sublime sacred aims through succession to the mission of the noble Prophet (upon him be peace and blessings)?

Furthermore, when looked at from two different viewpoints, a thing may display two different truths. For example, when viewed from the perspective of science, the reality of the earth is this: as a middle-sized planet, it revolves around the sun among countless stars. When compared to most of the stars, it is a small body. But, as explained in The Fifteenth Word, according to the people of the Qur’an, its reality is otherwise. Man, the fruit of the tree of creation, is a most comprehensive, complex, wonderful, and most honorable miracle of Divine Power, and yet a most impotent creature. The earth, his cradle and dwelling-place, is, despite its small size in comparison with the heavens, the heart and center of the universe in regard to the art and meaning it contains. It is also the exhibition of all the miracles of divine art; the place and focus of all manifestations of all the Divine Names; and the place of reflection and display of all the activities of His Lordship. It is the place and market where the infinite divine creativity abundantly gives existence to innumerable species of plants and animals and the place where the samples of the creatures of the broadest worlds of the Hereafter are exhibited in small scale. The earth is the loom for rapidly weaving everlasting textiles, and the swiftly changing scenes producing ever-renewed panoramas, and the temporary tillage and seed-bed for the seeds of everlasting gardens. Thus, although both views—scientific and Qur’anic—are true, no certain fact of science can ever be equal to the sacred truths of the Qur’an. The hand of science can never reach the Qur’an’s pure sublimity.

It is because of this extensive meaning and significance of the art it contains, that the wise Qur’an holds the earth—however small in size it is when compared to the heavens—to be the equal of all the heavens. Like holding a tiny heart to be equivalent to a huge body, placing the earth in one of the scales of a balance and all the heavens in the other, the Qur’an repeatedly mentions, the Lord of the heavens and the earth.

So, compare other issues with this and understand that the dim, lifeless truths of the modern scientific and philosophical approach cannot compete with the brilliant, living truths of the Qur’an. Since the point of view of each is different, they appear differently.

 

Why did the Companions see the doomsday near?

Despite this fact, some unfair people who do not know this truth ask:

‘Why did the Companions of the Prophet with their vigilant hearts and keen sight, who had been instructed in all the details of the Hereafter, suppose a fact that would occur centuries later to be near to their time? Why did it appear as though they had, in their thought, fallen a thousand years backward from the truth?’

Answer: Having benefited from the enlightening company of the Prophet (upon him be peace and blessings), the Companions thought of the Hereafter more than anyone else. Being well aware of the transience of the world and conscious of the Divine Wisdom in the time of Doomsday being uncertain, they always remained on the alert against the last hour of the world and strove seriously for their afterlife. The noble Prophet’s frequent warning, Expect the Last Hour, wait for it! 134 was for the same purpose and intended for guidance. It therefore was not a pronouncement of Revelation concerning the fixed time of its occurrence, that it should (now) be seen to be far from the truth. The cause for something should not be confused with the benefit attached to it. Such sayings of the Prophet as this arise from the wisdom in leaving certain things vague.

It is also because of this that people expected the individuals who will come at the end of time like the Mahdi and Sufyan, long ago, indeed even in the time of the generation succeeding the Companions, and hoped to live long enough to see them. Some of the saints even judged that they had passed. As with the Hour of Doomsday, Divine Wisdom requires that the times of these individuals should also remain unknown. Because in every age people feel in need of the meaning of the Mahdi, one who will come to strengthen their morale and save them from despair. Also, this is kept vague in order that people should not, in heedlessness, follow evil leaders, or let the reins of their carnal selves go free out of indifference. In order that they should, in every century, fear and hold back from terrible individuals who come to lead the forces of disorder and hypocrisy, these matters are not particularized as to time. If they had been, the purposes for guiding people as a whole would have gone unrealized.

 

 

 

On the differences in the narrations about the Mahdi and Dajjal

The texts of these Traditions have been confused or even mixed with the commentaries of those who have interpreted them according to their own understanding and deductions. For example, since the center of power in the time of the widest circulation of these Traditions was Medina or Damascus, they imagined the events connected with the Mahdi and Sufyan in those centers or neighboring places like Basra and Kufa, and interpreted them accordingly. Moreover, they imagined attributable to those individuals themselves the mighty works and performances pertaining to the collective identity or community which they represent, and interpreted the relevant Traditions in a way that everyone would be able to recognize those individuals when they appear. However as we said earlier, this world is an arena of trial. A door is opened to the reason, but people are not deprived of using their free choice. For this reason, when those mighty individuals, and even the terrible Dajjal—the Anti-Christ—appear, most of the people (even himself) may not know at the beginning that he is the Dajjal. Rather, those individuals of the end of time can only be known through the light of faith.

About the Dajjal, who is one of the signs of the end of time, a Tradition says:

His first day is like a year, his second day like a month, his third day like a week, and his fourth like your normal days. When he appears, all the world will hear. He will travel the world in forty days.135

Some unfair people judge this prophetic prediction to be impossible and go so far as to deny the Tradition. Whereas—the knowledge is with God—the meaning of this narration must be as follows:

An individual will appear in the north, where unbelief is most strong and at its peak, and leading a mighty current issuing from atheistic ideas of naturalism, will absolutely deny God and religion. There is a subtle point in this narration, namely that in latitudes close to the North Pole, the whole year is one day and one night, each comprising six months. The expression, Dajjal’s first day is a year, alludes to his appearance close to those latitudes. What is meant by His second day is a month is that coming southwards, there are latitudes where a day of summer lasts one month. This means that the Dajjal will appear in the far north and invade southwards towards the civilized world. Coming southwards, the nights shorten until there are barely three hours between the sun’s rising and setting—as a prisoner of war in Russia, I was in such a place. The difficulty in understanding ‘All the world will hear when the Dajjal appears’ has already been solved through the invention of radio and telegraph. As for his traveling the world in forty days, the motorized vehicles have proved it to be possible. Heretics who formerly considered what is meant in these two statements as impossible, now see it as commonplace.

 

Narrations about the reward for reciting certain suras and doing some religious acts

Another category of the Traditions which the unfair atheists suppose to have as much exaggeration as to make the meaning impossible consists in those concerning the reward for religious acts and virtues of some of the Qur’an’s suras. For example, there are narrations that the reward for sura al-Fatiha is equal to that which is for the Qur’an.136 Sura al-Ikhlas equals a third of the Qur’an,137 sura al-Zilzal, a quarter,138 sura al-Kafirun, a quarter,139 and sura Ya Sin, ten times the Qur’an.140 Unfair and unthinking people argue that these are impossible and meaningless because sura Ya Sin and the other meritorious suras are all contained in the Qur’an.

Answer: The truth of the matter is this:

Let us suppose a field sown with one thousand seeds of maize. If we suppose that some seeds produce seven shoots, and from each shoot a hundred grains, then a single seed becomes the equivalent of two-thirds of the original one thousand. If one seed produces ten shoots, and each yields two hundred grains, then a single seed is the equivalent of twice the number of the seeds originally sown in the whole of the field. You can make further analogies in the same way.

In exactly the same way, if we suppose the wise Qur’an to be a sacred, luminous, heavenly field, then each of the 300,620 letters together with its original reward is like a seed. Without considering the shoots which these seeds may produce, the whole of the Qur’an may be compared with the suras and verses about the multiple virtues of which there are narrations. Out of Divine Grace the letters of some suras may sprout and sometimes yield 10, sometimes 70, and sometimes 700, like the letters of Ayat al-Kursi. Sometimes they yield 1,500, like the letters of sura al-Ikhlas, and sometimes 10,000, like verses recited on the Night of Forgiveness (Laylat al-Bara’a) and other blessed occasions. It sometimes even occurs that they yield 30,000, like verses recited on the Night of Power (Laylat al-Qadr), which are like poppy seeds each of which may produce 10 cones in each of which are thousands of seeds. It is understood from the Night of Power being regarded in the Qur’an as equivalent to 1,000 months that a letter of the Qur’an recited on that night brings 30,000 rewards.

Now, it is clear from the explanations above that some of the Qur’an’s suras and verses may bring multiple rewards. They can be compared in certain circumstances with the whole of the Qur’an when the letters of the Qur’an are considered in their original merits, without producing a new crop of merits. For example, sura al-Ikhlas together with Basmala (the formula: In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate) has 69 letters. Since sura al-Ikhlas equals one-third of the Qur’an and the Qur’an has 300,620 letters, three times 69 is 207. That means, each letter of sura al-Ikhlas has about 1,500 merits or rewards. Similarly, suraYa-Sin equals ten times the Qur’an. If all the letters of the wise Qur’an are multiplied ten times and then the result will be divided by the number of sura Ya-Sin’s letters, the result will be: each letter of sura Ya-Sin has about 500 merits or rewards. So, if you apply the others to this, you will understand what a subtle, true and unexaggerated reality you are presented with.

As with most other species of creatures, certain individuals among mankind are extraordinary with respect to acts and achievements. If those individuals excel in good deeds, they become the pride of mankind. Otherwise, they are the cause of their shame. Also, they acquire a collective identity and become models for others who try to be like them—and it is theoretically, even really, possible for everyone else to be like them. That means, those extraordinary individuals may emerge anywhere in the world. Therefore, according to common sense, it is conceivable that every place in the world may have some of those individuals.

It follows that any act has the potential to deserve such reward as this: The Prophet (upon him be peace and blessings) decreed that the reward for two rak‘as of prayer performed at such and such a time equals the Hajj (pilgrimage to the Ka‘ba).141 This means that all the two-rak‘a prayers performed at that time have potentially a reward equal to going on pilgrimage to the Ka‘ba. It is equally possible that no two-rak‘a prayers performed at that time will earn the reward for pilgrimage. The reward promised in narrations of this sort is not actual, nor for everyone at all times. There are certain conditions upon it, and though everyone who fulfils the conditions may potentially earn the promised reward, as stated above, it is equally possible that no one earns it. Therefore, the generality of the promise in narrations of this sort is in respect of possibility or potentiality. For example, a narration says: Backbiting is like murder.142 This means that there is a sort of backbiting such that it is more harmful than deadly poison. Again, for example: A good word equals in virtue the emancipation of a slave, which is greatly meritorious.143

By pointing (for the purpose of encouraging good deeds and restraining from evil ones) to the highest reward one may gain from a good deed, the noble Prophet (upon him be peace and blessings) aims to arouse eagerness for good and aversion to evil. Furthermore, the things belonging to the other world cannot be measured with the scales of this world. The greatest thing belonging to this world cannot be equal to the least thing of the next. Since the rewards for good deeds are related to the other world, we are certain to be in difficulties when trying to grasp them.

As another example, God’s noble Messenger (upon him be peace and blessings) declares:

Whoever recites All praise be to God, the Lord of the heavens and the Lord of the layers of the earth, the Lord of the Worlds: His is sublimity in the heavens and the earth, and He is the All-Mighty, the All-Wise. All praise be to God, the Lord of the heavens and the Lord of the layers of the earth, the Lord of the Worlds: His is grandeur in the heavens and the earth, and He is the All-Mighty, the All-Wise. His is the Kingdom, the Lord of the heavens, and He is the All-Mighty, the All-Wise is given the reward of Moses and Aaron.

This is one of the narrations which have been made the target of unfair criticism by unthinking people. However, the truth of the matter is this:

There is a certain degree of reward which, with our narrow minds and limited outlooks, we imagine Moses and Aaron (upon them be peace) to have in the world of eternity. The Absolutely Compassionate One may give a servant of His in infinite need of everlasting happiness as much reward for a single invocation of his as that which we imagine those two prophets to have, not what they really have.

For example, there is a primitive, uncultured man who has never seen the king and is therefore unaware of the splendor of his kingdom. However, he imagines a lord in a village, with his narrow experience, he thinks of the king as a bit greater than that lord. Among the tribes living in the East there were once some simple-minded people who used to say: ‘Our lord knows what the Sultan does, while he cooks his bulgur soup144 in a saucepan over the fire.’ In other words, they imagined the Sultan as someone greater than an ordinary man, who cooked his own bulgur soup. If someone were to say to one among those people, ‘If you do this work for me today, I’ll reward you with as much splendor as you think the Sultan has,’ he would be promising the man as much splendor as he can imagine—namely, what the Sultan has.

Thus, with our worldly views and narrow minds, we cannot think, even as much as the primitive man can think of the life-style of the Sultan, of the actual rewards related to the Hereafter. The Tradition in question does not compare the unknown reward for an invocation of a believing servant of God, to the actual reward of the Prophets Moses and Aaron, the degree of which is unknown to us. Rather it compares it (as, according to the rule of comparisons, the unknown is compared to the known) to the reward that we think those two prophets have.

Moreover, the surface of the sea [if supposed as smooth] and the ‘pupil’ of a drop are equal in holding the complete reflection of the sun; the difference is only in regard to quality. The nature of the reward reflected in the mirror of the ocean-like spirits of Moses and Aaron (upon them be peace) is of the same nature as the reward that a believing servant with a drop-like spirit receives from a Qur’anic verse. They are the same in regard to nature and quantity, while their quality depends on capacity.

Again, it sometimes happens that a single word, a single act of glorification, opens up such a treasury of happiness as one has not been able to open through a lifetime of divine service. In certain circumstances, a single verse may earn as much reward as the whole of the Qur’an. Also, the divine gifts and enlightenment which the noble Messenger of God (upon him be peace and blessings) who was endowed with God’s Greatest Name, received through a single verse, may have been as much as all of the gifts and enlightenment one of the other prophets received. If it is argued that a believer who through succession to the mission of Muhammad (upon him be peace and blessings) is endowed with the shadow of God’s Greatest Name, receives, corresponding to his own capacity and in respect of quantity, a reward as great as a Prophet’s enlightenment, it may not be contrary to the truth. Furthermore, reward and virtues are from the realm of light, and one world from that realm may be contained in an atom from this world. The heaven with all its stars may appear in a tiny fragment of glass. So too reward and virtue, which are of pure light and as much as to fill the heavens, may be contained in an invocation or a Qur’anic verse which acquires transparency through sincerity and pure intention.

 

130. Bukhari, Fada’il al-Sahaba, 6; Muslim, Fada’il al-Sahaba, 23; Tirmidhi, Manakib, 17.

131. Muslim, Janna, 31; Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Musnad, 3.341.

132. Surely God, He has knowledge of the Hour; He sends down rain [no one except He knows the exact time of rain before its signs appear]; He knows what is in the wombs [the future sex of the embryo, and its future features, fate, etc.]. No soul knows what it shall earn tomorrow, and no soul knows in what land it shall die. Surely God is All-Knowing, All-Aware (Luqman, 31.34). (Tr.)

133. Tirmidhi, Fitan, 39.

134. Muslim, Fitan, 110; Abu Dawud, Malahim, 14; Tirmidhi, Fitan, 59.

135. Muslim, Munafiqun, 18; Bukhari, Tafsir sura 18.6; I. Maja, Zuhd, 3.

136. Bukhari, Tafsir sura 1.1; Tirmidhi, Thawab al-Qur’an, 1; Nasa’i, Iftitah, 26.

137. Tirmidhi, Thawab al-Qur’an, 10; Ibn Maja, Adab, 52; Abu Dawud, Witr, 18.

138. Tirmidhi, Thawab al-Qur’an, 14; Musnad Ibn Hanbal, 3.147.

139. Tirmidhi, Thawab al-Qur’an, 9; Musnad Ibn Hanbal, 3.147.

140. Tirmidhi, Thawab al-Qur’an, 7; Darimi, Fada’il al-Qur’an, 21.

141. Muttaqi al-Hindi, Kanz al-‘Ummal, 7.808; Tabarani, al-Mu’jam al-Kabir, 7740.

142. Musnad al-Firdaws, 3.116.

143. Kanz al-‘Ummal, 3.589.

144. A kind of soup made of boiled, pounded wheat. (Tr.)

 

This article has been adapted from Risale- i Nur Collection.