Major Signs of the Hour
We follow up last weeks reminder on the minor signs with a reminder on the major signs before the final hour. The imam mentioned a few hadiths in relation to this. The first is translated to say:
Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) came to us all of a sudden as we were (busy in a discussion). He said: What do you discuss about? They (the Companions) said. We are discussing about the Last Hour. Thereupon he said: It will not come until you see ten signs before and (in this connection) he made a mention of the smoke, Dajjal, the beast, the rising of the sun from the west, the descent of Jesus son of Mary (Allah be pleased with him), the Gog and Magog, and land-slides in three places, one in the east, one in the west and one in Arabia at the end of which fire would burn forth from the Yemen, and would drive people to the place of their assembly.
It is worth noting here dear brothers, that the order of these major signs is one that is differed upon amongst the scholars. However, these are widely considered to be amongst the major signs. Alongside this hadith, the imam also mentioned the following which is translated to say:
Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) said, “The hour will not be established till the sun rises from the West; and when it rises (from the West) and the people see it, they all will believe. And that is (the time) when no good will it do to a soul to believe then.”
And specifically, about the arrival of Gog and Magog, the prophet SAWS advised us in this hadith which is translated to say:
And then Allah will send Ya’juj and Ma’juj (Gog and Magog people) and they will sworn down from every slope. The first of them will pass the Lake Tabariyah (near the Dead Sea in Palestine) and drink all its water. And when the last of them will pass, he will say: `There was once water there.’
Dear brothers, just listening to these accounts of the times leading up to the final hour should make us want to plead to Allah SWT that we are not present at these times. These times will be amongst the most challenging, difficult and painful times for mankind to bear and so we should pray that we are spared this test.
And so, what is the lesson that we should take from this reminder today? The main lesson is one that can be found in the ayat that the imam mentioned. In ayat 96 & 97 of Sura Al-Anbya, Allah SWT speaks of one of the signs but alongside that provides us with todays lesson. They are translated to say:
until ˹after˺ Gog and Magog have broken loose ˹from the barrier˺,1 swarming down from every hill, ushering in the True Promise.1 Then—behold!—the disbelievers will stare ˹in horror, crying,˺ “Oh, woe to us! We have truly been heedless of this. In fact, we have been wrongdoers.”
Dear brothers, we have been taught to look for the major signs, not to sensationalise them but to act upon this knowledge today. The 158th ayat of Sura Al-Anam illustrates this point further, its translated to say:
Are they awaiting the coming of the angels, or your Lord ˹Himself˺, or some of your Lord’s ˹major˺ signs? On the Day your Lord’s signs arrive, belief will not benefit those who did not believe earlier or those who did no good through their faith.1 Say, “Keep waiting! We too are waiting.”
Dear brothers, Allah SWT is explicitly teaching us that we shouldn’t wait for a calamity to strike before we step it up in our worship and our good deeds. We shouldn’t be of the mindset where we are mediocre in our worship and our deeds because things are getting serious on the global scale. Just as this past 12 months has taught us, we cannot take anything for granted and most importantly, none of us know when our personal final hour is going to be.
Death is around the corner for us all and so we take that realisation and step up our manners, our deeds, our worship now, to the best that we can be. This is the lesson that we apply from todays reminder and it is probably the most important lesson of all.
