The Days of Allah

II. The Days of Allah

“We verily sent Moses with Our revelations, saying: Bring thy people forth from darkness unto light. And remind them of the days of Allah. Lo! therein are revelations for each steadfast, thankful (heart).”
Quran (14:5)

II.1 Minor Resurrection – The promised day of the Mahdi’s reappearance

“Wait they for naught else than that Allah should come unto them in the shadows of the clouds with the angels? Then the case would be already judged. All cases go back to Allah (for judgment).” Quran (2:210)
Both the Quran and the authenticated Sunnah of the Prophet speak about this monumental day of Allah. The Quran cites: “And verily We have written in the Psalms, after the Torah: My righteous servants will inherit the Earth.” Quran (21:105) The Prophet stated: “Even if one day remains, Allah will stretch that day until the Mahdi comes to fill the Earth with Fairness and Justice after it has been filled with Tyranny and Injustice.”

In the monotheistic faith of Islam, Allah is neither bound by space nor by time. In the chapter of sincerity, Allah introduces Himself as As-Samad, i.e. the Master Creator on Whom all other creatures depend, the Being that has no inner space (to have an outer shape), … etc. among other significant attributes. Space wise, Allah encompasses everything in the whole wide (and expanding) universe. Yet, nothing looks like Him.

Just ponder who will be coming then “in the shadows of the clouds with the angles?”

Time is absolutely irrelevant to the Creator. He is beyond it. He is not bound with it, the same way He is NOT bound with anything else – including the clouds. If He ascribes any specific days to His name, it is only to signify the importance of those days. This is an extra reminder for the human being – who tends to forget. The same can be stated about those who are affiliated with Him. The affiliates are the elites, whom He chose. Their rank in the sight of Allah is even above than that of the closest Arch Angel – Gabriel. With Muhammad at the focus, thanks to what he has experienced on the night of the Israa and Mi’raj, Allah has introduced these elites to one another even before their births. Similarly, He foretold the physical coming of a number of his envoys. Such assertion can be proven from the glad tidings the four angels gave the barren, old Sara. This coincidently occurred upon communicating the bad news of destructing the Sodom and Gomorrah of those who had committed the indescribable crime. Consequently, the 90-yr old Abraham got his second son Isaac – who subsequently fathered Israel (Jacob), as the Quran narrates.

At the dawn of history, some 12,000 years ago, Allah created Adam from dirt. Later, He made Noah a great Prophet. At other points in time, He made Abraham as a close friend, spoke to Moses, and miraculously created Jesus form Virgin Mary. Eventually, He chose the Prophet Muhammad to be His beloved one, and the seal of the Prophets. Throughout history, human beings had no say in the selection of any of the very many prophets. As the Quran states:

“Lo! Allah preferred Adam and Noah and the Family of Abraham and the Family of \'Imran above (all His) creatures.”
Quran (3:33)

“And when a token cometh unto them, they say: We will not believe till we are given that which Allah\'s messengers are given. Allah knoweth best with whom to place His message. Humiliation from Allah and heavy punishment will smite the guilty for their scheming.”
Quran (6:124)

The Muslims agree that every Messenger is a prophet, but not vice versa. Among the Messengers of Allah, five were with Universal missions: Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad. To Muhammad’s contemporaries, who denied his Messengership, the Quran challenges:

“They who disbelieve say: Thou art no messenger (of Allah). Say: Allah, and whosoever hath knowledge of the Scripture, is sufficient witness between me and you.”
Quran (13:43)

Who other than Imam Ali that had the knowledge of the Book, i.e. the Quran. If the Quran was a silent book, Imam Ali was the talking one. When Allah gives such recognition to Imam Ali’s testimony for the Prophet’s Messengership, little consideration should be given to those who institutionalized his dismissal as the immediate Vicegerent for the Prophet?

In very many Hadiths, the Prophet identified his Twelve vicegerents – all are from Quraysh. In his life, not only he assigned Imam Ali, but also he spoke about the Imamate of Al-Hassan and Al-Hussain, and the nine Imams from the latter’s progeny. None but Imam Muhammad bin Al-Hassan Al-Askari, commonly known as the Mahdi is the awaited Saviour about whom all prophets spoke. Birth: mid Sha’ban 255 A..H., Samaraa, Iraq.


II.2 Middle Resurrection – Al-Raj’ah or the return of selected dead persons to life

“Or (bethink thee of) the like of him who, passing by a township which had fallen into utter ruin, exclaimed: How shall Allah give this township life after its death? And Allah made him die a hundred years, then brought him back to life. He said: How long hast thou tarried? (The man) said: I have tarried a day or part of a day. (He) said: Nay, but thou hast tarried for a hundred years. Just look at thy food and drink which have not rotted! Look at thine ass! And, that We may make thee a token unto mankind, look at the bones, how We adjust them and then cover them with flesh! And when (the matter) became clear unto him, he said: I know now that Allah is Able to do all things.”
Quran (2:259)

Again, the Quran speaks in many places about this resurrection and authenticates the leadership of the designated, rightful Imams. In his role, the Prophet explained the intended meanings of the Quran’s verses. Take this verse as a starting example:

“And We desired to show favour unto those who were oppressed in the earth, and to make them examples and to make them the inheritors.”
Quran (28:5)

To his daughter Fatimah, the Prophet confided that she will be the first one who will follow his departure from this temporal world. To his companions, he stated: “Fatimah is a piece of me. Whoever pleases her, he pleases me. And, whoever displeases her, he displeases me.” Ample historic evidence exist that Fatimah was martyred only 75 days after the Prophet’s martyrdom. Proof: she was extremely angry at the two sheikhs. In her will, she even asked Imam Ali to deny them the participation in her funeral procession. She also asked to make her graveyard anonymous.

While allowing the two sheikhs to be buried beside the Prophet’s tomb in Madinah, Aeysha denied the burial of Imam Hassan there after he was poisoned by Mu’aawiyah in 50 A.H.

Thus a bitter commotion rose between Bani Hashim and Marwan’s men – who showered Imam Hassan’s corpse with intense arrows. Observing the sanctity of the place and paying reverence to the burial place his grandfather, Imam Hussian put an end to that unnecessary, futile argument by burying his brother somewhere else and he quoted the Quran:

“O ye who believe! Lift not up your voices above the voice of the Prophet, nor shout when speaking to him as ye shout one to another, lest your works be rendered vain while ye perceive not.”
Quran (49:2)

Ten years before Imam Hassan’s martyrdom, in the year 40 A.H., Imam Hussain eulogized his father: Imam Ali – the first oppressed Imam, when the Kharijite Abdul Ar-Rahman bin Muljim assassinated him in collaboration with Mu’aawiyah – Omar’s appointed governor over Syria.

In the year 61 A.H., barely 50 years after the Prophet’s demise, Imam Hussain himself was martyred by Mu’aawiyah’s son Yazid – the drunkard, the womanizer, the tyrant. The episode of Karbala is well documented in Islam’s history. With slight factual mistakes2, the late (Egyptian) Shaikh Abdul Hameed Kushok spoke eloquently on the day of Ashoraa3. What need to be stressed here is that none but the appointed Twelve Imams who have suffered that much persecution. Similar to saving Jesus from the Jewish persecution, Allah ordered Imam Mahdi to go into occultation.

Imam Hussain sacrificed everything in the Path of Allah, including a newborn child. Upon testing Abraham, Allah ransomed His close friend’s sacrifice with a more significant one. This magnificent ransom must have been of the same kind as the sacrifice itself. It can not be a lamb Gabriel brought down – or even a sacrificial animal a pilgrim makes upon performing Haj. All evidences are indicative towards that the ransom might have been the master of the Martyrs – whom Allah will resurrect among others to reign during His kingdom. Some who were extreme in their cruelty and injustice will also be resurrected to be punished by their victims in this life, before tasting the humiliating chastisement in the Hereafter.

Linage of Prophet Muhammad is connected to Abraham through Ishmael. Imam Hussain was Prophet Muhammad’s grandson – the son of Imam Ali and Fatimah (a.s.). History records that the Prophet of Islam left only one daughter from his own seeds. Yet, the Quran, in its shortest chapter, prophesies that he was given abundant progeny!

It is indeed saddening to see some Muslim doctors of religion who cannot fathom this fulfilled prophecy. A recent declaration by Dr. Zakir Naik4 puts him in the category of the Israelite scholar – Bal’am bin Ba’aoora.. In the chapter of Jum’ah, Allah describes him as being like a donkey that carries voluminous books on its back. If both Pharaoh and Moses cannot be right, then Imam Hussain and Yazid should not be viewed as just Imams (leaders). Hope that this stern message will reach this memorizer of the Quran before he will be resurrected with whom he loves.