Mawlana Shaykh Hisham Kabbani describes the dangerous situation that humankind faced, and how the intercession of the Prophet Muhammad and Awliyaullah saved humanity from this terrible calamity.

Six Events

The Prophet ﷺ mentioned six tremendous signs that would precede the Day of Judgment.

حدثنا الحميدي: حدثنا الوليد بن مسلم: حدثنا عبد الله بن العلاء ابن زبر قال: سمعت بسر بن عبيد الله: أنه سمع أبا إدريس قال: سمعت عوف بن مالك قال:
أتيت النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم في غزوة تبوك، وهو في قبة من أدم، فقال: (اعدد ستا بين يدي الساعة: موتي، ثم فتح بيت المقدس، ثم موتان يأخذ فيكم كقعاص الغنم، ثم استفاضة المال حتى يعطى الرجل مائة دينار فيظل ساخطا، ثم فتنة لا يبقى بيت من العرب إلا دخلته، ثم هدنة تكون بينكم وبين بني الأصفر، فيغدرون فيأتونكم تحت ثمانين غاية، تحت كل غاية اثنا عشر ألفا (البخاري في كتاب الجرية و أحمد في مسْنده)

'Awf Ibn Mālik related that the Prophet ﷺ said:
Count six signs before the Hour: my death; then the opening of Bayt al-Maqdis; then death in huge numbers, like the plague of sheep; then there will be such an excess of money, such that a man would give one hundred dinars to a (needy) person and he looks at that with disgust; then a confusion that will enter every house of the Arabs; then a truce between you and the non-Muslims (because) they will be exceedingly powerful against you, coming to you with eighty different groups (of soldiers or eighty different compelling excuses); under each group twelve thousand (soldiers or twelve thousand explanations).

This hadith mentions that in the Last Days a great number of people will also die in this way, that is by the spread of a harmful substance into the respiratory system. Influenza is spread in this manner and produces similar symptoms. There are yearly epidemics of influenza and occasional pandemics in which a new strain of the virus sweeps over the world, killing millions. In today’s world of travelers rapidly criss-crossing the globe a pandemic of influenza could spread like lightning, leaving massive death in its wake.

The SARS pandemic is an example of such an outbreak. As of April 2003, the World Health Organization reported nearly 3,000 probable SARS cases worldwide, with four percent resulting in death. At the time of publication, the World Health Organisation's infectious diseases chief said he feared the SARS virus could be carried by people without symptoms.

Mawlana Shaykh Hisham Kabbani, The Approach of Armageddon? An Islamic Perspective, June 2003