We Are in the Time of Ignorance

Shaykh Hisham Kabbani

18 November 2016 Feltham, England UK

Centre for Spiritual & Cultural Advancement (CSCA)

O Muslims, Believers! Every Jumu`ah is a good Jumu`ah for us. It is not only one a year, but Allah (swt) gave us one Jumu`ah every week and as every sincere scholar says, “For the Muslim, every prayer is a Jumu`ah.” And every prayer for the Muslim is like Hajj if it is prayed on time, because you pray towards Ka`aba and the first thing you do on Hajj is make tawaaf and direct your face towards Ka`aba. And from here in this minbar and from any minbar, from any masjid around the world making Jumu`ah, let him understand that Ka`aba is looking at him and he is looking at Ka`aba. That is a message that sincere, pious scholars and Awliya, mentioned many years ago.

Prophet (s) didn’t leave his Ummah without knowledge, he left the Ummah full of knowledge, but from the Signs of the Last Days he predicted there would come a time when ignorance fills the Earth. He mentioned this to his Sahaabah (r) because they were the only people who were near and when they heard this, they thought these things would happen in their time, but actually they are happening now. From generation to generation, they were ready for the Signs of the Last Days. Awliyaullah knew this fact and prepared their followers for when it will come, and now we are seeing these very hard days in the Middle East and other places throughout the world. May Allah protect us and keep us safe.

Prophet (s) said:

إِنَّ بَيْنَ يَدَيِ السَّاعَةِ أَيَّامًا يَنْزِلُ فِيهَا الْجَهْلُ , وَيُرْفَعُ فِيهَا الْعِلْمُ , وَيَكْثُرُ فِيهَا الْهَرْجُ " .

قَالَ : قُلْنَا : وَمَا الْهَرْجُ ؟ قَالَ : الْقَتْلُ

The Prophet said, “Just before the Last Hour there will be a time in which ignorance descends, knowledge is lifted up, and harj is everywhere.” He asked, “What is harj?” The Prophet said, “Killing.”

(Bukhari, Muslim)

“There are days in your time that ignorance will come down upon you,” which means it will come on everyone. We are now living in a time of aggression, tyranny and no real knowledge; now people think knowledge is politics and all we see is fighting for politics, they are not fighting for Allah and His Prophet (s) or Islam, or even for people on Earth, they are only fighting for their chairs. So Prophet (s) mentioned there will be ‘days,’ ayaaman, alhamdulillah he didn’t say there will be ‘a time,’ because that would have extended it; rather, he (s) said, “Some days are coming in which people will see ignorance filling the Earth until the appearance of Mahdi (a).”

كيف أنتم إذا نزل ابن مريم فيكم وإمامكم منكم

What will your state be when the son of Maryam descends among you and your imam is from you? (Bukhari)

How are you going to be, how will you feel when Sayyidina `Isa (a) comes down on the white minaret in Damascus and your imam, Sayyidina al-Mahdi (a), is leading the prayer? That time is coming and we and our children might see it! If you prepare yourself for it by being a sincere mu'min, Allah (swt) likes that and He will reward you as if you saw it in your time even if it is delayed. We ask Allah (swt) to make these times come and go as soon as possible and to bless us with the appearance of Mahdi (a) and Sayyidina `Isa (a)!

And Prophet (s) said, “When ignorance comes….” The opposite of ignorance is knowledge, but at that time he said, Yurfa` u ‘l-`ilm, “The knowledge will be lifted up,” which means there will be no more scholars, no more Awliya, and we see today that there are very few sincere scholars and the rest are not sincere but they are trying, struggling, like we are struggling. That’s the time we are seeing today. Knowledge has been lifted up. Qaalaa yaa Rasoolullah hal yurfa`u ’l-Qur’an? They asked, “Will the Qur’an be lifted up?” He (s) said, “No, but the `ulama will die and there will be no substitute.”

Today when we lose one person from Awliya or a sincere scholar, the whole dunya will stand up for that person’s reputation, but we are losing them and very few new ones are coming, unlike previously in Islamic history when eso many were occupied with studying Qur’an and Hadith. Today Qur’an and Hadith has been lost, that’s why the Prophet (s) said nothing will be left of Islam except its name:

يوشك أن يأتي على الناس زمان لا يبقى من الإسلام إلا اسمه ولا يبقى من القرآن إلا رسمه ، مساجدهم عامرة وهي خراب من الهدى ، علماؤهم شر من تحت أديم السماء ، من عندهم تخرج الفتنة ، وفيهم تعود

There will come a time upon a people when nothing remains from Islam except its name, nothing from the Qur’an except the form of its letters, mosques will be built but are empty of guidance, their scholars will be the worst people beneath the sky, and chaos will emerge from them and return to them. (Bayhaqi)

Nothing will be left except the name of Islam, “Oh, we are Muslim,” but are you really Muslim? “We are mu’min.” Allah said in the Holy Qur’an:

قَالَتِ الْأَعْرَابُ آمَنَّا قُل لَّمْ تُؤْمِنُوا وَلَكِن قُولُوا أَسْلَمْنَا وَلَمَّا يَدْخُلِ الْإِيمَانُ فِي قُلُوبِكُمْ

The Arabs declare, “We believe (amanna).” Say (to them, O Muhammad), “You do not; rather say, ‘We submit (aslamna),’ because belief has not yet found its way into your hearts.” (Surat al-Hujuraat, 49:14).

“Don’t say we are ‘mu’min’ say, ‘We are Muslim,’ until iman comes to your heart,” then you say you are mu’min. When you witness that iman comes to the heart then you are a mu’min. Until then you are still a Muslim. A mu’min and a Muslim is different. The mu’min can see visions and can hear things that people cannot hear. Check yourself. If you are hearing things that people cannot hear then you are a mu’min, if you are seeing things that Muslims cannot see then you are in the category of mu’min. If not, then you are in the category of Muslim, which is okay, but you will not be given that these obstacles or veils are lifted from your eyes, you are still in ignorance.

So Prophet (s) said, yurfa`u ‘l-`ilm. That means there will be no one giving good advice to the Ummah. Every `alim is trying to be famous for something his ego wants and what he desires. Some others who are loyal to Allah and His Prophet (s) have reached the level of:

وما يزال عبدي يتقرب إلي بالنوافل حتى أحبه فإذا أحببته كنت سمعه الذي يسمع به وبصره الذي يبصر به ويده التي يبطش بها ورجله التي يمشي بها وإن سألني لأعطينه ولئن استعاذني لأعيذنه وما ترددت عن شيء أنا فاعله ترددي عن نفس المؤمن يكره الموت وأنا أكره مساءته ‏ولا يزال عبدي يتقرب إلي بالنوافل حتى أحبه، فإذا أحببته كنت سمعه الذي يسمع به وبصره الذي يبصر به، ويده التي يبطش بها ورجله التي يمشي بها،

My servant does not cease to approach Me through voluntary worship until I will love him. When I love him, I will become the ears with which he hears, the eyes with which he sees, the hand with which he acts, and the legs with which he walks (and other versions include, “and the tongue with which he speaks.”). (Hadith Qudsi, Bukhari)

“I will be the ears that he can see with and the eyes that he can see with.” There are `ulama who reached the way of Awliya through the Holy Hadith of Prophet (s) that Allah said, “I will be his eyes that he can see with and I will be his ears that he can hear with.”

We need to reach this. Can we hear? Can we see? If yes, then you must have tamaaneena in your heart --peacefulness and tranquility. If not, then struggle. Try your best because you are already Muslim, you are already entering Paradise. That’s no question, but there are levels in Paradise like in Surat al-Fatihah. Surat ul-Fatihah was revealed twice: once in Meccatu 'l-Mukarrama and once in Madinatu 'l-Munawwara.

Why did this happen? Because whatever Prophet (s) received with the barakah and the secrets held in the first Fatihah in Mecca...all Meccan revelations were mentioned within the first Fatihah that was revealed to Prophet (s) when he was in Mecca. When he moved to Madinah, more secrets and interpretations came, more development, more changes happened from Mecca to Madinah. So the Fatihah is the Heart of the Holy Qur’an and it was revealed another time with these Madinan secrets to Prophet (s). So it turned from being Muslim when first revealed in Mecca to the level of mu’min, and the Sahaabah (r) came to that level, when they moved to Madinah.

We need to be in that situation of struggle in order to reach that level, which cannot come except under the guidance of a guide who takes you from the ocean of troubles to the Ocean of Safety and from the ignorance of dunya to the Knowledge of Akhirah, and this Knowledge is not opened until you open your heart to Allah and His Prophet (s). The main concern of the Ummah is love to Prophet (s). Inkuntum tuhibboonallah f’atabi`oo Muhammad (s):

قُلْ إِن كُنتُمْ تُحِبُّونَ اللّهَ فَاتَّبِعُونِي يُحْبِبْكُمُ اللّهُ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ وَاللّهُ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ

Say (O Muhammad), "If you (really) love Allah, then follow me! Allah will love you and forgive your sins, and Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.” (Surat Aali-'Imraan, 3:31)

“If you really love Allah follow me,” Muhammad (s) says, and Allah said it in the Holy Qur’an: “Follow Muhammad. When Muhammad loves you, I love you.”

وَمَا آتَاكُمُ الرَّسُولُ فَخُذُوهُ وَمَا نَهَاكُمْ عَنْهُ فَانتَهُوا

Wa maa ataakumu ’r-rasoolu fakhudhoohu wa maa nahaakum `anhu fantahoo.

Leave what Prophet forbade and take what he ordered. (Surat al-Hashr, 59:7)

Allah says, “Whatever Prophet (s) gives you, take it!”

مَّنْ يُطِعِ الرَّسُولَ فَقَدْ أَطَاعَ اللّهَ

Whoever obeys the Prophet is obeying Allah. (Surat an-Nisa, 4:80).

“Whoever obeys Prophet is obeying Allah.” So there is no shirk in it. There is no kufr in it. We have to obey Sayyidina Muhammad (s) in everything then we will reach the Shore of Safety which is imaan.

We are in that level today until we begin to see and to hear. May Allah make us to hear everything and to see everything and to see Prophet (s) in this dunya, inshaa-Allah.

حَدَّثَنَا الْمَكِّيُّ بْنُ إِبْرَاهِيمَ، قَالَ أَخْبَرَنَا حَنْظَلَةُ بْنُ أَبِي سُفْيَانَ، عَنْ سَالِمٍ، قَالَ سَمِعْتُ أَبَا هُرَيْرَةَ، عَنِ النَّبِيِّ صلى الله عليه وسلم قَالَ ‏"‏ يُقْبَضُ الْعِلْمُ، وَيَظْهَرُ الْجَهْلُ وَالْفِتَنُ، وَيَكْثُرُ الْهَرْجُ ‏"‏‏.‏ قِيلَ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ وَمَا الْهَرْجُ فَقَالَ هَكَذَا بِيَدِهِ، فَحَرَّفَهَا، كَأَنَّهُ يُرِيدُ الْقَتْلَ‏.‏

The Prophet (s) said, "Knowledge will be taken away (by the death of religious scholars), ignorance (in religion) and afflictions will appear, and Harj will increase." It was asked, "What is Harj, O Allah's Messenger (s)?" He replied by beckoning with his hand, indicating "killing." HH Q/H

Wa yurfa`u feehaa al-`ilm “And knowledge will be lifted up,” by the death of scholars, by the death of Awliya. That is what it means. Wa yakthuru feehaa al-Harj, “And there will be too much harj wa’l marj.” Qaalaa yaa Rasoolullah maa ‘l-harj? Qaal, “Al-qatl, al-qatl...“Too much bloodshed and killings.”

Punishment is not coming from one army to one army with a sword--fighting for your safety one on one. Now punishment is coming from earth and skies. That cannot be tolerated: the bombardment by jets over innocent people, over houses, countries, and villages. We see the miseries and problems. Alhamdulillah, you are living in a safe area. You have to make shukr to Allah `Azza wa jall. Don’t demonstrate against where you are living. You are living in a peaceful place! Go and see what is happening in Aleppo, Iraq or the Middle East. You will see all these problems coming and Prophet (s) mentioned them 1400 hundred years ago, that there will be too much killing and bloodshed and today there is not one day that there is no killing.

That’s why the Awliya, the sincere scholars who reached the Maqaam of Imaan said that we have to make Salaat al-Janaza ‘ala ‘l-ghaa’ib, to pray for the people who have died as we don’t know who is buried underground by these airplanes. Now many planes are coming every day over the Syrian villages and so on and innocent people are being killed. May Allah (swt) take this bloodshed away.

عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ ، قَالَ : قَالَ النَّبِيُّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ : " لا تَقُومُ السَّاعَةُ حَتَّى يُقْبَضَ الْعِلْمُ , وَتَكْثُرَ الزَّلازِلُ , وَيَتَقَارَبَ الزَّمَانُ , وَتَظْهَرَ الْفِتَنُ , وَيَكْثُرُ الْهَرْجُ وَهُوَ الْقَتْلُ , وَحَتَّى يَكْثُرَ فِيكُمُ الْمَالُ فَيَفِيضَ " .

The Hour will not arise until knowledge is lifted, earthquakes are many, time contracts, chaos is manifest, killing is prevalent, and until there is so much money it spills everywhere. (Bukhari)

He said that Prophet (s) said, “From the Signs of the Last Days is that time will shrink.” Something that took you one year, you can do in a month, and something that took you a month, you can do in a day and something that took you a day you can do in one minute and one second. You can reach anywhere around the world, either by airplane, by cars, by boats or by the Internet. Now by Internet you are reaching thousands and millions of people.

Facebook is taking you to a different level. Allah said that there is too much fitnah in it at the same time, but if the `abd is doing it for work or business, it’s okay. But if he is leaving it in the hands of his children to watch whatever they want to watch and watching what cannot be watched then it is becoming against us. So we have to be very careful in what we are seeing and what we are teaching our children. You can find too many things on these iPhones, YouTube, Facebook or whatever it is. We have to make sure our children are safe from seeing all these kinds of things you can see.

Prophet (s) mentioned it 1400 years ago. They expressed it differently before the Internet: “What you can eat in winter or in spring, you will find it in summer. The fruit of summer, you can find it in winter and the fruit of summer you can find it in winter.” That is how they expressed it 40 or 50 years ago. I remember that Hadith and the `ulama explaining it like that. One of them was my uncle explaining that. This is what their knowledge reached, but they didn’t reach what it reaches today through the Internet and being able to reach what you want in one second. You send a message and they receive it on the other side. So there is wisdom and benefit in it and there is danger in it. You have to be very careful of whatever danger there is in it, as Prophet (s) has mentioned.

Now you can see. You don’t need to go to movies or discos, you see it all on the iPhone and computer. They brought Shaytan within your house. Instead of Shaytan being away from us, they brought it in your home. There is not one home that doesn’t have a TV. They might have two TVs: one in the kitchen, one in the bedroom, or one in the living room and one in the toilet, one in the bathroom, only to watch what Islam prohibited. So we have to be careful what we and our children are watching.

قال رسول اللّه صلى اللّه عليه وسلم: إن اللّه لا يقبض العلم انتزاعا ينتزعه من الناس ولكن يقبض العلم بقبض العلماء، حتى إذا لم يترك عالما اتخذ الناس رؤوسا جهالا فسئلوا فأفتوا بغير علم فضلوا وأضلوا

Allah will not remove knowledge by extracting it from people, but He will remove it by removing scholars until no scholar is left and people follow ignorant leaders. They will ask them and they will give fatwa with no knowledge, misguiding themselves and misguiding others. (Muslim)

That’s it! He said, “I heard from Prophet (s) that Allah (swt) will not take the `ilm from the heart of the believers but the `ilm will be left because the scholars of that time die and there will be very few,” and he said, “Until there are no more `ulama to speak or to give advice or fatwa then, when there will be no more `alims, people will take ignorant leaders.” They think they are `alim but they are not and they will take them in different deviations. We have to be very careful! People are following guides today, scholars, but you have to know what kind of scholar you are learning from. You must not take everything for granted. You must check it before you fall into deep wells that you cannot come out of.

At that time people will take ignorant leaders and fa-sa`aloo fa-aftaw bi-ghayri `ilm. They will be asked and they will give fatwa without knowledge. What is a fatwa without knowledge? I will give you an example. Allah said in a Holy Hadith:

عن ‏ ‏أبي هريرة ‏ ‏قال ‏‏قال رسول الله ‏ ‏صلى الله عليه وسلم ‏ ‏إن الله قال ‏ ‏من عادى لي وليا فقد ‏ ‏آذنته ‏ ‏بالحرب وما تقرب إلي عبدي بشيء أحب إلي مما افترضت عليه وما يزال عبدي يتقرب إلي بالنوافل حتى أحبه فإذا أحببته كنت سمعه الذي يسمع به وبصره الذي يبصر به ويده التي يبطش بها ورجله التي يمشي بها وإن سألني لأعطينه ولئن استعاذني لأعيذنه وما ترددت عن شيء أنا فاعله ترددي عن نفس المؤمن يكره الموت وأنا أكره مساءته ‏

ولا يزال عبدي يتقرب إلي بالنوافل حتى أحبه، فإذا أحببته كنت سمعه الذي يسمع به وبصره

الذي يبصر به، ويده التي يبطش بها ورجله التي يمشي بها،

“As long as My servant approaches Me through voluntary worshipness, I will love him. If I love him…” which is what all of us want. We want Allah to love us. If Allah loves us, He will be your ears that you can hear with and He will give you power to hear the heavenly. You can hear everything.

A small example of that is if you bring a radio or a TV here and you open it, you can hear things from them, so why can’t our hearts hear these vibrations or magnetic waves? Why can the radio hear them and the TV see them and our hearts that Allah created cannot? Our hearts can, but there are veils. We have to take the veils away in order to hear what people cannot hear. This is not something that people can deny because it is a Hadith Qudsi that you will reach a level when you really love Allah and by loving Prophet (s), you will reach a level that you can hear and you can see; therefore, no one can deny it, no one in a Muslim community can say, “No, you cannot,” as Allah said in a Holy Hadith to Prophet (s) that you can!

Fa-aftaw bi-ghayri `ilm, “They will give you fatwa without knowledge.” When they give you fatwa without knowledge you have to be very careful how to take it in order not to fall into troubles. Fa dalloo wa adalloo, “They deviate and they make you to deviate,” so you have to be careful from whom you take your knowledge. Make sure of those from whom you take knowledge.

إذا أراد الله بعبد خيرا جعل له واعظا من قلبه

If Allah wants goodness for a servant of His, He will make for him an advisor in his heart. (Ahmad)

“When Allah (swt) is happy with His servant,” and we can check ourselves by this. When Allah is happy, “He will give His servant a guide from within his heart.” If he doesn’t find a right guide then Allah will give a guide from within his heart. So the mistake that people are making today is that people are not listening to their hearts. Because they don’t have guides they have to find someone, and who is the eligible one? It is one who can spread knowledge everywhere and who is that one that can spread knowledge after ignorance, that Prophet has mentioned in many Ahadeeth? He said: “How is your situation going to be in the Last Days when your Imam will be leading your prayers and Allah orders Sayyidina `Isa to come down?”

This means that the imam is Sayyidina Mahdi (a). He is ready to guide to Allah and to His Prophet (s) because too many signs of his appearance have come through. You can read about the Signs of the Last Days in Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim in any sihaah, that we are in the Last Days and Prophet (s) said in the Hadith, “How are you going to be when Imam Mahdi is in front and you are praying behind him?” Every mu’min and every Muslim will be behind him. It will be the best time! So if you want a guide from within your heart ask Allah (swt) to guide you to Mahdi (a), if you have no guide to take you there, because you need to be there to prepare yourself for what is coming.

So people cannot deny the appearance of Mahdi (a) as they cannot deny the appearance of the Antichrist. Prophet (s) was telling his Sahaabah (r) about Maseeh ad-Dajjal in his time and they were looking behind the date trees to see if he was going to come out, to be ready for him. He was not appearing in their time, he is appearing in our time. You have too many Maseeh ad-Dajjal today. You will have thirty before the big one comes. There will be thirty that people will follow before the real one will come and when the real one comes there will be a fight between believers and unbelievers, and who can differentiate believers and unbelievers? Only Allah, He knows who is a believer and who is not. Allah can make everyone a believer and then Maseeh ad-Dajjal will not find anyone to fight. As Allah promised Sayyidina `Isa (a) to kill him, Sayyidina `Isa (a) will have that pleasure to kill Maseeh ad-Dajjal.

So if Allah wants khayr bi `abdihi, if Allah wants goodness in the heart of His servant He will send you a guide. If you cannot reach Prophet (s), you can reach `ulama, scholars, until reaching Prophet (s). It has to be the time of Mahdi (a). He is ready according to the Signs of the Last Days. He is waiting for permission to come. There is too much evidence for that. We hope that we see him in our time, inshaa-Allah.

نعوذ بالله من منافق عليم اللسان جهول القلب

We seek refuge in Allah from the hypocrite who is eloquent in speech, but is ignorant in his heart.

(Tirmidhi)

He said Prophet (s) sought refuge in Allah from the munaafiq, hypocrite, whom people think is a good scholar but he is a hypocrite, very talented in speaking, but very ignorant in his heart. So we don’t want to be in that category, famous because of what we are doing and yet we are a hypocrites, those who say something with our tongue but don’t accept it within our hearts. An `alim must be trustworthy with Allah (swt), with Prophet (s) and with Awliya.

May Allah forgive us and we will mention this last Hadith. Prophet (s) said:

لن تر النار عين بكت من خشية الله

An eye that cried from fear of Allah will not see the Fire. (Ahmad, Nisaa’i, al-Haakim)

If one tear in your eye comes out from someone for from something that you are hearing--maybe a qasidah or Qur’an.--and if one tear comes from your nose it will be enough to clear you from Hellfires. So let your eyes to tear up as much as possible in order that one tear is enough that Allah will free you from Hellfire! And the easiest way to reach Paradise, yaa ayyuha ‘n-naas, is:

يا أيها الناس، أفشوا السلام، وأطعموا الطعام، وصلوا بالليل والناس نيام، تدخلوا الجنة بسلام

Spread (or say) the salaam, give food, and pray at night while people are asleep, then you will enter Paradise peacefully. (Tirmidhi)

Greet each other! When you see a Muslim, greet him; and offer food, invite him; and pray at night when people are sleeping, then you will enter Paradise with safety.

May Allah (swt) forgive us may Allah bless us.

[Du`a]

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