Be careful with material which you read regarding the Day of Judgment, for the following reasons:
#1 Many people mix what they've heard from Christian traditions with what they've heard from Islamic sources.
#2 Some of the ahadeeth regarding the Day of Judgment are not authentic, and therefore have some doubt in them.
#3 Recently many Christians have begun writing fiction books about the End of Time.
#4 The Signs of the Day of Judgment are part of the future, which is considered part of the Unseen. We were only given a little knowledge of it. Beware of people who claim to have knowledge in addition to that which has been given to us by Allah and His Messenger.
Now, regarding the Beast, the Christians think that the Beast and the AntiChrist are the same thing. This is not true. You'll here them refer to the "mark of the beast" in reference to a mark which people will be required to have in order to buy and sell during the reign of the AntiChrist. They incorrectly refer to the AntiChrist as the Beast.
As far as Islamic sources regarding the coming of the Beast - they are mostly from the Qur'an and the ahadeeth.
Allah says, "And when the Word is fulfilled against them (the unjust), We will bring forth from the earth a Beast to face them: it will speak to them..." (Surat an-Naml 27:82)
The emergence of the Beast is considered one of the 10 major signs of the Day of Judgment. It will appear after the time of the Dajjal (AntiChrist), after the appearance of Jesus (peace be upon him), and after Ya'juj wal Ma'juj (Gog and Magog). The Prophet (peace be upon him) said that the Last Signs would follow each other so quickly in time that they would occur one after the other "like beads falling off of a necklace".
There is a hadeeth in Ibn Majah in which the Prophet (peace be upon him) takes a companion named Bareedah to a place outside of Makkah and says "The Beast will emerge from here." Bareedah said that the area he (peace be upon him) pointed to was a relatively small area.
When the Beast comes out of the ground, it will have with it the ring of Solomon (peace be upon him) and the staff/stick of Moses (peace be upon him). People will try to run from it, but they will be unable to escape, until it destroys the nose of every disbeliever and writes on their foreheads the word "kaafir". On the forehead of every believer, it will write the word "mu'min". From that point on, people will begin to address each other as "O Mu'min" or "O Kaafir". The Beast and the rising of the sun from the west will occur right next to each other in time. Allah knows best which one will come first.
This is what we know of the Beast. And Allah knows best.
One last point...when the Companions were asking the Prophet (peace be upon him) about the Hour, at one point he put his hand on the head of a young boy and said, "If this young boy reaches old age, your Hour will have already come." This is very important, because many of us, myself included, get wrapped up in the predictions of the future and we forget to concern ourselves with what we need to do for our own station with Allah. We need to establish the salah, do what's right, forbid what's wrong, avoid wasting time, treat our parents with kindness, etc.
#1 They may have said these things in the past, and have since repented.
#2 Though the leadership and founders of Hizb-ut-Tahrir may have said or written such things, the general members of the group may not believe in those things.
#3 It is also possible that such things were never said. Groups such as Hizb-ut-Tahrir and Tanzeem-i-Islami who call for khilafah earn themselves a lot of enemies. And their enemies could put out information which is false, just to stifle their organizations, etc.
My only point in saying these things to you, is that there is a principle in Islam called "husn-ul-dhan" which means "assuming the best". We should assume the best in our Brothers and Sisters.
If you were to see me walking down the street with a woman in a skirt, what would be your first assumption? "Astaghfirullah Brother! Aren't you married?! Don't you know the ettiquettes of dealing with the opposite sex?!" This is the way we Muslims are nowadays. But the fact is, we are far from the way of the Companions and the Salaf. We should assume the best. Make excuses for our Brothers and Sisters. Maybe that woman is my mother and I'm giving her da'wah. Maybe it is my sister, or aunt. Maybe it is a woman whose husband asked me to talk to her about Islam. Maybe it is a congresswoman and I am talking to her about the affairs of local Muslims. Etc, etc.
When Imam Ash-Shafi'i taught his students he required them to make at least 25 excuses before making a judgment against someone. Say for example, someone was known to frequent bars. When his case would be brought before one of these students, they would have to come up with 25 possibilities making it okay for that Brother to frequent bars. Only then could they come to a decision. (Maybe he goes there to try to tell the owner to stop selling alcohol. Maybe he is going in to make sure none of his Muslim Brothers are in there, so he can offer them help, etc.)
Husn-ul-dhan. Now, at the same time though, we must protect ourselves. Especially you and I, being fairly new to Islam (for me 11 years). So, when we learn of others having gone astray, we should be careful about their writings, books, lectures, etc. Perhaps, we should even avoid them to some degree. But we should not jump on the bandwagon and begin slandering them. If you know of someone getting involved in some form of deviancy, counsel them on it, talk them, discuss things, and bring your proofs - but do not slander or backbite them. This only leads to division.
Just as an aside, I too, was intrigued by Hizb-ut-Tahrir and their webpages (khilafah.com, ramadan.com), but once I learned about some of them disbelieving in the trials of the grave, I pretty much read their works with a grain of salt. I still read them, but I take the good, leave the bad, and always look for the proofs. This goes for any website, on any subject.
Of course, I recognize the history of secret societies, pagan traditions, and the likes of freemasonry, Illuminati, and the Templar Knights as extensions of Egyptian mythology and some teachings of Babylonian Talmudic magic. I recognize the "all-seeing eye" and its link to contemporary movements and even the analogy/metaphor which can be extended to Al-Masih Ad-Dajjal. I acknowledge this history and its present and future realities. These concepts are not new, as you said, nor are they restricted to the past - they are part of the present reality - the Dajjal System, the New World Order, etc.
However, this does not exclude the existence of the human being, ad-Dajjal. Nor does it mean that the ahadeeth which refer to ad-Dajjal refer to this system.
It is very clear from numerous ahadeeth that the Dajjal is a human. Now, personally, I have been criticized in some circles for mentioning the system which will precede his arrival. I do believe that a system is/will be in place which will condition the general population to accept this human being when he arrives.
Your email is actually the first time someone has offered criticism in the other direction - namely, saying that the Dajjal IS the system and not a human being. My trouble with your criticism is that it has attached the news of a "comic book character" with the words of the Prophet (may peace and blessings be upon him). Though the Dajjal is not mentioned in the Qur'an, hundreds of authentic ahadeeth have been narrated which speak of his attributes. If you have trouble with the manner in which these traditions were translated, that's fine. But, I would caution you against attributing nonsense to the Prophet (peace be upon him). As far as the actual ahadeeth related regarding Dajjal, many of them include the return of Jesus (may peace and blessings be upon him). Do you also reject the stories of Jesus as fairytales and comic book nonsense?
As far as "riding a hopping ass", I assume you are alluding to the narrations which say that the Dajjal will ride on a mule/donkey of iron and hop between the horizons/clouds. How might you explain an airplane to a Bedouin from the 600s? Or howabout a handheld device, or a pager, or a personal computer, or a car, or a security system for your home? We must not take the ahadeeth narrated to us out of their socio-cultural contexts. Personally, I think that calling an airplane a beast which travels between the clouds a pretty good description considering to whom it was being delivered.
I appreciate your criticism nonetheless, and I would appreciate it if you would offer more if you happen to come acroos any material on my pages which you find problematic. Also, please, keep in mind that I did not write everything on my pages. For example, I did not write the page entitled "The Dajjal is NOT a System". That was an external link. If you'd like to see what I wrote you can go to the bottom and check out the link entitled "Articles by Abu Aasiya".
While you might reject the hadeeth, you must realize there is contradiction in doing so... Prayer for example, how do you know how to pray? There are some ayaat in the Qur'an which mention that bowing, prostration, and standing are portions of the prayer, but nowhere in the Qur'an does it give the complete manner of prayer as we do it today. So the fact is, you could not pray as directed by the Prophet (peace be upon him), were it not for the ahadeeth. Nor would we know how to correctly complete the wudu, nor to wash a dead body, nor to call the adhaan or iqamah, nor to perform the acts of the hajj. We get this information from ahadeeth.
As for their accuracy, of course there are some fabrications, some doubtful narrations, etc. But these are known and ranked according to authenticity. The science surrounding the collection and ranking of ahadeeth has a much deeper method than those currently employed by modern scientific investigation. And the collection of hadeeth was never forbidden by the Prophet (peace be upon him) and if you believe this to be so, I have to ask for the proof. What was forbidden was the same person who wrote down the Qur'an to write down the ahadeeth with it (so that no one would think that the hadeeth was a portion of the Qur'an). And even if it were forbidden by the Prophet (peace be upon him), you would have to go to a hadeeth to find that information, as it is not found in the Qur'an.
You said: "But for the fighters of evil to focus their attention and war against a single Dajjal, the person, would be a misguided effort at this present time because the Dajjal system is visible, however, the one eyed, two horned, hairy skinned, and curly haired comic book character is not."
I agree that we mustn't focus on the Dajjal alone. Actually, this is the very reason I started DajjalSystem.com, so as to call people to oppose the system which is being established which will condition us to accept the Dajjal when he arrives. We are commanded to do what is right and to forbid what is wrong. In forbidding what is wrong, we would have to oppose this system and its oppressive elements.
As far as it being a "misguided effort" to warn people about the Dajjal, I wholeheartedly disagree. There is a hadeeth in which the Prophet (peace be upon him) says that every Messenger (peace be upon all of them) warned his people of the Dajjal. He then goes on to say, "And I will tell you something that none of the other Messengers told their people. The Dajjal is one-eyed and your Lord is not one-eyed." So, it could not be a "misguided effort" if all of the Prophets warned their people about him.
Another thing that we, as Muslims, should NOT do, is to speak without knowledge. Numerous Qur'anic ayaat tell us never to speak without knowledge. Here's an example: Let's say that the Prophet (peace be upon him) did say that the Dajjal was a person. If he did, and then you made a comment about the Dajjal such as "the one eyed, hairy skinned, and curly haired comic book character", then you would be mocking the Prophet's (peace be upon him) words. So, if you do not believe the Dajjal to be a person, then simply say that you do not know if he is a person or not, rather than mocking the concept. That would be better.
And before I end, let me emphasize the importance of ahadeeth. We could not perform salah, make wudu, perform the rites of hajj, clean ourselves in the bathroom, know the details of the seerah/biography of the Prophet (peace be upon him), say the adhaan, prescribe appropriate punishments for crimes, etc if we did not rely on ahadeeth.
Allah knows best.
I tried looking online for rebuttals but i haven't come across any real in depth ones. We both know that Allah is never wrong; So I am goin to try to do some more research and see what i can find to refute that person's claims, inshallah.
Thanks for your time,
Wa' alaikum' salam
For starters I must say that I am not a scholar, but here are some insights until you are able to ask someone more knowledgeable, insha'Allah...
As you said, Allah speaks the Truth. Period. If there is an apparent discrepancy with logic or science or history, the apparent discrepancy is most often the result of an oversight, a bias, or a lack of understanding on the part of the questioner. A good example is when I discovered that a woman receives less inheritance than a man. (I mention this in detail in "My Journey to Islam"). Anyway, the point is that I made a judgement without knowing all of the facts. At the time, I did not know that as part of Islam's economic structure, men have more financial responsibility. Anyway, to answer your question...
From the very beginning, the ayah that is quoted (16:66) is somewhat misquoted. I don't know if you know Arabic or not, but the ayah, does not really say "agreeable to those who drink it." In referring to "those who drink it" Allah refers to them as "ash-shaaribeen". This actually means "those who drink it regularly or repeatedly." To illustrate the subtle difference, if I were to lie, it would be said of me that "he lied." But if I were to lie on a regular basis, it would be said of me "he is a liar." One may have done an act, but is not necessarily considered a doer of the act until he begins to do it regularly or repeatedly. Ash-shaaribeen are people who drink it regularly. And Allah knows best.
This may even support this guy's premise when he quotes the article entitled "When Milk Makes You Sick". It says, "Nigeria is a case that demonstrates the significance of this lifestyle on human evolution. In the southern region, where conditions are not favorable for cattle, milk is not part of the diet. People there develop lactose intolerance. In contrast, a nomadic tribe that has been raising milk cattle for thousands of years remain lactose tolerant." The people who do not drink milk regularly are lactose intolerant. The people who raise cattle can likely be considered ash-shaaribeen. Again, Allah knows best.
One of the articles ("White Poison: The Horrors of Milk") quoted is blatantly incorrect. It says, "milk consumption is the number one cause of iron-deficiency anemia in infants today according to the American Association of Pediatrics." This is not true. Milk is not causal. It does not cause iron-deficiency anemia. Excess consumption does. Infants and children who drink it regularly are prone to iron-deficiency anemia because milk is taking the place of other things in their diet which would supply the needed iron. In other words, the kids are having too much milk.
That same article ("White Poison: The Horrors of Milk") says "Most of milk's much-vaunted protein is contained in casein which is also a raw material for commercial glue. Undigested, it simply sticks to the intestinal walls and blocks nutrient absorption." Well guess what...all mammals, including humans, make casein in their milk. Humans do have less casein however. (Proof that it is found in humans is in another article he quoted, "Human Milk and Lactation".)
Another thing is that I'm pretty sure, not 100%, but I think lactose intolerance is a fairly new diagnosis. This will need some looking into. But there are a whole host of "diseases" which are phenomena of the modern era, such as anorexia nervosa, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, premenstrual dysphoric syndrome, postpartum depression, carpal tunnel syndrome, and lactose intolerance. You'll need to check this out though, I'm not too sure. If it is new, it may have to do with the manner in which farm animals are treated these days. It may also have to do with the manner in which foods are produced nowadays. Ingredients from here, ingredients from there. This extract, that oil, etc. Foods are no longer simple.
The conclusion section of the webpage makes major assumptions: "Conclusion: in stead of finding any reliability in the myth that (cattle's) milk is good for ALL people at ALL times, as the author of the Quran would like us to believe, the findings of daily life and modern science prove exactly the opposite" The Qur'an never says "ALL people at ALL times". And he says that the articles he has cited are proof that genetic evolution is at work - which is fine, but he assumes that we Muslims have an objection to evolution, per se. We say that it is Allah who guides and changes creation as He wills, not chance.
The author asks a rheotrical question: "Surely if Allah had known this despicable modern practise of feeding animal remains (including those of pigs) to cows would happen in the future, He wouldn't have given the Eternal advise to drink ('cattle's) milk? Or is this another 'test' from the Allmighty?" This comment comes from a lack of a very basic principles in Islam...that #1 Allah desires ease for us. And #2 that for things which we consume to go from being halaal to haraam, that which is added to them (to make them haraam) must be enough to change the color and/or smell. If cows eat pig bones, their milk does not smell of pig. Allah knows best, it is best for us to avoid it if we know the source, but often we do not. And actually, the horrendous treatment of animals these days should not cause us to ask if Allah knew that this would happen, but rather it should cause us to work harder to establish Islam, as through it, animals will be treated ethically and with respect.
As far as the concept of being tested, this author is unaware, that his own insights and biases are serving as a test for him. And he is failing. I pray that Allah guides him. Ameen.
Again, please run this stuff by a scholar. If I have said anything correct it is from Allah. If I have said anything incorrect, then it is from me and I ask the forgiveness of Allah and of you. And may Allah protect us from the evil which is within ourselves. Ameen.
