Introductory comment
Time is running out for the republican State of Pakistan. Only those who see with one eye will fail to recognize the evil reality that clients of Israel now control strategic decision-making both in Pakistan’s government as well as in the Armed Forces. The writing appears to be on the wall for Pakistan – unless Pakistani Muslims can rid themselves of those clients of Israel. The best way to do so appears to be through massive peaceful public demonstrations similar to those which brought down the USSR with narry a nuclear risk, rather than civil war which will automatically invite external military intervention that will eventually dismember Pakistan.
Scholars of Islam have a duty to prepare Muslims for destructive attacks that are soon to be launched which will target not only Pakistan but perhaps, Turkey and Iran as well. The situation is not entirely hopeless since at least the Iranian Armed Forces do not appear to be under the control of Israel’s clients. In fact Iran seems to have already succeeded in building a strategic alliance with Russia. It is interesting to note that an authentic Hadīth has prophesied an end-time Muslim alliance with Rūm (i.e., Byzantine Christianity that was based in Constantinople), and Russia is part of Rūm. The Saudi and Pakistani governments and Armed Forces on the other hand, are allied with the Anglo-American-Israeli alliance which does not form part of Rūm.
Those who control power in Britain, USA, and Israel, and who now have a strategic ally in India, are already waging unjust war on Islam and Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia and elsewhere, but most of all in the Holy Land (otherwise known as Palestine). Their ruthlessness is such that they would wage war even upon their own people if such were deemed to be necessary for achieving their messianic goal. The 9/11 terrorist attack on America which killed thousands of innocent people was an ominous example of what they are capable of doing. The recent US military occupation of Haiti in consequence of a massive earthquake for which the US Armed Forces seem to have been mysteriously prepared (right down to drills conducted on the very eve of the earthquake), displays for the umpteenth time the extent to which they would commit monstrously evil deeds in dogmatic pursuit of goals such as the overthrow of Venezuela’s courageous government. Earthquakes have now become their mysterious new weapon of war. Will Caracas and Islamabad soon be targeted with massive earthquakes? Or will a nuclear device be exploded in USA or a very prominent American assassinated, and Pakistani or Iranian Muslims be held responsible, so that causus bellum can be created?
Their messianic goal is to deliver to Israel the rule over the whole world so that a false Messiah can rule the world from Jerusalem with a fraudulent claim to be the true Messiah. That goal cannot be achieved so long as Pakistan possesses nuclear military power. Hence the most important attack that must now be anticipated is on Pakistan’s nuclear installations.
When Muslims had the freedom to choose their own rulers, the violation of the person of a single Muslim woman would have been sufficient to rouse the whole world of Islam to wage war in order to not only punish those guilty of such a despicable crime, but also to uphold the honor of women. But at a time when Pakistan’s political and military rulers are anointed by the enemies in London, Washington and Jerusalem, a Pakistani Dr Aafia Siddiqui could be subjected to barbaric utterly shameless violation of her body and freedom for years (in a manner unheard of in the entire history of the Ummah), and the clients of Israel who control power in Pakistan do absolutely nothing in response – other than to seek, shamelessly so, to cover-up the extent of the crime. Indeed Pakistan’s Armed Forces under its present pro-American/Israeli command will certainly brutally suppress any popular peaceful Aafia Siddiqui protests in Pakistan that threaten Israel’s Pakistani clients.
There are one-eyed Muslims who dare to suggest that Pakistan’s Armed Forces can somehow conquer India and the Holy Land! Then there are others, equally one-eyed, who would dare to wage bloody civil war in order to extricate Pakistan’s government and Armed Forces from the control of Israel’s clients. In the process of doing so they walk into a trap set for them by those who hunger for causus bellum with which to attack and dismember Pakistan.
In order to prepare Muslims for the coming days of unprecedented and unimaginable trials and tribulations, Islamic scholarship must acquire a clear and firm grasp of the reality of the modern age and of the ‘end of history’. It is lamentable that no less a scholar than the intellectual and spiritual father of Pakistan, Dr Muhammad Iqbal, appears to have been negatively influenced in his views on the subject by secular European scholarship and, as a consequence, failed to embrace authentic Ahadīth which combine with the Qur’ān to clearly establish an Islamic conception of the ‘end of history’. Iqbal’s failure to understand this subject has had enormous negative consequences for legions of Iqbalian Pakistani intelligentsia as well as for many others in the larger Muslim world. In some respects it is now impossible to repair the damage done and we may just have to accept to move on without them in our struggle to restore the authentic Islamic public order.
There are many obstacles which will have to be surmounted if contemporary Islamic scholarship is to explain the grand evil design with which history now appears to be ending. Not least of these are obstacles in respect of methodology for recognizing and understanding the Quranic guidance (i.e., Usūl al-Tafsīr) that explains the reality of the modern age, as well as for assessing the authenticity of Ahadīth and of visions in relation to the end times. Maulānā Dr Muhammad Fadlur Rahman Ansari’s greatest intellectual achievement appears to be his exposition of the methodology for a ‘probe-level’ study of the Qur’ān (see chapter two on ‘methodology’ in An Islamic View of Gog and Magog in the Modern World).
I have made a very humble effort (while using that methodology) to address that subject in books such as Jerusalem in the Qur’ān, the first three books in my Surah al-Kahf quartet (the fourth is now being written) and my booklet entitled The Gold Dinar and Silver Dirham – Islam and the Future of Money, as well as in lectures such as ‘Islam and the End of History’. Critics should note that events are already unfolding in the world confirming my interpretation and explanation of the Qur’ān and Ahadīth as they establish Islam’s conception of the end of history. Our analysis of Pakistan’s moment of truth promises to further confirm that explanation.
What methodology did Ibn Khaldūn and Iqbāl use with which to reject the Ahadīth concerning the advent of Imām a-Mahdi? The authenticity of these Ahadīth has not only been universally accepted all through our history, but they are also crucially important for recognizing (in Islam’s conception of the end of history) the fate which awaits western political secularism and its modern model of a state that spawned the States of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt, etc. The Ahadīth concerning the advent of Imām al-Mahdi are inseparably linked to the release of Gog and Magog into the world, the advent of Dajjāl the false Messiah, the return of Jesus the son of Mary (‘alaihi al-Salām), and the consequent restoration of both the Islamic Caliphate and Dār al-Islām. Iqbal’s rejection of these Ahadīth made him incapable of reading and understanding the reality of the world that had emerged before his very eyes.
Was the Prophet’s prophecy that “you will conquer Constantinople” fulfilled in 1453, or has he also prophesied an end-time conquest of that city that will result in its liberation from the present NATO (hence Anglo-American-Israeli) military control? It seems fairly clear that a Russian-Islamic alliance will inevitably have to challenge NATO control over Constantinople (now renamed Istanbul in order to divert attention from this prophecy) if the Russian navy is to gain access to the Mediterranean Sea. But Russia may have other objectives as well in mind, such as the restoration of Constantinople as the seat of Byzantine Christianity.
What is the authenticity of Ghazwah-e-Hind Ahadīth prophesying an end-time Muslim conquest of India? In my previous essay on Obama’s Afghan Surge I warned that the long-planned attack on Pakistan will soon occur. In A Muslim Response to the 9/11 Attack on America written in 2001 I suggested that if the enemies do not succeed in provoking civil war in Pakistan they will search for some other causus bellum. I have not made a study that would allow me to determine the authenticity of these Ghazwah-e-Hind Ahadīth, but it is already clear to me that there is a sinister plan at work, exploiting these Ahadīth, to create causus bellum; and that will be a very interesting subject of legal inquiry in The Hague or the UN Security Council if and when an attack to truncate Pakistan is launched and India seeks post facto justification for launching the attack.
Dreamy Pakistani Muslims who are now sleep-walking to their round-the-corner prophesied conquest of Hind must be awakened to reality. In Jerusalem in the Qur’an I have interpreted the Hadīth of Tamīm al-Dāri in such wise that I expect Israel to soon replace USA as the ruling State in the world, and that Israel will then rule the world overtly for ‘a day like a week’ (Israel is already ruling the world by virtue of the Zionist control of the US Government and Armed Forces). When that rule for a day like a week is accomplished, Dajjāl will then appear in person to proclaim himself the Messiah. His mission of impersonation of the true Messiah would then be completed. It is at that time (and not a moment before) that Imam al-Mahdi will emerge, Nabi ‘Isa (‘alaihi al-Salaam) will return, and a Muslim army coming out of Khorasan will liberate the Holy Land. That army has already begun its struggle and, Alhamdu lillah, has survived despite nine years of murderous attacks from an Anglo-American-Israeli alliance that has been (and still is) disgracefully and treasonously supported by the Pakistani Armed Forces.
My only other response to the present preoccupation with the Hadīth prophesying an alleged round-the-corner Muslim conquest of Hind is to suggest that those who see with two eyes and who also understand Islam’s conception of the end of history would recognize a skillfully contrived ISI-blessed round-the-corner diversion when they see one.
Finally, how do we respond to the news which has been widely spread that someone saw Prophet Muhammad (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) in a dream warning that Pakistan’s end was near – but that the recitation of Sūrah al-Shams of the Qur’ān can in some mysterious way, save Pakistan? To which Pakistan did the dream direct attention? Was it the ‘American’ republic of Pakistan whose political and military leaders have been shamelessly dancing for the longest while (and are still dancing to this day) to every fraudulent tune that came out of Washington? Was it the Pakistan which has consistently deceived the devoted Pakistani Muslim masses with its claim to be an Islamic Republic, while sinfully banning at Washington’s behest non-Pakistani Muslim students from studying Islam in Pakistan? (This writer, who is non-Pakistani, got his Islamic education at the Aleemiyah Institute of Islamic Studies in Karachi, Pakistan.) Or was it the other Pakistan which, since 1947, has remained but a distant dream in the hearts of the sincere followers of Prophet Muhammad (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) and will continue to remain a dream until Islamic scholarship succeeds in grasping the reality of the modern age and in responding to its challenges appropriately.
This essay asks: can the recitation of Surah al-Shams of the blessed Qur’ān, or the ISI-blessed passionate beating of Iqbalian drums, save that ‘American’ Republic of Pakistan from a fate that was long-scripted for it in London, Washington, Jerusalem and New Delhi? But most importantly of all, this essay asks whether the modern republican State as envisaged by Iqbal can ever be a substitute for the Islamic Caliphate (Khilāfah)?
I wrote the first text of this essay 12 years ago in 1998 when I left New York to reside for a few months in Lahore, Pakistan. Since then the essay was published several times with a previous title. I have now included in it an appendix to Jerusalem in the Qur’an as well as a brief essay on Islam and Constitutional Democracy.
I am grateful to Dr Burhan Ahmad Faruqi who taught me the Islamic philosophy of history at the Aleemiyah Institute of Islamic Studies in 1965-66. May Allah have mercy on his soul. Amīn! I am also grateful to Muhammad Alamgir in Sydney, my classmate in that fascinating class in the philosophy of history, who kindly assisted me in editing the present text of the essay.