Islamic eschatology

COVID-19 is a global pandemic (Jaihah) that brings hardships (Haraj). This has affected all aspects of our life. The United Nations Development Programme reported that uncertainties due to this global pandemic are manifold. Under a 'High Damage' scenario, the world could see a staggering 251 million people driven into extreme poverty by the pandemic, bringing the total number to one billion by 2030. The Singapore government had made swift and comprehensive response by forming multi-ministry task force and galvanise various organisations, at all levels, including faith-based institutions to manage and address the multiple challenges in hands. This paper highlight the 3Rs approach adopted by the government through their policies, measures and actions on various aspects of sustainability including climate and social changes and how the rest of the stakeholders come together for greater impact, with specific focus on the response from the Muslim community.

The book Apocalypse of Empire is a responsible effort in the quest for a deeper understanding of early Islam within the continuum of the history of religions. Students of Jewish, Christian and Islamic history will appreciate how this remarkable study illuminates the complex religious-political-social phenomenon that is apocalypticism as it percolates through time, symbiotically assimilating and tinging the times in which the apocalypticists live.

End Times dream interpretation concluding as covering the topic of the battle between Christ & the Anti-Christ.

The focus of the piece is the art of Dream Interpretation, the application of linguistics, some original Arabic translation & emphasis on Psychology; in short, the art of linguistic symbolism

I do hold classical licenses (Ijaaza) in both translating Arabic words & Dream Interpretation. Thanks to God, I was 1st able to interpret dreams at the age of 13. I received a classical license from my teacher, when I was 14, as he's a senior scholar & a famous Dream Interpreter & confirmed I'd be able to interpret dreams in the future. I also obtained a 2nd classical license, around 2012, which is traced back to a senior scholar in Africa.

The dream interpretation was done when I was much younger, but uploaded in 2016. I'd add that dream interpretation is an open-ended field. It is usually impossible to know if an Interpretation is correct.

Though the dream interpretation accords with the specific End Times prophecies in both el-Islaam & Christianity,

As there's no established scientific method of knowing a Dream Interpretation is real, this is ultimately all in good faith...

and God knows best

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My 1st Legal Precedent
The battle to protect whatever light is left in the world,, is frustrated no more than by large multinational corporations, whose interest it's in that people stay divided upon lines of race or religion, or by corrupt leadership. To progress on from my lexical adventures above, view My 1st Legal Precedent, as a sample of what someone with next to Formal Education, in the face of extra-judicial effort, can do with faith in God

https://Academia.edu/43387575/An_Axe_and_Affray_Trick_or_Treating_w_Haringey_All_Cos_Rory_Hall_Dont_Like_to_Pay_1_50_for_a_Pay_and_Display_Op_005_and_Op_407

The objective of this study is to present the views on death and the hereafter as described by four manuscripts of the medieval collection of Islamic orally transmitted stories, Kitāb ‘Ağā’ib al-Malakūt, compiled by al-Kisā’ī. An attempt has been made to take selected pieces of information gained from its chapters on this topic and review them through reference to interpretations of the same scenes and notions in texts that constitute the basis of Islamic doctrine (‘aqīda), such as Quranic exegeses, ḥadīṯs and their exegeses, as well as a number of books focusing on fatwas, Islamic law, history, morals etc. The author has striven to elucidate and comment on the level of agreement (or otherwise) that exists between the images presented in the collection and the data acknowledged or even prescribed by the Islamic authorities as fundamental tenets of belief.

First published here:
https://megalommatis.wordpress.com/pergamon-turkey-the-antichrist-the-protestants-and-a-false-quotation-of-my-articles-about-the-kemalist-islamist-divide/

In the period 2004-2014, I published extensively against the rise of Islamists in Turkey, denouncing the developments as a colonial orchestration. In 2016, I denounced the Brussels Terror Attacks as result of the colonial schemes carried out over the past 250 years across the Islamic World, adding that the rise of Ignorance and Barbarism was a slow historical process within the Islamic World itself. This is in fact what people call the "collapse of the Islamic Civilization"; simply colonial forces prevent average people worldwide from knowing that there were already Islamic terrorists in 1580 in Istanbul.

The reasons for this attitude from the part of the colonial powers are obvious: the series of obscurantist, barbarian, ignorant, uneducated, uncultured and heretic theologians, who are responsible for the collapse of the Islamic Civilization (i.e. Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Ahmad ibn Taimiyya, and Muhammad ibn Abdelwahhab), is a priceless tool at the hands of the colonial Western powers.

By aptly and subtly pushing local, low-level, ignorant and uneducated Muslim theologians to stick to the aforementioned heretic and anti-Islamic theological systems, the colonial Western powers ensure the permanent incapacity of the Modern Muslims for self-criticism, identity-recovery, Islamic re-education, Islamic science-recovery (which automatically implies full rejection of the entire modern Western sciences from A to Z), cultural emancipation and spiritual emancipation.

In other words, by so doing the colonial Western powers make sure that today's monstrous, pseudo-Muslim sheikhs will permanently fail to fathom a) their human, illustrious past, b) the fallacy of the modern Western sciences, and c) the sophisticated nature of the Western scheming evilness.

It goes without saying that it is critically important for the evil schemers of the Western universities, ateliers and laboratories to corroborate the fallacious version of today's Islamists' Islamic History. The reasons are easy to grasp; by so doing, they keep today's ignorant Muslims far for their authentic historical past and at the same time they prevent anyone unrelated to Islam from truly understanding the magnificent nature of the true, but today mainly unknown, Islamic Civilization.

While this evil, colonial, Orientalist project has taken place over the past two - three centuries, a great number of heretic, anti-Christian, Western theologians (i.e. Protestants) have diffused a nauseating version of fake Christian Eschatology and perverse, counterfeit Messianism. Perfidious in their assertion that the Antichrist 'is' to be identified with Mahdi al Montazar (the Islamic representation of Messiah), these monstrous Protestant forgers do not hesitate to develop and spread racist theories, bogus-identifications of the location of the Antichrist's capital, nonsensical denigrations of historical monuments, and villainous distortions of other authors' and historians' articles.

Baha’i Reflections on the “Seal of the Prophets” (Three Blogs).*
* Note: These are personal reflections — not academic discourses.

1.  Unsealing the “Seal of the Prophets” • Christopher Buck • Oct 1, 2013 • https://bahaiteachings.org/unsealing-the-seal-of-the-prophets

2.  The Seal of the Prophets: Meeting God on the Last Day • Christopher Buck • Feb 12, 2016 • https://bahaiteachings.org/seal-of-the-prophets-meeting-god-on-the-last-day

3.  Muhammad: the Last Prophet? • Christopher Buck • May 15, 2017 • https://bahaiteachings.org/last-prophet-muhammad

_____________

Even as the Lord of being hath in His unerring Book [the Qur'an], after speaking of the "Seal" in His exalted utterance: "Muhammad is the Apostle of God and the Seal of the Prophets" [Qur'an 33:40], hath revealed unto all people the promise of "attainment unto the divine Presence." [Qur'an 33:44] … Nothing more exalted or more explicit than "attainment unto the divine Presence" hath been revealed in the Qur'an. … And yet, through the mystery of the former verse [Qur'an 33:40], they have turned away from the grace promised by the latter [Qur'an 33:44], despite the fact that "attainment unto the divine Presence" in the "Day of Resurrection" is explicitly stated in the Book. [Baha'u'llah, The Book of Certitude, Paragraphs 181–182.]

This quote changed my life, challenged my thinking, gave me insight. Here's how:

Maasooniyaddu markii ay  adeegsatay Sahyooniyadda si ay u qabsadaan Falastiin waxa ay fulinayeen riyo weyn oo ka mid ah riyooyinkooda,  waa in Haykalka Saleebaan laga dhiso meesha uu ku yaallo masaajidka al-Aqsa. Sababta Haykalka loo dhisayana waxa ka danbeeya ballanqaad ku qoran Tawraad. Eebbe waxa uu Yuhuudda u ballanqaaday in uu Aakhiru Sabaanka soo diri doono nin tafiirtooda ka mid ah, kaas oo ka soo ururin doona filiqsanaantooda, oo dunida xukumi doona isaga oo saldhiggiisu uu yahay dhulka barakaysan ee Falastiin. Inkasta oo uu Eebbe u rumeeyay ballanqaadkaas – oo uu u soo direy nebi Ciise – haddana waa ay beeniyeen. Markii ay arkeen isaga oo laanqeyrta ku dhimanaya, waxa ay yaqiinsadeen in aanu kani ahayn Masiixii samatabixiyaha ahaa ee loo yaboohay. Yuhuudda dunidu maanta waxa ay sugayaan in  uu Eebbe u soo diro ninkaa samatabiciyaha ah ee aan Ciise ahayn ee ah mid kale. Taasi waxa ay ka dhigan tahay in ay wax uun iska sugayaan.

Kuwani – Maasooniyiinta iyo Sahyuuniyaddu,  sida aan kuu sheegay Ilaahay ma aqoonsana, mana garanayaan Masiixa samatabixiyaha ah. Ilaaha ay caabudaan waa dabsidaha shaydaanka ah ee Luusifar. Waxa ay u samaynayaan waxa ay sameeyeen oo dhan si uu u soo dego Masiixa Luusifar; inanka Ibliis; Dajaal Cawar. Kaas oo dunida oo dhan  ka maamuli doona dhulka barakaysan ee Falastiin, gaar ahaanna magaalada Quddus

(from the Introduction)
Being the final product of his doctoral studies, Paul Wilkinson’s book, For Zion’s Sake, intends to reveal how John Nelson Darby’s detractors have distorted Christian Zionism while directly challenging academics who believe dispensationalism has little theological or historical value.  The purpose of this review is not to critique dispensationalism directly but to summarize and evaluate Wilkinson’s research and conclusions. In the end, Wilkinson’s ideological agenda and prejudicial research presents a thoroughly one-sided and indefensible case for Christian Zionism. In addition to his shameful demonization tactics against anyone who disagrees, Wilkinson’s research capabilities demonstrate a deliberate bias with little intention of conducting a fair and honest assessment of the subject. His style of writing amounts to nothing more than inflammatory claptrap, engaging in a puerile smear campaign against nondispensationalists that panders to the rhetoric of pseudo-intellectual prophecy pundits and apocalyptic hysteria. His research and conclusions are elementary at best, if not outright disgraceful.

“Seal of the Prophets” (Q. 33:40) & “Divine Presence” (Q. 33:44): Why These Two Key Verses Should Be Read Together

Muḥammad is not the father of any one of your men, but the Messenger of God, and the Seal of the Prophets; God has knowledge of everything.

– Qur’an 33:40 (tr. Arberry).

On the day when they will be brought into the presence of their Lord, their greeting to each other will be, “Peace be with you.” God has prepared an honorable reward for them.

– Qur’an 33:44 (tr. Muḥammad Sarwar).

Presented live, via Zoom, on June 26, 2022.

Der Beitrag widmet sich prinzipiellen Aussagen im Koran zu den „letzten
Dingen“, d. h. den Fragen nach der Endlichkeit des menschlichen Lebens und der diesseitigen Welt sowie der Hoffnung auf Vollendung des Individuums und der gesamten Schöpfung in einer zukünftigen,  jenseitigen Welt. Besonders augenfällig sind hierbei die ausdrucksstarken sprachlichen Bilder, die die Offenbarungsschrift der Muslime für diese eschatologischen Vorstellungen verwendet.

Medieval Talmudic legends and Qur’anic commentary explain that Asmodeus (a demon) usurped the throne of King Solomon and led the world astray as a fraudulent son of David. Contemporary Jews and Muslims dismiss these events as mere folklore, having little relevance to the time at hand. On the contrary, this meticulous etymological-based investigation of Jewish, Christian, Islamic and Freemasonic texts, details several of Asmodeus' many incarnations throughout history. The results of which provide compelling, multi-faceted evidence of a template from which Asmodeus will reemerge as the apocalyptic False Messiah.

The Muslim conquest of Constantinople was seen in various apocalyptic traditions as one of the portents of the end. An Ottoman mystic, Ahmed Bî-cân, gave voice to these apocalyptic fears and expectations soon after the Ottoman conquest in 1453 CE. His apocalyptic narrative, expressed in the Turkish vernacular, placed the Ottoman enterprise within the final tribulations and hailed the sultan, Mehmed II, as an apocalyptic warrior. This endorsement heralded the emergence of a new imperial ideology in the sixteenth century: Ottoman history became an important component of universal history, while Ottoman sultans were attributed cosmic responsibilities and messianic abilities.

Abstract: This article discusses eventual Qurʾānic allusions to Zoroastrian texts by using the example of zamharīr (Q 76:13). In the early tafsīr and ḥadīth-literature the term is most commonly understood as a piercing cold, which has frequently been interpreted as a punishment in hell. This idea, it is argued, has significant parallels to the concept of cold as a punishment in hell or to the absence of cold as a characteristic of paradise in the Avestan and Middle-Persian literature. In addition, Christian and Jewish texts that emphasize a similar idea and have not been discussed in research so far are brought into consideration. The article thus aims to contribute to the inclusion of Zoroastrian texts in locating the genesis of the Qurʾān – or early Islamic exegesis – in the “epistemic space ” of late antiquity.

Keywords: Qurʾān, Eschatology, Zoroastrianism, zamharīr

Updated version posted on June 1, 2024.

Posted with permission of author and publisher, Kalimát Press. Thesis topic originally recommended by Todd Lawson. Scanned by Duane Troxel. Proofread by Jonah Winters and Lynn Jaluvka, with additional proofing by Bobbi Lyons. Formatted for the web by Jonah Winters. Corrections by Shahrokh Monjazeb. Critically read, from cover-to-cover, with recommendations, including several emendations, by Sohrab Kourosh. Please support this online re-printing by ordering a copy of the book.

See also the following published, academic reviews of Symbol & Secret:

•  Moojan Momen, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (Third Series) 7.2 (July 1997): 290–91. “Christopher Buck’s book represents the first book-length attempt in the English language to analyse one of the major works of Bahā’u’llāh. … One main theme that Buck explores in this book is the question of whether the text of the Īqān contains hints by Bahā’u’llāh of his future claim. Some have expressed doubt as to whether any such hints exist but Buck demonstrates, conclusively I think, that there are many covert and even overt indications of what he calls ‘Bahā’u’llāh’s messianic secret’. … Buck has created a good starting point for what one would anticipate will be a new genre: critical analyses of the writings of Bahā’u’llāh.”

•  Frank Lewis, Baha’i Studies Review 6 (1996): 76–91 [16-page extended review]. “Buck’s analysis of Bahaullah’s [sic: Baha’u’llah’s] appeal to Koran 33:44 promising attainment to the divine Presence on the Day of Resurrection (itself allegorically interpreted by Bahaullah as the advent day of a new prophet), as a counter-argument to the nearby verse (33:40) about the ‘Seal of the Prophets’ is simply brilliant.” … “Symbol and Secret is a ground-breaking study, setting a standard for and describing the agenda of the exegesis of Bahai texts for some time to come.”

•  John Hatcher, Middle East Studies Association (MESA) Bulletin 30.1 (July 1996): 70–71. “Buck offers insightful analysis of Bahā’u’llāh’s exegetical technique.”

•  Jonah Winters, Iranian Studies 32.1 (Winter 1999): 141–145. “Buck has undertaken a project that is to be commended on many fronts. This study is daring in that it is the first extended analysis of the Islamic context and content of Baha’ullah’s thought and writings. The rigor with which Buck has treated his topics is a model for anyone engaging in textual scholarship: his research is broad, his attention to detail thorough, and his coverage of the topics exhaustive. Finally, many of his conclusions, the light he throws on the Íqán and its content, and in places even his methods are frankly brilliant.” DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00210869908701948.

•  Jonah Winters, Journal of Bahá’í Studies 9.3 (September 1999): 69–75. “Christopher Buck’s Symbol and Secret: Qur’an Commentary in Bahá’u’lláh’s Kitáb-i Íqán (Studies in the Bábí and Bahá’í Religions, volume 7) can be seen as a work of genius: it is ground-breaking—daring, innovative, and even brilliant. … As Symbol and Secret is the first work written in English to examine Bahá’í scripture and hermeneutics in any analytical depth, Buck’s work can without exaggeration be declared seminal.

[…] First, this study is daring in that it is the first extended analysis of the Islamic context and content of Bahá’u’lláh’s thought and writings. Buck’s tangential self-defense on pages 260–261 indicates that he, too, is well aware of the daringness of the topic and of his academic approach to it. Second, the rigour with which Buck has treated his topics is a model for anyone engaging in textual scholarship: his research is broad, his attention to detail thorough, and his coverage of the topics exhaustive. Finally, many of his conclusions, the light he throws on the Íqán and its content, and in places even his methods are frankly brilliant.” DOI: https://doi.org/10.31581/jbs-9.3(1999).

Medieval Talmudic legends and Qur’anic commentary explain that Asmodeus (a demon) usurped the throne of King Solomon and led the world astray as a fraudulent son of David. Contemporary Jews and Muslims dismiss these events as mere folklore, having little relevance to the time at hand. On the contrary, this meticulous etymological-based investigation of Jewish, Christian, Islamic and Freemasonic texts, details several of Asmodeus' many incarnations throughout history. The results of which provide compelling, multi-faceted evidence of a template from which Asmodeus will reemerge as the apocalyptic False Messiah.

This is a review and examination of the Shukr’l-Waahib al-Mufeeda’l-Mawaahib (Showing Gratitude to the Benefactor for the Divine Overflowing Given to Those He Favors) by one of Black Africa’s leading mystics, Shaykh Abd’l-Qaadir ibn Mustafa (d. 1864 C.E.) In this work I attempt to explain the etymology of the exoteric and esoteric terms utilized by Shaykh Dan Tafa in his poem Shukr'l-Waahib. My commentary is based upon what I recieved from several of the shuyuukh with whom I read this text, Shaykh Muhammad Bello ibn Abdullahi, Shaykh Abu Bakr Basambu, Shaykh Umar Ahmad Zaruuk and Shaykh Bello Abd'r-Raaziq. From the time that I first recieved this poem in May of 1986 from one of the author's descendents, Shaykh Bello ibn Abd'r-Raaziq ibn Uthman ibn Abd'l-Qaadir ibn Mustafa, it was my intention of writing about it. It was not until arriving in China safely that I was able to begin this work. This was prompted by a study of three fundamental works by Wang Tai Yu, the foremost Muslim mystic and scholar of China, which I found in the library of Tsingwa University in Beijing, China. There was a clear parrallel between the mystical ideas of Imam Wang Tai Yu and Shaykh Dan Tafa which I found amazing especially in the light of the new Sino-African accord emerging at the time. It was on my repatriation to Africa that I was able to complete this study within the social environment from which it was originally produced.

Shaykh Muhammad Shareef bin Farid
Zawiyya Shehu Uthman ibn Fuduye`
Yirimadio, Bamako, the Republic of Mali

This is my book about a Biblical Who's Who that will change the way we look at Eschatology (the study of End Times) today.  It is very important to separate the terms that YAHWEH stated in the Old Testament (Covenant) and how they relate to the New Testament (Covenant).

The Qur’an portrays to its reader striking and vivid images of al-sā’ah (the Hour), but the portents and signs of al-sā’ah are discussed in detail in the aḥādīth (traditions of the Prophet) understood to be legitimate Islamic doctrine.  The significance and centrality of eschatology in Islam and knowing the portents to al-sā’ah is evident from the ḥadīth of Jibrīl – as it is famously known.  In this authentic ḥadīth, angel Jibrīl appears in human form to teach the early Muslims the ‘fundamentals’ of Islam: and amongst central notions of Islam; shahādah (to testify faith); ṣalāh (prayer); zakāh (charity); ṣawm (fasting); ḥajj (pilgrimage to the Muslim Holy land) and iḥsān : the question of the Last Day and its portents (signs) comes to occupy the latter part of the ḥadīth...

This long-awaited volume is dedicated to Stanislav Mikhailovich Prozorov, a prominent Russian Islamologist, and one of the founders of the Leningrad/St. Petersburg school of Islamic studies. Few, if any, researchers in Russia can equal Prozorov’s expertise in the study of classical Islam. The catalogue of his published works includes translations of important Islamic treatises, critical editions of Arabic texts, facsimile editions of sources, ground-breaking monographs, and didactic works on Islam, all of which are unrivalled in Russia.

The two encyclopaedic dictionaries of Islam prepared and published by Prozorov deserve particular attention. The first, entitled Islam: An Encyclopedic Dictionary, was published in Moscow in 1991, and constituted an important milestone in the history of Islamic studies in Russian. The second, Islam in the Territory of the Former Russian Empire, currently consists of five volumes and has been reprinted twice. This title, work on which is still ongoing, brought together Russian and foreign orientalists, resulting in an edition which contains unique material.

Stanislav Prozorov continued to develop the scholarly traditions of the St. Petersburg school of Russian Oriental Studies, established by A.E. Schmidt, V.V. Barthold, I.Y. Krachkovsky, E.A. Belyaev and I.P. Petrushevsky among others. The methods of this school are based on the study of original sources and classical texts, using specific research methods and techniques developed within the framework of the school. As noted in one of the articles in this Festschrift, Stanislav Prozorov managed to fulfill the dream of A.E. Schmidt by establishing an independent academic school of classical Islamic Studies in St. Petersburg, and so was central to the development of these disciplines.

After the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, it became clear that the Soviet Union with its extensive Muslim population badly needed an objective and comprehensive knowledge of Islam. By the time Soviet officials became aware of this state of affairs, Stanislav Prozorov had already been working in the field of classical Islamic Studies for two decades, despite the ideological restrictions on, and state aversion to, religious studies at that time.

The uncompromising attitude of Stanislav Prozorov to Islamic studies as a serious subject of study stemmed from an approach which required rigorous objectivity and so deserves the highest respect and admiration. In general, his highly principled attitude towards scholarship is one of the most remarkable traits of our colleague and one which he fully demonstrated in his capacity as Deputy Director of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts (until his resignation in 2015).

Nowadays, when Islam is at the centre of intense public scrutiny, an unbiased and objective study which does not accept either fanatical proselytism or narrow-minded Islamophobia is of overarching importance. Stanislav Prozorov’s rigorous methodological approach bases itself on the most accurate transmission of reliable knowledge about Islam as a comprehensive religion and philosophical worldview. Prozorov has not shied away from any uncomfortable facts and has striven to counter any belittling of the significant role of this religion in world culture. One can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is an example of devoted service to a noble cause.

This volume consists of several dozen articles, mostly written by Prozorov’s close colleagues, associates and former students. The editors felt it improper to intervene in the contributions by these authors and hence the published version of these articles may display differences in transliteration and other stylistic conventions.

St. Petersburg — Moscow, 18 January 2016

This work by Shehu Uthman ibn Fuduye` is arguably the last that he composed of eleven books regarding Islamic eschatology and millenarian beliefs. It is arranged into ten chapters in which the Shehu discusses the small signs of the End of Time as well as the eight major Signs, which include the appearance of the Mahdi, the appearance of Dajjal, the heavenly descent of Jesus the son Mary, the release of Gog and Magog, the raising of the Qur’an from the earth, the appearance of the articulate creature, and the rising of the sun from the west. With the present upheavals throughout the Muslim world and the spreading of injustice and oppression makes this work timely and gives the Muslim a sense of anticipation.

The subject of the present paper is a prophetic tradition found in some compendia of eschatological aḥādīth which has received considerable scholarly attention since Wilferd Madelung dedicated an article to it in 1981. Whereas Madelung shares the opinion of earlier scholars that only some of the incidents ‘prophesied’ by this tradition are historical, this study aims to show that it is a wholly ex post facto composition which, in its various strata, remarkably captures episodes from the Zubayrid war of propaganda against their rivals as well as their later attempts to redeem the memory of their lost cause as a just one. The discussion closes by producing a highly singular Syrian tradition most certainly put into circulation with the intent of countering these Zubayrid propaganda efforts.

You will not find the typical chart at the back of the book illustrating in three simple steps how to lead a successful, happy life. Nor will you be comforted by oversimplified Lifeboat for Dummies diagrams. There is no easy confessional chant-like incantation to make everything in your life better. While so many today are happy to believe in some kind of Oz-like fantasy world, the fact remains that we inhabit the Creator's Reality. We are in the world where Truth wins. We live in a reality where those who sow to the wind (vanity, empty philosophy) will reap the whirlwind (chaos, destruction)! It appears that a perfect storm of social chaos and spiritual conflict is moving through the United States. Sadly, the Western Church is not prepared for the storm or the aftermath that will certainly ensue. The Western Church now finds itself comfortable in a successful, materialistic culture while seekers coming out of this pagan culture find themselves quite comfortable in these Titanic churches. The resulting mutual admiration between pagan seekers and the Titanic church has developed naturally into gatherings of people who meet weekly for emotional, self-help seminars. Yet, the culture that sends these seekers to board the Titanic church is the very same culture that aggressively confronts traditional Christian values While Christianity and biblical revelation are challenged, marginalized and legally discriminated against in Western democratic culture, the religion of Islam becomes more and more accepted. Islam increasingly waggles its way inward toward the center of the public arena in the Western world, whose mantra of Tolerance, tolerance! grows louder and louder. Yet - and at the same time - Christianity is ridiculed as offensive, which places even more peer pressure on the adolescent Titanic church to separate itself from Truth and embrace the cool, contemporary, relevant cultural clique. A Titanic-like Theology Has Set the Church on a Perilous Journey without a Map on a ship that will ultimately require Lifeboat support. This book was written to help provide lifeboats and maps for the coming disaster.

The apocalyptic expectations of the medieval Muslims and Christians culminated in the belief in the impending appearance of the messianic figures known as the Mahdi and the Last Roman Emperor. Due to the occurrence of certain parallels, the comparative study of the Islamic and Christian messianic convictions has been the subject of certain scholarly endeavours. The evolution of the characters of these messianic redeemers in the Muslim and Christian tradition has been attributed by previous scholarship to the inter-religious polemics. This argument sounds nevertheless fallacious in a number of respects. The present study strives to show that the messianic belief of a nation may at times owe more to its own socio-religious concerns than to religious polemics contra other confessional communities. This would entail adopting a more judicious approach to Muslim-Christian relations than the simplistic theory that tends to overstate the actual role of polemics.

Eschatological imagery appeared in Persian and Turkish book arts from circa 1300 to 1900. In manuscript paintings of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the signs of the hour were closely affiliated with the Prophet Muhammad and the miraculous events of his life, in particular his heavenly ascension. In the sixteenth century, illustrations of otherworldly terrains and events were further developed in pilgrimage guides and books on the conditions of resurrection. These illustrated manuscripts were marked by millenarian anticipation and sectarian debate. By the 1800s, new cosmologies began to provide readers and viewers with exoteric picto-diagrams for meditating upon the esoteric meanings of faith and imagining salvation. In these depictions of the afterlife, the Islamic eschaton is rendered as a set of otherworldly realities that transcends language and thus is best rendered by means of graphic images.

This book examines the literary role played by the Bible in Islamic sources, and will concentrate on the tension between Biblical and Quranic models as revealed in Islamic texts describing contacts between the Muslims and the people of the Bible, that is, the Jews in particular but Christians, too. This book will thus examine certain crucial aspects of the Islamic attitude towards the Other.

The present study aims to contribute to the quest for the origins of belief in the eschatological figure of the Sufyānī, a matter of hot debate since the late nineteenth century. To this end, three different bodies of evidence are produced and analysed: reports indicating that the Sufyānī was, indeed, thought of as a redemptive personality in some Syrian quarters, traditions on him in the Muslim endtimes literature that contain an ex eventu pronouncement, and reports concerning the propaganda activities of the first Sufyānī claimant, Abū Muḥammad Ziyād ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yazīd ‘al-Sufyānī’, in the historical record. Making use of hitherto unavailable sources and looking afresh at the rest, it is argued that the myth of the Sufyānī emerged during the counterrevolutionary revolt of Abū Muḥammad al-Sufyānī in 132 AH, with vague residues of it traceable to his earlier military activities, against the Umayyad caliph Yazīd III, in 126 AH.

Ihsan dari sudut bahasa merupakan kebaikan, mengelokkan supaya capai taraf kesempurnaan dan keindahan suatu perbuatan bagi manusia. Ia adalah salah satu dari 3 aspek asas dalam keperibadian seorang Muslim, selain daripada Iman dan Islam, demi menuju dan meningkatkan kecemerlangan diri dalam beribadah pada Allah.

The editors of The Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2007-, http://www.degruyter.com/view/product/36686) have kindly allowed me to post the complete text of the entries for which I wrote the Islamic component. This is a very interesting scholarly project in which every entry contains multiple perspectives.

Traduction, introduite et annotée, d'Ibn Taymiyya, « Kitāb al-Istiqāma », édition M. R. SĀLIM, t. I, p. 47-69, section (faṣl) dans laquelle l'auteur entend réfuter l'allégation de certains théologiens et autres que la théologie (kalām) est une science (‘ilm) alors que la jurisprudence (fiqh) relèverait tout au plus de l'opinion (ẓann).

The full story of Reubeni’s and Molcho’s messianic appearance and the unveiling of their identities might require a paradigm shift in how academics think of eschatology, or biblical renewal through new sects and religions, and even of anti-Semitism.

With the appearance of Reubeni and Molcho, messianic prophesy was put in motion. In order to come on top, the pair and the global Rabbinic leadership was willing to betray the whole world, including their own followers, by establishing a new religion that should rule the world from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

With the identification of David Reubeni we get a small window what post-biblical prophecy looks like: enriched Jewish leaders over impoverished nations that can adhere to any Judaic faith. Power for the leadership supersedes religion for ordinary believers. The latter are merely enslaved extras in a treacherous, global game of Rabbinic supremacy.

David Reubeni claimed to be of Muhammadean descent. With all its pitfalls against tradition (but also corroborated by it), this paper makes a thesis that the origins of Islam’s spiritual leadership may have lain in Ethiopia in substantive, if not decisive ways. In fact, it may open the road to establishing Islam as a triumph of Jewish Messianism and Prophet Muhammad as a messiah himself or perhaps a forerunner.