The second question concerns another hadith of the Holy Prophet ﷺ تَرَكْتُ فِيكُمْ مَا إِن تَمَسَّكْتُمْ بِهِ لَمْ تَضِلُّوا بَعْدِي أَبَدًا كِتَابَ اللَّهِ وَسُنَّةَ رَسُولِهِ That I have left for you, if you hold fast to it, you will never go astray. The Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Holy Prophet. Now, some people claim that the hadith concerning the Mahdi are contradictory. And the hadith concerning Nuzul Isa ibn Maryam are ahad. And in absence of a clear verse of the Holy Quran saying that there is someone who is going to come. And in the light of this hadith, isn’t it the conclusion that the only way to bring back the glory of Islam is just to follow the Holy Quran and to follow the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet ﷺ?
As far as the last part of the question goes, there is no denying that. The only way to bring Islam, people of Islam together, that is Muslims, and to put them on the right path is to make them practice the Holy Quran and the Sunnah. There is absolutely no denying this fact. But the big question which follows is who is going to bear the cat? Who is going to bring it about and how? Why, while the Holy Quran remained intact up till now, why in the very presence of the Holy Quran people started to differ with each other and fell into sects and schisms? Why in the first place this process began?
And is it a process without a direction and without a trend, or you have a positive trend to observe in this process? When the second part of the question comes, then you can positively answer this question without denying again that we find a direction and a trend. And that direction and trend are downwards. Right from the start, that is Hazrat Muhammad Mustafa’s time, despite the fact that Sunnah was the clearest at that time, and the Holy Quran was strongest in influence, despite both these, after Huzoor-e-Akram, people began to differ, and kept on differing with each other, until a time came when Khilafat was no longer there, and from then on it was a total rot.
New sects, new schisms came into being, and the Holy Quran was started to be looked upon as a book, speaking on divergent views, and paradoxically so. At the same time, according to some, the Holy Quran had this view, and at the same time by some others it held that view, and both those views held by different groups were in direct clash with each other. So all this started, and went on and on until you reach this stage. So as far as the necessity of getting together upon the Holy Quran and the Sunnah is concerned, that is obvious. But how to go about it? That is the big question. Unless someone solves this question, this dilemma will not be solved. Time is against us. That is obvious.
The more you travel away from our Huzoor-e-Akram, the more divided you are, and the more corrupt are your religious scholars. The less God-fearing they become. And instead of bringing us together, they create disorder. They create hatreds of one against the other. This is also a known fact of history. So if there is, let’s forget for the time being, any Mahdi and any Messiah, suppose they won’t come. But how the Ummah would survive them? As the questioner himself believes, that the only way for the survival is to stick to the Holy Quran and the tradition of our Huzoor-e-Akram.
So why are they not sticking? Why did they start living if they had stuck? They could not have become divided. So the processes of that of deterioration, and constant decadence, which has never gone back once it started. Every other generation we find is a less pious generation, less God-fearing. Every other generation we find is less confident of the Islamic way of life. There are of course sporadic movements here and there, spread all over the history. But those sporadic movements have failed to set a trend up in the opposite direction. That’s the most important thing.
So those who believe that without anybody having ever come, this process will be reversed, they are living in a paradise which has no reality. Because we have never seen nations do this. Let’s go back to religious history, as preserved by the Holy Quran, and let’s find our answer there. That is a very positive and sure history. According to the Holy Quran, whenever a truth was revealed, after some opposition, and some very hostile opposition for that matter, ultimately it got established, and then people began to deviate from the right path, and go into a decaying society. What happened then? According to the history of the Holy Quran, either a prophet was sent from Allah to save those people, or if the religion has reached the terror’s end, the religion was abolished altogether.
A new prophet came with a new religion. We never read anywhere in the history of religion, that after a religion decayed, and people became corrupt, and the religious scholars differed with each other on fundamentals, and then suddenly out of the blue, the religious scholars of a later time, repented all this behaviour, they got together, shook hands with each other, embraced each other, and said let us forget about differences and be one. How could they forget their differences, when they thought they were based on the Holy Quran, or on the Holy Book, whatever that book was. And they persisted that they were in the right, they insisted they were in the right, unless they dialogued, they tried to convince each other, tried to convey their point of view to others, and in a society, religious society, which has become so divergent, this is not permitted. People become so intolerant, that they are not ready to listen to others’ views. It is not only the scholars, the whole society becomes corrupt.
According to the history preserved in the Holy Quran, it has never happened before, never once, that once a people following a religion became corrupt, they were put together again, and rectified again, by their peas, or fukis, or ulema, or sufis, and all these people. Why not? Because according to the Holy Quran, it is the religious leadership which becomes corrupted first, and the masses follow suit later on. Once the top becomes corrupt mentally, and are less God-fearing, then the masses follow automatically behind them, and it is always the leadership which destroys people. It is true as much of religious leadership, as of political leadership, as of other leaderships. The fundamental, most important thing is correct, honest, true leadership. If religious leadership had been intact, there was no reason why they started to differ with each other.
They differed maybe primarily by some mistake, but definitely that process ultimately degrades into a process of conscious difference, with a crooked bent of mind within. That resulted in those differences. So, considering that there is no Mahdi, I am talking on that preposition, there is no Mahdi to come, and no Messiah to come, and none is required, and nabuwat of every sort is finished forever, what would become of the Muslims and how? That is now the responsibility of those who hold this view to prove, and to prove satisfactorily. If an individual becomes a good Muslim, let him, but who is going to look after the ascendancy of Islam over the rest of the religions of the world? Who is going to revive the Muslim integrity as such?
These ulema would, had they been capable of doing it, they would not have differed in the first instance. And show me the century which took people back to the life of Huzoor-e-Akram sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, by the effort of the ulema, they went on fighting with each other, they went on blaming each other for heresy and not only heresy, but they called each other traitors to Islam. Outside, not only the outside of the pale of Islam, but worse than those who were outside the pale of Islam. Traitors, treacherous people according to them, and according to some others they were great religious followers of Islam, great servants of Islam.
So this being their attitude, even today, how can you say that Islam would revive once again? What would be the means and measures? There should be some reasonable hope somewhere. And the religious history denies this, rejects this possibility altogether. What is the answer according to the Holy Quran? Whenever a society, religious society I mean, became corrupted, it was without fear, invariably, a person from Allah who revived the message and started a movement of great sacrifice for the sake of religion. Not taking other people’s lives, but offering their own lives. Not destroying other people’s property, but putting themselves in a precarious position where their properties would be destroyed and looted by others.
So through this hard path, following this hard path of sacrifice, religions were revived. Where else do you find a phenomena replacing this? Prophet Muhammad is the most dependable source of light for us. In fact, after every other prophet and his religion became a thing of the past, Prophet Muhammad is the only source of light available to us. How did he revive religious values? Through walking in the streets of Mecca and being stoned and being abused and being maltreated in the worst possible manner. How did he revive the true values of religion?
By making his slaves, being dragged in the hard stony streets of Mecca and being beaten almost to death and sometimes to death. The atrocities committed against them are enormous and yet as they walked through the path of blood and tears and toil, they were purified at the same time. They were spreading instead of decreasing in number. They were not conquered in reality, but they were turning into victorious because they were winning other hearts, other souls. Other people joined this procession of those who offered sacrifices and in that process they were purified. Islam is revived like this. There is no shortcut to glory and victory.
And that is done always through Allah’s messages. When the religious leadership becomes corrupt, Allah takes the leadership in his own hands. That is the phenomena of Nabuwah. If a law is not to be terminated, in that case subordinate prophets come. Law remains intact. But without Allah sending someone from him himself, without giving him support, without making him change the character of the people through constant sacrifice, no religion has ever been revived and no religion will ever be revived. Not through the ulema. They in fact are the cause of all this destruction and deterioration. So as you know, I don’t know whether you have something similar in Arabic, but in Punjabi we say, that if you put guard a cat over milk, you understand what will happen to your milk.
If you appoint a cat to protect your milk, you know, so the values which have been destroyed, have been destroyed by the religious authorities themselves. The poor masses are blind people, they don’t know what’s happening, they follow blindly some people. Always it is the leadership which is responsible. So the deterioration set in because of them. And now you are looking to them with hope that they will put you right? If that is your view, and if that is based on the tradition which you quoted in the beginning, I have another tradition to point out to. And that tradition says, and that is by Huzoor-e-Akbar sallallahu alaihi wa sallam himself, of course, that a time would come when people of mayumah would begin to differ.
And there would be great differences, very great and fundamental differences of opinion, they would be divided into various opinions. And the common people would go to the ulema to seek guidance from them. And lo, they would find instead of ulema, monkeys and pigs. These are the words of Huzoor-e-Akbar sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, speaking of a time much later than his time, of course, and describing a situation of differences. And he says when differences would appear, then common people would naturally seek guidance from the ulema.
And instead of the ulema, they would find monkeys and pigs. What does it mean? Because this tradition was never challenged by anyone. Otherwise the ulema of the previous days must have rejected this in agony. You know? Because this was a tradition spoken directly against the ulema of some time. Because they were pious people, they knew it didn’t apply to them. So they accepted it. A time would come when this would happen. Again, in another tradition, Huzoor sallallahu alaihi wa sallam speaks of a time when the Muslims would have become degenerated. And Islam would be left only in name.
And he says, ayati alannasi zamani la yabta minal islami illa ismuhu wa la yabta minal qur’ani illa rasmuhu masajiduhum amiratuhum wahya kharabuhum minal huda ulemauhum sharru man taqtadi min sama When a time would come when Islam would be left in name as we find today, and the Qur’an would only be for scribing, writing down. It won’t run in your blood or heart. Masajiduhum amiratuhum Apparently their mosques would be full but they would be completely deserted of truth and righteousness. They would be saying prayers as if they were saying. But Allah, according to this tradition, it is a hadith-e-qudsi. Because whenever the Prophet speaks of the future, he always speaks on the authority of Allah. So it automatically becomes a hadith-e-qudsi.
So what is inherent is this, that Allah has told Huzoor-e-Akram sallallahu alaihi wa sallam that in those days, apparently people would be saying their prayers in the mosque and they would look like full prayers. Full of worshippers. But in the sight of Allah, they would be without truth, without righteousness, and they would be totally deserted of what is good. Qarabuhum minuhudahum So, now one turns to the ulama. Maybe they would say. It is their task of course. They are made for this. But the end part is this, ulamauhum sharrum antaqtadi nissamah Their scholars would be the worst under the firmament of heaven. Under the firmament of heaven, there are so many things.
Every type of animal, every type of beast, every type of creatures and plants and things. So Huzoor-e-Akram sallallahu alaihi wa sallam does not say they would be worst of all human beings. He says they would be worst under the firmament of heaven. Sharrum antaqtadi nissamah And here man applies to life. Conscious being. The word man is not ma. So we are limited to the animal life. Man is not applicable to vegetative life. So this hadith exactly concords with the other one. People would go to their ulama and find them, these two animals. And they are the worst as far as the human beings are concerned.
They are shown to be the worst as an example to draw our lessons from them. This tradition which speaks of the ulama being turned into monkeys and pigs is based in fact on the Holy Quran. Because according to the Holy Quran, when previous ummah, that is Judaism, got destroyed and corrupted, in the end their ulama were also turned into these two creatures, according to the Holy Quran. So when Huzoor-e-Akram sallallahu alaihi wa sallam speaks of an unfortunate time, when apparently his followers, would not be truly his followers, would follow suit of the Jews before them, and they would become similar to them, their ulama must become similar to them.
And according to the Holy Quran, these were their scholars in the end. It is not calling someone by bad name, because the prophets do not do it. When they say something, it carries a very deep, significant, potent message. Now I’ll come to explain what happens to the ulama. Why they are said that they would be like monkeys and pigs. Monkeys have a habit of imitating others, even human beings. You’ll see people, I mean, those who train monkeys and make it their trade to call a crowd around them and make the monkeys play and behave like human beings, it is done in every country.
You must have seen some in your childhood. So a monkey sometimes behaves so much like human beings, with a hat on and with all the costume like a human being, and a bride and a bridegroom, that apparently they look just like human beings. But inside they are completely animals. The humanity is just skin deep. The imitation is just apparent. So when religious scholars imitate the prophet, that is the founder of the religion, apparently only in skin, and not in depth, inside they are not touched by that imitation. They are like monkeys. So that was the message given, that apparently their shalwaz, their kameez, their jubaz, their turbans and things, they would give the message that they are behaving like nauzillah minzarek, Ahadrat Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
But there would be a difference of antipodes between their character and the character of Hazrat Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. His beard was a source of light. Their beard would be a source of hatred and corruption and everything dark. They attracted, they were humane, they loved others. I mean, Hazrat Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was attractive, he was humane, he loved others. He sacrificed all he had for the sake of other human beings. And these ulama would be exactly opposite. They would create hatred. They would spread the message of hate. They would like people to be burnt alive and they would lie.
Now we have got our revenge. They would order people about to destroy other’s properties and loot innocent people and kill innocent children and women and insult them. That is the difference between an apparent pious man and a true pious man. Two pious people are prophets, the holy prophets of Allah. And their religion is completely different from those who follow much later by way of religious scholars. Their attitude towards religion, towards human values, towards God, towards everything apparently is the same but in essence is entirely corrupted. This is the state of affairs we find having been reached by the latter part of every religion. This is the state of affairs which we find which was positively predicted by our Huzoor sallallahu alaihi wa sallam about the end part of his ummah.
This is the state of affairs in which we find the Muslims of today and the scholars of today. Yet some people expect that out of nothingness a revolution would take place and all this corrupted manner would be rectified automatically and people would begin to stick to the holy Quran and tradition and become one ummah. If this is not the definition of a fool’s paradise what else is, I don’t know. The only active phenomena is that of Allah sending some messengers, everybody turning against him and his followers, putting them to the same trial as people before them were put, bringing them to such sacrifices as act as purifiers of souls and conduct and attitudes in life.
So a new ummah emerges from an ummah surrounding it and it begins to spread like a spot of yogurt in milk and it continues to spread and spread light along with it. That is the only phenomena known to me. So Imam Mahdi and Messiah, the concept of these two, fit into this concept, this philosophy as it is supported by the holy Quran.
