The sun rising in the West?

Posted June 11, 2009

Filed under: Aqidah, Fiqh, Hadith |

 

Q. Some people say that the sun rising from the west means that Islam will rise from the west is this correct and how do we understand this occurrence?

 

A. This world is temporal and it will end one day as Allah informs us in the Qur’an and His prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, in the many authentic Ahadith. No one but Allah knows when it will end, the prophets do not know, or the angels. However, there are some signs of the coming of the Day of Judgement and the end of the world. Scholars classify them into two categories, major and minor signs.

 

One of the major and the most ominous signs of the Day of judgement mentioned by the Prophet is the sun rising from the west. Imam Bukhari and others narrate that the Messenger of Allah said, ‘’The Hour will not come until the sun rises from the West. When people will see it then those who are on earth will believe but that is the time when its belief will not profit a soul which did not believe before that time. The Prophet -peace be upon him- then recited the Ayah: “Are they waiting to see if the angels come to them, or your Lord [Himself], or certain of the Signs of your Lord! The day that certain of the Signs of thy Lord do come, no good will it do to a soul to believe in them then, if it believed not before nor earned righteousness through its Faith. Say: ‘Wait you: we too are waiting.’” [Al-An’am 6:158].

 

When we survey the authentic Ahadith concerning the signs of the Day of the Judgement, we will find that there are other major signs which precede the sun’s rising in the west. They are, for example, the coming the Dajjal, the coming of the Mahdi, the coming of Isa [peace be upon him], the wind that will take the souls of the believers, the coming of the Beast, and other events in the world. Even if we say that the Ahadith regarding the sun’s rising in the west is to be understood to mean that Islam will rise from the west and thus this prophesy has been fulfilled, we have to concede that the amazing signs of the coming of Isa [peace be upon him], the coming of the Dajjal, and the coming of the Mahdi have all come to pass and clearly they have not. The Prophet informs us in another hadith that the door of repentance will be closed after the rising of the sun in the west. Are we to conclude that our repentance will not be accepted since the ‘sun’ has risen in the west? The Scholars say that the sun rising in the west just before the Day of Judgement is a great sign of Allah’s power and majesty. He has the power to create the universe, therefore this is something very easy for him and He does whatever He wills. So the sun rising in the west is to be taken literally and not figuratively.

 

There is, however, a strong revival of Islam in the west. Many people are returning to Islam and many westerners are turning to Islam. Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. With the grace and mercy of Allah, and the through the efforts and hard work of some of the Scholars and duats like Imam Hamza Yusuf, Sh Yasir Qadhi, Imam Siraj Wahhaj, Sh Abdul Hakim Murad, Imam Suhaib Webb, Yusuf Estes and other notable figures, the youth have been reinvigorated by their faith.

 

Wallahu ‘alam

 

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