Ihyaaud Deen An Effort to Revive Deen in Totality
The Decline of the Ummah before the Coming of Dajjaal
It is mentioned in the mubaarak Hadith that prior to Qiyaamah, people’s primary goal and aim will be the accumulation and amassment of wealth. People will see wealth as the key to all luxury and comfort, the door to every type of entertainment and leisure, and the tool to fulfilling their sensual pleasures and worldly desires. Hence, they will devote everything to earning it and will do anything to acquire it.
The inordinate passion for wealth will consume them and make them totally negligent and unconcerned regarding their deeni obligations. In the pursuit of wealth, they will become unscrupulous in their dealings and compromise their deeni values. Even if they are forced to bend or break the rules of shariah, just in order to acquire more wealth, they will not hesitate to do so.
Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) said, “Soon a time will dawn upon the people where a person will not be concerned about the wealth which he acquires, whether it be from halaal or haraam sources.” (Saheeh Bukhaari #2059)
It is reported in one Hadith that before Qiyaamah, on account of materialism and the love of wealth, people will be prepared to sell their deen in exchange of some paltry possession of the world.
Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) said, “Hasten towards righteous actions before the commencement of fitnahs which will be like the portions of a dark night. A person will be a believer in the morning and become a disbeliever in the evening, or a person will be a believer in the evening and become a disbeliever by the morning. He will be prepared to sell his Deen for a paltry possession of the world.” (Saheeh Muslim #118)
If one examines the current plight of the Muslims and the various challenges facing the ummah, one will realise that they mirror the challenges described in the above-mentioned mubaarak Ahaadith. It is reported in the Hadith that when Dajjaal will emerge, he will use this very tool of wealth to mislead people.
The Plot of Dajjaal and His Agents
Some years back, an Aalim was travelling to Bosnia for welfare work. While on the plane, he happened to be sitting next to a Jew. During the flight, they began to speak about religion. This Aalim was absolutely surprised when the Jew said to him, “We have studied your religion of Islam and have even studied your Qur’aan and Hadith. Perhaps we even know your religion better than you do.”
The Jew thereafter said, “After studying your religion, we arrived at the conclusion that you Muslims have the divine assistance of Allah Ta‘ala, and that is why the Jews have never been able to totally defeat and overcome you. However, we studied your scriptures to find your weak points and those things that will cause you to lose the divine assistance of Allah Ta‘ala. After studying your scriptures, we found that we need to do just four things to make you lose the help of Allah Ta‘ala.” The Jew then mentioned the following four things to the Aalim:
- We need to engage the Muslims in sports and all other forms of entertainment and amusement due to which they will lose focus and become negligent of their Deeni obligations and the rights which they owe to Allah Ta‘ala.
- We need to take the Muslim women out of their homes and place them in different worldly positions. They should intermingle with strange men and become involved in all types of shameful works through which they will be stripped of their hayaa and modesty.
- We need to immerse them in riba and interest. In doing so, we will do our level best in getting them enslaved to the banks and entrapped in the banking systems, thereby drowning them in usury and interest.
- Lastly, we need to create internal discord among the Muslims. We will look for ways through which we will cause the masses to break away from the Ulama -e- Haqq and lose confidence in them. This will lead to each person treading his own path and taking Deen into his own hands. The pitiful outcome of this will be nothing but a total breakdown of Deen in the lives of the Muslims.
After saying this, the Jew mentioned that the plan which they had put into place was successful. This is the reason why we find that the Muslim ummah has drifted so far from Deen and the divine help of Allah Ta‘ala is being withheld from them.
When viewing the plan that was implemented by the Jews in trying to mislead the ummah, we find that when Dajjaal will emerge, he will use this very same plan (women, wealth and entertainment) to rob people of their Imaan and strip them of their Deen.
