by Harun Yahya
The beginning of October saw the beginning of a historic crisis in the world economy, and in the USA in particular, that had long since been sending signals of its impending arrival. A number of experts and analysts predict that this crisis could even dwarf the Great Depression that began in the 1920 and continued throughout the 1930s.
However, in addition to its economic aspect, there is another side to this crisis that is prompting various countries to take joint decisions and implement precautionary measures. This crisis may be a sign of important events due to take place in the next period of world history. (Allah knows the truth.)
The hadith of our Prophet (saas) contain much detailed information and many signs about the End Times that will take place close to Doomsday. According to the information provided by our Prophet (saas), a great many significant events will take place – one after the other – in this period. The growth of corruption, unlawful things being regarded as lawful, worldwide confusion and chaos, the Iran-Iraq War and the invasion of Afghanistan are some of these signs reported in the hadith and that have recently been taking place.
The economic crisis that will take place at a specific time in the End Times is, according to various accounts, a most significant portent that will take place immediately before the return to Earth of the Prophet ‘Isa (as) and the coming of the blessed Mahdi and the Dajjal. Indeed, the economic collapse that has been anticipated for some time and that has affected the whole world economy, starting from America in early October, shows that another portent of the End Times we are living in has taken place. (Allah knows the truth.)
As revealed in the hadith of our Prophet (saas), the worsening of the global economic outlook is one of the portents of the End Times that are currently taking place one after the other.
“What are they awaiting but for the Hour to come upon them suddenly? Its Signs have already come. What good will their Reminder be to them when it does arrive?” (Surah Muhammad, 18)
How Do the Hadith of Our Prophet (saas) State That the Economic Outlook Will Worsen?
Economic problems are one of the most discussed issues today. A great many people in the world are living at the poverty threshold and many countries of the world could not survive without external aid. But aid by itself is not enough, because the countries in question face greater problems due to an inability to pay the interest accruing from that aid.
There is an economic bottleneck in all countries today, from the richest to the poorest, and unemployment is on the rise. On the one hand there is great wealth, waste and squandering, and all forms of degeneration resulting from this, while on the other hand people come to blows over a crust of bread. Articles are always being written and symposiums and meetings held on the subject, but no permanent answer can be found; indeed, hunger and poverty are increasing by the day.
The continuing collapse of global markets despite the precautionary measures in central banks and rescue packages announced in various regions of the world, from Frankfurt to Washington, and from Hong Kong to London, caused a loss of more than $4 trillion in the financial markets within one week. www.patronlardunyasi.com/ news_detail.php?id=51295
The crisis that began in the USA in October has not affected that country alone; it has turned into a global crisis that has rocked all the economic markets across the world, from Britain to Germany and from France to Russia and the Far East. Poverty has stopped being a problem of concern to only certain countries in the world and has become a danger threatening societies in modern countries, too. But this latest instability in the global economy has a far greater importance than that of the economic. Some 1400 years ago, our Prophet (saas) revealed in the hadith that the economy would be generally impaired during the End Times, and described this as a portent that would take place before the coming of the Prophet ‘Isa (a.s.) and the Mahdi. The hadith say:
Before the Mahdi appears, trade and roads between nations will be severed, and strife between people will grow. [i]
"Everyone complaining of low earning... The rich being respected for their money..."[ii] "The markets being stilled, a decrease in earnings..." [iii]
What Is the Main Reason for the Crisis in Countries’ Economies?
The world has gone through several crises since that of 1929, in which business lost 72% of its value, or 60% of volume. The last 20 years (1990-2008) in particular have seen major crises closely connected to the economy today; the 1992 European crisis, the Mexican crisis, the Asian crisis, the Russian and Brazilian crises, the Argentinean crisis and the latest US crisis...
The factor triggering a crisis may differ from country to country, and may be internal or external. For example, a significant change in the domestic political balance, or an economic collapse in a field such as real-estate or the banking sector, which previously enjoyed an unlimited flow of capital, may trigger a crisis inside a country. However, whether it be the latest U.S. crisis or the crises in the economies of the other countries of the world, the fundamental cause of all crises is moral degeneration.
Moral degeneration such as corruption , unequal distribution of income, bribery, and people tending to – rather than production – based revenue (the interest system, in other words) lies at the heart of all such crises. These are all things forbidden by Allah.
People with no fear of Allah, who do not live according to His commandments, have no hesitations about going down unlawful paths. In a society that knows no moral bounds, that fails to admister justice and that acts solely for the sake of its own interests, the climate of confidence essential if the economy is to remain healthy disappears.
Crises will naturally follow on one another’s heels when there is no climate of confidence. In addition, the post-crisis period bring with it a time full of injustices. As with Argentina, which suffered an economic crisis in 2001, mass protests on the streets, acts of looting and pillaging and even the deaths of many people are all fundamentally the result of moral deficiencies.
The true solution, therefore, lies in abiding by the moral values of the Qur’an, which prohibits injustice, corruption and bribery and instead commands people to help one another, to aid the poor and orphaned, to give alms and to compete with one another in performing good deeds.
Everything is under the control of Allah. Believers who know this and have a sincere faith in Him submit to our Lord under all circumstances, material and physical, in the awareness that they are following their destinies. Allah has flawlessly created every detail from the creation of the world right up to Doomsday. Everything, including the latest economic crisis, is recorded in the book known as the "Lawh al-Mahfuz" [the Tablet of Allah’s Decrees]. Everything has already happened in a single moment in the sight of Allah, Who is unfettered by time and space. The timing and place of every event has already been ordained, as set out in the verse, “communication has its time, and you will certainly come to know.” (Surat al-An’am, 67)
THE GLOBAL IMPACTS OF THE ECONOMIC CRISIS
* In the middle of September (2008) the 158-year-old Lehman Brothers, America’s fourth largest investment bank, filed for bankruptcy as it was unable to weather the difficult conditions of the economic crisis.[iv]
* Merrill Lynch, the world’s largest investment bank, suffered losses of around $46 billion because of the global crisis. As a consequence of those losses, it was bought by Bank of America, the second-largest US bank.[v]
* Following the collapse of investment banks, the USA’s largest savings bank, Washington Mutual, filed for bankruptcy at the end of September (2008). This brought the number of banks folding in the USA since the beginning of 2008 to 13.[vi]
* According to a report by the US Department of Employment, the number of those losing their jobs in August stood at 73,000, compared to 159,000 in September. This figure, the worst redundancy level for the last 5 years, brought the total number of job losses for the preceding 9 months to 760,000.[vii]
* Japan, the world’s second-largest economy, has also been affected by the global crisis. Yamato Life Insurance, an insurance company dating back 98 years with debts totaling $2.7 billion, declared bankruptcy in October 2008. [viii]
* Iceland, standing in third place on the United Nations’ List of Most Prosperous Countries, has been severely affected by the economic crisis. The country was unable to meet its external debt, and its three largest banks, with total debts of 44 billion euros, were taken over.[ix] Long queues began forming in front of Icelandic bank branches.
* A public opinion poll in Belgium showed that 57% of the public were worried about their savings.[x]
* The Hertie retail chain, with 4,100 employees and 73 branches across Germany, declared bankruptcy in July 2008. The finance company affiliated to Hertie announced losses of 30 million euros. [xi]
* XL, Britain’s third largest tourism company with a fleet of 21 planes, went bankrupt in September 2008. British Airways also cited the crisis as the reason for making 1,200 employees redundant. [xii]
Natural Disasters Also Point to the End Times
It is a statistical fact that there has been an increase in the number and intensity of natural disasters in recent years. Disasters caused by the climate changes over the last 10 years are regarded as a turning point. It is very probable that the increasing numbers of natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, lightning strikes and floods are also portents of the End Times that will take place, according to the hadith of our Prophet (saas) near to Doomsday. (Allah knows best.)
Doomsday will not take place until 10 portents are seen. The tenth is a storm that will hurl people into the sea...[xiii]
Doomsday will not happen until these events occur ... earthquakes will increase... [xiv]
Doomsday will not happen until a fierce rain pours down that leaves no house or home standing. [xv]
Lightning strikes will so multiply as Doomsday approaches that people will say (to one another): “Who did it strike yesterday?” and they will answer, “It struck so-and-so yesterday.” [xvi]
Some of the natural disasters of the last 5 years:
* Various disasters have occurred in Asia and the Far East throughout the course of history. Terrible destruction has been caused by these, and vast numbers of people have lost their lives in them. However, the worst of these was the tsunami that struck South Asia on 26 December, 2004, costing the lives of more than 225,000 people.
* Hurricane Katrina that struck the US Gulf of Mexico in August 2005 wreaked terrible destruction in the region. The hurricane cost the lives of 1,836 people and caused damage estimated at $81.2 billion, making it the costliest natural disaster in American history.
* On 8 October, 2005, an earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale struck 95 kilometers to the east of Islamabad in Pakistan, costing 73,320 lives. A further 1,244 people lost their lives due to the quake in the Indian region of Kashmir.
* In June and July 2007, 1,750 died due to monsoon flooding in Afghanistan, China, India and Pakistan.
* The tropical storm Nargis that struck Myanmar in May 2008 resulted in the deaths or disappearance of more than 134,000 people. Another 2.5 million people were left in need by the storm.[xvii]
* Sixty-five thousand people were killed, 23,000 disappeared, 360,000 were injured and 5 million left homeless in an earthquake measuring 8.0 in China’s Sichuan province. The earthquake also caused damage totaling $9.6 billion in Sichuan alone.
The profound economic troubles caused by the interest system have manifested themselves in many countries, and the peoples of those countries are having to pay the heavy bill for them. Allah has made the solution to these difficulties, caused by personal interests and immoral earnings and that continue to plague many countries, quite clear in the Qur’an. Allah has made the unfair consumption of assets and wasteful use of existing resources unlawful, and forbids us to regard other people as worthless and inflict troubles upon them for the sake of our own interests. The solution to the problems in the economy is for an efficient, just and entrepreneurial social system in which everyone lives according to the moral values of the Qur’an.
As noted in this report, there are certainly very many apparent causes for the recent economic crisis. But the important thing here is that the dire state of the economy may be a portent of the End Times revealed in the hadith. (Allah knows the truth.) Because as with all events that take place in the world, it is Almighty Allah Who created the conditions and causes of the economic crisis happening today.
Some Hadith of our Prophet (saas) Regarding the Impairment of the Economy in the End Times:
· Revenues will revolve around a few people, and those with limited incomes will fall into hunger and trouble. [xviii]
· Everyone will complain of “being unable to earn and make ends meet.” [xix]
· The poor will grow in number. [xx]
· “Hunger and high costs of living will spread to the fullest extent.”[xxi]
· When trade and roads are severed and corruption multiplies... [xxii]
· Business becomes stagnant. Everyone will complain, “I cannot sell, or buy or earn anything.”[xxiii]
The great majority of Muslim countries both enjoy a geo-strategic advantage and also possess valuable energy resources and natural wealth, especially oil and natural gas.
Yet these resources and strategic advantages have not been properly exploited for hundreds of years, and Islamic countries have been unable to assume a leading role in the global economy, despite all the means at their disposal. Yet as economists have recently noted, this state of affairs is changing rapidly and the economic center of power is shifting from the West to the East. By Allah’s leave, the 21st century will see the strengthening of the economy in the Islamic world and Islamic countries shaping the global economy.
Qur’anic Moral Values Are the Only Source of Social Justice and Economic Stability
Since people who take the moral values of the Qur’an as their guide, act out of a fear of Allah, they strive not only for their own interests but for the interests and well-being of everyone. Because unity, togetherness, mutual aid and solidarity are very important in Islamic moral values. Nobody trespasses on anyone else’s rights, because Allah has forbidden such ugly behavior. No bounds are transgressed. No system that exhibits the injustice of atheism, that is based on self-interest, in which the strong oppress the weak and in which people misappropriate what rightfully belongs to others is possible in a society that lives by the moral values of the Qur’an. There is no waste nor wasteful consumption of resources in a society guided by the Qur’an. Thanks to solidarity and justice, people’s economic strength grows. A wealthy society emerges. This is one of the clearest proofs of the Age of Happiness, when people lived by Qur’anic moral values, and which is renowned for its wealth and well-being.
It must not be forgotten that various temporary solutions to poverty may be proposed. But the important thing is to believe that the true solution, as with all problems, is to live by the moral values of the Qur’an. Because the superior moral virtues revealed in the Qur’an, such as feeding the poor and orphaned even though one is in need oneself, never giving other people things one would not want oneself, and helping others without making them feel a sense of obligation, can only emerge when people fully live by Qur’anic moral values. Allah has revealed in Surat an-Nur how materially powerful people should behave:
Those of you possessing affluence and ample wealth should not make oaths that they will not give to their relatives and the very poor and those who have emigrated in the way of Allah.* They should rather pardon and overlook. Would you not love Allah to forgive you? Allah is Ever-Forgiving, Most Merciful. (Surat an-Nur, 22)
To What Is Social Justice Ascribed in the Risale-i Nur Collection?
In his Risale-i Nur Collection, Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, one of the greatest Islamic scholars of the 13th century (Hegira style), noted that social problems such as economic injustice and huge financial gulfs arise when two concepts prevail in society. The first is selfishness, that disregards others’ situations and says, “So what if others die of hunger as long as I am full?” [xxiv]The second is the mindset that thinks, “You labor so that I can rest; you work, so that I can eat.”[xxv] These are the main causes underlying the economic crisis today. Moral and economic collapse is inevitable in societies in which people enjoy financial interest even though this is forbidden in the Qur’an, in which they think only of themselves because they fail to abide by the moral values of the Qur’an, in which they feel no unease about hurting others for the sake of their own interests and in which they have no qualms about oppressing others and making use of their labor.
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