Signs of the end of time

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Event Name: Signs of the end of time
Transcription Date:Transcription Modified Date: 5/30/2019
Transcript Version: 1


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DUA
The next stage that that we're going to cover is the time element and this is where history comes into place now within the if you look at the the actual Quranic narrative the quran is not a history book there are definitely historical elements in there the quran is using

historical examples but they are used in

an a historical placing in other words

the story of pharaoh and moosa' it's

irrelevant when it occurred it's even

irrelevant if it occurred what is being

taught is something very powerful right

I mean the Quranic narrative is that it

did occur but that is not what is

relevant from the story the story is

used and as a teaching example to learn

something of what happened in the past

in order to prevent its repetition in

the future so there is definitely a

historical element now my friend

professor Khalid Blankenship who's at

Temple a very fine historian told me

that one of the frustrating aspects of

the Quran as a book is that it does not

allow the historian room to examine in

other words he said that like there are

many examples in the Bible that we have

that are historical in the sense that we

can actually look at them as historians

whereas within the Quranic narrative the

the historian does not have evidence

there to either negate or verify much of

the Parana narrative or he accorded to

his opinion any of it really and he said

what and he said it's almost a warning

for for him as a historian like he found

it significant that it's almost like

courting him to let him know that that

is not the point that the to give you a

good example in the in the whole

narrative we don't know if it's if it's

a Ishmael or Isaac who is taken up on

the mountain some of the Muslim scholars

said it was Isaac and some said it was

Ishmael unimportant as the as a detail

in the story which is why the Quran does

not mention either one by name although

the narrative would indicate that it was

Ishmael which is differs from the Jewish

tradition which is Isaac but the point

is that that is not the point of the

story the point of story is a man's

being tested and and and fulfilling the

test in the way that we're most pleasing

to his Lord now the next section here

after email and xn is to tell me about

the hour and the word in Arabic for our

is Sam which is related it's related to

the moment sat like I can say farm I'm

insanity he he got up immediately from

his son or I can say come son what time

is it like the Arabs if they want to ask

what time it is they say come son so I

can ask what times it or I can say it's

the time of the whole now this son does

not relate to historical time which in

Arabic would be called

probably either Zaman and then there's

another Arabic word aha

and there's another one in the Quran

used called Vasa the man is relates to

time as a historical phenomena a SAR is

more like an age or a period and I can

also use a man for that as well son does

not have any of this down if you look it

up it's interesting word in the Arabic

language there's a hadith that says do

not curse AHA because the hair is God

and and the hadith if you look in the

earliest Arabic dictionaries doubt

according to err

it was time stretched out in other words

this time-space right and the idea here

of saya is the actual moment in which

the universe comes to an end and it's

called the hour traditionally in in in

the English literature the hour which I

don't know i don't i think the i mean we

have the idea in the in the christian

tradition of the last hour right now

there is also an idea of the last days

hospitals MN see that the last Zemin the

last period of Zemin so there's an idea

that the human being begins in time and

is moving in X or ibly to an end of time

so Adam is the first man and this is the

beginning Adam and how up and the human

condition is you know from a prophetic

point of view it is prophets that show

up throughout time and what is important

in the continuity a movement of time is

a prophetic tradition itself right this

is the this is the way the Quran is

looking at it is that there is a

conflict going on and this is why the

historical stories in the Quran relate

to prophets coming up against oppressors

coming up against tyrants pharaoh and

moosa' is the most repeated story in the

quran very important story the Lewis

Mumford in wrote a two-volume work

called the myth of the mega machine and

in that book his thesis is that

basically what he called him the axial

prophets these prophets that come around

I think about a thousand BC until

Muhammad which he considers the last of

these axial prophet and he said what

these prophets do is that they're really

shutting down the mega machine right in

other words the idea of this massive

social project that relates to the world

the Pharaoh has his pyramids and he's

going to build them and there's a lot of

people that are going to die in the

process but they're going to carry those

rocks and they're going to carry it and

do it all all for the glory of the

Pharaoh or the society or whatever so

Mumford said that that you know he

thought the Jewish tradition the idea of

the Sabbath was a way of just shutting

down the Machine can't do it sorry not

allowed to move anything right it

literally shuts it down

the idea of five prayers a day it's fair

I mean a lot of Western people get very

frustrated in some of these Muslim

countries where everything stops rule

they're frustrated about a lot of things

right but but definitely the prayer is

something that's very frustrating for

many Western people that go there they

got business to do and the guy says that

we have to stop for prayer right so it's

a problem and Mumford saw it really as a

way of shutting this thing down because

he saw it as a very negative thing now

one of the things that Mumford says is

that there is a movement this historical

movement towards the mega machine that

in Prior times it's nuts and bolts were

human beings right the whole social

project and he thinks that pharaoh and

moosa' is the best archetype of this

phenomenon that the Musa Moses comes in

and is directly a challenge to the

firaon ik project that the prophets

literally challenged this idea that we

are here for the glorification of a

hierarchy and at the top is this elite

and so the Quran uses this idea they're

called the Mela the the people up the

high people the elite the elect of the

world you know there's a film can't

remember the name the where there was

conversation going on at a table and one

of the women's of sinologist and there's

a banker there and the banker asks how

many people are there in China according

to your statistics and she said oh about

a billion

and he said no they're not there's only

12 people in China and I know all of

them right and the idea there was here's

a banker who the way that he views the

world is that the only significant

people in China are his friends who also

are bankers so the idea of being is that

there are a you know at you get to a

certain level in societies where people

really do view I one of wonderful things

I read was I think it was Linda Crawford

who's a model who was up flying and the

actual helicopter crashed Cindy Crawford

helicopter crashed and they were like at

Aspen or some are going up to ski the

powder and they were looking down and

somebody said to her oh look at all the

little people and right then the

helicopter just wanted to this spin

right so she got a very interesting I

mean I thought that was a very

interesting thing that she kind of

picked it up or made the connection you

know that be careful about thinking how

special you are because we're all right

in the in the hands or in the protecting

care of God right so there are people

that really do like Helmsley was out her

name who didn't pay only little people

pay taxes right only little people pay

taxes there are people that really do

think like that right and the poor on is

really constantly bringing this up and

even goes into their inner discourse

which is fascinating literally you can

hear what they talk about when they're

you know because one of the things is

he's telling his melih he said listen we

got to get rid of this guy Moses because

he's going to corrupt our people right

so he sees you know this is a corrupting

out because he's going to teach him not

to worship us right not to say the

Pharaohs God not to give me the

authority that I'm entitled to that is a

disrupting element to the power elite

when you have a teaching that is

literally challenging the very

foundations of that of that structure

and this is something very powerful in

the padang and there are many examples

of it so if you look here then the idea

that time is coming to an end now the

Prophet Mohammed

peace be upon him according to the his

tradition is that he is the first sign

of the end that he actually his coming

was the first time damn time that's how

the Muslims view that now all according

to the Muslims all religious traditions

have told about the end of time there is

a hadith in which the Prophet said no

prophet has come except that he told his

people that time would come to an end

and there would be certain signs so we

have in the Christian tradition about

the end of time one of them you will

hear there will be famines and

earthquakes in many places and you will

hear of wars and rumors of wars which is

very interesting also that especially

with modern CNN and all this stuff right

which is a type of just talking about

wars and also potential things and then

you have the Book of Revelations which

deals also with the phenomenon of the

end of time and many many Christians if

you go into Christian bookstores just so

many books on the end of time right

really a lot of books and as we approach

the millennium I think we're going to

have more and more of this because

you're starting actually to see I mean

you know when the publishers get greedy

when they start publishing these kind of

because some of these books are way out

there

right I mean you read and this poor guy

who wrote he's the most famous how

Lindsey he's the most faint

this guy he has to revive his books

every 10 years because he identifies

like one year at Kissinger is the

Antichrist but you know chess injures

not around anymore since to revive it

every so often because they literally

trying to take the Bible and apply it to

immediate events and there's actually a

television program in some states where

there's a guy he's like a newscaster

with his wife and unbelievable like

every event up well hey there's Daniel

3:14 you see Daniel says that this will

happen this and there you have it look

isn't that wonderful

you know Iraqis are being bombed just

like the Bible said it's so wonderful

Jesus is it's all you know and it's

really interesting it wants these

characters

but they're out there and people tune in

and and get very interested and then

national Enquirer's also got their

little you know you get these the globe

right the end of the time coming so you

have a lot of it's always become comical

you know the guy with the thing the end

is not that there really is a lot of

craziness and traditionally the muslims

have really kind of seen every single

book i've ever seen whether it's the

from the third fourth fifth sixth

century they say well all the signs are

there the end is nigh the idea being in

reality the end of time is the end of

our lives i mean that is the ultimate

end of time that we will die and so that

is an end of time but there is also an

end of human time and so within the

tradition I think the most definitive

hadith about it which I think is also

the most wonderful is that the Prophet

Muhammad said if the end of time comes

upon you and you're planting a tree then

finish planting it in other words don't

become millennia Aryans don't become

people that run off and just the end is

it no do what you're doing keep working

keep doing it if it happens it happens

and you happen to be there when it

happens but don't let that stop you from

action so there is an idea of yes there

is an end of time there are signs now in

the tradition here the first thing he

asked him about the end of time he says

tell me about the the sign the hour and

he says the one being questioned doesn't

know any more than the one questioning

in other words I don't know and he says

well then tell me about its signs and

then the Prophet says peace be upon him

the slave girl

will give birth to her mistress now

that's it's that's an interesting

statement the slave girl will give birth

to her mistress and the scholars

traditionally dealt with that in a lot

of different ways one of them as they

said at the end of time

slaves who in the Islamic like for

instance the Malik became rulers and

many of the scholars said this is it but

ma Malik were slaves in Egypt and they

actually became rulers they said here

they are they've become the Masters

another interpretation was that children

would treat their parents like this is a

traditional interpretation that children

would treat their parents like servants

they would order them around it would

tell them what to do that there would be

a loss of respect amongst in that

relationship but I think probably the

deepest interpretation is that there

would be a radical disequilibrium in

social structures when you look at the

relationship between a servant and a

mistress the relationship is like a

mother and a daughter the mother is to

be obeyed nurturing the daughter the

daughter obeys the mother when that is

turned upside down then you have a

radical disruption in the social order

if you look in the Quranic narrative the

first and foremost expression of a

Touhey de qward view of a belief in one

God is a son to the parents beauty to

the parents showing beauty to the

parents the Quran says and God has told

the human being to honor his parents the

mother first it says o Muhammad Atta

women Allah when the mother gave

nurtured and gave birth to the child

sapped and weakened right so the nine

months of nurturing a child in the womb

giving birth suckling the child raising

the child changing the child doing all

of these things that there is a great

debt owed the child to the parent

particularly the mother and this is why

the Prophet said that the paradise is at

the feet of the mothers is literally at

the feet of the mothers and the Prophet

was once asked who is the most worthy of

my companionship and the Prophet

answered your mother and the

said and then who he said your mother

and he said and then who he said your

mother and he said and then who he said

your father and then in another

tradition a man came to him and he said

the artists will allow a Messenger of

God I am cleaning my mother in her

decrepid age the way she used to clean

me is that filial piety and he said no

that's payback he literally said that's

recompense right you're just you know

recompense in what she did for you so

the disruption of the the parental child

relationship is a deep disruption within

a social order and we can we can see

that really I think not simply in our

own societies but it's it's becoming

quite a global phenomenon

the idea of rebellion there's an idea

and our culture certainly that there's

it's a given that children will rebel

right this does not happen I you know

soon Iman yang who's from the wool of

culture right I mean in the wolf is

there any idea of that of a adolescent

rebellion against the parents I'm just

curious there might be do you have any

idea in your culture of like adolescent

rebellion against the parents

it was not there that would be

consistent with my experience in

Mauritania that they really had no