Page 90 - Signs Of The Last Day

The period referred to as the End Times
will be a time of extreme social disinte-
gration. The structures that form the ba-
sis of society will be seriously under-
mined. In the hadiths of the Prophet
(saas), there is much to bring to light the
collapse of the fabric of today’s societies.

Everywhere in the world, in a
five-year period, two-thirds
of the people living in large
cities have been the target at
least once of a criminal action.
All over the world, the odds
of being the target of a serious crime (robbery, sexual crimes,
assault) are one in five. Regardless of the area, crimes against
property, and crimes of violence committed by youth, have

both had economic ramifications.
The number of types of illicit drugs has increased and their
nature diversified in recent years. 19
Actually, all this is not surprising. The causes of such a soci-
etal phenomenon are clearly related in the Qur’an, in the accounts

of past societies. Social deterioration, and all the various problems
associated with it, are the inevitable result of human beings’ for-
getting Allah and the purposes of their creation, and their aban-
doning religion and its spiritual values.

The aspects of this social deterioration we see happening so
prevalently today were predicted by the Prophet (saas) fourteen
centuries ago. Allah's Messenger (saas) described the End Times
as “When people suffer strife and social upheaval” (Ahmad

Diya’al-Din al-Kamushkhanawi, Ramuz al-Ahadith). The following
are the hadiths relevant to its first phase:

Signs of the Last Day
88