Page 68 - The End Times and the Mahdi

However, this should not be understood as an idle pe-
riod away from society, for they took refuge there while
asking for Allah's grace and help. They also sought to im-
prove and develop themselves. Muslims of the End Times
living under oppressive regimes will conceal themselves
and hope for Allah to increase His grace upon them, and
also to make their lives and intellectual struggle against
anti-religious movements easier.

Their secrecy continued for some time

So We sealed their ears with sleep in the cave for a num-
ber of years. Then We woke them up again so that We
might see which of the two groups would better calcu-
late the time they had stayed there. (Surat al-Kahf: 11-12)
The reason for this state of sleep was their surrender
to destiny and peace, because Allah, Who created the
universe out of nothing, arranges everything for the ben-
efit of Muslims. In our own time, some Muslims have
adopted a similar spiritual detachment. This way, they
remain uncorrupted by the materialist ideologies
that seek to distance people from their
faith, and also are untouched by
the violence to which these
ideologies lead. Thus,
they can
continue to