RELIGION WILL BE RESTORED
TO ITS ORIGINAL STATE
Another news revealed by
the Hadith literature regarding the End Times is that the
original religion will no longer be misunderstood. In the
Golden Age, all heretical misunderstandings that entered
Islam after our Prophet (saas) will be eliminated, and the
original religion will be restored: "Just as in the
case of the Prophet, the requirements of the religion will
be fulfilled."23
After the death of our Prophet (saas) and his Companions,
history records that unrelated heresies and forms of worship
were introduced into the original religion, and that countless
hadiths and judgments, most of which have survived to our
day, were fabricated and attributed to our Prophet (saas).
Despite the best efforts of true Muslims to eliminate these
fabrications, many practices done in the name of Islam today
are not based upon the Qur'an.
As the Qur'an is the only source that can distinguish between
the correct and mistaken practices, only its guidance can
expose and remove these fabricated heresies. This way, the
true religion will resurface.
Today, many people embrace the understanding of Islam that
they inherited from their ancestors as the true religion.
Both some pious people and those who oppose Islam consider
this understanding to be the true Islam. However, in many
respects this understanding of religion contradicts with
the Islam described in the Qur'an. This traditional understanding
is comprised of baseless myths and countless bigoted beliefs
and rituals. This religion's adherents base their knowledge
of religion on myths and stories, rather than on the Qur'an.
The fact that many people considered to be pious by the
public are unaware of the Qur'an's verses reveals this perversion.
Rather than adopting the Qur'an as their guide, they adhere
to the rituals of a particular tradition. As a result, they
are far removed from such concerns as pondering the verses
of the Qur'an and trying to understand their divine purposes.
They drift further from the Qur'an and become suffocated
in details. However, in an environment where the Qur'an
is disregarded, no one can know and live by Islam in its
true sense. Indeed, as the Qur'an informs us, on the Day
of Judgment our Prophet (saas) will say that his people
have treated the Qur'an as a forsaken thing:
The Messenger says: "My Lord, my people
treat this Qur'an as something to be ignored." (Surat
al-Furqan: 30)
Allah warns those who turn away from the Qur'an as follows:
In this way We give you news of what
has gone before, and We have given you a reminder direct
from Us. Those who turn away from it will bear a heavy
burden on the Day of Rising, remaining in it timelessly,
forever. What an evil load they will bear on the Day of
Rising! (Surah Ta Ha: 99-101)
The main reason why many people remain far from religion
is the presentation of Islam in this perverted form. Most
people notice that this religion, which is based on various
traditions, harbors irrational elements and countless contradictions,
and so wait for the facts to surface. In the End Times,
Allah will restore the religion to its original state and
make the Qur'an's morality prevail. When this times comes,
He will remove all deviations that hinder people from living
by His religion, and will purify Islam from all heresies,
false beliefs, and forms of worship. :
... He [the Mahdi] will
practise the religion just as in the time of Our Prophet.
He will eliminate the sects from the face of the
earth. No sect except for the original true religion will
remain..24
In our own time, Muslims fail to agree even on some fundamental
issues. Contrary to this situation, Allah commands Muslims
not to disagree about issues concerning their religion:
This faith of yours is a single faith and I am your Lord,
so heed Me. But they disagreed and split up, dividing
into sects, each party exulting in what it had. (Surat
al-Mu'minun: 52-53)
Those who divide the Qur'an into little pieces. (Surat
al-Hijr: 91)
He has laid down the same religion for you as He enjoined
on Nuh: that which We have revealed to you and which We
enjoined on Ibrahim, Musa, and `Isa: "Establish the religion
and do not make divisions in it." What you call the idolaters
to follow is very hard for them. Allah chooses for Himself
anyone He wills, and guides to Himself those who turn
to Him. (Surat ash-Shura: 13)
That is because Allah has sent down the Book with truth,
and those who differ from the Book are entrenched in hostility.
(Surat al-Baqara: 176)
In the Qur'an, Allah says that Islam is an easy religion
to live by and that its commands are clear and easy. The
Qur'an lays down what is right and what is wrong, as well
as what kind of attitudes and behaviors lead one to Paradise
or Hell. The fact that the Qur'an contains the basic knowledge
that people may need at any time is stressed in many verses:
We have not omitted anything from the Book-then they
will be gathered to their Lord. (Surat al-An`am: 38)
We have sent down the Book to you, making all things
clear and as guidance and mercy and good news for the
Muslims. (Surat an-Nahl: 89)
In this way We have sent it down as an Arabic Qur'an,
and have diversified therein the warnings so that hopefully
they will avoid sin or it will spur them into remembrance.
(Surah Ta Ha: 113)
We have given all kinds of examples to people in this
Qur'an, so that hopefully they will pay heed. (Surat az-Zumar:
27)
Allah warns those who proclaim their own laws on behalf
of religion as follows:
O you who believe, do not make unlawful the good things
Allah has made lawful for you, and do not overstep the
limits. Allah does not love people who overstep the limits.
(Surat al-Ma'ida, 87)
Do not say about what your lying tongues describe: "This
is lawful and this is unlawful," inventing lies against
Allah. Those who invent lies against Allah are not successful.
(Surat an-Nahl, 116)
Those who make what Allah has provided for them unlawful,
inventing lies against Allah, such people are lost. They
are misguided. They are not guided. (Surat al-An`am: 140)
In another verse, Allah makes it clear that Islam is easy
to live by:
He has chosen you, and has imposed no difficulties on
you in religion. (Surat al-Hajj: 78)
On no soul does Allah place a burden greater than it
can bear. (Surat al-Baqara: 286)
Allah desires to make things lighter for you. Man was
created weak. (Surat an-Nisa': 28)
Allah does not want to make things difficult for you,
but He does want to purify you and to perfect His blessing
upon you so that hopefully you will be thankful. (Surat
al-Ma'ida: 6)
The verses below reveal that one of the reasons why Prophet
Muhammad (saas) was sent was to relieve people of their
heavy loads and chains:
Those who follow the Messenger, the Ummi, whom they find
written down with them in the Torah and the Gospel, commanding
them to do right and forbidding them to do wrong, making
good things lawful for them and bad things unlawful for
them, relieving them of their heavy loads and the chains
that were around them. Those who believe in him, honor
him, and help him, and follow the Light that has been
sent down with him, they are the ones who are successful.
(Surat al-A`raf: 157)
Allah showed great kindness to the believers when He
sent a Messenger to them from among themselves to recite
His Signs to them, purify them, and teach them the Book
and Wisdom, even though before that they were clearly
misguided. (Surah Al`Imran: 164)
The true religion is truly easy. Our Prophet (saas) also
stated many times that religion must not be presented as
difficult:
Make things easy for the people, and do not make
it difficult for them. Make them calm (with glad tidings),
and do not repulse (them).25
Allah did not commission me for clerical duties.
The more pleasing thing in the sight of Allah is to choose
the easy way of Allah's Oneness.26
Avoid exaggeration while practicing your religion.
The ones preceding you perished for this reason.27
The Golden Age will be a time when people will truly live
by Allah's religion. Sincere Muslims will restore the religion
to its original state.
23. Ismail Mutlu, Kiyamet Alametleri
(The Signs of the Last Day), Mutlu Publications, Istanbul,
1999, p. 163.
24. Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Rasul Barzanji , Al-Isha‘ah
li-ashrat al-sa‘ah, pp. 186-187.
25. Bukhari, vol. 8, no. 146.
26. Ahmad Diya’al-Din al-Kamushkhanawi, Ramuz al-Ahadith,
vol. 2, no. 498.
27. Ibid., vol. 1, no. 176.
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The
Golden Age
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