The Russia-Ukraine conflict as seen from the perspective of Islamic eschatology

This is actually the heading of the third segment of Let’s Talk Vol 2 No 13 which was released on March 2022. Didn’t realise that this was actually my last article on eschatology before I took a long pause and started to write again on it a few days ago.

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When Putin ordered Russian nuclear deterrent forces put on alert, some Muslim scholars commented that this could lead to the Malhama (Great War) in Islamic eschatology.

Eschatology refers to the branch of theology concerned with the final events in the history of the world or of humankind. Specifically it is a set of belief concerning death, the end of the world, or the ultimate destiny of humankind.

The End Time, which features prominently in the various eschatology of several world religions is a period in the future also known as end of days, last days, final days or eschaton.

From the Islamic perspective, eschatology or Ilmu Akhir Zaman is therefore the branch of Islamic scholarship that studies Yawm al-Qiyamah (the Day of Resurrection) or Yawm ad-Din (Day of Judgement). 

This is believed to be the final assessment of humanity by Allah, with annihilation of all life, resurrection and judgment.

A central feature of Islamic eschatology is the prophecies on events very near to the Last Hour foretold in many authentic Ahadith (plural of Hadith) of Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him).

One of these events is the cataclysmic and apocalyptic Malhama, which generally corresponds to the battle of Armageddon in Christian eschatology, and occurs soon before the emergence of the Dajjal (Antichrist).

Since the Ahadith on the events preceding the Last Hour are, more often than not, allegorical (mutasyabihah) with respect to details and chronology, analysis (a form of ijtihad – independent reasoning) is required because the nature of prophecies is such that they are not precise or exact in details, for otherwise they would no longer be a prophecy. 

The Malhama is actually a series of wars culminating in the Malhama al Kubra (The Greatest Battle) just before the three main actors of End Time will appear one after another on the world stage i.e. the Dajjal, Jesus (Prophet Isa peace on him) and the Mahdi (the Awaited One).

The Malhama Al-Kubra is found in multiple hadith narrations with varying details. However, the basic narrative framework of the cycle of prophecies found in Islamic eschatology is as follows: 

This battle is said to occur after the Muslims and Christian Romans victoriously fight alongside each other against a common enemy. 

Following their victory a conflict will break out in which a Christian claims that the cross brought them victory, a Muslim in response claims that God brought them victory and proceeds to destroy the cross, which leads to further reprisals from the Christian side. 

This culminates in the Malhama Al-Kubra, an apocalyptic scale battle so intense, according to some hadith narrations, that were a bird to pass their flanks, “it would fall down dead before reaching the end of them.”

This is being interpreted by some scholars as alluding to a nuclear war. In fact in another prophetic Hadith, where the ten signs of the End of Time were listed by the Prophet, it mentioned about Ad-Dukkan (the Smoke) as one of the signs.

Some interpret this to mean the fallout in a nuclear war where the intense smoke in the atmosphere will render useless all electrical and electronic equipment, marking the end of aerial warfare.

Henceforth, war will not only be conducted by land and sea but it is back to the medieval war of using swords and horses because the reliance on electricity and electronics which is a cornerstone of modern civilisation will come to an end.

So is the current Russia-Ukraine conflict a sign of the impending Malhama, when one ingredient of the Malhama is the threat of a nuclear war?

It depends. In the first place before the Malhama takes place, there must be a battle (non-nuclear) featuring the alliance between the Muslim and Rum (Rome) against a common enemy.

Now when the Hadith speaks about Rum, it refers to the Byzantine Empire with Orthodox Christianity as the official religion, and Constantinople (present day Istanbul) as its capital.

The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire was the continuation of the Roman Empire in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinople. 

It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century CE and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until Constantinople fell to the Muslim Ottoman.

The plot thickens when after the fall of Constantinople, Orthodox Christianity moved to Russia.

Some contemporary Muslim exegesis suggests that the Romans referred to in the prophecy correspond to the Russians, because Russia is the most populous Orthodox Christian country and considers itself the inheritor of the Eastern Roman Empire.

So in the current conflict, whether it will lead to the Malhama or not, we will have to watch Turkey, the only Muslim country which is a member of Nato, to see what stance and move it will make.

Also, there is a need to watch Saudi Arabia where many Ahadith have prophesised that dynastic struggle there will lead to event where the Mahdi will make an appearance.

Another two countries to watch – Syria and Israel. The former is said to be the venue of the second coming of Christ, while the latter is the place where the Dajjal will be setting up his HQ in Jerusalem.

If events in all these countries are just the usual conflict between and among nations, involving the use of conventional weapons, then the Russia-Ukraine war is just an isolated event that does not herald the coming of the Malhama.

The need for humility in interpreting eschatological prophecies in Islam

By Jamari Mohtar

I have often been asked why my posts on Islamic eschatology have pauses that lasted for years.

In truth, the long pauses was due to a lack of inspiration to write on the subject. Writing about Islamic Eschatology or Ilmu Akhir Zaman is very difficult because one has to be current on geopolitics, continuously revising or updating the historical process in light of current happenings, and as a journalist keeping in touch with my sources on behind the scene happenings in their countries. 

It goes without saying the need too to keep abreast on the latest with regards to what the Muslim scholars are saying about Islamic eschatology.

Most important of all, the study on eschatology is quite humbling because as human we do not have a crystal ball to claim that our interpretation of future events is the truth or the most correct or the most accurate.

This reminded me of my first few weeks at the International Islamic University (IIU), Malaysia some 40 years ago during a lecture on Quantitative Analysis. While going through the answers to the first test given by the lecturer a few weeks earlier, one of the students asked that the genius boy in the class had scored 100% but why was he given only 98%.

To score 100% in Quantitatve Analysis test which is basically a counting subject like Math is possible unlike the Humanities subjects. But the lecturer, with a straight face, answered the question on why the genius boy in the class did not get 100%: “That’s because 99% belongs to me, the lecturer, and 100% belongs to Allah,” pointing to the sky.

Moreover, in eschatology one has to resort to analysis (a form of ijtihad) whether it is deductive or inductive analysis. This is because the nature of prophecies is such that they are not precise or exact in details, for otherwise they would no longer be a prophecy. Hence, the Ahadith on the events preceding the Last Hour are, more often than not, allegorical (mutasyabihah) with respect to details and chronology.

Now to keep myself updated on geopolitics, I have created a new blog which is actually a newsletter known as Let’s Talk! with the tagline “Without fear or favour”. This is now the focus of my attention mainly because with me alone as the content creator assisted by some volunteers on the layout design and graphics, web-hosting and media relations aspects of producing Let’s Talk! I find it difficult to manage two blogs, and hence I have to ignore my Reflect| Deflect| Digest blog for quite a long while.

Researching for the topic on my new blog – not really new as it has been about two years now since I produced Let’s Talk! – gives me a lot of insights on the current geopolitical events, not to mention that my background as a journalist helps a lot too.

Moreover the happenings in current geopolitical events in a way is like, which for lack of a better term, I would say “eschatology in action”.

Time really flies very fast as it’s like only a few months ago that I started to embark on producing Let’s Talk! – an indication the eschatological predictions will soon very fast materialise.

This sensing of the passage of time moving very fast is itself a sign of the End Time. An authentic Hadith narrated by Imam Ahmad on the authority of Abdullah ibn ‘Amr (r.a) stated that Rasulullah (s.a.w) said: “The signs [of Qiyamah] are like pearls fastened by a string. Once the string is cut, they fall one after the other.” (Musnad Ahmad, Hadith: 7040, vol. 2 pg. 219)

Ibn Hibban has recorded the Hadith with slight variation in the wording on the authority of Abu Hurairah (r.a): “The signs will come one after the other, like beads falling from a string”. (Sahih Ibn Hibban; Al Ihsan, Hadith: 6833).

So what aspects of my view have really changed since I last penned down a post on eschatology, “The Economics of Oil in the Last Hour“, on July 8, 2018?

In the post on “Yajuj wa Majuj (Gog and Magog) and its relations to Askenazic Communism & Zionism – the peak of the second wave (Part 3)” on Sep 25, 2016, I mentioned:

“My guess is this third wave of Gog and Magog will see the Askenazic Jews in Israel stooping so low and will stop at nothing in committing the worst kind of excesses and atrocities in Palestine until the whole world is brought to its feet by recognizing Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel (currently it is Tel Aviv).

“Up to this point, they had failed to make Jerusalem their capital. When their objective in making Jerusalem as their undivided capital is achieved, the stage is set for the fourth wave of Gog and Magog, which will see the Dajjal (Anti-Christ) entering the picture and playing a central role as the sole leader of Gog and Magog.”

The above lines were written when Barack Obama was the president of the US. Three months later in January 2017, Donald Trump became the president and with him as president, the move to make Jerusalem, the undivided capital of Israel gained momentum and fruition.

So does this mean the fourth wave of Gog and Magog as postulated by me had taken place?

In one aspect, yes but in looking from another aspect it is not because not all countries in the world have moved their capital to Jerusalem which rather reinforced the notion that the time of Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel has not come yet, as the world is still divided on this.

Even physically Jerusalem is divided with East Jerusalem that has been slated under the Oslo peace accord to be the capital of a future independent state of Palestine, remains an Occupied Territory under international law.

So we are still in the third wave of Gog and Magog, giving us some respite from the ominous and wicked Dajjal from entering the world stage.

Just to give you another instance of the difficulty of interpreting end of time prophecy is with regards to the coming of Imam al Mahadi as seen from this Hadith:

“The Prophet (s.a.w) said: Disagreement will occur at the death of a caliph and a man of the people of Medina will come flying forth to Mecca. Some of the people of Mecca will come to him, bring him out against his will and swear allegiance to him between the Corner and the Maqam. An expeditionary force will then be sent against him from Syria but will be swallowed up in the desert between Mecca and Medina. When the people see that, the eminent saints of Syria and the best people of Iraq will come to him and swear allegiance to him between the Corner and the Maqam. (Abu Dawud).

When King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia died on January 23, 2015, and there was some disagreement over the succession, I thought that this was a fulfilment of the above Hadith and was about to write an article about it.

But there was simply not enough information to write especially on the geopolitical front because such an event will mean a tectonic change in the balance of power in Saudi Arabia and also in the Middle East as a whole.

Also the disagreement over the succession was a minor issue as King Salman was soon duly appointed to succeed King Abdullah.

So the lesson here for those ardent fans of eschatology is not to be too hasty in jumping to conclusion and a sense of patience and humility are very much needed especially in the context of wanting to score a “scoop” as in a journalistic scoop with the ego of wanting to be known as the first to break the news must be avoided at all cost.

So this also explains why I said earlier my posts on eschatology have long pauses because there is really nothing to write.

Anyway I have just discovered recently that the Hadith above by Abu Dawud is graded as dhaif (weak) by Al-Albani.

In a future post, I will touch on a saying which is based on some Ahadith that mentioned the following: “The lifespan of this ummah will exceed a thousand years but it will not exceed one thousand and five hundred years.”

Some scholars try to interpret this to mean the end time will occur in the year 1500 Hijriah. We are now in the year 1445 Hijriah – 55 years more to go. Is this interpretation correct?

Stay tune for more, in sya Allah