What About Armageddon?

Hmm. Is the moon really all that old? Some say it isn't as old as we think and that the dust layers on its surface hold the clues to the notion that it may be just a passing fancy of the solar system. A meteor trap.
I don't know enough about it yet to go into detail but I do know a bit about the Islamic Armageddon principle.

One can open just about any Sura in the Quran and find reference to the End of Times or what is called "The Hour" . Here is one Sura however that discusses it a whole bunch:

http://www.islam101.com/quran/QTP/QTP025.htm

I choose Pickthal as that is one of the more universally 'non Shi'i' /non 'Sunni' translations by a relatively objective outsider. All Qurans are IDENTICAL and CANONICAL in ARABIC. In English however there are vast differences in semantics and syntax. Words like KHALIFA in a Sunni translated English version are translated as "Humanity" whereas in a pure Shi'i translation that word is left simply as KHALIFA. A Khalifa is the same as a Caliph or, Ruler/Emperor but one whose main focus is regarding the safekeeping of Islam regardless of which country it is that utilizes the Islamic Code of Jurisprudence as its guide to better management of human issues be they spiritual or political or legal. The system of Khalifa seems to have died out with the Ottoman Empire did it not? Well, that is because they weren't the Khalifas mentioned in the Quran. The Khalifa mentioned in the Quran is none other than the first muslim who was born INSIDE the Kaaba, raised near the prophet (literally BY the prophet as he was younger), married the prophet's only daughter, buried the prophet and whose texts are called: Nahj al Balagha (phonetic spelling). The notion of a "Mahdi" is reflected in the continuation of his 'line' of inheritance all the way up to the twelvth "Imam" who is considered to be in "occultation" and is the Messiah whom both Xtians and Jews refer to as either Jesus or some unknown and unborn Israeli. This is really, the essence of Twelver Shi'i Islam, that they follow the 12 Khalifs who inherited the safekeeping of the Quran itself and its application. I think we can all see how horrible Islam can be when it is misapplied and we can all see now how productive it is when it is applied down to the last letter. The reason Nasrallah has been so successful in Southern Lebanon in preventing deaths of Israeli civilians while simultaneously causing massive damage to the Israeli War Machine is that he follows the Law as it is recorded and TAUGHT by the twelve Imams. It is said that Islam is the City of Knowledge and Ali Mu'mineen is the DOOR (the first Imam, the first actual muslim who was never anything else i.e. pagan, Jew, Xtian or otherwise). And it must be noted and ACCEPTED that Islam is a continuation and reflection of the other two systems (and all others headed by prophets including Zorastrianism and Buddhism).


Sura 25 discusses both The Hour and The Day. These are separate issues. The Hour is held to be a time, literally a moment in time, in which the earth will be rent asunder. Violent geophysical details are clearly described such as the utter destruction of all geological landmarks. It is also treated metaphorically in the sense that one could say the Hour is similar to the Hour of one's own death. Sudden, uncontrollable and FINAL. Everyone has their own personal Armageddon it seems and that is their own death. It marks an end to an individuals 'case study'. Like death, no one person, prophet or otherwise, knows the secret of the Hour, be it their own demise or the demise of the entire planet. NO ONE. This is reflected in ALL references to the Hour within the Quran, not just Sura 25 which is called The Criterion.

The Day, on the other hand, is not an earth bound time constrained event. It happens at the same time for all individuals whether they died seven centuries ago or seven minutes ago or, have yet to die. The constraint of TIME is discarded and all beings wake up simultaneousy and feel as if they'd but tarried an hour. To a muslim, it is best described to non muslims as Judgement Day. Many faiths including Islam confuse the two concepts, the Hour and the Day. They are not the same. This has resulted in a bit of confusion and a bit of mudslinging amongst various types of believers worldwide. It has been used to frighten people and they say crazy things regarding interpersonal and international 'judgements' of one person or people upon another. According to Islam, Judgement Day is unavoidable regardless of what faith you aspire to believe in and it is irrevocable.

If you are familiar with Spengler or any other number of modern secular theologians (philosophers), you will notice remnants of this idea of 'cycling' or impermanence versus impermanence of reality as it is evidenced by the cultures in which each of us live. What you will also notice is a failure to discuss Islam until recently:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spengler

This type of 'renewal' of Ideals and belief patterns is common to all things save for Islam because it has either escaped detection, been ignored or maybe, isn't OLD ENOUGH to have been applied by enough critical thinkers (in English not in other languages because I assure you, Islamic scholars study all types of man made ideologies including Marxism and Captitalism). Islam is to be (as per the Quran) the final chapter, recited by the final prophet (no more warnings) and is considered to be a book that applies to All Times, past and present. It is concrete evidence of an even higher concept and that is called The Mother of All Books which is inaccessible to human beings limited to five senses plus those of instinct, free will and inspiration (and perhaps more but those are the major influences I see to be at work in most humans AND those three things are used to spread what is called "Propaganda").

Allah relates a sense of Tough Love. There has to be an end to all the warnings found in the immature (not in the offensive sense but the pure definition of the word meaning something 'not fully formed') religions preceeding Islam. The Quran addresses all immature systems and leaves not one of them out including Atheism. Wow, imagine Allah discussing his own "non existence". Don't find that in most common prayer books do you!

One of the very serious consequences of the failure to understand both the Hour and the Day has been that many people (Jerry Falwell for instance) use it to misconstrue violent events of weather or events like the WTC in order to cast judgement on other people because of their failure to be "moral" individuals according to various immature standards. The Quran however states that the Hour is not selective. It plays no favorites:

025.014 Pray not that day for one destruction, but pray for many destructions!

See there? No one escapes it whether it (the Hour) refers to the cessation of all life on this planet (due to whatever extremes of environment at the time like Polar Shift or Asteroid Bombardments from above) or to the death of a single individual. I think we can all agree on that and call it a Truth. No?

For me, that one verse is one of the most powerful wordings in the Quran: thabooran katheeran.

Lots of Beatings, Defeats, Disasters, Destructions.

Not just one, that of an Islamic State or a city like New York (that crazy Babylon that crazy people refer to as an extrapolation from what is known as Revelations in the Bible). The End is for all people, either via our own deaths or via the death of the entire planet. A final irrevocable death.

I used to believe it was the End of the World too. After that crazy 9/11 even secular people began to itch a bit and no doubt about it, governments capitalized using that FEAR. They still are. There are many victims of this Armageddon Skittishness. How did I get over it? Easy. I asked Uncle Jaffer. I said, "Jaffar, do you believe that it is almost the Hour?" He looked at me and laughed and said, "No one knows the Hour you silly girl. No one."

And Peace isn't used for Peace anymore. It is an Ideal that is abused in order to cause war and ceasefire, to enrich oppressors. Peace my friends, isn't achieved via governments, it is achieved through individuals. Not as easy as it ought to be but definitely possible if one tries and refuses to accept propaganda and instead, uses their imagination and their reason. How sad it is that some folks think my "imagination" ought to be obliterated or the imagination of a group of people in South Lebanon who truly believe and truly act to fight hypocrisy risking their reputation, their property, and their lives.