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Sharon "Man of Peace | One Sided American Justice | 4th July Independece Day Celebration

The prophecies about the false messiah, Armageddon, the Second Coming of Jesus, and the Day of Judgement are all quite fantastic. Will they actually come to pass? For the reader who is more a devotee of scientific texts than of scripture, these traditions are taken with great scepticism.

Let such modem men and women therefore approach the unknown like proper scientists. Use a working hypothesis that God is great and his Prophets truthful. The scientific experiment will be to apply the Book rigorously to your lives. The result of the experiment will be an increased measure of righteousness, which is a straight path to God. Even the scientific method has its heavenly rewards!

There are those who just fifty years ago would have reacted with great mirth at a prediction about travel to the moon, small disks that contain entire encyclopaedias, and robots the size of a thumbnail. Such extraordinary technical miracles have come to pass. We extend the parameters of belief in the works of men wider and wider every day. Why not approach the Almighty's infinite power with the same willingness to believe the incredible?

Chapter of the Consultation (Surat ash Shura)

14. ...But truly those who have inherited the Book after them (those that quarrelled and were divided) are in suspicious and disquieting doubt about it.

15. Now then, for that reason, call them to the Faith, and stand steadfast as you have been commanded. Do not follow your vain desires, but say, I believe in whatever Book that God has sent down, and I am commanded to act justly. God is our Lord and your Lord. We have responsibility for our deeds, and you for your deeds. There is no contention between us and you. God will bring us together, and to Him is our final goal.

There are others who take the signs of the approaching day of reckoning as a pretext to relinquish earnest work and efforts to set right corruption. Their point of view is that it is useless to attempt to encourage others to pursue the straight path when corruption and turmoil increase as per God's plan. The believers can do nothing, according to this school of thought, except wait for Jesus to redeem them from a world gone mad with corruption.

Allow me to caution the People of the Book that this manner of waiting for the return of Jesus is extremely erroneous. This attitude is itself an example of the clever tricks perhaps already being used to prepare the way for the Dajjal, the false messiah. Do nothing, he whispers, good will prevail. Meantime he will have kidnapped your soul!

For the believers who submit themselves to God (which for our Christian and Jewish brothers and sisters is the simple definition of Islam), these disciples need to strive with hard work and constant labour to maintain themselves on the straight road mapped out by their God. The rewards for the believers will go to those who are active in their belief, not the passive.

To not stand and fight the continual pressure of the world to corrupt the Word is to submit to the seduction of the false messiah. Don't be fooled. The mental manipulations which the pretender will deploy against the People of the Book will be clever indeed.

Wrong ideas will be advocated by misguided people who will use them as an excuse for their disappointments and failures in life. Such notions must be corrected to dissipate their negative impact on the believers. It should be explained patiently to such thinkers that it is a crime in Islam (and for all believers) to abandon the endeavour for good.

Those who believe in the forthcoming Day of Judgement should seize the opportunity of each day of their lives to put into practice their convictions. God links belief and work together.

Chapter of the Clear Evidence (Surat al Baiyina)

7. Those who have faith and beyond that also do righteous deeds, they are the best of creatures.

The hardships of the Day of Judgement will be inflicted on those who have done evil by commission and by omission. Those believers who are keen to be saved from hell fire should be aware that they must earn their place among the righteous who will be saved. To attain this status, the disciple must resist the continual sedition of the corrupting impulses of those around him.

There is a plenitude of Koranic verses which link happiness in this world with faith, and which instruct the believers to prepare for Judgement Day by hard work and righteous deeds.

The Chapter of Mary (Surat Maryam)

93. There is not one of the beings of the heavens and the earth which but must come to the Most Gracious as a servant.

94. He takes an account of all of them, and has numbered them exactly.

95. And everyone of them will come to Him singly on the Day of Judgement.

96. On those who believe and work deeds of righteousness, the Most Gracious will bestow love.

97. We have made the Koran easy in your own tongue, so that with it you may give glad tidings to the righteous, and warnings to people given to contention.

God ordained life and death for all humans to test them, to determine who among them would best make use of every moment in their lives to do good deeds. If we give in to the notions of "wait and see" as the method of preparing for the approaching conflict of good and evil, then surely we will all be enslaved by the oppressors. The Prophets have warned us of the consequences of abandoning righteous deeds.

As the signs multiply, the believers must remain constant. Even if the Day of Reckoning should come to find you with a plant in your hand for the garden, then it will be your duty to finish your task properly. This steadfastness of purpose has been recommended by the Prophet Mohammed in the Hadith.

There are many among the believers who bemoan their bad luck or fate, which really means that they are blaming God for their tribulations. Yes indeed, He is the source of all, but consider those difficulties as your trial, the test of your faith. The reward will be earned for the effort, not the result!

The Chapter of Jonah (Surat Yunus)

26. To those who do right there is a good reward, more in fact than the measure of their deeds. No darkness or abasement will cover their faces...

So then let us be very clear for our readers. It is absolutely wrong for anyone to yield the path to the corrupt as the signs multiply of the coming Day of Judgement. The believer is mistaken if he says, These must be the signs we have been waiting for, and then abandons work and good deeds as hopeless and locks himself in his house to wait for the reward for his belief.

That course of inaction is terribly flawed. You will best prepare for the Second Coming of Jesus by determining to join the fray in the approaching battle of good and evil. There will be no observers at Armageddon.

GOD'S WILL BE DONE AT ITS APOINTED HOUR…