God says in the Quran:
“Do they then await (anything) other than the Hour, that it should come upon them suddenly? But some of its and signs have already come.”
These signs or events are called “Signs before the Hour.”
No one can know when the Day of Judgment will occur, yet God has taught His messengers some of the signs in His Mercy to alert us to the fact that the Hour is approaching. These signs play a very important role, especially for us who live at a time distant from the Prophet, who did not experience firsthand his teaching and example. These signs reinforce our belief in the Prophet Muhammad.
More importantly, these signs, if one takes the time to reflect upon them, are a reminder of the Day of Judgment. They should revive the heart of the person and make him recall what he is doing on this earth and where all this is heading.
The signs of the Hour can be divided into two types.
Minor Signs: First are those that occur as part of the changes in everyday life.
Major Signs: The second are the extraordinary or supernatural events that will occur just before the actual Hour.
Minor Signs
The reason it is important to touch on the “minor signs” is that often neglected as people concentrate on the more “sensational” major signs. Minor signs are those signs that may occur long before the actual Last Day and, in general, they are related to day-to-day changes that occur in worldly events. The number of minor signs is numerous.
Minor signs are of three types:
The minor signs that have already appeared and passed away like like the arrival of Prophet Muhammad and the splitting of the moon
- The minor signs that have appeared and have not come to an end, but continue to increase like decline in knowledge and spread of ignorance about Islam among Muslims, the spread of tribulations where a person will go to bed at night as a believer and wake up in the morning as an unbeliever, unqualified people will be made responsible of the affairs of the Muslims, drinking of alcohol and zornication, and others.
- The minor signs that have yet to appear.
When one witnesses these signs around him, they should be clear reminders of God and one’s future meeting with God. They should also fortify one’s belief in God and, in particular, in the truthfulness of the Prophet Muhammad.
In addition, these signs should be a reminder that God has foreknowledge of everything that is occurring in this world— this is how He could convey those signs to His messenger. Therefore, God also has knowledge of everything the person is doing. God is watching and aware of every act of His creatures. At the very least, this consciousness, which comes about through witnessing the Signs of the Hour, should make the person worship and fear God knowing full well that He is seeing him.
Major Signs
Major Signs of the Hour will appear shortly before the Day of Judgement comes:
(1) The appearance of the Mahdi.
At the end of time, a man from the descendants of the Prophet will appear, and God will help him to make His religion prevail. He will take control of the land (or the earth) and fill it with justice just as it had previously been filled with wrongdoing and oppression. This man's name will be like the name of the Messenger of God, and his father's name will be like the Messenger's father's name. He will be a descendant of Fatimah, the daughter of the Messenger of God, through the line of Hasan ibn 'Ali. He will appear from the East.
(2) The Antichrist.
The Antichrist is a human being. The Prophet Muhammad described him to be a young man with a ruddy complexion and curly hair, and will be one-eyed, with his right eye looking like a floating grape. Another of his attributes will be that he is sterile, and will have no children. He will appear from the East, from Khurasaan, then he will travel around the world, leaving no country but he will enter it, except for Mecca and Madina, which he will not be able to enter because the angels are guarding them.
The trial of the Antichrist will be the greatest ever, seen from the time that God created Adam until the onset of the Day of Judgement, and this will be because of the power that God will permit him to have, of working great miracles that will amaze and confuse the people. He will have rivers of water and mountains of bread. He will command the sky to rain, and it will rain, and he will command the earth to bring forth its produce, and it will bring forth its produce. The treasures of the earth will follow him, and he will travel though the earth at great speed, like rain driven by the wind.
(3) The descent of Jesus.
After the Antichrist has appeared and spread corruption throughout the earth, God will send Jesus, the son of Mary, who will descend to the earth, coming down to the white minaret in the East of Damascus, Syria, resting his hands on the wings of two angels. When he will lower his head, drops will fall, and when he will raise it, drops like large pearls will fall. All the Christians will accept him.
(4) Gog and Magog.
They are human beings. According to the descriptions given by Prophet Muhammad, they belong to the Turkic Mongol race, having small eyes, small, flat noses and wide faces. Their faces look like hammered-out shields meaning they will be wide and round.
God will send them swiftly swarming from every corner. They will pass the lake of Tiberias in Palestine and will drink everything in it. The last of them will pass by it and say, 'There used to be water here once.' After Jesus and his companions will be besieged by them, they will pray to God Who will send a kind of worm on their necks, and they will fall down dead.
(5) The other major signs are the swallowing up of the earth, a portion of earth will be swallowed up and disappear, as described by the Prophet Muhammad:
"The Hour will not begin until you see ten signs… (Including) three events where the earth swallows up, one in the East, one in the West, and one in the Arabian Peninsula."
(6) Another of the major signs of the Hour will be the appearance of the smoke as God says:
"Then wait you for the Day when the sky will bring forth a visible smoke, covering the people, this is a painful torment."
(7). Rising of the Sun from the West.
The next major event is the rising of the sun from the West as God says:
"… The day that some of the Signs of your Lord do come, no good will it do to a person to believe then, if he believed not before, nor earned good (by performing deeds of righteousness) through his faith…"
(8) The Beast.
A Beast will appear from the ground, it will mark the believers and the unbelievers. As for the believer, it will make his face shine brightly, as a sign of his faith, and as for the unbeliever, it will mark his nose with a sign of his disbelief. God says:
"And when the Word (of torment) is fulfilled against them, We shall bring out from the earth a beast to them, which will speak to them because mankind believed not with certainty in our verses."
(9) The Fire.
A great fire will appear from the direction of Yemen, from the bottom of 'Aden, from the Sea of Hadramawt that will gather people together.