Fasting in the End Times

All praise belongs to God Who promises us that with every hardship comes ease. This week, refugees from the genocide in Gaza began returning from exile in Egypt and the south of the Gaza Strip. Friends of mine in Palestine have told me that it is the happiest day of their lives. The mood on the ground looks absolutely jubilant. Finally, the war has ended, the chance to rebuild and reunite has begun, and our ummah may fast this Ramadan knowing that our brothers and sisters in Gaza have returned to a state of relative security.

The scale and toll of Israel’s actions, however, have left us permanently transformed. Unlike the “collateral damage” of previous skirmishes between Israel and Hamas, the IDF’s potshots at civilians across the border, and the effects of the blockade of Gaza, which left our collective consciousness just as quickly as they entered, this time is different. The past 15 months have left Muslims (and many non-Muslims) in the West with fundamental questions about the true reality of a world in which a regime can publicly commit such atrocities without consequence. These are questions about the public acceptance of evil, the apparent impotence of justice against injustice, and why the state of this world is deteriorating rather than improving. These are not geopolitical, historical, or even moral questions. Such questions grasp at the limits of our ability to imagine our world continuing on its present course. These are questions of eschatology, the revealed knowledge of the signs of the end of time.

The Messenger of God ﷺ tells us that senseless violence is one of the signs of the Hour. He described this as harj, or “upheaval” that refers to the fog we experience in the midst of chaos. He ﷺ said of the signs of the Hour that, “Time will pass rapidly, knowledge will be withdrawn, tribulations will prevail, greed will be cast into hearts, and upheaval will increase.” His Companions asked, “What is the upheaval?” The Prophet said, “It is killing.” He spoke of this upheaval on multiple occasions. During another, his Companions objected that killing was a commonplace feature of the world--that, after all, they had gone to war for the sake of the religion. So he clarified that this violence would be senseless to the extent that “you will fight each other, until a man kills his neighbor, the son his aunt, and his close relatives.” They asked, “O Messenger of Allah, will we be reasonable on that day?” The Prophet said, “No, reason will be taken away from most people in that era, and insignificant people will remain who do not use their reason.” The Messenger of God ﷺ thus describes a world in which those who do reason and cling to their humanity will increasingly be at a loss to understand the chaos that surrounds them. As we approach the Hour, we must understand that our own disorientation from this upheaval is a sign in itself.

So what is a believer to do with this knowledge? Eschatology does not equip us to predict the precise time of the Hour. When the Angel Gabriel questioned the Prophet ﷺ about the Hour, he replied, “The one questioned knows no more than the questioner.” That knowledge lies only with Allah. Instead, eschatology tells us that we already live on the doorstep of the Hour--in an age abundant with the signs of its coming, the first of which was the mission of our Prophet ﷺ. He once told us, holding his index and middle fingers together, “My advent and the Hour are like these two fingers.” If eschatology does not provide us with a clock, it certainly gives us a zeitgeist, a mood, a vibe even, that ought to inform our worship and relationship to the world around us.

The Hadith of Gabriel points to this reality by including the major signs of the Hour. It begins with Gabriel asking the Prophet ﷺ about islam (the shahada, prayers, charity, fasting, and pilgrimage that make up our acts of worship), then iman (belief in God, His angels, books, messengers, the divine decree, and the resurrection), and then ihsan (the presence we bring to our worship by remembering that God sees us). We teach this to all of our newcomers at Taleef because it provides the clearest “how-to” of being a Muslim. Gabriel then asks about the Hour. When the Prophet ﷺ answers that he does not have knowledge of it, Gabriel asks for its signs. The Messenger of God responds, “That the slave-girl will give birth to her mistress and that you will see the barefooted, naked, destitute herdsmen competing in constructing lofty buildings.” Without getting into the meaning of these signs, I simply want to point out that the hadith ends with the Prophet ﷺ telling Umar, may God be pleased with him, who witnessed this interaction, that all of this knowledge--islam, iman, ihsan, and signs of the hour--that this comprises knowledge of our religion. That is, we ought to believe and worship not only with the knowledge that God sees us, but also with the understanding that time in this world is deteriorating and coming to a hard stop. This should sober us and provide a sense of urgency. As we say before all of our congregational prayers, pray as if this is your last prayer. Declare your faith as if it is the last time you will do it. Reap the reward of charity as if you will leave this world tomorrow. And fast this Ramadan not simply from food and drink, but from a world that is in upheaval.

This Ramadan, I pray the mood will be lighter knowing that our own brothers and sisters who survived are no longer being afflicted. I also pray that we have the presence and the reasoning to read the past 15 months for the sign that is. Let us take comfort in these signs. The signs of the hour are the constellations Allah has put in the sky as darkness descends around us. Learning to read them is learning to navigate that darkness. And understanding the night is knowing that dawn will follow. May Allah fill your Ramadan with light and accept every prayer, recitation, and pang of hunger as sincere worship for His sake. Ameen!