outwardly alluring ideas (some traditions mention 30 deceivers
who will appear in the later phase of human history). What is
meant by deception? This means, in fact, intellectual
misguidance through misinterpretation of religion. In this age
this kind of misguidance will become widespread.
The age of the global divine call
A
NOTHER
ASPECT
OF
the constructive task to be performed in
the final stage of human history is
dawah
work on a global scale.
A prediction is made in a hadith about this global
dawah
: “There
will be no house, big or small, in which God will not cause the
word of God to enter.” (Musnad Ahmad, Vol. 6, p.4)
This introduction of the word of God into all the homes in
the world will not take place in any mysterious way. It will take
place through known channels of global communication. For
the first time in modern times, global means of communication
have become available to man, making it possible for him to do
dawah
work on a greatly enlarged scale. Prior to the age of the
scientific revolution, this had simply not been possible.
In present times,
dajjals
or misguided leaders (known in
Christian tradition as anti-Christ) have used modern means of
communication to fill the entire world with negative propaganda.
The whole world is now living under the shadow of negative
thinking. This is the state of affairs which has been called in
traditions
fitna duhaima
, the age of utter darkness.
This darkness, actually denoting intellectual darkness, will
spread all over the world through the negative use of modern
means of communication. A positive use of them would be to
spread globally the call of truth. This can take place through
the multimedia. One who makes positive use of the multimedia
for
dawah
is symbolized as a
Mahdi
or ‘a believer’ in the hadith,
while one who makes negative use of modern communications
is symbolized as
dajjal
.
14
The alarm of Doomsday
