পৃষ্ঠা 2: ভূমিকা: গ্রন্থের উদ্দেশ্য, নির্ভরযোগ্য উৎস ও কিয়ামতের আলামত জানার গুরুত্ব

every person shall have what he intended, and that He may benefit through it the general body of the believers, and that He may forgive me, my parents, my brothers, and my children, both in earthly lineage and in spiritual faith, all of them. Amin.

And I have titled it:

"al-Isha'a li-Ashrat al-Sa'a" (Broadcasting the Signs of the Hour)

And I hope for the intercession of the Prophet (ﷺ), despite the scarcity of my provisions.

Thus I say, while roaming within the realm of His bounties:

An introduction is indispensable, namely: since the matter of the Hour is momentous, its terror immense, and its term distant; for Allah on that Day will judge between the first and the last generations, decree in favor of the believers against the disbelievers, and distinguish between the sincere and the hypocrites, as Allah the Exalted said: {That is a Day whereon mankind will be gathered together, and that is a Day witnessed} [Hud: 103], and the Exalted said: {Nay, but the Hour is their appointed time, and the Hour will be more grievous and more bitter} [al-Qamar: 46], and the Exalted said: {We shall attend to you, O you two classes (of jinns and men)!} [al-Rahman: 31].

And since it shall not arrive except suddenly, as the Exalted said, and He has kept its specific knowledge exclusively to Himself, not revealing it to any of His creation, or He taught it to the Prophet (ﷺ) and forbade him from disclosing it, in order to magnify its gravity and emphasize its magnitude; therefore, concern for its affair became greater than anything else, and its terror exceeds all else.

Hence, the Prophet (ﷺ) frequently clarified its signs and portents, and the imminent and distant tribulations that precede it, so that the people of every generation might remain vigilant regarding it, preparing for it with righteous deeds, and not immersing themselves in desires and ephemeral pleasures.

Thus, the signs are divided into three categories:

A category that has already appeared and ended; these are the distant signs.

A category that has appeared and has not ended; rather, it continues to increase and unfold, until it reaches its culmination, whereupon it fully manifests.

The third category: these are the proximate, major signs after which the Hour immediately follows, and they will succeed one another like beads falling from a broken necklace.

Let us therefore mention each category in a separate chapter.