قربِ قیامت کی ایک خاص علامت

Abu Hurayrah (RA) narrated that (one day) the Prophet ﷺ was sitting in a gathering, engaged in conversation with the Companions (RA), when a Bedouin came and asked, "When will the Hour come?" The Messenger of Allah ﷺ carried on with his conversation. Some of the people said the Prophet ﷺ had heard what the Bedouin asked but did not like it; others said he had not heard it at all. When the Prophet ﷺ finished what he was saying, he asked, "Where is the one who asked about the Hour?" The man said, "Here I am, O Messenger of Allah!" The Prophet ﷺ said: "When the trust is lost, then await the Hour." He asked, "How will the trust be lost?" The Prophet ﷺ said, "When the affair (of religion and worldly matters) is entrusted to those unfit for it, then await the Hour." (Bukhari)

The appointed time of the Hour is known to none but the Knower of the Unseen, and Allah has not shown anyone a means by which its fixed time could be discovered. He has, however, appointed certain signs that will appear before the Hour, which are indications that it has drawn near. In this blessed hadith too the Messenger of Allah ﷺ described a particular and highly important sign of the nearness of the Hour: that trusts will be lost — that is, people will betray the trusts placed in them. He then explained that these trusts will be lost in this way: the affairs of religion and the world will pass from the righteous and the capable into the hands of the wicked and corrupt, the ignorant, the base, and the unfit. Leadership in the world will fall to those distinguished in cunning and evil deeds, and the seats of guidance and religious verdict will be occupied by people who are without knowledge, greedy for wealth and status, and devoid of piety and God-consciousness.

The essence of the hadith is that if the management of religious and worldly affairs falls into the hands of people who lack the competence to fulfil that responsibility, then those affairs cannot be carried out properly; all kinds of corruption will arise, and the result will be that people's rights will be lost and trampled, and everyone will remain restless and troubled. Let us reflect today and look across the nations of the world — does it not seem that we are living in exactly such an age?