Islamic Perspective

The End of the World (yawm to Qiyama) [3], which appears in Christianity with a very real sense, tends to produce some reluctance in many people by the seemingly unlikely the case, but what is said regarding this issue within Islam? First, we must know that it is a central issue among Muslims. Actually, the whole prophecy (al-naba), the news brings the Prophet Muhammad, is deeply related to the eschatological, World’s End and the subsequent resurrection of all creatures. To analyze it and frame it in the Islamic perspective is necessary to take into account a number of elements that are fundamental.

When Sufi masters analyzed eschatological texts in the Qur’an, all they talk about an experience at an individual level, ie as an event that is describing the fana, annihilation of self, the ego [4]; full description Koranic references the end of the world is interpreted by the Sufis as the end of your world because of your spiritual evolution. When the Quran says the earth will crack or that the mountains will depart, for the Sufis is referring to the person, hence all these descriptions are realizing individual experience and direct Sufi, so that the nafs (ego) of the Sufi cracks and crumbles.

It is important to note that the translations to the use being made into Castilian of these Quranic verses, moreover, very abundant-often restrict the interpretation of them, from the moment in which it was decided to refer to events which will occur in the future, whereas in the original Arabic these passages can also be interpreted as past or present. Therefore, not only making reference to an event that is coming, but something that happened to the same Prophet Muhammad and, by extension, happened or could happen to who is able to delve into reading the text Koran.

This means re-interpret the existence from another perspective, from the viewpoint of one for whom his inner world has been completely obliterated by the eruption and the presence of the One-Only. Thus, to Muhammad, his experience in the cave of Hira [5], and every time I had a revelation, was a thrill [6], perfect synonym for the destruction of the world, their world. So the Koranic texts referring to the end of the world may be interpreted in the past, since this event has already taken place. And this takes place for anyone who reaches that same level of experience where the presence of the One-Single of the Truth (al-Haqq), absorbs completely the presence illusory in that daily we are immersed. The End of the World is, therefore, the end of the world of illusion (wahm).

An important aspect that needs to be clarified is that, within the framework of tawhid, of the ontological unity of all creation, which seeks to introduce, there is no difference between the end of your world and the End of the World. This “event” that saw Muhammad can be experienced by anyone who is capable of experiencing the hadith of the Prophet that says “Die before you die” (mutu qabla anta mutu).

In particular, the sura al-salsala, one of the chapters of the Koran that deals with the End of the World, states:

When the earth is shaken by earthquake
eject what it weighs,
And tell the man: ‘What’s wrong? “[The ground when being jerked]
(Quran: 99, 1-3)

The comment that some classical authors such as Ibn Arabi and Ibn Ayiba do about these verses is to say that the presence of Allah, like an earthquake, reverses the order of things. What’s inside emerges, and the material dies and disappears. It shows what really weighs, what is your essence and your internal structure, while the illusory ceases to exist. It imposes the true, the Real (al-Haqq). That’s what it symbolizes the earthquake and the destruction of the world. Ultimately, that’s what it means death [7].

This is the reason why the descriptions Koranic of Yanna (the Garden of Paradise) and yahannam (Hell Fire) and, in general, everything that has to do with the afterlife, are so extremely material and physical.

In regard to the question raised by humans in the verse quoted above – “what’s wrong?” [To land when it is being shaken] – the commentator Sayyid Qutb [8] states that although the man is accustomed to disasters, it asks the question because this disaster is of a different tenor, is another event materially different from any other catastrophe known to us. When the destruction is total, the emergence of Allah, the Real, is absolute and final. But the destruction only refers to material existence, because Real is the spirit world, where there is neither time nor space, hence one speaks of the eternal, because the space and time are only categories of the material world . Hence the shock and puzzlement of being human.

But who experience this condition? The Sufis, when progress on the spiritual path, they reach a point where they suffer the shock which transformed his world. And that which the Sufis experience in life is that state that we reach all human beings with physical death. It is the return of the simple drop of water to the immensity of the ocean, and what matters is that the way back for everyone. Therefore, do not talk about that we each do what you can, but what each of us can do is reach the Absolute. Hence, the Sufi is proposed for the fullness (kamal), to cover everything, and thus becoming the so-called “universal man” (al-insan al-kamil) [9]. Reading the above Koranic passages from this standpoint reuniting, we understand that personal experience does have a dimension quite universal.

Our reluctance to accept the above lies in the fact that most of us, a priori, a younger self, simplistic and distorted on the question of the End of the World, and the fact that in our society death is treated as taboo. But al-Yawm Qiyama it’s not that ridiculously spectacular event that we describe the millennial preachers, nor the dramatic event that aims to introduce the modern world through death, but an experience that takes place inside each of us and which, as said Ibn Arabi, experience in our own breath (Yawm al-Qiyama fil Nafas), in each of our inspirations and expirations, during which we live continually a little death and resurrection [10].

The Koranic passages dealing with the End of the World are not intended to convey any dogma about it, but only reflect a picture as vivid and suggestive as possible, which seeks thrill and shock the reader, even through their own sounds reading of the Qur’anic text. This is the case of the surat al-Waqi’a (Chapter 56, “The Event”), which begins with words full of guttural sounds that come to symbolize the throes of death: id â waqa’ati l-waqi ‘atu Laisa li-waq’atihâ kâ d was [11].

Therefore, no attempts to streamline and provide a logical framework to the experience of death expressed in the Koran, since that claim only gets restrict and limit the possibilities of the text, which is beyond logic and reason, human . It is precisely this character challenging our thinking that the Quran has to allow to plunge into their deepest dimension and thrill us with their reading or simply listening to his recitation.

At times we find people that intend to develop a kind of catechism from what it tells us the Quran: Muslims believe in the resurrection of the flesh? Rise “only the souls? When and how will take place the end of the world and the Doomsday? … We believe it makes no sense to establish a doctrine on these matters, because what matters is the accumulation of emotions generated by these texts and the transforming power their language possesses. The key issue lies neither in faith nor in logical understanding of the text. This is not to believe or not believe or understand or not but to approach the revelation with the right attitude and be wrapped and carried away by it. People with this attitude are defined in the book as “those who are open to Allah, the Qur’an and collect saying ‘this is the truth of Allah’.” So those who are closed to this intuition when they come to this or any other Holy Book say: “What we are trying to say Allah with this?. Is simply not willing to say anything. That’s where we went wrong and wrong in our view, because of our inability to feel, our excessive rationality, our lack of innocence, and our attachment to the classifications, the orthodoxies and dogmas of faith. The path of human spirituality is not based on finding solutions to all the most significant ones, but the ability to ask questions and learn