Re: What is it?
:salamext:
I've also noticed this, that since after the Prophethood and till the end of the Guided Khalifah, as time has progressed.. the muslims gradually have followed the way of the jews and christians by gradually giving up their way of life and imitating the christians and jews instead.
Look what the Messenger of Allaah himself said:
Abu Sa'id al-Khudri reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: You would tread the same path as was trodden by those before you inch by inch and step by step so much so that if they had entered into the hole of the lizard, you would follow them in this also.
We said: Allah's Messenger, do you mean Jews and Christians (by your words) "those before you"?
He said: Who else (than those two religious groups)? -Sahih Muslim, Hadith 6448
Just compare our islamic history and the closer you come to our time - the more we have become like them [i.e. giving up our islaam for worldly pleasures and imitating the ways of the people before us.] We seek refuge in Allaah.
Here's a hadith which cheered me up though alhamdulillah:
The Messenger of Allaah (peace be upon him) said:
"The Prophethood will last among you for as long as Allah (God) wills, then Allah would take it away. Then it will be (followed by) a Khilafah [caliphate] Rashida (rightly guided) according to the ways of the Prophethood. It will remain for as long as Allah wills, then Allah would take it away. Afterwards there will be a hereditary leadership which will remain for as long as Allah wills, then He will lift it if He wishes. Afterwards, there will be biting oppression, and it will last for as long as Allah wishes, then He will lift it if He wishes. Then there will be a Khilafah Rashida according to the ways of the Prophethood," then he kept silent.
[recorded in Musnad Imam Ahmad (v/273)]
We're under the underlined stage, and all the events before it have occured in our islamic history. Inshaa'Allaah the rest of the prophecy will soon come into effect.
According to the hadith, the prophet (pbuh) will be followed by rightly guided caliphs and after those caliphs (Abu Baker, Omar, Uthman and Ali) will come hereditary leadership (all other Caliphs) and after that will come tyrannical rule (today) and after that will come a rightly guided caliphs yet again inshaa'Allaah.