Your Hour

 

بِسۡمِ اللّٰہِ الرَّحۡمٰنِ الرَّحِیۡمِ

In the Name of Allah, the Rahman, the Merciful

الصلاة والسلام عليك يا سيدي يا رسول الله

وعلى آلك واصحابك يا سيدي يا نور الله

According to the Christian New Testament, Jesus Christ عليه السلام prophesied that the coming of the Kingdom of God and the “Son of man” shall occur within the lifetime of at least some of his own Disciples: “For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom” (Matthew 16:27-28), “Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power” (Mark 9:1), “But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:27).

The phrase γεύσωνται θανάτου geusontai thanatou “shall taste of death” attributed to the mouth of Jesus is interesting because it also occurs in the Holy Quran:

كُلُّ نَفْسٍ ذَائِقَةُ الْمَوْتِ

Every soul shall taste death

(Surah 3:185; 21:35; 29:57)

Since none of Jesus’s Disciples are believed to have cheated death till today, and since apparently Jesus has not yet come with the Kingdom and Angels in glory, it is tempting to conclude this is surely a false prophecy. It is especially a problem for orthodox and fundamentalist Christians who believe everything in the Bible is inerrant and divinely inspired, especially the canonical Gospels.

But there is a similar prophecy narrated from the Holy Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم which some opponents and ignorant people have suggested is a false prophecy:

عَنْ عَائِشَةَ قَالَتْ كَانَ رِجَالٌ مِنَ الأَعْرَابِ جُفَاةً يَأْتُونَ النَّبِيَّ صلى الله عليه وسلم فَيَسْأَلُونَهُ مَتَى السَّاعَةُ فَكَانَ يَنْظُرُ إِلَى أَصْغَرِهِمْ فَيَقُولُ ‏‏ إِنْ يَعِشْ هَذَا لاَ يُدْرِكْهُ الْهَرَمُ حَتَّى تَقُومَ عَلَيْكُمْ سَاعَتُكُمْ‏

A’ishah رضى الله عنها narrated that men from the rough, nomadic Arabs came to the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and asked him, “When is the Hour?” So he looked at the youngest among them and said, “If this one lives, old age will not overtake him until your Hour is established upon you.” (Sahih al-Bukhari)

While الساعة “the Hour” generally refers to the Resurrection and Final Judgment in Islamic terminology, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم suffixed it by saying ساعتكم or “your Hour”. A narrator of the Hadith, Hisham bin Urwah, commented on this, saying “it means their death”.

قَالَ هِشَامٌ يَعْنِي مَوْتَهُمْ‏

In other words, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was referring to, what would be for them, a minor Qiyamah and not the major Qiyamah at the end of time. A minor Qiyamah could be any cataclysmic event, including one’s own death. But in the prophecy attributed to Jesus Christ an equivocal term like “your Hour” has not been said but rather “the Son of man coming in his kingdom”.

Undoubtedly, both Jesus and Muhammad عليهما السلام were apocalyptic Prophets who were desperately warning their respective peoples about the imminent Doomsday. Cataclysmic events occurred shortly after their departure from this world. In the case of Jesus it was the First Jewish-Roman War which resulted in the destruction of the Second Temple, and in the case of the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم it was the turbulent period associated with the first four civil wars that afflicted the Arabs.