End of times

It is a sign between Me and the Israelites forever; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, but on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.’”

Indeed, ask now from one end of the heavens to the other about the days that long preceded you, from the day that God created man on earth: Has anything as great as this ever happened or been reported?

Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

For the day is near, the Day of the LORD is near. It will be a day of clouds, a time of doom for the nations.

The earth mourns and withers; the world languishes and fades; the exalted of the earth waste away.

There are no signs for us to see. There is no longer any prophet. And none of us knows how long this will last.

But understand this: In the last days terrible times will come.

Children, it is the last hour; and just as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. This is how we know it is the last hour.

Immediately after the tribulation of those days: ‘The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.’

And signs of the transition between each of these watches in the upper world can be sensed in this world: In the first watch, the donkey brays; in the second, dogs bark; and in the third people begin to rise, a baby nurses from its mother’s breast and a wife converses with her husband. With regard to these earthly manifestations of the three heavenly watches as established in the baraita, the Gemara asks: What did Rabbi Eliezer enumerate? If he enumerated the beginning of the watch, why do I need a sign for the beginning of the first watch? It is when evening begins; an additional sign is superfluous. If he enumerated the end of the watches, why do I need a sign for the end of the last watch? It is when day begins; an additional sign is similarly superfluous. The Gemara answers: Rather, he enumerated the signs for the end of the first watch and the beginning of the last watch, both of which require a sign, as well as the middle of the middle watch. And if you wish, say instead: He enumerated the ends of all of the watches. And if you say that a sign indicating the end of the final watch is unnecessary because it is day, nevertheless, that sign is useful.

And Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba said that Rabbi Yoḥanan said: All the prophets only prophesied with regard to the change in world order in the end of days with regard to the days of the Messiah. However, with regard to the World-to-Come, which exists on a higher level, it is stated: “No eye has seen it, God, aside from You.”

The Gemara explains their dispute: The one who says that one writes it at the end of the final line interprets the verse: “That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, upon the land which the Lord swore unto your fathers to give them, as the days of the heaven above the earth,” in a similar manner to the verse: “For as the heaven is high above the earth” (Psalms 103:11). Consequently, if one writes “above the earth” at the end of the final line, it will appropriately be below the term “the heaven” at the end of the previous line. And the one who says that one writes it at the beginning of the final line explains the phrase “as the days of the heaven above the earth” as meaning: Just as the heaven is far from the earth. Consequently, if one writes “above the earth” at the beginning of the final line, it is far from the term “the heaven” at the end of the previous line.

Lo! in the heavens and the earth are portents for believers

Lo! In the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the difference of night and day, and the ships which run upon the sea with that which is of use to men, and the water which Allah sendeth down from the sky, thereby reviving the earth after its death, and dispersing all kinds of beasts therein, and (in) the ordinance of the winds, and the clouds obedient between heaven and earth: are signs (of Allah's Sovereignty) for people who have sense

Lo! herein verily there is a portent for those who fear the doom of the Hereafter. That is a day unto which mankind will be gathered, and that is a day that will be witnessed

Narrated Abu Huraira: The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "The Hour (Last Day) will not be established until (religious) knowledge will be taken away (by the death of religious learned men), earthquakes will be very frequent, time will pass quickly, afflictions will appear, murders will increase and money will overflow amongst you." (See Hadith No. 85 Vol)

Narrated ʿAli: I heard the Prophet (ﷺ) saying, "In the last days (of the world) there will appear young people with foolish thoughts and ideas. They will give good talks, but they will go out of Islam as an arrow goes out of its game, their faith will not exceed their throats. So, wherever you find them, kill them, for there will be a reward for their killers on the Day of Resurrection

Narrated Abu Huraira: I heard Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) saying, "We (Muslims) are the last (to come) but (will be) the foremost on the Day of Resurrection though the former nations were given the Holy Scriptures before us. And this was their day (Friday) the celebration of which was made compulsory for them but they differed about it. So Allah gave us the guidance for it (Friday) and all the other people are behind us in this respect: the Jews' (holy day is) tomorrow (i.e. Saturday) and the Christians' (is) the day after tomorrow (i.e. Sunday)

The end and beginning of beings are unknown; we only see the intervening formations. So, what is there to grieve about?

Those who understand the cosmic day and night know that one day of creation is a thousand cycles, and that the night is of equal length. At the dawn of that day, all objects in manifestation stream forth from the Unmanifest, and when evening falls, they are dissolved back into it again. The same multitude of beings, which have lived on earth so often, all are dissolved as the night of the universe approaches, to issue forth anew when morning breaks. Thus, it is ordained.

When I see Thy mouths with their fearful jaws, like glowing fires at the dissolution of creation, I lose all sense of place and find no rest. Be merciful, O Lord, in whom this universe abides!

Nachiketas said: In the realm of heaven there is no fear, thou (Death) art not there; nor is there fear of old age. Having crossed beyond both hunger and thirst and being above grief, (they) rejoice in heaven. Thou knowest, O Death, the fire-sacrifice that leads to heaven. Tell this to me, who am full of Shraddha (faith and yearning). They who live in the realm of heaven enjoy freedom from death. This I beg as my second boon. Yama replied: I know well that fire which leads to the realm of heaven. I shall tell it to thee. Listen to me. Know, O Nachiketas, that this is the means of attaining endless worlds and their support. It is hidden in the heart of all beings.

It is the ear of the ear, the mind of the mind, the speech of the speech, the life of the life, the eye of the eye. The wise, freed (from the senses and from mortal desires), after leaving this world, become immortal.

The all-seeing fire which exists hidden in the two sticks, as the foetus is well-guarded in the womb by the mother, (that fire) is to be worshipped day after day by wakeful seekers (after wisdom), as well as by sacrificers. This verily is That. From whence the sun rises, and whither it goes at setting, upon That all the Devas depend. No one goes beyond That. This verily is That. What is here (in the visible world), that is there (in the invisible); he who sees difference (between visible and invisible) goes from death to death.

Long is the night for the wakeful; long is the league for the weary; long transmigrate the fools who don’t understand the true teaching.

Victory breeds enmity; the defeated sleep badly. The peaceful sleep at ease, having left victory and defeat behind.

Better to live a single day seeing rise and fall than to live a hundred years blind to rise and fall.

The end of the world can never be reached by traveling. But without reaching the end of the world, there’s no release from suffering. So an intelligent person, understanding the world, has completed the spiritual journey <j>and gone to the end of the world. Assuaged, knowing the end of the world, they do not hope for this world or the next.”

The end of the world can never be reached by traveling. But without reaching the end of the world, there’s no release from suffering. So an intelligent person, understanding the world, has completed the spiritual journey and gone to the end of the world. Assuaged, knowing the end of the world, they do not hope for this world or the next.”

Suppose an oil lamp depended on oil and a wick to burn. As the oil and the wick are used up, it would be extinguished due to not being fed. In the same way, feeling the end of the body draw close, they understand: ‘I feel the end of the body draw close.’ Feeling the end of life draw close, they understand: ‘I feel the end of life draw close.’ They understand: ‘When my body breaks up and my life is over, everything that’s felt, being no longer relished, will become cool right here.’”

The world is a transitory place of mortality - know this for certain in your mind. Azraa-eel, the Messenger of Death, has caught me by the hair on my head, and yet, I do not know it at all in my mind. ||1||Pause|| Spouse, children, parents and siblings - none of them will be there to hold your hand. And when at last I fall, and the time of my last prayer has come, there shall be no one to rescue me. ||2||

Fareed, the hours of the day are lost wandering around, and the hours of the night are lost in sleep. God will call for your account, and ask you why you came into this world. ||38||

Salok, First Mehl: Through the night the time ticks away; through the day the time ticks away. The body wears away and turns to straw. All are involved and entangled in worldly entanglements. The mortal has mistakenly renounced the way of service. The blind fool is caught in conflict, bothered and bewildered. Those who weep after someone has died - can they bring him back to life? Without realization, nothing can be understood. The weepers who weep for the dead shall themselves die as well. O Nanak, this is the Will of our Lord and Master. Those who do not remember the Lord, are dead. ||1||

Abstaining from speech marks him who is obeying the spontaneity of his nature. A violent wind does not last for a whole morning; a sudden rain does not last for the whole day. To whom is it that these (two) things are owing? To Heaven and Earth. If Heaven and Earth cannot make such (spasmodic) actings last long, how much less can man! Therefore when one is making the Tao his business, those who are also pursuing it, agree with him in it, and those who are making the manifestation of its course their object agree with him in that; while even those who are failing in both these things agree with him where they fail. Hence, those with whom he agrees as to the Tao have the happiness of attaining to it; those with whom he agrees as to its manifestation have the happiness of attaining to it; and those with whom he agrees in their failure have also the happiness of attaining (to the Tao). (But) when there is not faith sufficient (on his part), a want of faith (in him) ensues (on the part of the others).

Heaven is long-enduring and earth continues long. The reason why heaven and earth are able to endure and continue thus long is because they do not live of, or for, themselves. This is how they are able to continue and endure. Therefore the sage puts his own person last, and yet it is found in the foremost place; he treats his person as if it were foreign to him, and yet that person is preserved. Is it not because he has no personal and private ends, that therefore such ends are realised?

The things which from of old have got the One (the Tao) are— Heaven which by it is bright and pure; / Earth rendered thereby firm and sure; / Spirits with powers by it supplied; / Valleys kept full throughout their void / All creatures which through it do live / Princes and kings who from it get / The model which to all they give. All these are the results of the One (Tao). If heaven were not thus pure, it soon would rend; / If earth were not thus sure, ’twould break and bend; / Without these powers, the spirits soon would fail; / If not so filled, the drought would parch each vale; / Without that life, creatures would pass away; / Princes and kings, without that moral sway, / However grand and high, would all decay. Thus it is that dignity finds its (firm) root in its (previous) meanness, and what is lofty finds its stability in the lowness (from which it rises). Hence princes and kings call themselves “Orphans,” “Men of small virtue,” and as “Carriages without a nave.” Is not this an acknowledgement that in their considering themselves mean they see the foundation of their dignity? So it is that in the enumeration of the different parts of a carriage we do not come on what makes it answer the ends of a carriage. They do not wish to show themselves elegant-looking as jade, but (prefer) to be coarse-looking as an (ordinary) stone.