The End of the World According to the Quran

Salaamun alaykum, dear readers!

This article is about the Quranic signs and indications for the end of the world.

Signs Showing the End is Near

According to the Quran, all of the preconditions of the Hour have already come to us from God in the Quran. The preconditions are events that must happen before the Hour itself.

[47:18] So do they wait but for the Hour to come to them suddenly? But certainly, its preconditions have come. So what good will their reminder be for them when it has come to them?

Thus, it leaves behind several prophecies and signs that, if they occur, it means the end of the world is coming very soon.

Unveiling of the Mathematical Composition

The first sign that the Hour will be very close is that verse 74:30-31 states that there are 19 angels guarding over Hell, and that their number (the number of the angels, which is the number 19) will one day have five functions.

[74:30] Over it (the Fire) are nineteen.

[74:31] We have made not but angels as custodians of the Fire, and We have not assigned their number (the number 19) except as: (1) a trial for those who have disbelieved, (2) so that those who were given the Book may attain certainty, (3) and that those who believed may increase in faith, (4) and that those given the Book—as well as the believers—may not doubt, (5) and that the ones who have sickness within their hearts—as well as the disbelievers—may say, “What did God intend with this example?” Like that, God sends astray whom He wills, and guides whom He wills; none knows the soldiers of your Lord except He. It is but a reminder for humanity.

The five functions of the number 19 according to verse 74:31 are:

Be a trial for disbelievers,
Cause the People of the Book (Jews and Christians) to attain certainty,
Increase the faith of the believers,
Remove all doubts from the hearts of believers and People of the Book,
Cause people with sickness in their hearts to question the number 19.

All five functions of the number 19 were fulfilled with the discovery of the Quran’s enormous and non-exhaustive 19-based mathematical composition in 1974, proving Islam as the true religion beyond a shadow of doubt.

The Coming of the Messenger of the Covenant

The Quran states in verse 3:81 that every single prophets, including Muhammad, took a covenant with God. In this covenant, God explained to all the prophets that they will be given a scripture to convey and teach. Then afterwards, a messenger (who is not a prophet) will one day come to all of the prophets. When he comes to them, all prophets must pledge their support and faith to him.

The role of this future messenger is to confirm all the scriptures given by the prophets as the truth, beyond a doubt.

[3:81] And when God took the covenant of the prophets: “Definitely, this is what I will give you of Book and wisdom. Then a messenger will come to you as one who will confirm what is with you (the Books, or scriptures). Definitely, you will indeed believe in him and support him.” He said, “Have you agreed and accepted that, My heavy responsibility?” They (all prophets) said, “We have agreed.” He said, “So bear witness, and I am with you among the witnesses.”

Verse 33:7 confirms that even the prophet Muhammad took this covenant alongside the other prophets. That means he too agreed to pledge his support to a future messenger (who will not be a prophet) when that messenger comes to him.

[33:7] And when We took from the prophets their covenant—including from you (Muhammad), Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, the son of Mary—and We took from them a stern covenant.

So how will a messenger come to all the prophets when all the prophets are long dead? Logically, God must take this future messenger’s soul to some place in the afterlife to meet all the prophets there, and all prophets must fulfill their pledge to place their faith and support in him when he shows up to meet them.

This is what happened in January of 1972, when he came to Mecca for the Hajj: Rashad Khalifa‘s soul was taken up by God to meet the prophets in some place in the universe, he does not know where. He had no idea why this happened at the time, and the only information he was told was that the people in front of him were all the prophets of God, and to not concern himself with this event right now, since it is just something that had to be done.

Then one by one, all prophets came to him, looked him in the eye, and nodded their heads. When Abraham approached him, Rashad found that he had a striking resemblance to his family members so he wondered who this person was, and the answer was communicated mentally: Abraham. This was the only prophet identified to Rashad.

Then Rashad was sent back down to Earth. He was not told of his messengership at that time.

Rashad didn’t know it at the time (he said God explained this to him in 1988) but when he met the prophets, God told the prophets that this person in front of them (Rashad) was the one who was destined to confirm their scriptures, and to confirm all of them, in fulfillment of the covenant they took before the creation. God then asked them if they have accepted.

So when all the prophets, one by one, came up to him, looked him in the eye, and nodded their heads, they were in fact responding to God that they have accepted their pledge to believe and support Rashad.

Manifestation of Islam Over All Religions

The Quran prophesizes that one day, Islam will be made manifest as the truth, over all other religions.

[9:33 and 61:9] He is the one who sent His messenger with the guidance and the true religion, so that He may manifest it over every religion even if the ones who associate partners dislike it.

Many people, including Rashad Khalifa himself, have interpreted this to mean that the vast majority of people on Earth will eventually become Muslims.

After all, if the validity of Islam as the truth became manifest and obvious for everyone, then why wouldn’t the world accept it? What would hold them back from doing so?

But the truth is, it is an unfortunate human tendency that even in the face of clear evidence, people have a resistance to changing institutionalized or long-held beliefs. Any attempts to do so end up causing much confusion and fighting. Here are just a few examples:

Rashad Khalifa was killed for no other reason than standing up for the truth and delivering God’s message.

The prophet Muhammad was fought and persecuted by his opponents for the exact same reason, his enemies were deeply afraid of the institutional change that he represented.

The American civil war happened because one side (the deeply religious, traditional, conservative South) hypocritically placed their trust their plantations and their slave labor, instead of placing their trust in God as the Best Provider and doing the right thing.

The word “manifest” means to make clear or make obvious. To give an example, if the law says DUI is illegal, then this warning was manifested, or made clear, by the law.

But even if made clear or manifest, someone can choose to ignore the law and commit DUI anyways.

Another example: the theory of evolution was made “manifest” or proven by mountains of scientific evidence, so there should be a near-100% consensus on it. But even as late as 2020, only 74% of the world believes in evolution.

So even if something was made “manifest” or “obvious”, lots of people will still continue to ignore it.

Likewise, if Islam was made manifest or clear over all religions because evidence came out that confirms Islam beyond all doubts, that doesn’t automatically mean people will stop being non-Muslim. Many will continue believing what they want even if the evidence for Islam is very clear.

Thus, Islam was manifested (made obvious) over all religions in 1974, with the discovery of the 19-based mathematical composition, proving it as the truth beyond a doubt, so this prophecy came true. But people continue to have their doubts and follow what they want.

Creature From the Earth

Another sign that the end of the world is near is that the Quran made a prophecy that God will produce a creature from the earth that will convey to the people that they have not been certain about God’s signs.

[27:82] And when the word has occurred upon them, We will produce for them a creature from the earth, speaking to them that the people have not been certain of Our signs.

This creature is said to come “from the earth” rather than from other living things. That means it will be made of earthly materials and will be a non-living creature.

The creature’s role will be to let the people know that they are are uncertain about God.

This creature is actually the computer. Why? The computer is the only non-living thing that can communicate with people. Nothing else in the entire world meets that requirement except the computer.

The computer responds to commands just as living creatures do, can communicated information like living beings, and has an internal programming like how DNAs are the internal coding of living beings.

With the development of AI systems such as ChatGPT, or video platforms like YouTube, or even text-to-speech software, the computer can even literally speak to you like an intelligent being. When you listen to videos, you are not listening to an actual person speaking, but you are listening to the computer speaking to you information that was pre-recorded by others.

So how would the computer let the people know that they are uncertain about God’s signs?

The Quran’s ultimate miracle was discovered when Rashad put the Quran through a computer program. The computer’s outputs helped inform Rashad of the Quran’s 19-based system.

In other words, the computer “spoke” the Quran’s 19-based composition to Rashad, then Rashad spoke and taught the findings of the computer to the rest of the world.

So if anyone knows about the Quran’s 19-based mathematical structure, which is supposed to bring ultimate certainty to the people according to verse 74:31, yet he disbelieves in the Quran anyways, then that person failed to meet the Quran’s criterion of certainty and is therefore confirmed to be uncertain.

In short, the computer spoke or communicated the Quran’s criterion of certainty (the 19-based structure), and people’s reaction to what the computer spoke helps them realize whether they are certain or uncertain about God’s signs.

Other Signs

There are other signs before the end of the world which have not yet been fulfilled, such as:

The worldwide smoke (verse 44:10).

Gog and Magog (verses 18:94 and 21:96)

The splitting of the moon (verse 54:1)

Rashad Khalifa was told to convey through Gabriel that millions of believers will believe in him as God’s messenger after his death, but that has not yet happened.

God Wants the Hour to Be Known

The Quran directly tells us that God intends for the timing of the end of the world to be known one day.

In verse 20:15, God informs us that He almost hides the Hour. That means He does not fully reveal, or fully hide it. He “almost hides” it, meaning it is mostly hidden, but partially not hidden.

[20:15] “Indeed, the Hour is coming, I almost hide it. This is so that every self is repaid for how it strives.”

It is just like when someone keeps a treasure chest almost hidden. If the treasure chest was fully hidden from the public, there would be zero clues or indications anywhere about where it is.

But if the treasure chest was almost hidden, that means it is hiding somewhere, but there are available clues that tell the public how to find it, such as treasure maps.

The Hour is like the example of the treasure chest; it is not fully hidden from the public, and there are clues left behind in the Quran that tell the public how to find it.

This is how we know that God wants the people to someday, in the future, find out when the Hour is occurring. If God did not want anyone in the future to find out when the Hour will occur, He would keep the Hour fully hidden, not “almost hidden”.

And we can be absolutely certain that when the Quran says the Hour is hidden, it means the timing of the Hour is almost hidden. That is because the Hour is an event, and all events are composed of three things: what will happen, where it will occur, and when it will occur.

Here is an example of an event: An NBA basketball game happening at 9 PM in the Kaseya Center. What will happen is the basketball game, the time it will occur at is 9 PM, and where it will occur is the Kaseya Center.

The Hour is a future event, and we know what will happen (destruction of the universe) and where it will occur (universe) because the Quran describes them in great detail. So then, what part of this future event is almost hidden?

The only part of the event that is not known to the public is the time that it will occur. Therefore, when verse 20:14 says the Hour is almost hidden, it means the timing of the Hour is almost hidden.

So if the timing is almost hidden, that means God left behind clues somewhere to pinpoint when the timing will occur, which indicates that He wants people to someday know the time of the end of the world.

Okay, so the question now is: if God wants us to know the time, then where did God leave behind the clues?

The Quran is complete (verse 6:115) and has every single detail and explanation that we need for guidance (verses 12:111, 16:89, 7:52, etc.) which means the Quran doesn’t leave any important question unanswered.

Logically, this means the clues about when the world will end are somewhere inside the Quran itself.

Verse 43:61 confirms that the knowledge about the Hour is contained in the Quran: “And indeed, it (Quran) is definitely a source of knowledge for the Hour. So do not doubt it, and follow Me. This is a straight path.“

Not only that, but God is the only one who knows anything from the unseen. If God wants to make known something from the unseen, He will only do so through a messenger whom He chooses for this purpose.

[72:26-27] The Knower of the Unseen; He does not make His unseen obvious to anyone except a messenger whom He has approved of…”

Therefore, if God wanted to make the timing of the Hour (information from the unseen) known to the public, He would only do so through a messenger whom He chooses to disclose this information to.

Muhammad was not the messenger chosen to uncover the end of the world, God said that he specifically does not have any access to this knowledge in verse 7:187. The prophet Muhammad, when asked that question, was only told to say that God alone knows its timing.

[7:187] They question you (Muhammad) of the Hour, “When is its arrival?” Say, “Its knowledge is only with my Lord. None will reveal its time except Him. It weighs heavily in the heavens and the earth. It will not come to you except suddenly.” They ask you as if you are knowledgeable of it. Say, “Its knowledge is only with God.” But instead, most of the people do not know. Q

So this means the timing of the Hour was destined to come out through some other messenger after Muhammad.

The only other messenger after Muhammad mentioned in the Quran is the Messenger of the Covenant (verse 3:81, which is Rashad Khalifa), therefore it is Rashad through whom the people will learn the time the world will end.

All Knowledge Is Only With God, Until He Chooses to Reveal It

The Quran tells the prophet in verse 7:187 to say that the knowledge is only with God. So someone might say, “If the knowledge is only with God, then why would someone besides God know when the Hour will occur?”

That is because for anything unseen, the knowledge is only with God…until He chooses a messenger to reveal the knowledge to others. When He chooses to reveal that knowledge to someone, then that piece of knowledge is no longer only with God.

For example, the knowledge of the Quran used to be unseen information, and it was only with God until He revealed it to prophet Muhammad.

Verse 72:26-27 further clarifies this issue by saying that God is the only knower of all unseen information, until He reveals whatever portion of the unseen He wants through a messenger.

So all knowledge of unseen information is only with God until God decides to make it known. If God decides to make any unseen information known, He will do so through a messenger that He chooses.

The Hour Will Come Suddenly…Only to Disbelievers

A common objection may be, “The Quran says the Hour will come suddenly to all people, that means no one can know it’s time in advance, right?”

However, the Quran says the end of the world will only be sudden or come as a surprise to disbelievers. The Quran never once says the Hour will come suddenly to the believers.

[7:187] They (disbelievers) question you (Muhammad) of the Hour, “When is its arrival?” Say, “Its knowledge is only with my Lord. None will reveal its time except Him. It weighs heavily in the heavens and the earth. It will not come to you (disbelievers) except suddenly.”…

We know that this verse is only addressing the disbelievers because from verses 7:182 to 7:186, the only people being addressed are the disbelievers. The disbelievers during the time of the prophet were known to have asked him questions like this for the purpose of mocking him.

Therefore, to those who disbelieve in the Quran’s clues about when the world will end, the Hour will come suddenly.

But to those who actually understand what the Quran is saying (that the timing of the Hour is hidden in the Quran, and a messenger will one day discover it) will know in advance the timing of the Hour and prepare for it; it will not be a sudden event to them.

Here is a list of all the other verses of the Quran that contain the word “suddenly” (baghtah) in connection with the Hour:

[43:65-66] But the parties differed amongst themselves, so woe to the ones who committed wrongdoing, from the punishment of a painful Day. Do they (wrongdoers) wait but for the Hour, that it should come to them suddenly, while they do not realize?

[47:18] So do they (disbelievers) wait but for the Hour to come to them suddenly? But certainly, its preconditions have come. So what good will their reminder be for them (disbelievers) when it has already come to them?

[29:55] But the ones who disbelieved will not cease to be in doubt of it until the Hour comes to them suddenly, or the punishment of a barren Day comes to them.

[6:37] Certainly, the ones who denied the meeting of God have lost. Until when the Hour came to them suddenly, they said, “Oh, our regret over what we have neglected concerning it!”…

So that is the full list of every single in the Quran that the word “suddenly” (baghtah) appears in when talking about the Hour, and in all of them, the Hour only comes to the disbelievers suddenly, not the believers.

The Timing of the Hour

Okay, so if the Messenger of the Covenant (Rashad Khalifa) is the one that is destined to uncover the timing of the end of the world, then what is it? What year did Rashad say it will happen?

During the year 1980, sometime before Rashad Khalifa was informed of his messengership near the end of that year, he discovered the major clue that the Quran leaves behind for the timing of the end of the world, and concluded that the world will end in 1710 AH in the Islamic calendar, which is the year 2280 CE in today’s Gregorian calendar.

So how did Rashad find the timing end of the world? The answer is found in Surah 15, verses 85 through 87.

[15:85-87] And we have not created the heavens and the earth except with the truth. And indeed, the Hour is definitely coming, so overlook with the beautiful overlooking. Indeed, Your Lord is the Knowledgeable Creator. And certainly, We have definitely given you seven of the pairs, and the Great Quran.

These are the only verses in the Quran where God provided significant information about the time of the Hour.

Verse 15:85 states that the Hour is coming and everything will be destroyed. Then verse 15:86 states afterward that God is the Knowledgeable Creator. That means God is knowledgeable of everything about his creation (the heavens and the earth), including when his creation will be destroyed.

Then verse 15:87 declares that seven pairs (sab’an min al-mathani) of something were given to us in the Quran. What use does the seven pairs have? Why did God give it to us?

Immediately before this, the end of the world was mentioned, thus implying that the seven pairs are something given to us for some reason, and those seven pairs are somehow connected to the Hour.

Now the question is: which seven pairs is this verse talking about?

If there are 14 quantities of any object, then mathematically there are seven pairs of that object, even if those objects are not grouped together into pairs.

Like for example, if there are 14 balls in your yard, there are mathematically seven pairs of balls in your yard even if you didn’t put them together into groups of two.

In the Quran, the only thing that there are 14 quantities of are the 14 Quranic initials, made up of 14 unique Arabic letters, that are in the initial verse of 29 Surahs.

So the question is: what on earth does the Quranic initials have to do with the end of the world?

Quranic initials are the mysterious groups of letters that are found in the beginning of some Surahs which don’t form any word. Those initials are:

Alif, Lam, Meem
Ya Seen
Qaf
Saad
Kaaf Ha Ya Ayn Saad
Ayn Seen Qaf
Ta Ha
Ta Seen
Ta Seen Meem
Alif Lam Ra
Alif Lam Meem Ra
Alif Lam Meen Saad
Haa Meem
Noon

Each of the Quranic initials has something known as a “Gematrical Value”. In the past, Arabians did not use a number system separate from their alphabet. Their alphabet was used as numbers. Like for example, the letter Alif represented 1, the letter Ba represented the letter 2, and so on.

So the Quranic initial “Alif Lam Meem” has a total gematrical value (GV) of 1 + 30 + 40, or 71. The Quranic initial “Noon” has a GV of 50. The initial “Ya Seen” has a GV of 10 + 60, which equals 70.

If the GVs of all the Quranic initials are added together, this gives a total of 1709. Thus, the total value of the Quran’s seven pairs is 1709.

So verse 15:87 can, in a way, be interpreted as saying, “We have given you the number 1709, and the Great Quran.” Because the 14 Quranic initials have a total value of 1709.

1709 Years…According to What Benchmark?

So how does the number 1709 tell us the timing?

The number 1709 is the only number from the Quran which tells us anything about the time that the world will end.

The problem is, there needs to be a benchmark, otherwise we won’t be able to recognize the time. Like for example, in the Gregorian calendar, the year 0 CE is the benchmark for the Gregorian calendar.

The purpose of keeping the Hour almost hidden is so that people can one day know its timing. Therefore, the benchmark for 1709 years must be a benchmark that people all over the world are familiar with. The world will end 1709 years starting from that benchmark.

If the benchmark is not something that is already known to the public today, then people will not be able to tell exactly what time the Hour will take place, which will defeat the whole purpose of keeping the Hour “almost hidden”. Therefore, the benchmark to start the time for 1709 years must be based on a calendar widely used today.

We cannot use the benchmark of the Gregorian calendar because the year 1709 CE already passed. However, we are able to use the benchmark of the Islamic, or Hijri, calendar.

There is no “year 0” in the Hijri calendar, it start at 1 AH. So from the years 1 AH to 1710 AH on the Hijri calendar, 1709 full lunar years would have passed.

So from verse 15:87, Rashad found that the world will end in the year 1710 AH, which marks 1709 full lunar years since the start of the Hijri calendar.

It turns out that the year 1710 AH corresponds to the year 2280 CE on the Gregorian calendar, and both numbers are a multiple of 19.

1710 = 19 x 90
2280 = 19 x 120.

So the year 1710 AH (2280 CE) meets all the criteria for the time the world will end (it was found inside the Quran and first known by a messenger of God).

Clarifying Rashad’s Interpretation

In January 1990, Rashad published a newsletter headlined, “Mark My Words: Here Is What Will Happen to the Disbelievers.”

Then he outlined his personal interpretation of the smoke prophecy, saying that an asteroid will hit somewhere in the Middle East and cause the smoke.

Keep in mind that unlike what some of Rashad’s followers might think, this is not a divine prophecy given to him, because Rashad said those were “my words” in the headline, not God’s words.

The second headline in this newsletter said, “Here Is What Almighty God Said.” In this section Rashad quoted the verses of the Quran about the smoke prophecy and elaborated on what God said in the Quran. So he is making the distinction between his own words and God’s words.

So what is the basis for such an interpretation? Why an asteroid? Why Saudi Arabia?

Rashad explains in this newsletter that the smoke is stated in the Quran to be a worldwide phenomenon, and scientists know that such a thing can naturally happen only when an asteroid strikes the Earth, so that is why he is sure an asteroid will cause it. There is no divine asteroid prophecy that Rashad received from God.

If you listen to Quranic Study Audio Number 4 on YouTube, Rashad further justifies his claim by mentioning the Chicxulub asteroid that caused the smoke that wiped out the dinosaurs.

And why did Rashad believe the asteroid will strike the Middle East? That is because Arabs were the strongest, most vocal, and most hostile opponents of him and his message when he was alive.

He has in the past recounted attempts from Arabs to bribe him into silence, to buy out all the copies of one of his books (The Perpetual Miracle of Muhammad) and destroy them, and to mislead non-Muslims from learning about the Quran’s 19-based mathematical system.

A group of 38 Saudi scholars in the 11th Islamic Council of Fiqh (IFC) meeting, headed by the future Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia Abdullah Ibn Baz, labelled Rashad Khalifa as apostate in a fatwa and urged the public to ignore his “pretensions”. In Sunni Islam, being labelled an apostate is a death sentence.

He has received support and encouragement from people of many different nationalities and ethnicities, but not a single Arab.

During a conference, one debater listed out all the reasons why the Quran is false and likely the hallucinations of Muhammad. But when Rashad presented the Quran’s 19-based structure and showed why Muhammad couldn’t have fabricated it, the Arabs in the audience were enraged and criticized Rashad, instead of directing their ire at the non-Muslim who accused Muhammad of hallucinations.

The prophet Muhammad will complain about his “qawm” (people) on Judgement Day (the Arabs), saying they abandoned the Quran, according to verse 25:30.

So is we cannot really say for sure that the smoke prophecy will definitely be fulfilled by an asteroid, or whether such an asteroid will indeed hit Arabia specifically. But this is just to show you Rashad’s thinking process when coming to this conclusion.

For every messenger, there is the difference between their personal understanding and what was revealed to them; one is important for Islam, and the other should be approached with caution.

Conclusion

So, we know for that universe will be ending in 255 years. And we know that 4 out of 7 signs of the Hour (the messenger, the creature from the earth, the miracle, and the manifestation of Islam as the truth) have already come to pass.

Regardless of the sect, in Islam it is traditionally believed that the fulfillment of even one of these signs as proof that the Hour is very close. Now we know for a fact how close the Hour is.

So the main question for us all is: what will you do now to prepare for this upcoming meeting with God?

Your duty as a Muslim is not just to read the Quran, do Salat, fast in Ramadan, or do the Hajj. It is also doing as much good in this world as possible.

That means fixing what needs to be fixed, breaking what needs to be broken, and helping those who need help, as much as possible.

This is the final stretch, so before the end, let’s take a proactive stance and rush towards reformation, justice, and compassion, and set aside our egos, greed, tribalism, rudeness, the desire to mock, insult, and stereotype others, and excessive desire for power and status, and more.

Let us cast aside the ugliest parts of humanity and show God that we were worth creating.