A Look at Islamic Eschatology

That means their view on the "end times."

Folks, back in 2003, National Review Online's correspondent Rod Dreher, interviewed David Cook, a Rice University scholar of Muslim apocalypticism. I want to share his observations with you:

Rod Dreher: What are the main beliefs of Islamic eschatology?

David Cook: Referring to Sunni Islam, the principal beliefs are:

1)There are a series of signs or portents previous to the end: moral and social decay, natural and cosmic disasters, and political events that will demonstrate in an incontrovertible manner that the end is about to happen.

2) A tempter, or Antichrist, called the Dajjal will appear and lead the world (with the exception of true Muslims) astray. Almost everyone will be subject to his tribulations, but just before he succeeds in annihilating the Muslims, Jesus will come down from the heavens and kill him.

3) There will be a messianic age, led by either Jesus or another messianic figure called the Mahdi. This latter figure will conquer the entire world and convert everyone to Islam.

4) After the time of the Mahdi, then Gog and Magog [cf. Ezekiel 38, 39; the Islamic version goes by the name Yajuj and Majuj] will invade the world and destroy it.

5) God will bring the world to an end.

There are a couple of details that he misses but that Imam Yahiya Emerick, author of the Idiot's Guide to Islam, picked up on pages 108-109:

The Rule of Jesus

What will hapen next? Is the game finally over? Is it time for Judgment Day? Not yet. According to the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, Jesus will speak to the Christians and Jews of the world and convert them to Islam. He will succeed in breaking the worship of the cross and will stop the eating of pork. The army he led will disband and disperse back to their home countries, and only a small contingent will remain with him to serve him. Jesus will be the spiritual head of a transnational government of peace. Everyone in the Middle East will convert willingly to Islam, and there will be no more war. He will visit Mecca and Medina while on pilgrimage. He won't reign for a thousand years, as Christianity teaches, but will live only 40 more years--the rest of his natural life span.[1] Along the way he will marry and have children. While he is in the world, peace and prosperity will bring countless benefits for all people.

[1][Note: Emerick tells us that Muslims don't believe Jesus die on the Cross but that He was "taken away" by God and another man was executed in his place, and that all Christians have been confused about the fact ever since].

After resisting the aforementioned invasion of God and Magog, Emerick tells us that Jesus will pass away and that he will be buried in Medina next to the grave of the Prophet Muhammad.

You know, Islam claims to possess a superior revelation, that it completes and concludes all prior revelations, Jesus' included. If that were remotedly true, I would expect to recognize at least a semblance of the historical Jesus in Muslim revelations. That I do not doesn't bode well for their claims, as far as I'm concerned.

- Read Rod Dreher's interview of David Cook at National Review Online.

- Read Rod Dreher's paper on Islam and Apocalyptic Thought

- Peruse or purchase Yahiya John Emerick's The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Islam at Amazon.com.