The very first issue of Common Sense was published during the gulf crisis of 1991. In that issue we quoted some apocalyptical Ahadith and linked them to the events that were unfolding before the eyes of the world. Naturally, no - one can be sure that any Hadith about events to come, phrased broadly enough to permit it being swallowed by the prophet's contemporaries, relates to any particular event we witness, until well after it. Yet, what has happened in the gulf, and still continues, seems too big an occasion to having been entirely missed by the messenger of Allah - peace be upon him - when he even foretold occurrences much less significant than these.

After the conclusion of the gulf war, a reader wrote to us, that considering that all the allied forces returned back home safely, the hadith couldn't have been right. We responded by saying, that if the hadith referred to that event, which we still believe to be the case, it simply meant, the whole thing wasn't over yet. Allah's messenger warned us of a battle over mountains of black gold near the Euphrates which was going to be fought in three distinct stages. Recently, on a Radio 4 news comment following the new military build - up in the region, the "courageous" shelling by America's high - tech forces of a retreating third world army was referred to as the "first gulf war". It is unusual in language to use ordinal numbers for one - off events, so maybe the commentator new better than we do, that there is going to be a "second gulf war" and that the scenario leading up to it is as meticulously planned as previously, the butcher of Baghdad playing the American fiddle as well as the Amir of You-Wait or the King of Saudi - America. The ambitions of Eretz (Greater) Israel stretch from the Nile to the Euphrates, and the politics of the region are of key importance in ushering in the final phase of a one - world government seated in Jerusalem, as predicted by Ben Gurion as far back as 1962, administering total control over a world population kept in chains by economic exploitation, brain - washed by mass media indoctrination, and driven crazy by an abundance of New Age Cults. Hail the coming of Dajjal, the Anti - Christ.

For those to whom the above statements still sound too phantastic to be true, the October issue of the "Investors Bulletin" published by Bob Beckman holds an even more astonishing surprise when analysing the developments in the Gulf under the heading "Saddam Hussein rides again". The article talks about nuclear proliferation promoted by Moscow to raise the stakes. "The purpose", the article says, would be "the advancement of discussion involving the structures of a World Government." It quotes Russian sources as expecting "an explosion to be detonated in the Spring, so that the terror associated with this 'accident' would be bound to dominate preparations for the subsequent G8 Summit in the following July." This is being corroborated by the following statement of the Soviet dissident Anatoly Golitsyn: "In a different context, the Russians may be expected to provoke an incident unattributable to themselves involving the explosion of a nuclear device somewhere in the West not excluding the United States. The purpose would be to reassert the necessity for the Russian - American partnership now and to create pressure for eventual World Government." We agree with the Investors Bulletin that "the first victim of any military conflict is the truth", and we would extend this to be a valid observation for propaganda wars as well. So whilst we do not want to deliberate on whether America, or Russia plays the tune, or both dance to the tune blown by some forces behind them, the admission that world government is being sought after and that its coming about could be facilitated by the build up of a military threat, makes interesting reading indeed. Turbulent times may well lie ahead.

Given the impact of those coming tribulations, we decided to take a closer look at the beast of whom all prophets since Noah have warned their people. Although Muslims have the best advance warning system in their scriptures, most of them will, as usual, be caught unawares, because they do not know how to use it. In the days of the prophet, peace be upon him, knowledge meant applied knowledge, and great victories were won, because of the wisdom to make the right connections and take appropriate action. Today, knowledge, even for Muslims, is understood to be contained in a certificate by which some raise themselves over others, and wisdom has been replaced by vanity and self - centredness. "Religion" has been separated from most spheres of life (and reflecting on world politics the way we do may well be considered haram by some...); the treasures inherited from those before us have been made inaccessible and irrelevant through narrow definitions and childish interpretations; self - glorification, rivalry and petty - mindedness prevent us from tackling even the most simple issues in hand. The Muslims thus dismembered will continue to impress each other with horror - stories about the giant who walks across the sea whilst the water hardly reaches his ankles, the Arabic words "kafir" (disbeliever) clearly written over his forehead, yet they will trod ignorantly behind him without recognising him for what he is; they will boast about how to deal with the disbelievers, basking themselves in the glory of Muslim conquests, whilst we are driven out from every corner of the world; they will preach an Islam so uncompromising and regulated that it will drive even the most kind - hearted and open - minded away; and they will endlessly strive to make a little bit more money out of a system they loudly denounce as corrupt and of the devil's making when in the privacy of their four walls. Mahdis appear by the dozen, everybody wants to be a Caliph, but nobody wants to go out of their way to seriously and responsibly address a situation that has deteriorated for far, far too long. It is easy to denounce and demolish, but difficult to plan and build. Muslims of today are known to prefer doing things the easy way.

Who then is the Dajjal? What are we to do, to avoid his curse? There are no easy answers, but we shall try, as always at the risk of being dismissed as unorthodox or even cranky, to separate superstition from fact, to hold up the mirror, even though the image may be painful to behold, to interpret the trends that continue around us regardless of whether we care to acknowledge them or not, to warn of the consequences of ignorance and indifference, and to point to where we must begin if we want to remedy our current state of affairs. We know that common sense is rare, and expect no miracles. We simply stand to be counted.

Author: Islamic Party of Britain

Date Published: Jan 1995