Invitation to Ahmadiyyat — Page 116
116 that men would change their appearances to look like women. 47 This has come about and men in major parts of the world have taken to shaving their beards and looking like women. There was a time when a beard was considered to be a man’s glory. It was all the more important for Muslims as it was the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet s as , but now it has disappeared from most faces. Even scholars who are held in high esteem by Muslims prefer to shave their beards. Another form this transformation has taken is the profusion of theatres wherein men and women dress like the opposite sex to entertain and dance. Also, the attention that European and American men give to their hair is certainly more than what women did in past ages. Pestilences The Holy Prophet s as also foretold the physical state of people at the time of the Promised Messiah as. Hadrat Anas ra relates that the Holy Prophet s as said that when the Dajj a l makes his appearance and heads towards Medina, a plague would break out, but God would save Medina from both the Dajj a l and the pestilence. 48 This prophecy has also come true. For 25 years now the plague has played havoc with the world, desolating thousands of homes and ruining hundreds of villages, but Allah has saved the holy places of Islam from any significant impact of the plague. The apparent reason for this is that quarantines have been established on all sides to keep the pestilence away. The plague has been described by the Holy Prophet s as on various occasions in varying words, such as, ‘insect of the earth’. 49 Since the plague is spread