Islam - The Summit of Religious Evolution — Page 122
122 O my Lord, my people indeed treated this Quran as [a thing] abandoned. And in a Hadees: 33 A time will come when nothing will be left of Islam except its name. The Holy Prophet also warned his followers of this situation. Thus the traditions record: 34 O men, acquire knowledge before knowledge disappears. Those who heard him asked: O Prophet of God, how will knowledge disappear while we have the Holy Quran in our possession? The Holy Prophet replied: In the same way in which it happened before. Your mother may have mercy on you. Do you not see that the Jews and the Christians possess their books? But they have not the least regard for the teachings contained in the books, which their prophets brought to them from God. Knowledge disappears from the earth when those who have knowledge disappear from the earth. The Holy Prophet also prophesied about subdivisions among Muslims in the latter days: 35 A time will come when my followers will become divided into seventy-three sects. All of them except one will deserve the fire. Some in the audience asked who the Muslims were who would be on the side of the true Islam. The Holy Prophet answered: 34. . . those who follow my example and the example of my Companions. The absolute fulfillment of the above prophecies in this day and age is quite obvious. The Holy Prophet had also foretold additional signs about the advent of the promised Mahdi/Messiah; additional prophecies in this regard follow: 36 When Chosroes dies, there will be no Chosroes after him. Similarly, when Caesar dies, there will be no Caesar after him. Then will you expend the treasures of both in the way of God. Here the Holy Prophet prophesied about the fall of the Roman Empire and the disappearance of the official name of its emperors. If after the destruction of the Roman Empire Christians were to rise again and become a world power, it must be a most unusual development in history. Yet it is this development which is pointed out as a sign of the promised time. The dominance of Christianity after its earlier destruction, improbable as it was, happens to have been clearly foretold. The prophecy was duly fulfilled. The empire of Caesar disappeared according to the prophecy. For a