Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge & Truth — Page 645
UNVEILING OF THE ‘UNSEEN' BY THE QURAN - A HISTORIC PERSPECTIVE the two World Wars this interpretation no longer remains an academic exercise but acquires a substantial threat. This exercise so far has brought to bold relief the contrast between the tragic decline of Islam and the rise of the nonMuslim powers. The verse under study clearly depicts that the global domination of materialism will not last perpetually. The downfall of the materialistic powers will begin with growing mutual enmities which will culminate in horrendous catastrophes of their own making. Wars will follow one after the other. They will be re-kindled and quenched yet again leaving behind the ashes of the mighty powers which will incinerate themselves. The two global wars have already dented the unchallenged might of the superpowers while the weaker and the poorer nations have relatively emerged with a sense of having gained some measure of their lost dignity. The balance is far from tilted as yet to have reached a critical stage, but though slowly, time is certainly moving in the direction of a global revolution. It is that revolution which is predicted in the. Quran to be the ultimate revolution of Islam. Lest it should seem an over-generalized, unsubstantiated statement, we shall produce in the following chapter some sound concomitant evidence to dispel such doubts. . Based on the direct messages contained in many a verse of the Quran, the Holy Prophetsa has clearly predicted the ultimate outcome of the global conflict during the latter days. This he has done with reference to the advent of the anti-Christ. But it should be clarified at the outset that his image as it arises from the traditions of the Holy Prophetsa is not in reality as freakish as might appear on the surface. . It refers to the anti-Christ in a manner that seems to combine in him the power and might of immensely powerful nations. In fact the entire age of the latter days is mentioned by the Holy Prophets as the age of the anti605