The Good News of the Golden Age

In many of his sayings, our Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace) draws attention to a period when Islam's morality will prevail, when Prophet Jesus (pbuh) and the Mahdi will be on Earth, and the Qur'an's moral values will prevail: The Golden Age. This period will be very similar to the time of our Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace) and, since he used the characteristics of Paradise to depict this period, it is called the Golden Age.

In the previous sections, we dealt with the suffering and hardship that people will experience during the first phase of the End Times. Just after these events, which are also the signs of Prophet Jesus' (pbuh) coming, the Golden Age will come. This is great news for everyone, for this period will be characterized by the abundance of every type of goods and crops; the establishment of security, justice, peace, and happiness; and the use of advanced technology for humanity's comfort, ease, joy, and peace. No one will be in need, for all goods and services will be available to meet their needs. Many hadiths say that "weapons will be silenced," and thus herald a world filled with peace. In the Golden Age, enemy nations will become brothers and sisters and re-establish peace, friendship, and love among their leaders and peoples.

Technology will reach its peak, and people will receive its fullest benefits. Medicine, agriculture, communication, transportation, and industry will undergo remarkable development, and people will continuously witness new discoveries leading to further advances. Overall, the pace of discovery will accelerate.

The arts will flourish, and the broad horizons and deep thinking granted by faith in God will advance all branches of art. Such a spirit will enable people to produce glamorous works of music, theater, and painting. According to one hadith, people will be so content that they will spend their days with no idea as to how time passes and how one day turns into the next. They will pray to God to prolong their lives in order to receive more benefits from these graces. Another Prophetic hadith states:

… the younger ones wish they were grown-ups, while the adults wish they were younger… The good become even more good, and the wicked ones are treated well. (Al-Muttaqi al-Hindi, Al-Burhan fi `Alamat al-Mahdi Akhir az-Zaman, p. 17)

Our Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace) also gives the following good news:

Unprecedented Abundance in the Golden Age

There will be at the end of my people a khalifa who will apportion out wealth, and he will not count it. (Olum-Kiyamet-Ahiret ve Ahirzaman Alametleri [Death-Doomsday-Hereafter and the Signs of the End Times], p. 433)

In the End Times there will be a khalifa [successor] who will distribute wealth without even counting it. (Sahih Muslim)

The land will reveal the treasures within. (Ibn Hajar al-Haythami, Al-Qawl al-Mukhtasar fi `Alamat al-Mahdi al-Muntazar, p. 45)

The land will turn like the silver tray growing vegetation... (Sunan Ibn Majah)

The son of Mary [Jesus (pbuh)] will return and make the Antichrist ineffective. Then you will live for 40 years in prosperity. (Al-Muttaqi al-Hindi, Al-Burhan fi `Alamat al-Mahdi Akhir az-Zaman, p. 90)

Everywhere food will cook in pots, unseen prosperity will dominate, and material wealth will be disregarded. (Ibn Hajar al-Haythami, Al-Qawl al-Mukhtasar fi `Alamat al-Mahdi al-Muntazar, p. 66)

The reason for Jesus [pbuh] to abandon charity is: There are no needy poor people in want of charity left. (Sunan Ibn Majah, vol. 10, p. 339)

Even without the plough, the produce of wheat would multiply seven hundred times, one mudd [a measure of wheat] becoming 700 mudd. (Jalal ad-Din as-Suyuti)

Then the land will be told to bring forth its fruit and restore its blessing and, as a result thereof, there will grow [such a big] pomegranate that a group of people [between 10 and 40 people] will be able to eat it and seek shelter under its skin. Milk cows will give so much milk that a whole party will be able to drink. And the milk given by camels will be such [a large quantity] milk that the whole tribe will be able to drink of it. And the sheep will give so much milk that the whole family will be able to drink of that… (Sahih Muslim)

The High Cost of Living and Poverty Will End

... And wealth will be so abundant that no one will accept it. (Sahih Bukhari)

The Hour will not be established until wealth will be in abudance - so abundant that a wealthy person will worry lest nobody accept his Zakat, and whenever he will present it to someone, that person will say, "I am not in need of it." (Sahih Bukhari)

Then will my Ummah be blessed, the number of animals will increase, and the land will bear its fruits. (Ibn Hajar al-Haythami, Al-Qawl al-Mukhtasar, p. 26)

Definitely possessions will be in abundance then, flowing like water. Yet no one will [condescend] to take any (Mukhtasar Tazkirah al-Qurtubi, p. 464.)

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