When the Trees and

Stones Speak

By Umar Al Mujahid Abdur-Rasheed

Formerly

Anthony Navarro
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Watching the news or simply looking out your window, you can clearly see something
wrong with the world. Both Islam and Christianity speak of the “End Times” or
“Last Days”, when the morals and values of the human race will disintegrate and we
will live more like animals than civilized humans with
consciences. There will be reasonless mass killing, new
diseases that we have never seen before, poverty on a world
scale, shortage of food in the world, injustice, corruption, the
destruction of the family unit, sex
will be brought in to public view, liars will be believed while the
truthful will be ignored. In short, we will be living in a world
of complete Godlessness in which even the followers of religion
will be void of the teachings of God and will follow the way of
their decadent societies.

Our Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) gave us many signs to look out for in order to
identify this specific age, two of which I have just come to realize are happening right in
front of our very eyes. One of these Ahadith is the Hadith about Imam Mahdi, the
rightly guided leader of the Muslims who will come at the
End Times to establish peace and justice in the earth just
as it had been filled with injustice and oppression. Umm
Salamah(RA) narrates that Rasulullah(SAW) said:
After the death of a Ruler there will be some dispute
between the people as to who will be his successor. At that
time a citizen of Medinah will flee (from Medinah) and go to Makkah. While in
Makkah, certain people will approach him between Hajrul Aswad and Maqaame
Ibrahim, and forcefully pledge their allegiance to him. Thereafter a huge army will
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proceed from Syria to attack him but when they will be at Baida, which is between
Makkah and Medinah; they will be swallowed into the ground. On seeing this, the
Abdaals of Shaam as well as large numbers of people from Iraq will come to him and
pledge their allegiance to him. Then a person
from the Quraish, whose uncle will be from the
Bani Kalb tribe, will send an army to attack
him, only to be overpowered, by the will of Allah.
This (defeated) army will be that of the Bani
Kalb. Unfortunate indeed is he who does not
receive a share from the booty of the Kalb. This
person (Imam Mahdi) will distribute the spoils
of war after the battle. He will lead the people according to the Sunnah and during his
reign Islam will spread throughout the world. He will remain till seven years (since his
emergence). He will pass away and the Muslims will perform his Janazah salaat.
(Abu Dawood)

This Hadith came to mind while checking the news recently. I came across an article
speaking about the health of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia where Makkah and
Medinah are located. King Abdullah is now
86 years old and has been in and out of the
hospital and has had surgeries to repair a
debilitating herniated disc, complicated by a
hematoma that put pressure on his spine (Press
TV). The health of the King is in serious
question, so naturally talk of his successor has arisen. He has six sons, but the apparent
next in line is the King’s full brother, Prince Nayef. In 2006, Abdullah set up the
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Allegiance Council, a body that is composed of the sons and grandsons of Saudi
Arabia's founder, King Abdul Aziz, to vote by a secret ballot to choose future kings
and crown princes. The council's mandate will not start until after the reigns of
Abdullah and Sultan are over. It is not clear, however, what would happen if Sultan
were to die before the end of Abdullah's reign, leaving a question as to whether the
council would vote for a new crown prince or
whether Nayef would automatically fill that
position (Wikipedia). You can see the struggle
for power taking shape already. With sons and
grandsons all wanting to be the next King, it will
be complicated to figure out who has the right to
the throne.

Could King Abdullah be the ruler whose death will cause the conflict of succession?
Also, you must take into consideration the fact that this
Hadith is speaking of a ruler in Arabia where Makkah
and Medinah are. Could the death of King Abdullah be
the mark of the coming of the rightly guided leader,
Imam Mahdi? Only Allah knows, but it is highly likely,
given all that has recently occurred.

Another one of these End Times Hadith goes as follows: Abu Huraira reported
Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: The last hour would not come
unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until
the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say:

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Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the
tree Gharqad would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews. (Sahih Muslim Book 041,
Number 6985)

The Prophet Muhammad said that the

Muslims will fight the Jews. Could he have
been talking about the Palestinian conflict
and the 2006 war between Lebanon and
Israel? In the 2006 war between Lebanon
and Israel, Israel suffered a humiliating
defeat, (although they claimed victory) which could have very well sent the Jews into
hiding behind “stones “or “trees”. I say this because since the 2006 war, Israel has
continued to build illegal settlements in Palestinian territory, which they surrounded
with freshly planted Gharqad trees (the tree of the
Jews). Also they continued to build a 25 foot tall
stone wall, blocking the Palestinians in from
entering Israeli occupied land, thus to me at least,
hiding behind trees and stones.

This is how I viewed the interpretation of this Hadith until I watched a documentary
entitled, “Life in the Promised Land”. In this documentary I
watched Israeli “Defense” Forces (how you’re called a
“defense” force when you’re in another peoples land killing
them is beyond me) unjustly cutting down olive trees owned
by Palestinian farmers while the farmers and their families

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cried and fought for their livelihoods. They
cut down thousands upon thousands of acres of
olive trees because they said that they were
planted there illegally, even though the olive
tree had been part of Palestinian livelihood for
generations. I watched as young Palestinian
boys threw stones at armored Israeli tanks and vehicles
only to be shot at with live ammunition. The stones did
nothing but annoy the Israeli military, while the bullets
killed Palestinian men, women and children. I watched as
fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers and sisters cried
and begged for help against this oppression they were
facing and then it hit me…. these were the trees and stones
that were calling the believers to come fight and kill the
disbelieving Jews. Not practicing Jews, but these evil Zionist Jews that do not follow
the Law of Moses or Abraham and hold zero regard for human rights and life.

I heard the trees calling to me….”Oh believer, the Jews are cutting us down and killing
us. Will you not come to kill him and help us?” I heard the stones plead with
me….”Oh servant of Allah, we cannot defend against this great army. Will you not
come to save us from destruction?” It was as if
I could actually hear the voices of these trees
and stones calling me to fight these evil
oppressors and to help the oppressed. I
watched as my brothers and sisters suffered at
the hands of the Israeli Army, crying and
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screaming because of the atrocities that had just befallen them and I knew then that….
the trees and stones had just spoken to me.

The coming year will be an interesting one, for the simple fact that I have seen many
prophecies unfold this year alone. We as humanity are at a turning point in the
history of the world. If King Abdullah dies and Imam Mahdi emerges, then that will
prove that Ad Dajjal (The Anti-Christ) is here. Are we close to the emergence of
Imam Mahdi? Are the trees and stones speaking to the believers? Are these times we
live in the End Times of the history of this world? Only time will tell….