“And when people are
brought together,
And when the girl-child buried alive is questioned about,
‘For what crime was she
killed?’
And when books are spread
abroad,”
-The
Holy Qur’an [Ch: 81, v. 8-11]
The great Qur’anic
prophecies regarding the Signs of the Latter Days certainly seem to have come
to fruition in our age. A question to ponder: When the
signs are apparent and obvious, wouldn’t Allah raise His Messenger as well?
As the Qur’an tells us: “There are lessons for
those endowed with reasoning”.
Reflective and
discerning individuals would be awestruck by the stunning, literal fulfilment of
Divine prophecies in our times. Consider this: the single most important fact
of our times is the unprecedented and extraordinary phenomena of globalization.
The great prophecy of the Holy Qur’an “when people are brought together” is
magnificently fulfilled, literally in our times, in several, different ways thanks
to the explosion in communication technologies and transportation mechanisms.
Likewise, no age before ours has witnessed the transnational exchange of books
and ideas as much as we do today: in the age of Internet, the virtual world of
cyberspace fosters an information revolution of unimaginable proportions.
It is also of particular
interest to note that in our times, at a time when even in Muslim societies,
the equality of legal protection offered by Islam to women had been subverted
by the misogynist, traditional interpretations, the assertion of women’s
dignity and rights, identity and choices have begun to gain legitimacy and recognition
in the public sphere. In any case, no age before ours has witnessed as much
concern for the protection and dignity and rights of women and girls as much as
our own age.
Meeting on the heels of
high profile violence cases against women in India and elsewhere that fuelled
global outrage and rising demands for justice, the 57th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women,
March 04- 15, 2013, adopted a forward-looking Agreed Conclusions. The document strongly emphasizes that violence against women
is a human rights violation and calls special attention to the need for women’s
and girls’ safety in public spaces, and for attitudinal changes through
challenging gender stereotypes. It highlights the need to strengthen legal and
policy frameworks, with important provisions on ending impunity, and ensuring
accountability and access to justice, as well as addressing domestic violence.
Reproduced below is extracts
from a Speech delivered on March 08, 2013- International
Women’s Day- by the distinguished Executive Director of UN Women, Madame Michelle
Bachelet on “Gender-Motivated Killings of Women, Including Femicide”:
A revelation
of Allah can be realised in many ways and in different eras also. Just as there was the physical fulfilment of this
prophecy in the previous period, the metaphoric and spiritual fulfilment of the
prophecy takes place in this era on 20 February 2004, when
Allah the Most High raised Hadhrat Khalifatullah with the title: “Musleh Maoud”.
Further, drawing upon the principles
of interpretation of numerical values familiar to the great, mystical saints of
Islam, Hadhrat Sahib provides an interesting explanation regarding the fulfilment
of the prophecy in this era on his august personhood, Alhamdulillah. 
.JPG)
