About The Book

In recent times things have become very confusing and we have begun to see in bookstores and on websites speculation about future events, based on verses and Hadiths which refer to these future events concerning the signs of the Hour.

Every time a calamity befalls Islam and the Muslims, people begin to look for a way out from them. Sometimes you hear about the appearance of the Mahdi, Sometimes you hear that the time for the final confrontation between good and evil is close at hand, other times you hear about landslides in the East or in the west, and so forth.

About The Author

Muhammad Mutawalli Ash-Sha'rawi (April 5, 1911– June 17, 1998) was an Islamic scholar and former Egyptian minister of Endowments. He has been called one of Egypt's most popular and successful Islamic preachers, and "one of the most-prominent symbols of popular Egyptian culture" in the decades of 1970, 80's and 90's.

After graduating in 1940, he went on to earn his teaching certification in 1943. He later graduated from the religious institution of Tanta, before moving to another at Zagazig and then, finally, at Alexandria. In 1950, he moved to Saudi Arabia to work as professor of Shari'ah in the University of Ummul-Qura. However, in 1963, the diplomatic relations between Egypt and Saudi Arabia worsened and it became impossible for him to return to Arabia.

Instead, he took the position of manager of the office of the Imam of Al-Azhar, Hasan al Ma'amun. Later, he traveled to Algeria as a head of the Al-Azhar expedition, where he stayed for seven years. During his stay in Algeria, the war of June 1967 occurred and Egypt suffered tremendous losses to Israel. Ironically, Ash-Sha'rawi 'praised' the defeat, saying "Egypt did not gain victory while the hands of communism surrounds them and their religion remains un-corrupted." Later, he did get to return to teach at the King Abdul Azeez University in Saudi Arabia.

Alsharawi was host of very popular Friday afternoon TV program preaching Islam.

On reflection of his influence was the Egyptian parliament's repeated blocking of legislation permitting organ-transplant operations, after Alsharawi issued a Fatwa declaring such operations Haraam (sinful) (in case organs are sold and not just "donated") on the grounds that `humans do not own their bodies’.

About The Translator

Aisha Abdurrahman Bewley, born 1948 in the United States. She holds a BA in French and MA in Near Eastern Languages from the University of California, Berkeley. She spent a year with a fellowship at the American University in Cairo and at the same time attended a seminar on Sufism and Islamic philosophy at Dar al-’Ulum. She is a student of Shaykh Abdalqadir al-Murabit, and also studied Ibn ‘Arabi with the late Sidi Fudul al-Hurawi in Fes, Morocco.

Aisha Bewley converted to Islam in 1968. She is the author and translator of many published and unpublished works, some available on her website. She is married to Hajj Abdalhaqq Bewley with whom she often translates and mother of three children.