5.29 Muslims Becoming Easy Prey
The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم also prophesied that carnal pursuits would not only infect his nation but would be the cause of their downfall and devastation. Thawbān reports that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said, “The nations will soon invite one another to devour you, just as diners are invited to a dish.” It was said, “Will it be because of our small number on that day?” He said, “No, rather you will be many on that day, but you will be weightless foam, like the foam on the river. And Allah will remove the fear of you from the hearts of your enemies and will cast weakness into your hearts.” Someone said, “O Messenger of Allah, what will this weakness be?” He said, “The love of this world, and the hatred of death.”333 It is incredible how one century ago, King Leopold of Belgium very famously referred to his colonial ambitions as “this magnificent African cake,” which the European powers carved at will during the Berlin Conference of 1884. A person can easily find the many political cartoons of that day conceptualizing this conference in food terms, almost exactly like the hadith above had stated.
This was in part due to King Leopold’s metaphor, but also because the attendees were only there to formalize the divisions of Africa, fully confident that the large and resourceful continent could not hold its weight in any meaningful resistance to their ravenous greed and imperial appetite.
Reinforcing this point, Anas ibn Mālik narrates that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said, “Once my nation considers five things permissible, then destruction will befall them: when cursing one another appears, wine is drunk, silk is worn, musical instruments are played, and men suffice themselves with men and women suffice themselves with women.”334 Certainly, Muslims today are not insulated from the ideologies that accept same-sex acts. This is even imaginable for a practicing, mosque-attending Muslim, if they allow their religiosity to be reduced to a cultural identity, as the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said in a hadith narrated by ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Amr , “An age will surely come when people gather and pray in the mosques, while there is not a single believer amongst them.”335
333 Abū Dāwūd, Sunan Abī Dāwūd, 4:111 #4297; authenticated by al-Albāni in the comments.
334 Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Bayhaqī, Shu‘ab al-Īmān (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Rushd lil-Nashr wal-Tawzī’, 2003), 7:328 #5084; a ḥasan (acceptable) chain according to al-Albānī in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Targhīb wal-Tarhīb (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Maʻā rif, 2000), 2:608 #2386.
While these prohibitions appear absolute here, scholars have qualified them considering their cumulative read of other prophetic traditions. For instance, the prohibition of silk here is qualified by being applicable to men only, and in significant amounts, and in the absence of necessity. Similarly, scholars generally consider striking the tambourine an exception to the prohibition of musical instruments, at least on occasion, and some widen the concession further.
335 Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah, Al-Īmān (Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islāmī, 1983), 1:40
#101; authenticated by al-Albānī in the comments.