Tomorrow we will find ourselves at a crossroads of our Iman. Some of us will wake up to be believers, some of us will awake to be Kaafirs. These are the days of the Maseeh Ad-Dajjal…this is the period of great tribulation.

Have you ever read 1984, the famous novel by George Orwell? Do you remember the end of the book?…the torture the main character went through. Electrocution, starvation, beatings…But he didn’t give up his grip on truth, he never gave into falsehood…until that is that he reached his breaking point…and then he gave in.

Of course, this book is not based on reality…but there is something very real about it, that is to say: the breaking point. I remember a friend freshman year telling me a story of his father’s friend, a POW in Vietnam. He said something very interesting to me, and I still have not forgotten it today….”You can torture a person in all sorts of ways, and he can take it. But leave him without food for a long enough time...and he’ll tell you anything”.

First, understand this…I’m not trying to scare anyone. I’m giving you my thoughts on how it could be possible for this to happen…for people to follow the Dajjal in masse…for Mu’mins to become Kaafirs overnight. As Muslims we have to seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge…and more than anything we have to know ourselves and our limits.

Mughira b. Shu'ba reported: No one asked Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) more about Dajjal than I asked him. He said: He should not be a source of worry to you for he would not be able to do any harm to you. I said: Allah's Messenger, it is alleged that he would have along with him (abundance of) food and water. Thereupon he said: He would be very insignificant in the eye of Allah (even) with all this.

A few days ago my stomach was really angry with me. It growled and ranted at the fact that that it wasn’t being fed. It was the 10th of Muharram, and I was fasting. I barely made it to Maghrib, and fell asleep at five o’clock just to waste the time away till I could eat again at 5:56. It had been a few months since I last fasted, and my body wasn’t use to being put to that sort of condition. Today, after three days of fasting I made myself a small plate of food for dinner and I felt like a silly, spoiled human being. I wonder how long it is that we as Muslims, especially us Muslims in America, can really survive with nothing. Our body really only needs so little to survive, yet when we deprive it of just a little bit of luxury it becomes utterly dissatisfied. Truly, Allah has created the sons and daughters of Adam with a body no different then its soul.

The Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) and his companions suffered through starvation we probably could never picture. Often, they would tie large stones to their stomachs to relieve their pangs of hunger. They would even boil palm tree leaves, making it soft, then eat it just to have something resting in their stomach…as the pain used to become utterly unbearable at times. I read often in Riyadh-us-Saliheen about Abu Huraira and the “Ashab Al-suffa”, who would literally fall unconscious mid-prayer due to exhaustion and malnutrition. Yet they were all in complete submission and satisfaction to the will of Allah and to the state they were put in. They had Ridda.

But what exactly is Ridda? Interesting thing about Ridda…as a name it can be applied to both males and females…which is a major rarity in the Arabic language. Ridda is complete satisfaction…complete tawakkul in Allah. If you have nothing you are fine with nothing, if you are given something you are satisfied with what you are given, you have complete submission to Allah’s will. If you want to test how good your Ridda is...don’t ask anything from anybody, even if just to pick up something that you dropped. We can never be perfect at it, but we can most certainly try.

Iraq. Once home to such people as the Prophet Abraham(PBUH) and Imam Bukhari among others. Just 14 years ago, Iraq was one of the most affluent societies in the world, now…it’s absolute chaos. Just 14 years…and Muslims are killing Muslims left and right. A few days ago I was watching Euronews on the satellite and I see two adult Muslim men fist-fighting each other in the city of Baghdad. Over what I do not know, but as they are in mid-fight one man pulls out a pistol and points it at his brother in Islam…a few seconds later….BAM! He had spared his life, but at the expense of his leg…that brother will never run the same way again. Subhan Allah! The only thing a Muslim gains by pointing a gun at another Muslim is Fire.

We have to really think deeply about ourselves…we have to think: how much would we really be able to take? Would we be able to bear the sight of our starving children? Would we be driven to lawlessness in a lawless society? Would we a kill a Muslim who tries to kill us?

Like I said before…the time before the Dajjal’s appearance will be filled with calamity: wars, famine, droughts. We all know now…and are all educated now…about what to look for in the Dajjal. We are all believers in Allah and his Messenger….we know that there can be no other messenger after Prophet Muhammed(PBUH)…but we have NOT yet been faced with great adversity or calamity. I know this is true if you are living in America. We have never been through the true tests; we have never seen people’s true colors…because people’s true colors come out in times of great calamity, not in times of peace. So when you are in famine, and you manage to acquire a piece of bread for you and your family…your neighbors would be very ready and willing to slaughter you for it. So what do you do? You can eat and live, but at the expense of fighting and killing…or you can starve and leave your soul clean. Which do you really think you would do? To be honest…we have never been faced with such a challenge...but I really hope it’s the second choice…because the other is destined for Fire.

For just a second I really want you to picture yourself in such a state. I want you to think about…really think about…what would happen if your whole world gets turned upside down. Great sacrifices will need to be made. Will you be ready? Will you know your limits? I really don’t know…Insha Allah may we be guided and protected by Allah in such days. I just want you to remember two things: Your Salat is important now, and it will be just as important then. Salat is our only direct link to Allah…and insha Allah it will be the only thing keeping our souls in check when our bodies have long since given up.

May Allah grant us the strength of Ayub (Job) and the piety of Abel…who would rather face death than kill his brother.