Resuscitating an old thread insha'Allah.
Minor Sign:
News on drought resistant crops developed in the Middle-East brought to mind the following minor sign: the land of the Arabs will become green with rivers flowing again.
Shaheed Imam Anwar Al-Awlaki رحمة الله عليه lists the greening of Arabia as one of the minor signs of the Day of Judgment in his series on the Hereafter. You can listen to the series here. Also, someone has posted their notes based on the Hereafter series, and here is the portion relating to this particular sign:
Quote:
Number Thirty Nine: The Arabian Peninsula Becomes Gardens with Flowing Rivers
The Arabian Peninsula becomes gardens with flowing rivers again, again is a key word. RasoolAllah sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam said:
لا تَقُومُ السَّاعَةُ حَتَّى... تَعُودَ أَرْضُ الْعَرَبِ مُرُوجًا وَأَنْهَارًا
Imaam Muslim narrates that the Day of Judgment will not occur until the land of the Arabs becomes gardens and rivers. The Land of the Arabs is the Arabian Peninsula even though now the Arabs live in a wider geographical area, the Hadith is talking about particularly the Arabian Peninsula which was the land of the Arabs at the time of RasoolAllah sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam. It is the Peninsula surrounded by the Red Sea, the Persian Sea and the Indian Ocean. It is mostly desert, in the South, in Yemen and in the northern parts there is some greenery but mostly it is desert. The Empty Quarter, the Sahra and Nafud, the Northern Arabian large desert is sand dunes and the Empty Quarter is a place in the world where nothing can grow; it is sand dunes and that is why it is called the Empty Quarter.
This desert, RasoolAllah sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam says a day will come when it will become green with rivers flowing, and RasoolAllah said:
تَعُودَ
'It will return,' meaning it was like that before. This is a scientific miracle of Hadith because with modern technology and imaging, scientists were able to find out that the Empty Quarter and some others parts of the Arabian Peninsula were forests with rivers flowing beneath and these are parts of the land of 'Aad and other kingdoms that existed. They say that one time this existed was towards the end of the Ice Age because in the Ice Age, the Northern parts of the world and the Southern parts of the world were capped with ice. The area of Arabia were like a tropical forest then because it was receiving a lot of rain, until the glaciers subsided and went North and South, then the tropical forest went to different directions and that area remained as a desert. But now they are finding that in the eastern parts of Yemen and the South East parts of Saudi Arabia, they are finding traces of rivers and they can see that using the satellite imaging. There are basins of rivers which are an indication of large amounts of water which was flowing through it.
How will this happen again? Allahu A'lam. It could be through climate changes which would make that area receive a lot of rain again. Or it could be through technological advances that would make it possible to irrigate all of that land and turn it into gardens again. Allahu A'lam, we don't know which one would happen or there could be other alternatives of how this could happen and this is something that did not happen yet. Some say this is occurring now in places such as Saudi Arabia and the Emirates where a lot of money is spent on agriculture but it did not get to the level where it is all green. Yes there is a lot of greenery and agriculture that is happening in the areas that are desert but you cannot say Arabia is now gardens full with rivers.
The Arabian Peninsula becomes gardens with flowing rivers again, again is a key word. RasoolAllah sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam said:
لا تَقُومُ السَّاعَةُ حَتَّى... تَعُودَ أَرْضُ الْعَرَبِ مُرُوجًا وَأَنْهَارًا
Imaam Muslim narrates that the Day of Judgment will not occur until the land of the Arabs becomes gardens and rivers. The Land of the Arabs is the Arabian Peninsula even though now the Arabs live in a wider geographical area, the Hadith is talking about particularly the Arabian Peninsula which was the land of the Arabs at the time of RasoolAllah sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam. It is the Peninsula surrounded by the Red Sea, the Persian Sea and the Indian Ocean. It is mostly desert, in the South, in Yemen and in the northern parts there is some greenery but mostly it is desert. The Empty Quarter, the Sahra and Nafud, the Northern Arabian large desert is sand dunes and the Empty Quarter is a place in the world where nothing can grow; it is sand dunes and that is why it is called the Empty Quarter.
This desert, RasoolAllah sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam says a day will come when it will become green with rivers flowing, and RasoolAllah said:
تَعُودَ
'It will return,' meaning it was like that before. This is a scientific miracle of Hadith because with modern technology and imaging, scientists were able to find out that the Empty Quarter and some others parts of the Arabian Peninsula were forests with rivers flowing beneath and these are parts of the land of 'Aad and other kingdoms that existed. They say that one time this existed was towards the end of the Ice Age because in the Ice Age, the Northern parts of the world and the Southern parts of the world were capped with ice. The area of Arabia were like a tropical forest then because it was receiving a lot of rain, until the glaciers subsided and went North and South, then the tropical forest went to different directions and that area remained as a desert. But now they are finding that in the eastern parts of Yemen and the South East parts of Saudi Arabia, they are finding traces of rivers and they can see that using the satellite imaging. There are basins of rivers which are an indication of large amounts of water which was flowing through it.
How will this happen again? Allahu A'lam. It could be through climate changes which would make that area receive a lot of rain again. Or it could be through technological advances that would make it possible to irrigate all of that land and turn it into gardens again. Allahu A'lam, we don't know which one would happen or there could be other alternatives of how this could happen and this is something that did not happen yet. Some say this is occurring now in places such as Saudi Arabia and the Emirates where a lot of money is spent on agriculture but it did not get to the level where it is all green. Yes there is a lot of greenery and agriculture that is happening in the areas that are desert but you cannot say Arabia is now gardens full with rivers.
The BBC has video news out of the Middle-East (today) on drought resistant crops however, I was not able to find text to add here. A quick internet search yields a whole list of efforts in this regard from around the world and insha'Allah those interested in more can do a quick search.
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