My friend Noor loaned me a copy of Dajjal: the AntiChrist by Ahmad Thompson.  In typical ADD fashion, I haven’t read it but I’ve browsed it and it’s fascinating.  I love the critique of the "Dajjal" or "Kafr" system.  Produce-consume; worry about where your food and shelter will come from; buy insurance.  The only thing that I’m a little bit unsure of is that capital-I Islam is the One Right Way (and that’s that, fer sher). 

This got my attention:

"... Not only the Qur’an but also the existential life pattern of the Prophet Muhammad and the community which formed around him, may the blessings and peace of Allah be on him and them, has been preserved and transmitted, from living person to living person, in an unbroken chain of transmission, right up until today.  The Prophet Muhammad said that this transmission would continue until just before the end of time, when there will be no more Muslims left on the face of the earth."

I don’t know how this is expected to play out.  According to Thompson, it seems that maybe even the uber-Muslim Saudis of Arabia might not quite be really-capital-M Muslim, as far as they’re all about producing and consuming and all that.  (As much as there is a "they" that can be referred to like that.)  It’s interesting to imagine a post-apocalyptic scenario where there’s a community of The Last Muslims and they’re dying off or whatever, holed up in a cave fighting off the Army Of One shock troops from New Amexinadastan, and when the last one dies the sun rises on the yawm-al-Din. 

But if you want the End of Time and Day of Judgment and Garden, No Two, No Four Gardens, then to hasten that (in linear time anyway) we shouldn’t encourage people to become Muslim?

hakim