FITNAH – فتنة
Literally: A temptation. Any tempting thing. A trial. A proof. A test. A sedition. A disorder. An intrigue. An intriguer. To rise in sedition. Dissension. Kufr. Melting silver and gold to separate them.
As an Islamic term: Fitnah is anything that deviates the heart and mind from haqq and haqiqah.
“It may then be asked: "What was the hikmah in the awesome and bloody fitnah that was visited on blessed Islam and the luminous Age of Bliss, and what aspect of rahmah was there in it, for they did not deserve such distress?
The Answer: Just as a heavy spring rainstorm stirs into action the potentialities of all the varieties of plants, seeds, and trees, and causes them to develop, so each blossom in its particular way and performs the fitrî duties, so too, the fitnah visited on the Sahâbah and Tâbi’în stirred their potentialities into action, which were all different and like seeds; it spurred them on. Exclaiming, "Islam is in danger! Fire! Fire!", it put fear into all the groups and made them hasten to protect Islam. According to its abilities, each of the groups shouldered one of the numerous different duties of the Islamic community and strove in utmost earnestness. Some working for the preservation of the Hadiths, some for the preservation of the Sharî'ah, some for the preservation of the haqiqahs of îmân, some for the preservation of the Qur'an, and so on; each group undertook a particular duty. They strove in performing the duties of Islam. Numerous multicoloured flowers opened. And through the storm, seeds were cast to all the corners of the most extensive ‘âlam of Islam; half the earth was transformed into a rose-garden. But sadly, together with the roses, the thorns of the ahl al-bid’ah appeared in the garden.
It was as if the Hand of Qoudrah had shaken that era in wrath, rotated it with intense vigour, and electrified the men of zeal. Through the centrifugal force of that movement, a great many enlightened mujtahids, luminous muhaddisîn, holy hâfidhes, asfiyâ and aqtâb were flung off and caused to emigrate to the remote corners of ‘âlam of Islam. It fired with enthusiasm all the people of Islam from East to West and awakened them to the treasures of the Qur'an.” The Letters (131-132 )
It is understood from hadiths’ narrations that what will play the most terrible role in the fitnah of the âkhirzaman will be women and their fitnah. Yes, just as it is reported in the histories that, in ancient times, a group of soldiers composed of extremely skilled warrior women called ‘Amazons’ fought extraordinarily in battles. In the same way, at the present time, in the war of the dhalâlah of zandaqa against Islam, through the plan of nafs al-ammarah, the most fearsome group that is put under the command of shaytan is half-naked women; with their bare legs, which are terrible knives, they attack and assault the people of îmân. By working to close the road to marriage and widen the road to houses of debauchery, they take many people’s nafs captive and wound their hearts and rûhs with kabâir; rather, they kill some of those hearts.
As a perfect punishment for displaying them to the desires of non-mahram men’s nafs, those legs with knives will be the logs of Jahannam and burn first. And since she lost her trustworthiness and loyalty in this world, she is no longer able to find a suitable husband whom, by her creation, she wants and who, by her fitrah, she is in great need of. Even if she finds one, it only brings her trouble. It is even understood from hadiths’ narrations that as a result of this situation, in the âkhirzaman, due to marriage being neither sought after nor respected, women will be without a guardian, unimportant and valueless to the extent that one man will look after forty women in some places.
Since the haqiqah is this. And since every beauty loves her beauty and wants to preserve it as far as she can and does not want it to be spoiled. And since beauty is a ni’mah, if shukr is offered for a ni’mah, it increases in a ma’nawî manner, while if shukr is not offered, it becomes ugly. For sure, if she has a mind, she will run away with all her strength from using her beauty and loveliness to gain sins for herself and others, making her beauty and loveliness ugly and poisonous, and due to ingratitude, turning that ni’mah into a source of punishment, and in order to make her transient five or ten years of beauty permanent, she will offer shukr for that ni’mah by using it in a way that Sharî’ah permits; otherwise, in her old age, she will be detested for a long time and will weep despairingly.
It is definitely established in the hadiths that if her beauty is beautified with the adornment of Qur’anic âdâb within the sphere of Islamic tarbiyyah, that transient beauty will be eternal in a ma’nawî manner, and in Jannah, it will be given to her in a more graceful and shining fashion than the beauty of the houris. If such a beauty has even an iota of mind, she will not allow this beautiful, shining and eternal result to slip from her hand.
Youth Guide/An Important Matter that was suddenly warned
One time, I was sitting by the window in Eskishehir Prison. The older girls of the high school opposite the prison were laughing and dancing in the schoolyard. I saw them as the houris of Jahannam in that Jannah of the world. Then, suddenly, their situation fifty years later appeared to me. Their laughter had turned into their excruciating weep. From this, the following haqiqah was uncovered. That is to say, with a ma’nawî and imaginary cinema, I saw their situation fifty years later. I saw that fifty of those sixty laughing girls were suffering torments in the grave and turned into earth, while ten of them, at seventy years old, had become ugly and were drawing everyone’s look of disgust. I wept for them.
The essence of the fitnah of the âkhirzaman appeared to me that the most terrible and attractive of that fitnah emerges from the shameless faces of women. Invalidating the will, they cast people into the fire of dissipation, like moths, and make them prefer one minute of the life of this world to years of eternal life.
One day, while watching the street, I felt a powerful example of that fitnah. I felt great pity for those young people I saw. While thinking, “These unfortunates cannot save themselves from the fire of this attractive fitnah, like a magnet,” the ma’nawî collective personality of apostasy that ignites the fitnah and teaches it has been embodied before me. I said to it and to those mulhids who receive lessons from it:
O you wretched who sacrifices his religion on the way of taking pleasure from Jahannam houris, plunges willingly into dhalâlah full of dissipation, accepts ilhad and irreligion on the way of the pleasures of the desires of nafs, worships life and is terrified of death, and who does not want to remember the grave and is on the brink of apostasy!...
Youth Guide 18-19
In the riwâyât, it was mentioned that "the fitnah of the âkhirzaman will be so terrible that no one will restrain his nafs." It is because of this that all ummah have sought refuge with Allah (isti‘âdha) from that fitnah for one thousand three hundred years, on the command of the Prophet (asm). مِنْ فِتْنَةِ الدَّجَّالِ وَ مِنْ فِتْنَةِ آخِرِ الزَّمَانِ1 became the wird of the ummah after seeking refuge from the torments of the grave.
اللّٰه أعلم بالصواب2, a ta’wîl of it is this: those fitnahs will attract the nafs of people to themselves and infatuate them. People will perpetrate them voluntarily, indeed, with pleasure.
For example, in Russia, men and women bathe naked together in public baths. And since, by fitrah, women have a strong inclination to show off their beauty, they willingly plunge themselves into that fitnah and are led astray. Men, too, who worship beauty in their fitrah, are defeated by their nafs and, with drunken joy, fall into the fire and are burned. By means of attraction, entertainment, kabâir and bid’ahs of that time, such as dance and the theatre, draw those who perform ‘ibâdah to their nafs around them, like moths, and daze them. But if this occurs through absolute compulsion, since the will is invalidated, it will not even be a sin.
The Fifth Ray- Sixth Matter
“Bediuzzaman realised that an important part of what the riwâyats reported about the individuals and terrifying characters to come at the âkhirzaman had already emerged. He had already written an interpretation (ta'wil) on these Hadiths in Istanbul before the declaration of Freedom, and now saw on them on the stage of al-‘âlam of Islam and humanity. He once again decided to act in conformity with the recommendations of the Hadith which guide the Hizb al-Qur’an3 with the words “If you reach that age, know that one cannot achieve victory over them through politics. One can only respond with the nûrs of the miraculousness of the Qur’an, which is like a ma’nawî sword”
Having found no opportunity to work cooperatively in Ankara, he rejected the list of offers like the Deputyship in the Grand National Assembly, his previous role with the Dar al-Hikmah al-Islam, General Preachery in the Eastern Provinces.” Biography (156)