The hadiths of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), mention that, during the end times, a devilish power will emerge, one of whose most important attributes will be that he disrupts the peace and order of mankind. Many people, though, attach little importance to that power, known as the antichrist (Dajjal). From the hadiths, one would ordinarily think of the antichrist as an individual. However, as well as an individual, it can also be an ideology that tends towards violence and savagery, possesses devilish characteristics, and inflicts suffering on mankind.
The antichrist is the ideological infrastructure which causes that chaos and instability, that encourages people to immorality and evil, condemns whole communities to denial and rebellion, and is the ultimate root of terrorism and violence. The antichrist spreads immorality by portraying good as evil, and evil as good. One of the hadiths on the subject reads:
When Al-Dajjal appears, he will have fire and water along with him. What the people will consider as cold water, will be fire that will burn (things). So, if anyone of you comes across this, he should fall in the thing which will appear to him as fire, for in reality, it will be fresh cold water. (Sahih Al-Bukhari.)
As we’ve been foretold by Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), this period will be one when people fail to live by the morality condoned by religion, when the existence of God is openly denied, when immorality, chaos, war and conflict are everywhere, and when terrorism, murder and violence become a part of normal, everyday life. Although there have been times all throughout history that have witnessed anarchy and chaos, the state of chaos and confusion that will be created by the Antichrist will be on an unprecedented scale.
The characteristics described by many of the hadiths discussing the Antichrist become much clearer when it is considered as ideology. All ideas and systems of thought, therefore, that encourage people to deny the existence of God, turn them away from religious morality and encourage strife and chaos between them actually represent the antichrist.
Today, materialism, and the various ideologies and movements that it gives birth to, are the primary components contributing to corruption in the world. All such movements, in effect, received their so-called scientific justification from the same source, and share the same fundamental foundation: Darwinism. Ever since Darwinism was first put forward, it has been the principle justification for materialist and anti-religious ideologies and movements, and even itself been elevated to the status of a religion by those who support such ideologies.
Darwinism is a teaching that attributes an independent power to nature, claims that life was not created, but emerged as a result of chance, and tries to distance mankind from belief in God. Blind chance is the central premise employed in Darwinism for maintaining that life came about out of inanimate matter and developed by means of evolutionary process. In this deceptive ideology, all living species began from one single cell that came about by chance, in other words from one common ancestor, and then evolved from one another over time by means of minute changes, again by pure coincidence. The theory lacks any scientific or rational basis, is nothing but a fantasy, and was widely accepted in Darwin's day on account of the primitive level of science and the sociological conditions at the time.
When those who believe in this superstition are asked how life might have first come about, they reply; "Living things came about by chance." In actual fact, however, chance is an uncontrolled, unreasoning and aimless force. God, however, creates everything according to a plan, in an ordered, intelligent and specific manner. When someone enters a room he knows that when he sees a chair, table, clock and a television, that they were made by someone and placed in that room according to a specific order. He would certainly never consider that they had come into being by themselves, or had placed themselves of their own doing. If anyone were to believe that such a thing were possible, his sanity would have to be questioned.
In the same way, someone who believes in such a senseless notion as Darwinism is in effect claiming that all the myriad species in the world, and everyone in the world had come about of their own accord as the result of chance. That means that "chance" is that person's god. Yet on careful inspection, that so-called god is one with no power of reason at all, and thus the most unintelligent god imaginable. That "god" is unaware of even its own existence as well of that of what it has brought into being.
In one hadith regarding the Antichrist, the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) said, "Ad-Dajjal is blind." Some Islamic scholars have interpreted that hadith to mean "The eye of the Antichrist's heart is blind." That interpretation helps us to better understand the facts we just mentioned. In the same way, the eye of the heart of someone who makes a god out of blind chance is also blind, as is the eye of his reason. Such people immediately object when it is suggested that; "God created the whole universe with superior intelligence, order and design." Yet when it is suggested that; "Everything is the result of blind chance," they find that completely logical. Instead of an intelligent and conscious creator, they prefer the totally unreasonable idea that blind chance, lacking all intelligence and creative ability, created everything out of anarchy and chaos. Therefore, Darwinism is the most illogical and superstitious religion in the history of the world. Another surprising fact is the way in which a number of highly educated people adopt it as their religion, even though it is clearly false. This shows to what extent the ideas of the Antichrist entrance people like a magic spell.
So, just what is it that leads certain people to believe such an irrational and illogical claim, and to even fiercely defend it?
This actually is an intensive propaganda campaign aimed at spreading the ideological system of the Antichrist in the time before the last days. In order to render this campaign as effective as possible, people are bombarded with indoctrination throughout their lives, and thus over time are coerced into adopting that twisted religion. This indoctrination, which people are exposed to even from childhood, consists of various phases, during each one of which people take a further step in the direction of the dark world of the Antichrist. The most effective way of protecting oneself from that bombardment is to listen to only the voice of one's conscience. Because, by the grace of God, our conscience is a guide that ensures our adherence to the true path.