Signs of ‘ISA’s (AS) Coming to Earth

	No doubt, the Prophet Jesus (pbuh) will come to Earth. Close to his advent, some signs and fitnah (tribulation) will appear. (al-Uqayli, The Expected Mahdi, 3rd edition, p.151)

As the hadith above also reveals, our Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace) tells that there will be some signs appearing before the Prophet Jesus’ (pbuh) coming to Earth. In the light of this information, in this chapter, we will dwell on the signs heralding Jesus’ (pbuh) second coming to Earth. As we stated in the earlier sections, signs of the Last Day and the doomsday, signs heralding the appearance of Mahdi, signs revealing the approach of Antichrist’s fitnah (tribulation) herald the return of Jesus (pbuh). The Qur’an, the hadith literature and explanations in the works of Islamic scholars are the main resources on these subjects. These aside, the Biblical explanations and the explanations of the Old Testament about the about the second coming of Jesus that are in agreement with the Qur’an and the hadith literature provide us important information.

Despite all these however, some people may raise doubts about whether these signs refer to our day. At this point, it deserves mention to say that the signs that we will refer in the following pages are so obvious and clear that they give no room to any doubts. What is more important is that, in our day all of these signs have appeared one after another and they are continuing to happen. No doubt, throughout the history of Islam, that is, at any time of a period of 1,400 years, some of these signs might well have happened to some extent in one particular geography of the world. Such a situation, however, does not indicate the nearness of the appearance of Jesus (pbuh) and Mahdi. For a certain period to be called the End Times, all the signs that we will examine in details must be observed to be occurrence in that same period. Some hadiths on the subject read:

	"Signs following one another like bits of a necklace falling one after the other when its string is cut." (Tirmidhi Hadith, no. 1447)

	When the community engages in these, signs follow one another; these signs chase one another just as how fish breaking off their net and escape chase one another. (Mukhtasar Tazkirah Qurtubi, p. 478)

The hadiths are quite obvious. The signs of the Last Days will appear consecutively within the same period. One point deserves mention here; some of the events upon which we will dwell in the following pages may well be regarded as ordinary events for our day. Some people may claim that the conditions prevailing in our day naturally entail the occurrence of these signs. Indeed, some of these signs may well happen naturally out of some reasons. This is a certain evidence that our Prophet (saas) drew attention to this period while describing the events that will occur in the end times 14 centuries ago.

Besides, they are certain evidences certifying that our Prophet (saas) called attention to our day while he was describing the Last Days in details 14 centuries ago.

An examination into the explanations in the Old Testament, Biblical statement and Islamic literature in the light of the information provided by the hadith above reveals an astounding fact; these signs referring the End Times have begun to appear one after another in our present time, in exactly the same way they are described in these resources. News about the Last Day portray an exact picture of our day. No doubt, this is a miraculous occurrence, which deserves reflection.