A new movie will be released by Sony Entertainment in mid November called “2012” which shows a sudden triggering of natural calamities in the world. This movie is based on predictions made during different eras in history, in different regions, cultures and religions pointing to one single event. This is when Astronomical changes will cause gigantic destruction on Earth and the Civilization as we know it, may end. Earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, landslides, avalanches etc., will destroy almost entire man made infrastructure. This movie may start a debate, all over the world regarding the expected time of “Doomsday” or “End of Times” as known in the west. The topic is so vast that no article can cover it and that is why many predictions made by prominent seers and many scientific theories have been missed out here.

December 21, 2012 is the date derived from ancient calendars as the end date. Some say this would be the end of the world while others belonging to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, say that this could be the beginning of the end but not the end itself as all believe in the coming of a Savior, who has not come yet. Interestingly enough all believe that before the Savior comes, there would be a time of great afflictions upon earth and natural and man made disasters will come more frequently and of unprecedented magnitude. By the way this date is falling on the Islamic sacred day of Friday.

Islamic Hadith books tells us that the final wars will be conventional, with armies coming from different directions and colliding at specific places in the world, which points towards a state of world in which there will be no electricity or nukes, drones, intercontinental ballistic missiles satellites etc., (New World Order). Most scholars of these three religions believe that the signs that will be visible in the society during the last times have all been appeared, although the geophysical signs of the very last period have not appeared yet, except the increase in frequency of Earthquakes (mentioned in Islamic Hadith and Bible).

Now the rise in frequency of Earthquakes has been reported but the scientist say that this could be due to higher numbers of observatories that have been constructed all over the world, in recent years including remote areas. Personally I feel that two huge Earthquakes happened in Indonesia and Kashmir in a short span of time, which is a cause of concern.

Such predictions were there for a long time but nobody gave any importance to them, until the discovery of the Mayan Calendar in 1960. The Calendar is thousands of years old and comprises of periods of 5125 years each and the last one is ending on December 21, 2012. Guess what; the Mayans knew that the sun gets a storm every 11 years and its one year is equal to Earth’s 5125 years, also they could predict the dates of solar and lunar eclipses thousands of years ahead. The Mayans had a short count calendar of 365 days used for farming and a long count calendar comprising of periods of 5125.36 years, which defines the events and state of mankind during each long count cycle. One long count cycle of 5125 years is divided into 13 Baktuns of 394 years each and it was said that the events would wrap-up at a much higher pace in the last Baktun. ("The time will pass very fast near the doomsday" is also mentioned in Hadith).

The Kali Yuga Calendar of Hindus as interpreted by some scholars is also ending on the same date and not to mention that NASA says that the Sun’s Storm which comes every 11 yrs is also coming on the same date but only a bit stronger this time and compares it with 1958. Coincidently the date of Winter Solstice is also the same. The Calendar of I Ching Civilization of China is also ending on same date as interpreted by researchers. Even the hard core critics of 2012 predictions believe, that since this would be the end of a Twenty Six Thousand years cycle, something unusual could happen on this date

The NASA says that this time the storm on Sun will be more intense and charged particles from the sun may cause the power grids on Earth to explode. Different scientists have predicted about different astronomical changes like Apocalypse, Galactic alignment, Earth switching poles, changes in Earth’s magnetic field/axis etc., to take place on this date. The Nostradamus predicted that an Astronomical body will hit the Earth around the same time. Some scientists say that the Planet X (Nibiru) will come back into our solar system making the number of Planets in our Solar System to become 10 from 9. There are a lot more complicated theories as well like the one in which some electromagnetic wavelength of Earth was calculated in late fifties with a specific method, which was 7.5 then, but now stands at 12.0. It was said to reach a maximum of 13.0.

I have no problem believing the Mayan, the Kali Yuga and the I Ching Calendars which say that the present calendar system will end on December 21, 2012, as they were based on the present Galactic positioning, which I can agree may end on this date. But that does not mean that it will be the Doomsday as new Galactic alignment with new positions of Sun and Earth will mean that a new Calendar will apply. What happens on this day or from that day, would be anybody's guess.

The phenomenon of the Sun rising from the West instead of East is also present in Hadith. The Sun changes its poles every 11 years but Earth never did that in recorded history. A major Galactic Alignment on December 21, 2012, may cause the Earth to switch its poles as predicted by some scientists, as a result the direction of Earth's rotation around its axis may change and this may happen.

Let’s not forget about the famous story of Gibraeel / Gabriel who came to Earth in ancient times when a Civilization was known for its knowledge of Mathematics, Astronomy and Astrology and asked a person about the ware bouts of himself. The person made some calculation and said; “Gabriel is not in the skies”, then he made more calculations and said that; “he is not even anywhere on Earth other than this place so, either he could be you or me”. That is when Allah destroyed that civilization. So, there is information of such a civilization like the Mayans in our own religion. All archaeologists believe that the Mayans had more knowledge than the present day man except that their emphasis was not on machines, warfare equipment and electronic gadgets.

The sunk continent of Atlantis may also be one such civilization. The whole continent could not sunk so deep into water through a slow natural process without giving ample time to its inhabitants to leave along with their pots and utencils. Therefore this must have happened so sudden that people were left in surprise (as mentioned in Quran). The same theory applies on the remains of Dianasors whose bones may have been eaten away by the bacteria if they were not burried alive under tons of sand, in an event like flood or tsunami. Could this be the outcome of the end of every 26,000 years cycle?

The Mayan Calendar may actually be true and its discovery may be by the will of Allah just like the discovery of the body of Remises which Allah promised in Quran to preserve as a sign/ lesson, for generations to come. This is interesting that the period of discovery of the Remises's body (Firoun in Urdu language) and the Mayan Calendar is almost same but one was discovered in Egypt and the other in Mexico.

May be nothing at all will happen, off course only Allah knows better. But a wiser line of action would be to take these predictions as an opportunity to put our lives on right path and ask for Allah’s pardon before it is too late. May Allah forgive us and guide us to the right path. AMIN.

For those who like to read about the predictions in Hadith regarding End of Times, Chapter 41 of Sahih Muslim is one good place which covers the subject.

http://www.searchtruth.com/book_display.php?book=41&translator=2&start=0&number=0