“When the Sun is Shrouded in Darkness and the Stars are Dimmed” (Qurʾan 81:1–2). Imagery, Rhetoric and Doctrinal Instruction in Muslim Apocalyptic Literature

Abstract

This chapter explores statements in the Qurʾan and in the literary testimonies of two major classical Arabic writers that explicitly speak of the apocalypse, including its signs and events. It offers captivating insights into the remarkably rich body of medieval Muslim apocalyptic literature and its wealth of rhetoric and imagery. It illustrates that scholarly considerations of the end of human life, and of the world and time, have served throughout Islamic history as foundations for religio-politically informed hopes of salvation, and for visions of an ideal “new world” promised by God.