They say truth be told. Therefore, truth be told: the 21st century is called the Age of Information. I kindly beg to differ. We live in an age of misinformation, disinformation, and flat-out deception. An information pandemic, and nobody wants to discuss it except you, me and my 5 year old nephew. Information nobody asked for, nobody needs, and nobody wanted in the first place. Completely uninvited, like that relative who turns up unannounced and stays till dinner.

We are bombarded from the morning bed to the night bed. You wake up, turn off your alarm, and bam: 66 notifications. Some YouTuber on the other side of the world wishes you good morning. A brand insists these are your last 10 minutes to buy sneakers at 90% off. Two people liked your puppy-filter photo. By the time you’ve brushed your teeth (or not) you’ve already lost your mind. You just don’t know it yet. By breakfast, there’s a new TikTok trend. By lunch, you’ve taken a punch. By dinner, you’re everything but a winner.

Now, consider Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard. These places, producing the finest minds in literature, medicine, business, and political thought. There was and still is a strict fact-checking rule. References. Years of research and dedication. Getting in was, and remains, one of life’s great achievements, reserved for the hardworking, the dedicated, and yes, the lucky.

But time marched on. Landlines became cell phones became smartphones. Once, we had polymaths like Ibn-Sina, Ibn-al-Rushd and Leonardo da Vinci. But sadly, they never passed the JKBOSE board exams. So they missed out on the unprecedented accolade. And a low quality photo on the rusty electric pole in Parrypora. Pity.

Fast forward to 2026. Deep breath. The youth today give interviews for passing Grade X. They celebrate birthdays like national holidays. Pardon my French, but what exactly did you achieve by being born?

None of this, however, is the real tragedy. The real tragedy is that none of these university graduates, not Oxford, not Cambridge, not Harvard, none of them could secure a place at the epitome of literacy, the institution of institutions, the immensely prestigious WhatsApp University.

Unfortunate for us. Delightful for my uncle and his best friend, WhatsApp University requires no fact-checking, no references, no sources. None. People believe everything they see and share everything they believe. And now, with AI, it’s become a proper circus. Dignity, honour, privacy, time, all sold for cheap attention. Your data for a dance trend. Your privacy for a filtered face. Bargain of the century. And let’s not forget the tech giants: Google, Facebook, Instagram, and the rest. They control the narrative, and by extension, our minds. All compromised. All pushing their version of reality. Truth? Falsehood? Right? Wrong? All subjective now, apparently. Everything is grey. Except when it’s entirely white.

Everything is manipulated. To a layman, what was once black and white is grey now, if not entirely white. Every damn thing has a justification. So much so that even the most unspeakable horrors are being debated. What is good and virtuous has always been that, and what is evil and devilish too. Since Cain committed a sin when he killed Abel, and it shall remain that way till Doomsday. Some things are unjustifiable. Full stop.

We are at the peak of deceit, greed, envy, corruption, and 111 other vices. We are lectured by people like Bill Gates, Elon Musk, the Hollywood elite. They lecture about equality, freedom, peace and global warming wearing a Tom Ford suit, flying private after breakfast at The Dorchester. Moreover, they bore us with lectures about the hijab being oppressive, women’s freedom, and how modesty, femininity, and God do not let a woman blossom. Yet they go to the “Unnamed” island to water the plants. The sell you these lies only to end up in the files.

But look around you. There is always someone who takes no nonsense and stands by the truth. That person is usually a lone wolf, not very popular or fun, enjoying his solitude. As Carl Jung said, solitude is the price you pay for knowing more than others. What is popular is not always right, and what is right is not always popular. That’s why a Bugatti only has two seats and a bus has a hundred. Choose your vehicle wisely.

We are indeed living in the end of times. This is the beginning of the end. As our Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said, holding on to the truth will feel like holding on to burning coal. (Palestine, Yemen, Syria, Uyghur). Time will fly (we are closer to 2030 than we are to 2020). There will be bloodshed of innocents. (Again Palestine, Sudan, Ukraine etc). The signs are there. We just refuse to read them.

And if you think I’m being dramatic, consider this, A lot of things that were abnormal just fifteen or twenty years ago are perfectly normal now. There were reports in Europe, that people protested because they wanted to marry their pets. Let that sink in.

The world is preparing for the arrival of the Antichrist. And suddenly, everything makes sense. This is the time when truth is mixed with falsehood and presented in such a way that anyone who looks believes it. That is the devil’s genius: pure lies are easy to sniff out. But wrap a lie in enough truth, and suddenly people think, “Well, he was right about that, so he must be right about this.” The epitome of deception.

Listen to pop songs these days. Watch a concert. It sounds nice, it looks flashy, but underneath? They are using the opportunity to make you believe things you were never meant to believe. Some time ago, a singer did something genuinely devilish on stage and people protested. “This is disgusting,” they said. Social media gave it coverage. But then she gave an interview: “I am sick and tired of following rules and order. We musicians want people to break free, to do what they wanna do…”

See the script? And unfortunately, as time went on, it became normal. They do not even hide it anymore. Devil worship. Satanism. Souls for sale. It’s all out in the open. For the Antichrist to arrive and take over, certain things must fall into place. It cannot happen overnight. A path must be prepared, a runway, if you will, so that when he lands, he is accepted immediately. And for that to happen, first people must lose their faith, their modesty and their honour. They must become accustomed to deception. So when the true Deceiver arrives, they simply hop on the bandwagon.

Look around. Everyone wants happiness. They seek it in fame, in money, in social media likes, in muscles, in makeup, all the materialistic things. And the Antichrist? He will give them all of that in a jiffy. And they will follow. Because why wouldn’t you follow someone who gives you everything you ever wanted?

Consider this paradox: never in Global history have sacred texts been so readily available. A lifetime of scholarship fits inside a pocket. And yet, faith weakens. Knowledge recedes. The Prophet (PBUH) spoke of a time when ignorance would prevail, not from absence of scripture, but from absence of sincerity. That time, is now.

So what do we do? We can only save ourselves and our families by getting closer to God and killing the satan that has made its home inside our hearts and our pockets. We must fortify our mobiles, especially social media. Be careful who we follow, who we add, what we watch, what data we share. Your phone is a window. Keep the curtains drawn when necessary.

The world might be burning, but the sunset is still free. My nephew turns 6 this July, I wonder what he is thinking.

I end my piece with one of my favourite quotes from one of my favourite philosophers:

“I cannot teach anyone anything. I can only make them think.” — Socrates.

Mohammad Tazeem, freelance columnist based in London, United Kingdom

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