One phrase always seems to outrun the floodwater: aekhir zamaan, the end times.

A cloudburst rips through a mountain village, the Jhelum swells, and within minutes the disaster gets folded into an old script on WhatsApp forwards and mosque loudspeakers. 

Many people see the 2014 floods, the flash floods that now hit more often, and the heavy, muggy summers in a valley once known for its gentle weather as signs that the Hour is near.

There’s something comforting about that story, and that’s exactly the problem. 

Call a flood a cosmic signal and it demands awe rather than action. Nobody dredged a wetland, built on a floodplain, or paved over the city’s natural drainage. 

Blame the apocalypse and you let everyone off the hook, turning a man-made crisis with clear causes into a spiritual weather report.

The theology doesn’t even hold up on its own terms. 

The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, is reported in an authentic hadith to have raised his index and middle fingers together and said he and the Hour were sent like these two. 

That means the end times started fourteen centuries ago. 

Muslims have lived inside them for generations, so the label can’t explain why Srinagar........

© Kashmir Observer