4. Minor Signs

The Signs of the Day of Judgment

The signs of the Day of Judgment which translate as ashrat as-sa’aa. These are indications or milestones in our path towards the Day of Judgment. As sa’aa means the Hour, or the beginning of the Day of Judgment.

No one knows it but Allah. This is ‘ilm al-ghayb. That’s why in the hadith of jibreel, when he asked about the Hour, Prophet ﷺ said, “The one who is asked does not know any better than the one who is asking.” Meaning, neither of us knows when the Day of Judgment is, but Prophet ﷺ has told us many of its signs. In the area of the signs of the Day of Judgment, there are many weak ahadith and many strong ahadith.

It’s one of the areas where you have to sift through to find the authentic ones. It’s a very laborious job. Alhamdulillah there is a book that was written – there are a few (by Ibn Kathir and other scholars) – but there was a master’s degree or a PhD dissertation (Wallahu ‘Alam) on the authentic ahadith of the signs of the day of judgement, which was done by a scholar by the name of Yusuf Al Wabil This is the primary source that is used. He has about more than 50 signs of the Day of Judgment.

Types of Signs

Some of the signs of the Day of Judgment are actual events that can only happen once. You would have accurate knowledge that it happened. For example, the Prophet ﷺ said that there will be a fire that will come out of hijaaz, and the light of it will reach Ash-Shaam. And you would be able to see the necks of the camels at night. This is an event that you will know when it will happen (and this one did happen).

There are other signs which can happen more than once. Or you think that it already happened, but it really didn’t. For example, one of the signs is that there will be a lot of massacre and killing. If you look at the situation today, you might think it already happened. But maybe it will get worse than it is now. There are some signs where it could happen to a certain extent in one time, but they didn’t happen to the full extent. Sometimes they grow gradually.

There are some signs that are complete opposites. For example, there is one sign that says peace will spread. And there is another sign that says insecurity and conflict will spread. They are contradicting each other, so they must happen in a different chronological order.

Minor Signs of Day of Jadgment

1. The Coming of Prophet ﷺ

The first sign is the message of Prophet ﷺ Because, RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam said, “I was sent as close to the day of judgment like these two fingers are close to each other.”

Prophet ﷺ is telling us that compared to the life of humanity on the face of the earth, he is so close to the day of judgment, that it’s like these two fingers are close to each other. He was sent so close to the Hour that it’s like he is in the afternoon of the day of humans on the earth.

2: The Death of Prophet ﷺ

‘Auf ibn Maalik narrated that Prophet ﷺ told him of six signs of the day of judgment; the first was his death.

The death of Prophet ﷺ is a sign of the day of judgment and it is the biggest disaster that afflicted the Muslim Ummah. There is a hadith in which the Prophet ﷺ said that whenever you are afflicted with a problem, then remember your problem in losing me and your problem will seem insignificant.

At-Tirmidhi narrates that Anas ibn Maalik said, “When Prophet ﷺ came to Madinah, Madinah was all light. And when Prophet ﷺ passed away, Madinah was dark. And as soon as we buried Prophet ﷺ and the dirt was on our hands, we felt our hearts change.” The mere presence of Prophet ﷺ meant something to them, and as soon as he passed away, they felt something missing. The tranquillity was felt in the hearts when Prophet ﷺ was around.

3: The Opening of Jerusalem

This sign happened during the time of ‘Umar ibn AlKhattaab. Abu ‘Ubaydah ibn AlJarrah was the leader of the Muslim army; they had surrounded Jerusalem. They had to surrender; they had no chance of fighting. They sent a message to Abu ‘Ubaydah, saying that they were willing to surrender, but they wanted to give the keys of Jerusalem to the khalifah of the Muslims (because the town was so important). ‘Umar ibn AlKhattaab made shoorah and asked the Sahabah what he should do – go out or stay? Some of the Sahabah told him that it was dangerous and to stay in Madinah; other Sahabah said to go – tawakal Al-Allah.

‘Umar ibn AlKhattaab went out with his servant. They were taking turns on the camel – ‘Umar would ride for awhile, the servant would ride for awhile and then they would give the camel a break. When ‘Umar rode into Jerusalem, it was his turn to pull the camel and the servant’s turn to ride the camel. They passed next to a pool of mud. ‘Umar had to go through it; he picked up his clothes and passed through it. There was mud on his clothes and legs. This was happening in front of the people of Jerusalem.

Abu ‘Ubaydah (one of the ten promised Jannah) felt that this was not appropriate – not because the leader shouldn’t be humble, but he felt that the Romans were living in a culture where the leaders are surrounded by guards and he thought that they wouldn’t given him the respect he deserved.

‘Umar deserved respect more than anyone else on earth, at that time. Abu ‘Ubaydah gave him a few suggestions regards to dress and appearance of Umar but ‘Umar ibn AlKhattaab hit him in the chest and said, “I wouldn’t expect this to come from you. We were people who were humiliated; we were nothing. Allah honored us with Islam. If we seek honor any other way, Allah will humiliate us.” Meaning, our honor is not based on the entourage and the motorcade or the extravagance. Our honor is in Islam, not the clothes that we wear.

‘Umar was wearing a dress with 14 patches. He’s teaching Abu ‘Ubaydah that Allah will put our honor in their hearts. If we try to honor ourselves in any superficial fashion, Allah will take it away. And SubhanAllah – ‘Umar was right. When the people of Jerusalem saw him in that fashion, they started crying. The people were standing on the roofs of their houses, looking at him. They had heard of ‘Umar, but they had never seen him. They couldn’t believe their eyes at the simplicity of Islam. They gave the keys to ‘Umar ibn AlKhattaab. Allah knows that it mentions in the book of Ibn Kathir, that they had in their books the signs of the one who would take the keys of Jerusalem, and one of the signs was that he would have 14 patches in his clothes.

4: Plague

Prophet ﷺ said, a death that will eat you away like a certain illness that afflicts goats. This is referring to plague. It occurred in 18H, after the opening of Jerusalem, in Ash-Shaam. It was a major disaster for the Muslims and a great loss for the Ummah because more than 25,000 Muslims died. Among them were Abu ‘Ubaydah and Mu’aadh ibn Jabl. Many sahaabah died during that plague. For them, it’s a blessing because ta’oon is a shahadah.

5: The Abundance of Wealth

Prophet ﷺ said, “Wealth will be so abundant that a man will be handed 100 dinar (a small weight of gold) and they wouldn’t be satisfied.” Meaning, “What is this? This is nothing.” There will be so much wealth. This happened to a certain extent during the time of ‘Umar ibn ‘Abdul-Aziz. There are a few stories. One is that the state of Africa sent ‘Umar ibn ‘Abdul-Aziz some money. ‘Umar said, “What is this? Why is the state of Africa sending me this money? This money – take it from the rich of that area and give it to the poor of that area.” In other words, the money did not go to the federal government. It goes to the local government, to be spent on the same area. They told him that they didn’t find any poor in that area. He said to send it back to that area and use it to pave roads or to free slaves. And also, during his time, the zakah of Yemen was sent. He said the same thing – to send it back. This was because Allah put blessing in their rizq (provisions).

This sign could also refer to the end of time. There were truly be an abundance of wealth all over the world. Prophet ﷺ said, “A time will come when a man will go out with zakah/sadaqah (gold) and nobody will want to take it.” (Muslim) There will be so much money and everyone will be content. This hadith tells us two things: the people will have enough money and they are not greedy. There are rich people who will still take sadaqah.

Prophet ﷺ said, “The earth would vomit gold and silver. The murderer would come and say, ‘I used to murder for this.’ And the thief will come and say, ‘I used to steal for this.’ And the one who betrayed my family and cut his ties would say, ‘I betrayed and fought my family for this.’ And then nobody will take it.” Allahu ‘Alam, it might also be because they have suffered so much.

There is a hadith that the river of Euphrates will uncover a mountain of gold. Prophet ﷺ said that if you see it, leave it alone, because out of every 100 that go there, 99 will be killed.

This hadith, in Muslim, is a warning for us. Prophet ﷺ said, “I was given the keys of the treasures of the earth. I’m not concerned that you would be poor. I’m worried that you would compete on this world and that would destroy you.”

If we compete on material gains of this world, that would destroy us. The poverty that is now is not because of a lack of resources. The problem is unfair distribution and oppression (not giving zakah and sadaqah). If you look at the world, the dependency is not on resources. It is the human being that is the greatest asset. Take a place like the Silicon Valley – it’s nothing but dirt, but it’s the richest place on the face of the earth. There’s no oil there, no gold and silver, not much agriculture. It is the human resources there. Unfortunately, we have a lot of resources in the Muslim world, but we don’t have the ability to make use of it. And Allah will not give us barakah unless we follow the terms of shari’ah in business law. A person could have money, but if it doesn’t have barakah, then there is no good in that money.

6: Times of Trials and Tribulations

RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam says in the hadith narrated by Muslim: “Do good deeds before the times of trials and tribulations that are like the darkness of night.” Do the good deeds before the trials and tribulations are like darkness of night, spreading all over. Then Prophet ﷺ said that during those times, a man would be a believer in the morning, but a disbeliever by night time. And a man would be a believer at night time, but a disbeliever by the morning. Prophet ﷺ said because they are selling their religion for a worldly benefit.

In another hadith by Ahmad (it is the same hadith, but AlHasan alBasri is giving an explanation): “In the name of Allah, I have seen these people. Forms, but no minds; bodies without any conscious. Like moths attracted to a fire; and flies attracted by greed. They would go for two dirhams, and a person would be willing to sell their religion for the small price of a goat.” AlHasan alBasri said this at the time of the tabi’een [transcriber’s note: tabi’een are the students of the Sahabah]. I wonder what he would have said if he lived today.

In another hadith narrated by Imam Ahmad, and this may be talking about a different time. Prophet ﷺ said (the hadith is similar to the other one, but it just says in the end), “[…] the one who is sitting is better than the one who is standing. And the one who is standing is better than the one who is walking is better than the one who is running. So break your bows and stay home. And if anyone enters your home, be like the best of the two sons of Adam.” This means it is better to stay away from those trials. Everything is so mixed up that you cannot separate truth from falsehood. Everything is in the gray area.

Prophet ﷺ is saying to withdraw. ‘The one who is sitting is better than the one is standing’ means that if you’re away from it, than you are better than the one who is standing. Meaning, don’t get involved. Have the least involvement and stay home. If somebody comes into your house, be like the best of the two sons of Adam. Qaabil killed Haabil. Haabil had said that ‘If you extend your hand forward to kill me, I’m not going to fight back.’ This is not talking about now; this is referring to when times are extremely difficult and you cannot distinguish between truth and falsehood.

In terms of fitan, there are many that happened, and many that did not happen. Prophet ﷺ pointed towards the east (when he was in Madinah) and said, “The fitaan come out from here.” And he said, “That’s where the horn of shaytaan comes out.”  We find out that the source of some of the greatest trials and tribulations was east of Madinah. That doesn’t mean all of the fitaan come out of there, but that is the primary area of fitan. We find that some of the greatest trials for the Ummah came from the east (of Madinah). Examples of that: many of the deviants came from the east. Political unrest came from there. The Tataar – the Mangolians – came from there. Ad-Dajjaal will come from the east. Yajuj and Majuj will come from there as well. Some of the fitan that already appeared:

6.1 The Beginning of the Fitna: Assassination of ‘Uthmaan

The assassination of ‘Uthmaan. This was the beginning of the fitna. It opened the door for every fitna after. There is a narration from Bukhari between Hudhayfah and ‘Umar ibn AlKhattaab. ‘Umar ibn AlKhattaab was in a meeting/gathering with many of the sahabah. He asked them, “Who among you can tell me the hadith of the fitna?” Hudhayfah said, “I will.” He mentioned to him some hadith, but that wasn’t what ‘Umar wanted to hear. He said, “I am not asking you about this. I am asking you about the trial that will move like the waves of the ocean.” Hudhayfah said, “Don’t worry about it, because between you and those trials is a closed door.” ‘Umar asked him, “Will the door be opened or broken?” Hudhayfah said, “It will be broken.” ‘Umar said, “If it will be broken, it will never be locked again.” If you open a door – you can lock it again, but if it’s broken, it can’t be locked again. When Hudhayfah finished, they asked him, “Did ‘Umar ibn AlKhattaab know who the door was?” Hudhayfah said, “Yes, he knew, because I told him.” And then Hudhayfah left. They sent someone to go and ask Hudhayfah, “Who was the door?” Hudhayfah said, “‘Umar was the door.” ‘Umar was a door between this Ummah and fitna. During his time, there was stability and security. There were no trials and tribulations during his time. During his time, it was expansion. After ‘Umar passed away, that’s when the fitan started.

Then ‘Uthmaan ibn Affaan became the khalifah. ‘Uthmaan was assassinated. The difference between the assassination of ‘Umar was done by a disbeliever, but the assassination of ‘Uthmaan was done by people under the name of Islam. That is why it opened the door of disunity. In the case of ‘Umar ibn AlKhattaab, it was an enemy of Islam. Over here, it’s Muslims amongst themselves.

‘Uthmaan was the khalifah, and some issues happened during his khilaafah. It was a fitna, and in the end, some Muslims gathered and they surrounded his house and they wanted him to give up khilaafah. They wanted him to step down. ‘Uthmaan was told by the Prophet sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, “Allah will give you a cloak, and if the people ask you to take it off, don’t.” ‘Uthmaan had no idea what this meant. He understood what it meant when the people were asking him to step down. Allah gave him this khilaafah, and these people were telling him to give it up, so he refused. At the same time, he refused to fight them.

‘Ali ibn Abi Taalib and his sons were guarding ‘Uthmaan. He told ‘Uthmaan, “Give me your orders, we will fight them.” ‘Uthmaan said, “I don’t want one drop of blood to be shed for my cause. I don’t want any killing to happen to safeguard me.” He told ‘Ali not to fight for him. ‘Ali ibn Abi Taalib told his sons – Hassan and Hussain – to guard ‘Uthmaan. Eventually they came in. These people were in thousands. They were in Madinah and surrounding the house of the khalifah. In the end, they came in and killed ‘Uthmaan ibn Affaan. That caused the fitan after that.

Prophet ﷺ had mentioned that ‘Uthmaan would die a shaheed. Prophet ﷺ was with Abu Bakr, ‘Umar and ‘Uthmaan on the mountain of Uhud and it shook – it was an earthquake. Prophet ﷺ told the mountain, “Stay stable, because on top of you is a Prophet, a siddeeq and two martyrs.”

6.2 The Battle of Al-Jamal

When ‘Uthmaan ibn Affaan was killed, there was no replacement of khalifa. Some of the Muslims came to ‘Ali ibn Abi Taalib and told him that they will give him bay’ah [t.n: pledge]. ‘Ali ibn Abi Taalib said No; He said do not give me bay’ah until the Muslims make a shoorah and they decide. They told ‘Ali that ‘Uthmaan was killed, there is a fitna and the killers of ‘Uthmaan will spread all over and the problems will get bigger and bigger. Therefore, you must be the khalifa. They kept insisting until ‘Ali agreed. They had to have a leader. They needed somebody to go and unite the Muslims. They gave ‘Ali bay’ah. Az-Zubayr and Talha gave ‘Ali bay’ah also.

The killers of ‘Uthmaan infiltrated the army of ‘Ali. They were in the hundreds, and maybe even thousands. Talha, AzZubayr and ‘Aaisha wanted the killers of ‘Uthmaan to be brought to justice. [Note – remember that ‘Ali, Talha and AzZubayr were all given glad tidings of Jannah by Prophet ﷺ.]

Because the killers of ‘Uthmaan had infiltrated ‘Ali’s army, they went to ‘Ali and told him that he had to set a court for the ones who killed the khalifah. ‘Ali ibn Abi Taalib said, “The awliya of ‘Uthmaan have to come forth and ask for his revenge.” And the awliya are the closest relatives of the deceased. In the Islamic shari’ah, if someone is murdered intentionally, then their closest relatives are the ones who ask for justice. And they have the decision of either asking for execution or accepting the financial compensation (also known as diya). The family decides this, not the court.

Talha, AzZubayr and ‘Aa`isha agreed with ‘Ali and everything was fine at that time. At night time, some of these killers of ‘Uthmaan, which were in ‘Ali’s army, attacked the army of Talha, AzZubayr and ‘Aa`isha.  Talha, AzZubayr and ‘Aa`isha did not come out there to fight; they came out in a big army to ask for justice. AzZubayr and Talha thought that ‘Ali ibn Abi Taalib attacked and that is how the fighting started. It was a very brief fight. In the end, ‘Ali ibn Abi Taalib was able to convince them that he didn’t attack and that he is right in his opinion and they agreed.

‘Ali ibn Abi Taalib was once told by Prophet ﷺ that something will happen between you and ‘Aa`isha. This is narrated by Imam Ahmad. ‘Ali ibn Abi Taalib said, “Between me and ‘Aa`isha?” RasulAllah sallallhu ‘alayhi wa sallam said, “Yes.” ‘Ali ibn Abi Taalib said, “Then I am the most unfortunate of people.” (Something happening between me and the mother of the believers? I must be a very unfortunate person.) RasulAllah sallallhu ‘alayhi wa sallam said, “No. And when that happens, then take her back to safety.” ‘Ali ibn Abi Taalib went to ‘Aa`isha and told some of his army’s officers to accompany her back to Madinah. This was a fulfillment of the prophecy of RasulAllah sallallhu ‘alayhi wa sallam.

6.3 The Battle of Siffeen

This was a big fitna. Prophet ﷺ mentions in a hadith narrated by Bukhari and Muslim, “There will be a war between two big armies of Muslims and they are fighting for the same cause.” (Both of them want the same thing, but they are still fighting.) This is a contradiction. How could you fight for the same reason? Usually, you fight for different reasons. The interpretation for this is as follows:

The murderers of ‘Uthmaan were in thousands in ‘Ali’s army. Mu’awiyah was the waliy of ‘Uthmaan; he was his relative. He had the authority to ask for justice in the case of ‘Uthmaan. He asked ‘Ali to hand them over. ‘Ali said, “I will, but I need to establish my authority first. The ones that killed ‘Uthmaan are in the hundreds. I cannot just hand them over like that; a fitna will happen. You have to give me bay’ah first. Everyone in the ummah has to give my bay’ah first. When I have the authority given to me by the Muslims, then I will hand them over. I can’t hand them over without authority.” Mu’awiyah said, “I will not give you bay’ah until you hand them over.”

The right side, obviously, was ‘Ali’s. Mu’awiyah made an ijtihaad and it was a wrong ijtihaad. He is still a sahabi of Prophet ﷺ and a katab al-wahiy (writers of the revelation). RasulAllah sallallhu ‘alayhi wa sallam entrusted him with writing down the Qur’an. And he is the brother-in-law of Prophet ﷺ. Umm Habeebah bint Abi Sufyaan (the wife of RProphet ﷺ) was his sister.

The ones who were on the right track were the ones with ‘Ali. There was an indication: Prophet ﷺ told Ammaar ibn Yaasir that he will be killed by the transgressing side. Ammaar ibn Yaasir was fighting on the side of ‘Ali and was killed by people from the army of Mu’awiyah. We cannot accused Mu’awiyah, because RasulAllah sallallhu ‘alayhi wa sallam said that two groups of Muslims will fight each other. And this hadith is in Bukhari and Muslim.

6.4 Al-Khawaarij

When ‘Ali and Mu’awiyah fought, ‘Ali’s army had the upper hand. Mu’awiyah’s army surrendered by putting the musaahif (Qur’aans) on their swords. When ‘Ali saw this, he stopped fighting. There were people in the army of ‘Ali that were benefitting from war and bloodshed; they wanted the war to continue. Some of them were leaders of tribes; they were the ones inflaming this problem. They existed on both sides.

They said, “How can ‘Ali give up? This is the hukm of Allah. ‘Ali is putting the opinion of men over the order of Allah subhaana wa ta’aala.” Initially, they accused ‘Ali of making a mistake, and eventually they accused him of kufr. They obviously accused Mu’awiyah of kufr before. They broke off from the army of ‘Ali and that is where they got their name of khawarij from. Khawarij means people who broke off. ‘Ali ibn Abi Taalib sent ‘Abdullah ibn Abbaas to have a talk with them. ‘Abdullah ibn Abbaas convinced 4,000 of them to come back. This was the beginning of the formation of the sect of Khawarij.

The source of khawarij existed during the time of RasulAllah sallallhu ‘alayhi wa sallam. The major characteristic of khawaarij is extremism.

Abu Saeed AlKhudri says that when Prophet ﷺ was dividing the booty of war, a man from Banu Taneem, called AlKhuwaysarah, came to Prophet ﷺ, with pride and arrogance, and said to Prophet ﷺ, “Be just.” Look at the rudeness of this man, ordering RasulAllah sallallhu ‘alayhi wa sallam to be just. Prophet ﷺ said, “Woe to you! Who could do justice if I did not? I would be a desperate loser if I did not do justice.” ‘Umar ibn AlKhattaab said to Prophet ﷺ, “Let me chop off his head.” Prophet ﷺ told him, “Leave him alone. He will have followers/descendants whom you would see and your prayer compared to theirs will be as if it is nothing. And your fasting compared to theirs will be as if it is nothing.”

Prophet ﷺ is telling him that the way that they worship, you will think that the fasting and praying of the sahabah will seem like nothing compared to theirs. “They read Qur’aan, but it doesn’t go past their throats.” Meaning that the Qur’aan is not in their actions; in the inside, there is no Qur’aan. You hear Qur’aan, but there is not Qur’aan in the heart. “They will leave religion like the arrow will leave the target.” Sometimes an arrow can hit a target so hard that it can leave the target (through). It went so fast that it didn’t leave any blood.

They are so fast at leaving religion, because of their extremism, that you don’t even remember when they left it. Prophet ﷺ was telling that the sources of people like this were people like AlKhuwaysarah. The roughness and rudeness is the source of the sect of khawaarij. These were the same people that killed ‘Uthmaan; they caused these wars between the Sahabah; and when they saw peace between the Muslims, they broke off.

How do we know that the ones who broke off from ‘Ali’s army were the ones that Prophet ﷺ was talking about? Prophet ﷺ gave us a sign in a hadith narrated by AlBukhari. Abu Saeed alKhudri said Prophet ﷺ said that one of the men will be a dark man and one of his arms is like the breast of a woman, meaning that there is no bone in his arm.

Khawarij said to ‘Ali that you have betrayed the order of Allah. ‘Ali ibn Abi Taalib said, “Then I would give you a few things: you can pray with us in the masaajid, if you wish; I will give you your share of the booties of war when it is split amongst the Muslims [look at ‘Ali’s forgiveness]; I will leave you alone as long as you leave the Muslims alone.” But they did not leave the Muslims alone.

The son of Khabbaab ibn Arath, a Sahabi of Prophet ﷺ, was travelling with his wife. The khawarij stopped him. He identified himself as the son of a sahabi. They asked him, “Whose side are you on?” He said, “I’m not against you, but I’m with the truth.” They killed him. His wife was pregnant. They opened up her stomach and killed the fetus. They killed her. After that, ‘Ali ibn Abi Taalib opened up war against them. Because the deal was: as long as you leave the Muslims alone, I’ll leave you alone. Because of the execution of this sahabi’s son and the brutal execution of his wife, he waged war against them.

‘Ali ibn Abi Taalib defeated them and killed many of them. Abu Saeed AlKhudri, the narrator of this hadith, said that

‘Ali told us to go and search for this man whom Prophet ﷺ described. He (Abu Saeed) said that he saw the man; he was of the exact description that Prophet ﷺ described and he was laying with the dead. And that is a sign that Prophet ﷺ was talking about these particular people. (one of the men will be a dark man and one of his arms is like the breast of a woman)

‘Ali ibn Abi Taalib said about them that there is a great reward for the one who kills them. Prophet ﷺ said that, “If I live until that time, I would kill them like the people of ‘Aad were eliminated.” Complete elimination. Why? Because such a mentality – there is no way to deal with except by elimination. You cannot reason with such extremism. These people want bloodshed; they won’t settle for peace. If you leave them alone, they won’t leave you alone.

They have caused the Muslims so many problems. Some of the biggest fitan were caused by them. The scholars of hadith say that they never find khawaarij that fabricate hadith. Many of Ahl us-Sunnah did. Khawaarij never lie, but their minds are very stubborn and they don’t mind killing.

The fitna of khawaarij was not temporary to that era. Prophet ﷺ said that whenever one generation of them leave, another generation of them will come up again, until the time of ad-Dajjaal. The continuation is not linear. They cannot continue. Why? Because they end up fighting themselves and they destroy themselves. They kill each other or they are killed by outside forces. Extremism comes into the minds of other people, and then they fight each other and cause bloodshed…and so on.

They have a saying in Yemen: “He didn’t find anybody to disagree with, so he disagreed with his own people.” That is the mentality of the khawaarij.

In a hadith by Ibn Maajah, ‘Abdullah Ibn ‘Umar said that he heard Prophet ﷺ say, “Whenever one generation of them comes out, it will be amputated. Then another generation will come out and it will be amputated.” ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Umar said that Prophet ﷺ repeated it more than 20 times. ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Umar said, “They are the worse of people, because they took the ayaat referring to the non-believers and they applied them on the believers. They accused the Muslims of disbelief.” They are very easy in accusing people of disbelief – that is their major characteristic.

6.5 Death of Al-Husain ibn Abi Taalib

Prophet ﷺ was once presented with red dirt by Jibra’eel ‘alayhis sallaam. Jibra’eel told Prophet ﷺ that your grandson – Al-Husain – will be killed, and this is the dirt of the area that he will be killed in. He gave Prophet ﷺ a little bit of the dirt.

Al-Husain was killed in Karbala. Al-Hasan had the khilaafah for six months; he gave it up. After him, Al-Husain was given the bay’ah. Some tribes of Iraq promised him support, and a large group of ahl al-bayt (his relatives from the house of Prophet ﷺ. They fought with the army of Banu Umayyah, and these tribes which promised them support betrayed them. In the end, it was just Al-Husain and his relatives from ahl al-bayt. And they fought until the last person. They were all killed in the end. It was a big bloodshed of the family of Prophet ﷺ. This was a dark point in the history of the Ummah, that the Ummah would do this to the family of Prophet ﷺ. This happened during the time of Yazid ibn Mu’awiyah.

He also committed a massacre in Madinah. He attacked for days and killed many of the descendents of the Ansaar and the Ansaar. Prophet ﷺ said that he saw rain of trials falling on the houses of Madinah. Both massacres happened during the time of Yazid ibn Mu’awiyah’s khilaafah.

7: False Prophets

Abu Hurayrah raiyallahu ‘anhu narrated that Prophet ﷺ said, “The day of judgement will not occur until 30 false prophets arise. Every one of them is claiming that he is a messenger.” If we would sum up all of the people who claim to be prophets in this ummah, we will find that they are more than 30 (in the past 1400 years). The explainers of hadith say that this is talking about the false prophets who end up having a sizable following and become famous and well known. This is not talking about the crazy people here and there claiming to be prophets. This is referring to people who actually had a group following them.

Among the most famous are two who claimed to be prophets during the time of Prophet ﷺ. These two were: Musaylimah Al-Kadhaab [which means Musaylimah The Liar] and Al-Aswad al-Unsi in Yemen. This happened towards the end of the life of Prophet ﷺ.

Musaylimah was from the Bedouins of Banu Haneefah. This is a big tribe, in the area of Yamamah. He was playing on the tribalism: Prophet ﷺ is from Quraysh and I am from Banu Haneefah. They are the city dwellers, we (Musaylimah’s people) are the rural people. You’ll find that false prophets always try to use deceptive ways to attract people. Musaylimah knew that the hearts of the people had nationalism, so he played on that. One of his right hand supporters would clearly say: “The Liar of Banu Haneefah is better than the Truthful of the Quraysh!” Many of his followers knew he was lying. His “Qur’aan” was funny.

This is a miracle. You will find people who are intelligent and good at poetry, but if they try to imitate Qur’aan, they come up with something that is not believable and miserable.

One of the most well-known and eloquent poets of the Arabs, a blind man, sat down for awhile to produce a Qur’aan. He was so arrogant and had a big ego. After awhile, the people started asking, “Where is that Qur’aan that you promised?” He said, “Forget about it. I couldn’t do it.”

Musaylimah had a huge following – hundreds of thousands of people. It was a big fitna, and this fitna was not extinguished until the time of Abu Bakr as-Siddeeq. This was one of the worse battles; tens of huffaadh ( Who Memorized Quran) were being killed. That’s how the process of collecting Qur’aan began. Abu Bakr started the process of bringing the mushaf together. And the project continued into ‘Uthmaan’s time. The famous battle of Al-Hadeeqah was when Musaylimah was finally killed.

Prophet ﷺ saw a dream where he was wearing two bracelets of gold. He said, “I was concerned. Allah told me to blow on them, so I blew on them and they flew away.” They asked Prophet ﷺ, “What is the ta`weer (interpretation) of that dream?” He said, “I interpreted the two liars that will come up in my Ummah.” He was talking about Musaylimah and Aswad AlUnsi.

Musaylimah was killed. He got married to a woman named Sajah, who claimed to be a prophet too. She had a certain following, Musaylimah had a certain following. They married for political reasons. When Musaylimah was killed, she saw that this prophethood thing was not giving her any advances, so she forgot about it and became Muslim again.

AlAswad alUnsi was killed by a man named Fayrooz. They assassinated him in his palace in Yemen. That was the end of AlAswad alUnsi.

Then there was Tulayhah alUsdi. He claimed to be a prophet, but he became Muslim later. They say he was [a] fine [Muslim] after that.

Wallahu Alam, they say that either Tulayhah or Musaylimah, whenever they asked him to read Qur’aan, he would talk about ayaat describing food. So they said, “We don’t know if the angel is revealing to your heart or your stomach!” AlMukhtaar Ibn ‘Ubaid at-taqafi also claimed to be a prophet.

In modern times: there is Mirza Gulaam Ahmad, the founder of alQadiyaniyah. He can be counted as the one of the 30 because he has a sizable following. It is kufr by shari’ah and also by Pakistan’s government as well.

8: The Spread of Peace

There is a hadith that says there will be a spread of peace and there’s a hadith that says there will be a spread of Trials (fitna). And these two were mentioned in the same hadith, so they must be at different times. Whenever people follow Islam, there will be peace. Whenever there is a lack of religion, there will be corruption and a lot of killing.

Khabbaab came to Prophet ﷺ when he leaning on Al-Ka’bah. Khabbaab came to him and was complaining about the difficult situation that the Sahabah were going through in the early days of Islaam. He said to Prophet ﷺ, “Aren’t you going to make du’aa` for us?”

Prophet ﷺ sat straight and anger was apparent on his face. He said, “The ones before you, they would put one of them in the ground and bring a saw and put it on their head and cut them into two pieces, and he wouldn’t give up his religion. They would bring another person (another Muslim) and they would comb him with combs of iron until they separated the flesh from the bones, and the person would not give up their religion. But you are a people who are in a hurry.”

Even though the Sahabah were suffering, Prophet ﷺ said, “You have to have patience. Don’t be in a hurry.” Prophet ﷺ said that there were people who went through more trials than what you went through. Then Prophet ﷺ says, “But Allah will complete this religion. Allah will give victory to this religion until the traveller will leave from Sam’aa to Hadramawt, and not fear anyone but Allah and the wolf on their sheep.” The area of Sam’ah and Hadra mowt was a tribal area, and there wasn’t a lot of security. Whenever any caravan would go, it would be accompanied by an army to protect it. This did happen, during the early years of Islam, and it will happen again in the future.

Prophet ﷺ said, “There will be a time when the land of the Arabs will be rivers and forests (it will be green). And the traveller would leave from Iraq to Makkah, fearing no one but getting lost.”

There’s another narration, Bukhari. Prophet ﷺ was visited by ‘Adiyy ibn Haatim. ‘Adiyy was the leader of a big tribe in North Arabia, and they were Christian. He was a big figure. His father was the most famous in terms of generosity. He came in with a cross hanging from his chest. Prophet ﷺ said, “They have taken their priests and their rabbis as gods besides Allah.” And this caused a conversation between them. A person came in, asking for help. At that time, the Muslims were going through trials.

Prophet ﷺ was giving da’wah to ‘Adiyy. Many of the Muslims were slaves [not in good conditions, etc]. Maybe ‘Adiyy thought that Islam was for the poor. Prophet ﷺ noticed that and said, “Don’t base your opinions on what you see from the poverty and the difficulty of my people. A time will come when there will be so much wealth in this Ummah, and so much security, that a woman traveller would leave from Al-Heerah to Makkah, and she would not fear anyone but Allah.” ‘Adiyy said, when RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam was telling him that, he was thinking, “What about the burglars of Tayy?” And he knew his tribe; they would rob and kill people going through that area. These people are very corrupt. ‘Adiyy knew his tribe. How was this possible, he wondered? ‘Adiyy said that he lived and he saw that with his own eyes. [‘Adiyy became Muslim later on and was a Sahabah.]

The complete spread of peace will be during the time of Mahdi and the time of ‘Eesa ‘alayhis sallaam.

9: The Appearance of a Fire in Hijaaz

RaProphet ﷺ said, “The Hour will not be established until a fire will come out of the land of hijaaz that will throw a light on the necks of the camels of Busra.” Busra is a town in Syria (different from Basra in Iraaq). Hijaaz is Makkah and Madinah – that area. Busra is hundreds of miles away. This sign actually occured. The fire was a volcano that was close to Madinah.

In the time of An-Nawawi, it was seen. An-Nawawi says, “In 654 Hijri, a big fire came out in Madinah.”

Ibn Katheer says, “The bedouins were able to see the spark of light in Busra, on their camels.” (They saw it like lightening.)

Ibn Hajar says, “We think that this volcano that happened in Madinah was the one RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam was talking about.” And it was discussed by Qurtubi, and other scholars.

10: The Wars with the Turks

This is not particularly talking about the people living in Anatolia or Turkey. The people of Turkey immigrated from Turkaman; it’s an extension of tribes and people that go all the way to China. They have distinctive features.

In a hadith by Bukhari, Prophet ﷺ said, “The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Turks. People with small eyes, round, red faces and flat noses. Their faces will look like shields coated with leather. The Hour will not be established until you fight with people whose shoes are made of hair.”

This is the description of the people of Mangolia, and the people of Tataristan. Their clothes were made out of wool and their shoes as well; this is the description of them. SubhanAllah, the Muslims fought people with the exact description Prophet ﷺ gave.

The battles with them started early on. Then the Mongolians, who are considered to be part of these people, swept through the Muslim world and destroyed it. They were under the leadership of Genghis Khan and Taymur Lang. These leaders just destroyed the world. They even went into Eastern Europe and Russia. They were a very strong and forceful people. They destroyed Baghdad.

They killed 2 million Muslims. They would take the skulls of Muslims and build pyramids out of it. They used the books of the libraries of Baghdad and made bridges in the rivers. This was the works of thousands of Muslim minds; there weren’t printers. These were original manuscripts. They took everything in the biggest library of the world at that time (in Baghdad). It was said that the rivers were black from the ink of the books.

Prophet ﷺ says, “You’re going to fight with the Turks… [then he gave the description]. You will find that some of the best people in this religion are people who were the worst enemies of this religion, until they enter Islam. And the best of you in the time of Jahiliyyah are the best in Islam, if you learn.” These Mongolians, if though they were victorious and the rulers, they adopted Islam. You will never find this in history – the rulers adopting the religion of the losers. The losing people follow the religion of the winners. People who are in defeat try to imitate the strong and victorious. The Maghuls were different. They ended up becoming Muslim, even though it took them a long time to change.

In the time of Ibn Taymiyyah, the Tatars that were fighting the Muslims were already Muslim, but they were still destroying the Muslim world. It took them awhile to get into the religion and understand the religion.

Who are the Ottomans? Turkish people who emigrated from the Central Asian Area into the land of Turkey, which was the Byzantine Empire at the time. It was the eastern, Roman, Byzantine Empire. This small tribe of Turks went and lived in Anatolia. Even though it was a small tribe, they began fighting with the Romans around them. Slowly, slowly they expanded their territory, until they completely destroyed the Byzantine Empire. It started with one tribe, but they took down the Byzantine Empire. They ruled all over the Muslim world.

11: Loss of Trust

There is a sign of the Day of Judgement, when the people are dishonest. This sign is talking about a particular type of trustworthiness. In a hadith narrated by Bukhari, Prophet ﷺ said, “If trust is lost, then wait for the Hour.” If there is no more trust, wait for the Hour; it’s the end of the Hour. The Sahabi asked Prophet ﷺ asked, “How will trust be lost?” Prophet ﷺ said, “When authority is given to those who do not deserve it, then wait for the Hour.”

When the leaders are sufahaa` (people with lack of understanding of religion). Prophet ﷺ said that if you appoint someone in a position of leadership and you know there is someone who can do a better job, then you have cheated the Muslims.

Leadership and positions of authority are an amanah. Whenever we find that the amanah is lost, and the leaders are people with no understanding, no religion and no rahmah, that is a sign of the day of judgement.

12: Knowledge will Subside & Ignorance will Prevail

Prophet ﷺ said, “Some of the signs of the Day of Judgement is that knowledge will be lifted up and ignorance will replace it.” [Bukhari]

Knowledge will be taken away and ignorance will be established in the hearts and minds of people. How does that happen? Does a knowledgeable person go to bed and then in the morning they’ve forgotten everything? No. Prophet ﷺ said, “Allah does not take away the knowledge by taking away by taking it from the hearts of the people, but takes it away by the deaths of the religious learned men, until none of the religious learned men remains. People will take as their leaders ignorant people. Who, when consulted, will give their verdict without any knowledge. So they will go astray and will lead the people astray.” The people will appoint others who have no knowledge as mufti. They will give out fatwas that are wrong and mislead the people and themselves.

We find that a lot of the bid’ah and mistakes today are caused by wrong fatawa given by scholars – or people who claim to be scholars.

The issue of fatwa, unfortunately, is taken very lightly these days. In the time of the sahabah, they would run away from giving fatwas. One of the tabi’een said, “I have seen more than 30 of the Sahabah of Prophet ﷺ sitting in the masjid. A person would come into the masjid asking a question and every companion of Prophet ﷺ would send him to the next person. ‘I don’t have the answer, ask the other sahabi.’” Now, the answers aren’t even asked of us, and we run to answer the question. And they used to run away from asking – the sahabah knew it was a big responsibility.

‘Umar ibn AlKhattaab was once asked a (hypothetical) question. ‘Umar ibn AlKhattaab said, “Did it happen?” The man said, “No, it didn’t happen.” ‘Umar said, “Then go back. When it happens, come and ask us. I will gather for it the ones who were in the battle of Badr (I will bring the sahabah who witnessed Badr) and then we’re going to consult – I’m not going to give you the fatwa myself. We’re going to make shoorah.”

They didn’t even want to get into theoretical things: “If it didn’t happen, don’t ask me about it.” Now, we ask a lot of theoretical questions. We ask about things that have no practical use. And we answer them ourselves.

Imam Maalik was visited by a person who came all the way from alMaghrib – Morocco. Or it could have been AlAndalus, wAllahu ‘Alam. He came to Imam Maalik with 40 questions. Imam Maalik responded with, “La ‘Alam” (I don’t know) to 36 questions. He only answered 4 questions. The man told him, “I came all the way from Morocco to hear you say ‘I don’t know’? What will I tell my people when I go back?” Imam Maalik said, “Tell them Imam Maalik says, ‘I do not know.’”

We hear about situations where families are wrecked – big decisions in one’s life – that were based on wrong answers. They get these wrong fatwas, that cause a disaster in their lives, and in the end, they find out it was wrong. They didn’t even have to do it. They did it for the sake of Allah, and then they found out it was wrong. Look at the sin on the shoulder of the person [who issued the wrong fatwa].

It happened in the time of the sahabah. The sahabah were in a ghazwa (battle). One of the sahabah got injured in his head. He had a wet dream, so he was in a state of janabah (major impurity). He asked, “Do I have to take a shower now and wash my head?” They said, “Yes, you have to wash your head.” When he washed his head, he died, because there was a deep injury in his head. When he washed his head, it may have caused an infection, wAllahu ‘Alam. When they came back to Prophet ﷺ, they told him what happened. RProphet ﷺ said, “They killed him, may Allah kill them. It was enough for him to wipe on the bandage (the tissue wrapping the injury). Why don’t they ask if they do not know? “Because the cure for ignorance is asking.”

These hadith are talking about the decrease in the knowledge of religion – the knowledge of alAakhirah, the knowledge of AlShari’ah.

There will be a time when things are worse than this. There is a hadith in Ibn Maajah: Hudhayfah said that Prophet ﷺ said, “Islam will erode like the marks on your clothes would erode or wash away.” At that time, the colouring of the clothes was not permanent. When you would wash your clothes frequently, it would fade away until it was gone. This is what will happen to Islam – it will slowly fade until people will not know about sawm, salah and ibaadah.

Prophet ﷺ said, “And Allah will take all of the Qur’aan from the earth and there will not be one verse left. And there will be people left – old men and women – who will say, ‘We used to hear our forefathers say La ilaaha illallah and we’re saying it now.’” That is all they would remember of Islam. They wouldn’t know anything of salah, etc. Silah was a tabi’ee [a student of the Sahabah], studying under Hudhayfah. When he heard this hadith, he said, “What will la ilaaha do for them when they don’t know anything about praying, fasting, hajj or charity?” Hudhayfah turned away from him. He asked the question again. Hudhayfah turned away from him again. When he asked him the third time, Hudhayfah said, “O Silah!  La ilaaha illallah will save him from Hell fire! La ilaaha illallah will save him from Hell fire! La ilaaha illallah will save him from Hell fire!” Those people, Allah will excuse them because of their ignorance and will accept from them la ilaaha illallah, even though it’s just a word that they say. If the knowledge was there, then they have to pray, make hajj, give sadaqah, etc.

Things will get even worse than this. Anas said that Prophet ﷺ said, “They will come a time when the name of Allah will not be mentioned on the earth.” [Muslim] Ibn Katheer says that there are two interpretations of this hadith. One interpretation is that there will not be any prevention of evil, because when you prevent people from evil, you remind them of Allah. The other interpretation takes the meaning of the hadith literally: you will not hear the name of Allah on the earth. This is towards the absolute end of time, and the day of judgement will occur on these people.

In a hadith narrated by Ahmad: Prophet ﷺ said, “The day of judgement will not occur until Allah will take all of the righteous people away from the face of the earth. Allah will take their souls and the people that remain will not prevent evil and will not do good.” Ibn Mas’ood said, “In this time, all of the Qur’aan will be taken away from the earth; it will not be in the hearts of people.” Ibn Taymiyyah says, “Allah will take it away to the extent that not one ayah will remain in the hearts of people and not one letter will remain in the mushaf, because people are so bad and evil that they do not deserve it.”

13: The Increase of Security Forces

In a hadith by AtTabarani: Prophet ﷺ said, “There will be a time when there will be security forces, they leave in the morning with the wrath of Allah on them, at night they come home with the wrath of Allah on them. Be careful, don’t be one of their associates.”

This hadith is talking about the security forces that are spying on the people, preventing them from worshipping Allah, spying on them if they are going to the masajid and making da’wah. This is talking about the ones that are oppressing the people. Prophet ﷺ is saying to not even help them.

This has happened during the time of some of the khulafaa`. It’s oppression of the people and it’s a test of the Ummah. Every one of the four Imams [Ahmad, Maalik, Abu Haneefah and Shafi’ee] has been through a trial. Imaam Maalik’s shoulder was dislocated. Imam Ahmad was tortured. Imam Shafi’ee was about to be thrown in jail. Ibn Taymiyyah was thrown into jail and he died there. Many of the current scholars also undergo trials.

14: Zina Prevails

Prophet ﷺ said, “Zina will prevail.” [Bukhari]

In another hadith, which is a scientific miracle, Prophet ﷺ said, “If zina will prevail until people will advertise for it in public, then Allah will inflict on them diseases which did not exist before.” Not just committing zina – but zina in public and advertised.

AIDS was a disease that did not exist before. Allah sent it on the people because zina is public and it is advertised for in movies, on billboards, etc. Even advertisement of cigarettes or cars, there is nudity -this is also advertisement of zina. People should not think that if they find the cure for AIDS, it’ll be ok, because Allah will send another disease that didn’t exist before. This is one of the signs that will happen partially, and in the end it will prevail.

Prophet ﷺ said in a hadith narrated by Muslim, at the time of ‘Eesa ibn Maryam, Allah will take away the souls of the believers, and then in the end, the evil people would remain. They would have sexual relations just like donkeys – everything is legal. Promiscuity will be just like donkeys – everything will be in public. “This Ummah will not end until a time will come when a man will approach a woman and will sleep with her in the middle of the road (in front of everyone). The best amongst them at that time, the most righteous, will go to them and say, ‘If you could please go behind that wall.’” This man is not preventing them, or shouting at them. He’s just asking them to go behind a wall – and this is the best amongst them.

Zina is widespread now, even amongst Muslims. We need to wake up to the fact that the culture of Hollywood is a world-wide culture. People in the most holy places are doing these things. The satellite dish is now over huts and houses in some parts of the worlds that are so secluded that da’wah has not reached them in decades. You will find that movies and nudity has reached them. One of the reasons is that we are promoting that. We have made halaal difficult, and haraam easy. Look at how difficult marriage is. Muslims have made marriage so difficult – the responsibility on the man and woman before marriage is so difficult: the man has to be a doctor, etc. The requirements are so specific.

Prophet ﷺ said, “If a man comes to you and wants to marry your daughter, and you are pleased with his religion and his character, and you refuse to marry him, then there will be fitna and corruption on the earth.” This is talking about social corruption. We are all raising our daughters in the same environment. If we don’t rectify the situation, then we are going to have to pay for it. The term Prophet ﷺ used is the deen and the character. Character is very important as well. There can be a religious person with bad character and vice versa. The two things have to be together.

One of the scholars was saying that the rich people would do a great sadaqah if they would help poor couples get married by sponsoring marriage, rather than giving money to the beggars at the doors of the masjid.

You find a lot of people giving them money. A lot of these people are business people. We need to re-evaluate how we give sadaqah. There are a lot of people who are in real need of sadaqah and they don’t get it. For example, a young couple that needs money to get married.

Al-Qurtubi said that this is a sign that Prophet ﷺ talk about that is happening especially during our times (the hadith about zina in public). Al-Qurtubi was describing the situation in his era in AlAndalus. What caused the Muslims in Spain to lose this strong hold of Islam, that was at one point a khilafaa in itself? The Muslims, for a long time, didn’t agree with the concept of more than one khilafaa. Even though the Muslims were independent of Khilafaa Abbasiyya, they didn’t call themselves a khilafaa. They became so rich, confident and strong that they began to say that they formed a khilafaa. This is the first time that there were two khilafaas – a khilaafa in Qurtuba and a khilafaa in Baghdad. Spain was so wealthy and rich. There was social corruption. There was a prostitute that wrote on her forehead one line of a poem, inviting others. Qurtubi was describing that these things (open zina) happened during his time.

15: The Spread of Riba

We can translate it as interest, financing, mortgage – but it is the same thing. Usury was the translation of the world, but that word isn’t used anymore.

Riba is one of the major sins. It is one of two sins where Allah has announced that He will wage war against the person who does that sin; one is riba, and the other is the person who takes Allah’s awliya (friends) as enemies. Allah subhaana wa ta’aala says in the Qur’aan: “Allah will wage war against you.” Ibn Abbaas radiyallahu ‘anha says, in the tafsir of this ayah that on the day of judgement, the one who deals with riba will be resurrected as if the devil is obsessing the person, and he will be given weapons. And he will be told, “Prepare for war.” They will tell him to fight Allah subhaana wa ta’aala.

Prophet ﷺ said, “Approaching the day of judgement, approaching the hour, riba would be widespread.” [AtTabarani]

At the time of Prophet ﷺ, there were two types of riba:

  • One was riba nasiya – riba based on time.
  • Then Riba alfadl, which is when you trade gold for gold, silver for silver, but you add an amount. The second type still exists.

The branches of riba (today) are mostly underneath riba nasiya. In the time of Prophet ﷺ, the traditional form was by time (riba nasiya). It’s basically very similar, or the same, as a credit card: If you pay during a certain time, it’s ok; otherwise you incur charges. Nowadays, it comes in many forms. You can rarely find any company that doesn’t have a loan. Everyone in America is living in some kind of debt that is incurring some form of riba.

Prophet ﷺ really exemplifies the current times when he says, “A time will come when everyone will deal with interest. And whoever is not dealing with riba, the dust of riba would befall him.” Riba is so widespread that almost everyone dealing with it. Even the exceptions, who are not, the dust of riba will befall them. This hadith would mean that the transactions are based on riba, and if you try to get away from it – Alhamdulillah you’ll get away from it, but you’ll be affected by it because it’s a worldwide economy. Some checking accounts don’t pay you interest, but you are still affected by the dust of riba because you’re leaving your money with an institution that is based 100% on riba. (The “dust” is figurative). Try to be clean as much as you can, but the dust will come over you – just like a person driving on a dusty road.

Allah will destroy riba, therefore there is no blessing in riba. We are all harmed by it, even if we’re not using it. It’s almost everywhere. SubhanAllah, it’s as if the whole world is immersed in riba. So these are evil times, in this sense. Islam is a comprehensive system – it even tells how to deal with money. If we separate money, social life, etc from Islam, then what will we have left?

Prophet ﷺ says, “A time will come when people will not care where they get their money from. (If it’s halaal or haraam).” People’s objective will be just to get money. They won’t care where they get it from. They’ll try to abide by the legal systems of their country, but when it comes to the laws of Allah, they won’t care.

But they will be asked on the day of judgement. This is one of the four questions that you will be asked: “How did you make your money and how will you spend it?”

16: The Decoration of AlMasaajid

This is a sign that has occured. In a hadith by Ibn Maajah: Prophet ﷺ said, “A time will come when people will be proud of – or will compete – in building masaajid.

This is narrated by Bukhaari, but it’s not a hadith, it’s an order of ‘Umar ibn AlKhattaab. Abu Sa’eed alKhudri says that the roof of the masjid of Prophet ﷺ in Madinah was from the leaves of palm trees. They would pack the leaves one over another, and that would be the roof. The point of their leaves was just for shade – it wasn’t waterproof. So when it rained, the whole masjid would be soaked. That was the situation of the masaajid in the time of Prophet ﷺ and in the time of Abu Bakr. That masjid was where da’wah came out of; so the criteria for masaajid is never how beautiful it is. The masjid of Prophet ﷺ was the most blessed in the world, and it didn’t even have a waterproof roof.

In the time of ‘Umar ibn AlKhattaab, he bought a builder in and told him, “Build a roof that would be waterproof. And beware – do not use red or yellow, because then you would distract poeple.” [SubhanAllah, look at what we have come to! ‘Umar radiyallahu ‘anhu was saying not to use red and yellow colors – because they were bright! We’re far from being cautioned against red and yellow. If you told someone building a masjid that today, they would think you were crazy!]

Anas ibn Maalik said, “A time will come when people will be proud of the the masaajid, but people will not revive them.” So they would be proud of the masjid, but the masjid would be dead. Ibn Abbaas said, “A time will come when you will decorate the masaajid like the Jews and the Christians did.” And now we are way beyond the issue of using red and yellow. Now it’s gold and crystal chandeliers, every kind of calligraphy. When ‘Umar said to not use red or yellow, it wasn’t particularly because of the colours; it was for the issue of distraction. He said: “So you do not distract the people.” These were the two colours that existed, Allahu ‘Alam, at that time, that they used for painting. Now, there’s a company in Turkey that invented a sujaajah that has lights bordering, a built in alarm that beeps when you forget a rak’ah, etc. The Scholars said that it is too distracting for you during salah.

Abu Dardaa` says (a companion),”If you decorate your mushaf (Qur’aan) and your masaajid, then destruction will befall you.” That is a sign of destruction. And that is exactly what you see today.

The mushaf are very expensive – decorated with gold and special, velvet cloth. The masaajid are built, using huge amounts of money, by people who don’t even pray (kings and presidents). You’ll find all of the people are in the market, right next to the masjid, but no one is going to pray there at the prayer time. Sometimes you’ll find the masjid is so beautiful that it’s used as a museum, but at the time of salah, no one prays. It is just there for people to be impressed by the architecture. SubhanAllah Look at the wisdom of Abu Dardaa` – this is a sign that people are going for the symbolism and not looking at the substance.

17: Construction of Tall Buildings

Prophet ﷺ said, “You will find the barefoot, naked, poor shepards of goats and sheep competing in building tall buildings.” [Muslim] Naked does not mean that they don’t have any clothes. It means that they are so poor that they could barely cover their private parts.

Allahu ‘Alam, this hadith are describing the Muslim Ummah and not the disbelievers. In many of the signs of the day of judgement, Prophet ﷺ was talking about things that would happen to his Ummah. There are some signs, obviously, talking about the world in general or a particular people. In the situations where the hadith does not indicate a particular people, it is about the Muslims. This hadith is talking about people that were really poor and suddenly become rich. They are not building for the need of building, but they’re building in competition.

You’ll find this in the Gulf – because of the oil boom. People suddenly have money. Before, they couldn’t afford a house, and now there’s competition in building tall buildings. These tall buildings are built in areas that could easily afford horizontal expansion. It’s not like its NY, where you have to make tall buildings. These areas are desert. You can go as horizontal as you want – all you’ll hit is a sand dune.

SubhanAllah, this was one of the attributes of the people of ‘Aad. In the Qur’aan, Allah tells us that their Nabiy, Hud, told them in the Qur’aan, ‘You’re building monuments on top of mountains for no use.’”

18: The Slave Woman gives birth to her Owner

This is the famous hadith of Jibreel, in Bukhari and Muslim. Jibreel asked Prophet ﷺ about the signs of the day of judgment. Prophet ﷺ said that one of the signs is that the woman would give birth to her master, or that the slave would give birth to her master.

The scholars give a few interpretations for this. One of the interpretations is that the children would become so rude, disobedient and aggressive in their dealings with their mothers, to the extent that it becomes like a slave and master relationship.

The child is like a master and the mother is like a slave. This is the opinion adapted by Ibn Hajar. He says, “This is the most preferable opinion, because it is the most general.” I think we are seeing this. Before, in Muslim and non Muslim cultures, there was a lot of respect for parents. This was even in America (which is only 200-3oo years old). Just a few generations ago, there was a lot more respect for parents. Now, you’ll find that at the age of 18, or even earlier, children would break off from the family; they wouldn’t see that they have any obligation towards the parents. This is by law. If the son or daughter is 18 years old, the parents cannot get anything from them. The practice and actions of the people are even worse. You hear horrific stories of how the children treat their parents.

This is a teaching of Islam – and common sense – that the parents have done so much for the child, and therefore, they come second after Allah subhaana wa ta’aala in terms of obligations. Allah has done the most for us – we owe Him everything and He owes us nothing. That’s why our gratitude should be to Allah. Second are the parents.

Allah says in the Qur’aan, “Allah has decreed/ordered/prescribed that you worship nobody but Allah and that you be dutiful towards the parents.” The parents are second – immediately after Allah mentioned Himself, He mentioned dutifulness parents.

The suffering that the parents – mother and father – go through for the child. The child was helpless, with no one to help them but the parents. The only way the child could survive was from the help of the parents, from the ability that Allah gave them. SubhanAllah, at the age of 15, the child does not pay anything back. This is the ultimate degree of ungratefulness.

19: Bloodshed Spreads

Prophet ﷺ says, “A time will come when haraj will be widespread.” The Sahabah asked, “What is haraj?” Prophet ﷺ, “It is an Abyssinian word (from habasha). It means killing.” [Bukhari]

Here, Prophet ﷺ is using the word haraj. This hadith doesn’t mean that Muslims would be fighting non Muslims. That is the impression the Sahabah got.

In another hadith, narrated by Ahmad, same as the one above, the Sahabah asked Prophet ﷺ, “There will be more killing than the killing that exists now?” Prophet ﷺ said, “It will not be you killing the disbelievers. It will be you killing each other (i.e. Muslims killing Muslims).” The Sahabah asked, “Will we have our minds then? (Where will our brains be?)” SubhanAllah, look at how the Sahabah think. Prophet ﷺ said, “The mind of the people in that time will be taken away. And they will be lowly people and they will think that they are following something (the religion), but they will be following nothing.” 

In a hadith by Muslim, Prophet ﷺ said, “A time will come when the killer will not know why he is killing and the killed will not know why he was killed.” Prophet ﷺ was asked, “How can that happen?” Prophet ﷺ said, “That will be the time of haraj (widespread killing). Then he said, “The one who was killed and the killer will both be in hell fire.” Why? Because everyone is going out for the same thing – to kill each other. The killed had also intended on killing. This is a time of fitna. Things will be unclear and thing take the soul lightly. Even though, that in itself is a great sin, we need to keep in mind the conversation between ‘Abi Burdaa and one of the Ansaar:

Abu Burdaa` says, “I was in the market place in the time of ziyaad, and I clapped my hands together (in amazement). One of the Ansaar, whose father was a Sahabi, asking him, “Why are you so amazed?” Abi Burdaa` said, “I am amazed because these are people who have the same religion, the same prophet, the same da’wah, the same hajj, … , and they are killing each other. How could that happen?” This Ansaari said, “Don’t be astonished. I heard my father say that he heard Prophet ﷺ say that Allah has mercy on this Ummah; they would not be punished in askhirah, but their punishment is in this life. That will be through killing and trials and tribulations and zalaazil (earthquakes).” This means that the Ummah’s sins are being washed away by the things that befall them in this world.

20: The Shrinking of Time

In a hadith by Bukhari, Abu Hurayrah said that Prophet ﷺ said, “Approaching the day of judgement, time will shrink.”

Prophet ﷺ said, “The Day of the judgement will not occur until time shrinks. The year will be like a month, and a month will be like a week, and a week will be like a day, and a day will be like an hour and an hour would be like burning a leaf.”

What does it mean for time to shrink? There are a few interpretations:

     1. A lack of Baraka in time. Time will be missing blessing. We can see that now: years and days will pass by, but we don’t accomplish anything. Our days are 24 hours – like Abu Bakr’s, ‘Umar’s and the scholars’, but we don’t accomplish as much as they do. For example, Ibn AlJowzee (a great scholar of Islam) had blessing in his time. When he died, they counted all of the books he wrote and said he must have written 11 pages a day, on average. [Transcribers note: Remember that in those days writing was much harder and they did not have the luxury of computers or even a type writer!] Ibn Taymiyyah wrote a book one time – A Treatise in Aqueedah (AlAqueedah waasitiyya) – between dhuhr and ‘Asr. This book is now studied in universities over a semester or even a year, and still the students complain that it is too much! Our lifestyle also makes time feel as if time is too short. In the US, there is too much free time. Everything is rushed. In rural areas, life is at a much slower pace. SubhanAllah, time is an amazing thing. One hour is the same amount of time, but in two different areas there is a difference of how much can be done in that time and how long it feels.

    2. Some scholars say that this will be during the time of Mahdi. The luxurious lifestyle will make it seem like time is passing by very fast.

    3. The shrinking of time due to new forms of communication and transportation. In terms of transportation, it is so easy to go from one side of the globe to the other. Now, all you have to do is spend a few hours in a plane and you’re there. In the olden days, it would take years to make such a trip. In terms of communication – we have such fast communications today, such as the telephone and email. So these new forms of transportation and communication have “shrunk time.”

    4. The literal shrinking of time. The earth will start to rotate faster, etc. There is a strong theory amongst scientists of the big bang. Some say that the universe started as a big bang and will end as a big crunch. Allah says in the Qur’aan that the moon and the earth will come together. We cannot use this as proof, but these are the ayaat of Allah talking about the Day of Judgment.

21: The Proximity of Markets

Prophet ﷺ said, “One of the signs of the Day of Judgment is that markets will be close to each other.” SubhanAllah, this has already happened.

In the old days, they would have one market for every town and small grocery stores for every neighbourhood. Look at how it is today – every neighbourhood has a mall. In Yemen, there used to be a “market of Thursday” and a “market of Friday”, etc. Towns would have a market once a week. Nowadays, they are open all the time. There is huge construction everywhere.

In the recent past – just decades back – markets were very rare.  Now, they are everywhere.

23: Spread of Trade

Prophet ﷺ said, “Business and trade will be so widespread.” People are moving out of different jobs into business. The computer age is bringing with it new opportunities.  Different forms of business have been invented. This is causing a big business boom. However, this causes a big strain. Before, the man used to go and work on the farm and the woman used to stay at home and take care of the house. Now, because business is so demanding, both parents work in the store and the kids are in the day care.

Prophet ﷺ said, “Businesses will be so widespread, to the point where the woman will be helping her husband with the business.” Is that ok or not? wAllahu ‘Alam.

Prophet ﷺ says, in a hadith narrated by Bukhari, “In the name of Allah, I’m not worried about poverty for my Ummah. My concern is that they would become wealthy and you would compete in this world like the people before you competed, and it would destroy you like it destroyed them.” Competing in this world leads to destruction. Unfair distribution of wealth is a problem, but this Ummah has many resources and wealth.

22: Appearance of Shirk

Prophet ﷺ said, “One of the signs of the day of judgement is that some tribes would follow disbelievers and some would worship idols (pagan worship).” Forms of this have already occurred, Allahu ‘Alam if there is any left. The idol worshipping can be seen today in the worshipping of graves (of righteous people).

24: Zalzaal (Earthquakes)

Linguistically, zalzal can mean earthquakes and great trials and tribulations.

Prophet ﷺ said in a hadith, “Earthquakes will be frequent.”

In another hadith by Ahmad, Prophet ﷺ said, “O son of Hawaala (a companion), if you see khilafaa appraoach the holy land (Palestine), then the time for earthquakes and disasters and great issues is approaching. And the Hour, at that time, will be closer to the people than my hand to your head.” What is meant by the khilaafa being close to the holy land? Allahu ‘Alam that is still to come. That is where Mehdi and ‘Eesa ibn Maryam will come. Those will be times of peace and security, but after that will be the worse disasters and the end of time.

25: Sinking, Stoning and Turning into Animals

In a hadith by At-Tirmidhi, Prophet ﷺ said, “In the end of this Ummah, there will be sinking, stoning and turning into animals.” The sinking refers to the earth being swallowed. ‘Aa`isha asked Prophet ﷺ, “Will we be destroyed even though there will be righteous ones amongst us?” Prophet ﷺ said, “Yes, if evil prevails.” So even if there are righteous people in the Ummah, they will be destroyed.

Most scholars say that Maskh, transformation into animals, is literal transformation. Some scholars (a minority opinion) say that this means the transformation of the heart.

26: Rise of the Low

In a hadith by Ibn Maajah, Abu Hurayrah said that Prophet ﷺ said, “There will be tricky (wicked) years, where the liar will be believed and the truthful will not be believed. The untrustworthy will be trusted and the trustworthy will not be trusted. The Ar-Ruwaybadah will speak.” The Sahabah asked, “Who are the Ar-Ruwaybadah?” Prophet ﷺ said, “The low person.”

All of these things are happening today. The worse is that the low person will speak. This does not mean low, as in the sense of a caste system. This is referring to the people who are low in religion and who have no morals and ethics. This person should not be listened to to start with, but they will be the ones teaching and leading the affairs of the people.

In a hadith by Ahmad, Prophet ﷺ said, “A time will come when this world will belong to the wicked son of the wicked.” AlManaawi, in his explanation of this hadith, said, “The wealth will belong to the wicked. The position (of power) will belong to the wicked. And the honour will belong to the wicked.” And if you want to see who they are – look at the rich and famous.

You’ll find very young people singers and famous. If you ask people what they think about this singer or actor, they will say that they’re “cool”. This is the exact description that Prophet ﷺ gave of these people. He said, “A time will come when it will be said about a man, ‘How intelligent is he?” People will say, ‘Look at how cool he is.’ And there is not a single grain of imaan in their hearts.”

[SubhanAllah, I think this is a big problem with our youth today. They want to dress and act like all of these famous people. It’s so nice to see when young people get excited about listening to certain shaykh speaking, etc. So I do think things are changing, but I think we need to tell our children more about the Sahabah. I want to hear the day that children say, “I wanna be like Abu Bakr! I want to be like ‘Umar ibn AlKhattaab!”]

27: You will give Salaam only to those you know

Prophet ﷺ said, “One of the signs of the day of judgement is that you will give salaam only to those you know.”

Before, Muslims would give salaam to whichever Muslim they passed – in the marketplace, in the masaajid, etc. Now, you see people giving salaam only to those that they know. If you give salaam to someone you don’t know, they might frown at you. [We’ve said salaam to people and they kind of look at you funny, like, ‘Do I know you?’ But Alhamdulillah, there are still people that will burst into a huge smile and return your smile.]

28: Women who are dressed, but naked

In a hadith by Muslim, Prophet ﷺ said, “One of the signs of the day of judgement is that there will be women who are dressed, but naked. Their heads are like the humps of camels [referring to the hairstyle]. They will not enter jannah or even smell it, enough though the smell of jannah can be smelled from a long distance (in another hadith: a distance of 70 years).”

These women will be Muslims, because it says in the hadith that “they will not enter Jannah.” We already know that disbelievers will not enter jannah, so these are sinning believing women. Prophet ﷺ described them as dressed but naked. This means that they are wearing clothes, but it’s as if it is nothing.

The women nowadays wear see through clothes and tight clothes. They are covering the skin, but you see everything else. You just don’t see the colour of the skin [sometimes that too!] These fashions come out of the western world and some of the Muslims follow the trend.

29: Cars

This hadith can be interpreted as the transportation of cars. In a hadith by Ahmad,

Prophet ﷺ said, “In the future, there will be men of my Ummah sitting over surooj [saddle] on things that are similar to camels, but not exactly camels. And they descend from these vehicles at masaajid but their wives are dressed, but naked. Curse them, for they are cursed.”

In another hadith, the Prophet ﷺ described the vehicles as having “wide seats.” Prophet ﷺ was describing cars, but there were not cars at that time, so he gave this description.

In the Qur’aan, Allah subhaana wa ta’aala refers to them by saying, “camels, donkeys and things you do not know.” wAllahu ‘Alam, there will be more forms of transportation that we don’t know about, in the future.

30: True Dreams of the Believers

Prophet ﷺ said in a hadith narrated by At-Tirmidhi, “Towards the end of time, the dream of the believer almost never lies.”

One reason that the scholars give for this is that this Ummah will have no more ambiya (prophets and messengers). And the ambiya receive the Revelation (wahi) Allah will support the believers by dreams.

Be careful, though. Dreams can never be a form of shari’ah. Shari’ah was revealed to Prophet ﷺ. They are just glad tidings. An example of dreams being glad tidings is when Imaam Bukhari rahimahullah saw a dream of Prophet ﷺ approving his work. Also, when ‘Uthmaan was going to be martyred, he saw a dream in which the Prophet ﷺ was telling him to break his fast with him. In another case, Imaam Suyuti saw that Prophet ﷺ was reviewing his work. This is just the glad tiding.

‘Uthmaan ibn ‘Affaan was fasting and he was going to be martyred that same day. Prophet ﷺ said to him, in a dream, that you [‘Uthmaan] will break your fast with us.

Prophet ﷺ said that the ones who see true dreams are the truest in their words. True dreams come to a truthful heart. The more truthful you are, the more truthful you will be. Prophet ﷺ says, “And the dream of the believer is 1/46 part of prophethood.” Before receiving revelation from Jibreel, Prophet ﷺ would see a dream at night and then he would see it happen the next day. This happened to him for 6 months. Then Prophet ﷺ received revelation for 23 years. 6 months/23 years = 1/46.

Dreams are the only part of prophethood that is left. There are no more human beings who are receiving revelation. Jibreel will never descend on anyone after Prophet ﷺ.

31: Spread of Pens (Qalam ﻗﻠﻡ)

Prophet ﷺ said, “Approaching the day of judgement, the pen will prevail.” Anything written is called qalam, not just the pen. This sign has already occurred.

People did not have written materials, libraries, books and magazines in their homes as we do today. There were societies that had only spoken language – there wasn’t even a written form. Until today, there are languages that have no written form. During the Prophet’s ﷺ time, you could count the ones who could write. After Islam, Muslims were the educated society. But even then, it wasn’t very common for every house to have a mus’haf. Major Muslim towns had libraries (Damascus, Qurtuba, Basra, etc). The scholars and students of knowledge were the one with books.

It wasn’t even until the 15th century, when Gutenberg invented the printing media, that these things began to be available to people. The active movement of print happened in the 15th century. Now, everyone has a library. In the most rural areas you will finds books and schools. With the computer now, information is available to everyone. With the flick of the computer, you have access to millions of books.

This does not mean that knowledge is prevailing. Most people rely on junk media. Just like there is junk food, there is junk media. True knowledge can be gained through valid books; it cannot be gained through TV. Unfortunately, the masses get their information through TV; it doesn’t give you knowledge.

32: Expansion of the Crescent (Hilaal)

Prophet ﷺ said, “One of the signs of the day of judgement is that the crescent will be bloated.” This does not necessarily mean that the crescent will literally grow; it will just appear that way.  The crescent will look bigger than before. RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam said, “To the extent that it will be one night old, but people will say it looks two days old.”

Allahu ‘Alam [Allah knows best] why this happens, but if you look at the moon when it’s close to the horizon, it looks larger than when it’s up in the sky. If you look at the moon in San Diego, it looks almost as big as the sun. When it’s in the centre of the sky, it looks smaller. This isn’t because the moon is getting farther away. When the moon is down in the horizon, there’s more nitrogen, more carbon dioxide – more pollution. The atmosphere of the earth makes it look larger than it is. Maybe, Allahu ‘Alam, it will look larger in the future.

33: Lies and Fabrication in Religion

Prophet ﷺ said, “Approaching the end of time, there will be dajjaloon (people who pretend to be something they’re not – imposters). They present you with talk that you did not hear and your fathers never heard before. Beware of them. Don’t let them mislead you and misguide you.”

These are people who might come in the cloak of religion and they attribute things to Islam that don’t belong to it. They make these things up. That is why they are called dajjaloon; they lie.

The linguistic meaning of dajjaal is extreme lie. It is important to verify things in religion. Don’t be a blind follower. No matter how knowledgeable or great the shaykh is, information of the religion must be verified.

Imaam Maalik said, “Everyone, you take and leave from their words, except Prophet ﷺ.” Verification of the religion is very important, especially when there is fabrication of hadith. The Qur’aan is not fabricated. Hadith are fabricated. Even the hadith are protected, if you put the effort in to verify them.

In a narration by Muslim, Ibn Mas’ood said, “Shaytaan would present himself in the form of a man; he would speak to the people and they leave and they would convey.” So it is very important to verify where we get our information from. Ridiculous things are circulating in the Muslim Ummah that has no basis in the religion.

34: Shayateen Coming out of Sea

In a hadith by Muslim, ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Amr ibn Al ‘Aas said, “There are some devils imprisoned in the ocean. They were imprisoned by Sulaymaan ‘alayhis salaam. A time will come when they will come out and they will recite to people Qur’aan [and here RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam used the word “Qur’aan” but it means “recitation” here – that is it’s linguistic meaning]  and they are going to claim that it is Sacred Books.”

Allah says, “We are going to reveal Qur’aan and we are going to protect.” This is a guarantee from Allah (in the Qur’aan) that He will protect it.

35: False Witnessing

Prophet ﷺ says, in a hadith narrated by Imam Ahmad, “Approaching the day of judgement will be false witnessing and concealing the true witness.”

People will go the court and lie, make false witness. People who know the truth will conceal it. When this happens, it is the destruction of the society. Justice is the fabric of the society. The less justice there is in life, the worse life is – even if you have money!

Because Islam values justice so much, false witnessing is one of the seven major sins. When Prophet ﷺ was talking about the seven major sins, he was leaning, and then he sat up straight and said, “False witness, false witness.” He kept repeating it until the sahabah said that they wished he would stop. Prophet ﷺ put so much emphasis on it. When you know the truth and conceal it, you are also sinning.

36: The Woman to Man Ratio will Increase

In a hadith by Bukhari, Prophet ﷺ said, “One of the signs of the day of judgement is that the the number of women would increase and the number of men would decrease so there would be 50 women for 1 man.” In the explanation for the hadith by An-Nawawi, he says that the reason will be during the time of trials and tribulations, the men will be killed in battles. Therefore, the number of men will go down and the ratio will increase.

37: Sudden Death

In a hadith by At-Tabarani, Prophet ﷺ said, “One of the signs of the day of judgement is that sudden death would occur frequently.” Sudden death means they are not accidents. There is some internal reason for these deaths.

Nowadays, so many people die from heart attacks and strokes. These things may have happened in the past, but rarely. These are diseases of modern society; it is an epidemic now. Our lifestyle now is very bad – we are a very lazy people. We were in offices and have a very stationary lifestyle. Before, the people were very active. They got their exercise done during their daily work. Now we have to incorporate exercise in our lives by recreation, to make up for our lack of activity. One of the biggest businesses in the US is the fitness business, because of the lifestyle of the people. In the past, people were naturally strong. They didn’t have cars and airplanes.

38: Hostility between the People

Prophet ﷺ was asked about the Hour. he said, “Only Allah know, but I will tell you some of the signs. There will be fitna and haraj.” The Sahabah asked, “What is haraj?” Prophet ﷺ said, “It means, in the language of Abyssinia, Killing.” Then he said, “People would not know each other.” During that time, it will be the law of the jungle. People would know each other [in the technical sense], but they would act like they don’t in their treatment of one another. There would be hostility between people. People would treat others as if they are nothing.

The Sahabah knew about this, and they would advise each other. In a narration by At-Tabarani, Mu’aadh ibn Jabal and Abu ‘Ubaydah advised ‘Umar ibn AlKhattab [when he was khalifa] in a letter and they gave him advice. Amongst the advice they gave him, they said: “We were talking amongst ourselves about the end of time for this Ummah and the people will be like brothers in public, but be enemies in private.” ‘Umar responded to them and said, “You sent me a letter, warning me of a time when the people will act like brothers in public, but be enemies in private, but I am telling you that this is not talking about you or this age and time. These people would have interests and fear. They have interests among themselves only for benefit in the world. Nothing will be for the sake of Allah.”

We find this a lot now – it is rare to find people who know each other and love each other for the sake of Allah alone.

Whatever is based on the interest of this world will not continue. And whatever is based on the akhirah will continue. The only unified direction is the direction towards the hereafter. In dunya, people’s interests will also conflict, in one place or another; they cannot agree on everything.

39: The Arabian Peninsula becomes Green with Rivers Again

Imam Muslim narrates that the Prophet ﷺ said, “The Day of judgement will not occur until the land of the Arabs becomes gardens and rivers again.” Again is the keyword.

A day will come when the Arabian Peninsula will become green, with rivers flowing. These areas include the lands of ‘Aad and other parts of Arabia. The Prophet ﷺ said that it will return to that state. This is a scientific miracle. At the end of the Ice Age, the north and south were capped with ice. Now, scientists are finding out that in some areas – such as the eastern parts of Yemen – there were basins and rivers.

How can this happen – that the Arabian Peninsula will once again become green? WAllahu ‘Alam if it’s through climate change or not. It has not happened yet.

Some people say that it has happened because of the development going on in certain Arab cities, such as Dubai. They say that because of the agricultural development, these lands are going back to being green. WAllahu ‘Alam, it has not happened yet.

40: Lots of Rain, but Nothing Grows

Prophet ﷺ said, “The day of judgement will not occur until a widespread rain will fall over the people, but nothing will grow.”

It is not a lack of rain, but a lack of plants. Why would this be? Maybe because the people will have corrupted the earth so much and there is no blessing in the land. WAllahu ‘Alam.

41: Euphrates Uncovers a Mountain of Gold

The Prophet ﷺ said, “Soon the river Euphrates will disclose the treasure (the mountain) of gold, so whoever will be present at that time should not take anything of it.” [Bukhaari, V.9/B.88/#235].

Abu Hurayrah narrated that the Prophet ﷺ said, “The Last Hour would not come before the Euphrates uncovers a mountain of gold, for which people would fight. Ninety-nine out of each one hundred would die but every man amongst them would say that perhaps he would be the one who would be saved (and thus possess this gold.)” [Muslim B.41/#6918]

42: Animals and Objects Speaking

Prophet ﷺ said, “The day of judgement will not occur until the beasts will speak to you and your legs would speak to you.”

In the time of Prophet there was a shepherd with his sheep. A wolf attacked and took one of the sheep. The shepherd followed it and took his sheep back. The wolf sat back, with his legs in the air – like a person – and said, “Itiqillah (fear Allah). You are taking away food from me that was sent to me by Allah.” The shepherd said, “What an amazing thing! A wolf sitting like a man and speaking to me!” The wolf said, “I will tell you something more amazing. The Prophet ﷺ is in Yathrib [what Madinah was called at the time], and he is teaching the people about the nations before.” The shepherd, who was not Muslim at the time, went to Madinah and went to Prophet ﷺ and told him what happened. Prophet ﷺ gathered all of the Sahabah and told the shepherd, “Tell them what you heard.” The shepherd told them and then the

Allahu Alam, we usually take the literal meaning unless there is evidence otherwise. For the animals speaking, we take the literal meaning.

43: Desire of Dying

The said Prophet ﷺ, “The Hour will not be established till a man passes by a grave of somebody and says, ‘Would that I were in his place.’” [Bukhaari, 9/88/231]

In a hadith narrated by Muslim, the Prophet ﷺ said, “A time will come when a man will pass next to a grave and put his face in it and say, ‘I wish I were in his place.” The Prophet ﷺ said that this is not because of debt. People want to kill themselves if they are in serious debt.

Ibn Mas’ud said, “A time will come, when if death were sold, people would buy it.”

Al-Haafidh al-Iraaqi has an interesting commentary on this. He says that it is not unusual to find people desiring death in any time, but when people see death, and cemeteries and a grave, they don’t feel like dying anymore. When you see death in your face, we naturally hate death. Al-Iraaqi says that if they see death in front of their eyes and still desire death. That really tells you that they are going through miserable time. We ask Allah for security from this. These trials and tribulations are either a test or a punishment for the people.

44: Population of the Romans Increases

In a hadith narrated by Muslim, the Prophet ﷺ said, “The day of judgement will occur and the Romans are the largest nation, in terms of number.” Who are the Romans? They are the Europeans, which extends to Latin America, Canada, the US, etc – the Caucasians.

What does this hadith mean? Is it a negative or a positive sign? Allahu ‘Alam. Are they Muslim or nonMuslim? Allahu knows.

Now we find that there is a great decline in the population of Europe. The growth in some countries of Europe that is negative. SubhanAllah, this is a change that has not happened yet. Ar-Room does not mean that they are non-Muslim. Allahu ‘Alam, they can be Muslims.

45: Opening of the Constantinople

Abu Huraira reported Prophet ﷺ saying, “You have heard about a city the one side of which is in the land and the other is in the sea (Constantinople).” They said: “Allah’s Messenger, yes.” Thereupon he said: “The Last Hour would not come unless seventy thousand persons from Bani lsra`eel [descendants of Ishaaq] would attack it. When they would land there, they will neither fight with weapons nor would shower arrows but would only say: “There is no god but Allah and Allah is the Greatest,” (La ilaaha illallah wallaahu Akbar) that one side of it would fall. Thaur (one of the narrators) said: I think that he said: “The part by the side of the ocean.” Then they would say for the second time: “There is no god but Allah and Allah is the Greatest” that the second side would also fall. And they would say: “There is no god but Allah and Allah is the Greatest” then the gates would be opened for them and they would enter therein and, they would be collecting spoils of war and distributing them amongst themselves that a noise would be heard and It would be said: “Verily, Dajjal has come.” And thus they would leave everything there and would turn to him. [Muslim, B.41, #6979]

Who are these 70,000 descendants of Ishaaq? The Jews are descendants of Ishaaq. The scholars of hadith, like Ibn Katheer and Nawawi and others, say that this is talking about Romans that are Muslims. The early Muslim historians say that the Romans are the descendants of Al ‘Ees ibn Ishaaq. They could be Romans part of the general Muslim army. They could also be Jews who became Muslim. They are going to open Constantinople with dhikr, so they are Muslim. They could also be Muslims who are living in that area. As we said, the land of Turkey (Asia Minor) used to be part of the Byzantine Empire; maybe they will open Istanbul again. Wallahu ‘Alam.

When we are talking about signs of the Day of Judgment, we are talking about ghayb – the unknown. The scholars’ interpretation could be right or wrong. The purpose of these ahaadith are not to draw a map and show exactly what’s going to happen. The purpose of these ahaadith is:

  1. To show the miracle of Islam; the miracle of the hadeeth of the Prophet ﷺ.
  2. They serve as glad tidings for the believers. They are good news for us. They give us confidence and strength. Things will get tough and difficult; therefore these ahaadith will serve as guidance for us during that time. We can never know exactly what they mean until they happen – for example, the fire that would come out of Madinah. We didn’t know what it meant, but when it happened, we found out for sure that it was talking about a volcano.

46: Reign of Qahtaan

Abu Hurayrah reported that the Prophet ﷺ said, “The Hour will not be established until a man from Qahtaan appears, driving the people with his stick.” [Bukhaari V.9, B.88, #233] The hadith may sound as if the man is evil because he is described as “driving the people with his stick”, but another hadith explains that he is righteous and one of the khulafaa`. So he is righteous, but strict and tough. Ibn Abbaas commented and said, “….all of them are righteous.”

Qahtaan is the ancestor of the Arabs of Yemen. He will be a khaalifa. He is very righteous, but he’s strict and tough. That means he will be very severe in his punishment as evil. That is why he is described as “pushing the people with a stick.” Allahu ‘Alam, this could be before Mehdi, but most likely it will be after.

47: Madinah Expelling the Evil

Prophet ﷺ said, in a hadith by Bukhaari, that a time would come when a man would call his cousin and his relative, telling him, “Come to the luxurious life. Come to the luxurious life.” This is talking about people from Madinah, who would go to other lands where life is more luxurious and they would call their relatives to leave Madinah and come and enjoy life where there is a ‘better standard.’

Prophet ﷺ said, “Madinah is better for them, if they know.” Then the Prophet ﷺ said, “In the name of the One in Whose Hand is my soul Allah], anyone who leaves Madinah and gives it up, Allah subhaana wa ta’ala will replace in Madinah someone better than him.” Then the Prophet ﷺ said, “AlMadinah is like a furnace that separates the impurities and Madinah will expel all of the impurities out.”

Imagine it like the people who come from other countries in the world and come to America. Then they call their family because of the better standard of living. Similarly, these people will leave Madinah and call their relatives to a more luxurious life. The Prophet ﷺ said that Madinah is better for them.

Is this hadith talking about all times or a specific time? There are few opinions, and each of them has their evidence:

  1. AlQaadi Iyaad says that this hadith is specific to the time of the Prophet ﷺ.

AlQaadi’s evidence is this hadith in Bukhari [3/30/107]: Jaabir ibn ‘Abdillah narrates that a bedouin came to the Prophet ﷺ and gave a pledge of allegiance for embracing Islam. The next day he came with fever and said (to the Prophet), “Please cancel my pledge (of embracing Islam and of immigrating to Medina).” The Prophet refused (that request) three times and said, “Medina is like a furnace, it expels out the impurities (bad persons) and selects the good ones and makes them perfect.”

Madinah has a rough environment, even with the standard of the area. It’s very hot and dry. When the Sahabah went from Makkah to Madinah, they couldn’t handle it. The muhajireen [the ones who migrated] had a lot of fever and different types of diseases. The Ansaar handled it; they were used to it. The news got back to the Quraysh that the Muslims had lost their health and become weak. The Prophet ﷺ wanted the sahabah to show the Quraysh that they were strong and that the fever didn’t harm them, so he told them to run the first 3 times when they made Umrah and did the tawaaf. That’s why it is sunnah to do the first three rounds of tawaaf running. The Prophet ﷺ made du’aa` to push the fever out of Madinah. So the fever was pushed out of Madinah by the barakah/blessing of the du’aa` of Prophet ﷺ.

2. Al Imaam AnNawawi says that this hadith is specific for the time of ad-Dajjaal.

What is the evidence of AnNawawi? His evidence is the hadith in Bukhaari [3/30/105]: narrated by Anas ibn Maalik that the Prophet ﷺ said: “There will be no town which Ad-Dajjal will not enter except Mecca and Medina, and there will be no entrance (road) (of both Mecca and Medina) but the angels will be standing in rows guarding it against him, and then Medina will shake with its inhabitants thrice (i.e. three earth-quakes will take place) and Allah will expel all the nonbelievers and the hypocrites from it.”

3. Ibn Hajar al-Askalaani says that this hadith is talking about the time of Prophet ﷺ and Ad-Dajjaal both.  

4. Some of the scholars of hadith say that it is general and applies to all times. But then one would ask the question: Why did many of the great Sahabah leave Madinah? We know many great Sahabah left Madinah, such as Mu’aadh ibn Jabl, Abu ‘Ubaydah ibn AlJarrah and ‘Ali ibn Abi Taalib left Madinah. ‘Ali made his capital outside of Madinah, in Iraaq. If it applies to all time, how did these great Sahabah leave Madinah to go other places?

During these times, the evil people would leave Madinah, but there would come a time when Madinah will be deserted. This is towards the end of time – after Mehdi, after the blessed time of ‘Isa [Jesus].

Prophet ﷺ said, in a hadith by Bukhaari [3/30/98]: narrated by Abu Hurayrah: I heard Allah’s Apostle saying, “The people will leave Medina in spite of the best state it will have, and none except the wild birds and the beasts of prey will live in it, and the last persons who will die will be two shepherds from the tribe of Muzaina, who will be driving their sheep towards Medina, but will find nobody in it, and when they reach the valley of Thaniyat-al-Wadaa`, they will fall down on their faces dead.”

Yahya related to me from Malik from Ibn Himas from his paternal uncle from Abu Hurayra that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Madina will be left in the best way that it is until a dog or wolf enters it and urinates on one of the pillars of the mosque or on the mimbar.” They asked, “Messenger of Allah! Who will have the fruit at that time?” He replied, “Animals seeking food, birds and wild beasts.” [Malik’s Muwatta, Book 45, #45.2.8] “Who will harvest the crop?” Madinah was known for its dates and fruits. This shows that Madinah is deserted.

Ibn Katheer says that AlMadinah would be revived and alive and strong during the time of Ad-Dajjaal and in the time of ‘Isa, until ‘Isa dies. He will die and be buried in Madinah. After that, Madinah will be deserted and destroyed. But this is at the end of time, when there are no more righteous people any more.

How long will Madinah be deserted? For 40 years. The reason it will be empty is because there will be no ‘ibaadah during that time. What is making Madinah alive today? It is not commerce or business – it is the worship of Allah and the Ummah establishing the rituals of Islam in these two places [Makkah and Madinah].

48: A Blessed Wind Taking the Souls of the Believers

It is narrated on the authority of Abu Huraira that Prophet ﷺ said: “Verily Allah would make a wind to blow from the side of the Yemen more delicate than silk and would spare none but cause him to die who has faith equal to the weight of a grain. “[Muslim, 1/212]

After that, the only people left will be those who have no imaan. So the holy places will be deserted. That will lead to the destruction of the Ka’bah.

49: Destruction of the Ka’bah

Prophet ﷺ said, “The ones who will transgress against the sanctity of Al-Ka’bah will be its people (meaning the Ummah).”

No enemy can destroy the Ka’bah. The only transgression against it will be when this Ummah transgresses it. Prophet ﷺ says, “When that happens, don’t ask about the perishing of the Arabs.” Then Prophet ﷺ says, “Abyssinian would come and they would destroy al-Ka’bah and they would take out the treasures of the Ka’bah.”

Prophet ﷺ told us exactly who would destroy the Ka’bah in a hadith in Bukhaari. Abu Hurayrah narrated that Prophet ﷺ said, “DhusSuwaiqatain (the thin legged man) from Ethiopia will demolish the Ka’bah.” [2/26/666]

Ibn Abbaas narrated the Prophet ﷺ said, “As if I were looking at him, a black person with thin legs plucking the stones of the Ka’ba one after another.” [Bukhaari, 2/26/665]

50: Al Mehdi

Mehdi comes before the destruction of the Ka’bah, but we’re listing him after because he relates the major signs of the day of Judgement, like ‘Isa and Ad-Dajjaal, etc.

The ahadith leave no doubt about the truth of the coming of AlMehdi. We, as the Ummah of Muhammad, believe that there is someone who is called AlMehdi, who will come at the end of time and rule this Ummah with justice, after it was ruled with oppression. And he is from Ahl Al-Bayt, the house of Prophet ﷺ. His name will be Muhammad ibn ‘Abdillah, or Ahmad ibn ‘Abdillah. He will be a descendant of Hasan ibn Abi Taalib and Faatimah az-Zahra, the daughter of Prophet ﷺ. He will rule over this Ummah for 7 or 8 years.

Some hadith about AlMehdi: Prophet ﷺ said, “There will be a group of this Ummah, fighting on truth, prevailing until the day of judgement.” [Muslim]

This Ummah will always have a group that is fighting for truth.  Even during the lowest times, [Muslim] said that there will be people fighting for truth, for the sake of this religion. Therefore, there will always be good in his Ummah. What happened to other nations before will not happen to this Ummah. What happened to the other nations is that they received the message from the messengers and stayed on it for awhile, and then they kept declining and declining until they were absolutely gone and astray from the religion. There is no good in them anymore, and that is why Allah sent another Prophet. But with this Ummah, there isn’t any other Prophet after Prophet ﷺ.

Therefore, the ones who will revive this Ummah are members of this Ummah. They will survive until the end of time because of the Qur’aan that Allah has protected and because of the good in this Ummah.

Prophet ﷺ says, My Ummah is like rain, you don’t know where the benefit is. When the rain falls down, you have sudden bursts of rain where a lot of waterfalls. (In areas where a lot of waterfalls, you don’t have the same amount all of the time. You have different bursts of amount.) Therefore, you don’t know if the blessing is going to be in the beginning or the end. Prophet ﷺ said that my Ummah is like this – you think the Ummah is going down, and then you see a big wave of righteousness that shows up again. You think that the Ummah is dead and cannot be arrived, but Allah subhaana wa ta’aala revives it again.

Another hadith: Prophet ﷺ says that there will be one of your khulafaa` that will give out money without counting. And this khalifa will be AlMehdi. He’s not going to count money and give you a specific amount. There will be so much blessing during his time that he will just hand it out.

The next hadith is in Muslim and Imam Ahmad. Abu Sa’eed AlKhudri reported that the Prophet ﷺ said, “I am giving you the good news of AlMehdi, who will be sent to Ummah during times of disputes. And there will be a lot of earth problems (they could be earthquakes or other catastrophes). He will replace the oppression and injustice of the world with justice.”

Prophet ﷺ is saying that the world will be filled with oppression and injustice, and he will come and fill the world with justice. “The dwellers of this earth will be pleased with him and the dwellers of the heaven will be pleased with him.” So not only will the humans be pleased with him, but the angels will be pleased with him as well. “He will divide money sihaahan.” One of the companions asked, “What does sihaahan mean?” Prophet ﷺ said, “He will give out money equally to the people.” One of the biggest injustices that exist today in the Muslim world is the way money is handled – if you have the right connections, you get what you want. If you are someone who is righteous, trustworthy and honest, you get thrown aside. And we find that the wealth of the Ummah is plundered and abused and used for reasons against what Allah subhaana wa ta’aala has willed for the wealth to be spent.

One of the most important roles of a government is to hand over money in the right way. When we’re talking about injustice in money, it’s not a simple thing. When people in high positions take the money and use it as they want and wish, that is one of the greatest abuses of power and one of the greatest injustices. This is not something we can overlook; it is a great sin.

“And he will fill the hearts of the Ummah of Prophet ﷺ with satisfaction and content.” It is not only the bodies pleased. SubhanAllah, you will find people who are ‘bought off’ with money, but their hearts and minds are not happy. “And his justice will encompass all of them. And he will announce to the public, ‘Who needs money?’ and no one would respond, except one man would stand up and say, ‘I.’ AlMehdi will tell him, ‘Go to the treasurer and tell him that AlMehdi is telling him to give you money. (The order of AlMehdi was to throw money on him and not count.) The man goes and conveys that to the treasurer, so he fills all of his clothes with money. When that man sees all of that money and leaves, he regrets it. He says, ‘I was the most greedy of the Ummah of Muhammad. Why wasn’t I content as they were?’ So he would go back and try to return the money. The treasurer would say, ‘There are no returns.’” SubhaanAllah, you beg the treasurer to take the money back and he tells you that there is no return policy! “It will be like that for seven or eight or nine years and then there will be no good in living after that.”

In another hadith by Ahmad, ‘Ali ibn Abi Taalib said that Prophet ﷺ said, “AlMehdi belongs to us, the household of Prophet ﷺ, and Allah would guide him in one night.” When something is broken and you fix it, it’s called islaah. When something is bought to its best condition, it’s called islaah. When something is improved, it’s called islaah. What is means by Allahu ‘Alam. It could mean that Allah would give him the strength and the power in one night. It could mean that Allah would guide him and give him understanding of religion in one night. Whatever the case, it happens in one night.

In the next hadith by Abu Dawood, Prophet ﷺ said, “If there was only one day left in the world, Allah would make it longer until he sends a man from my household, his name is like my name and the name of his father is like the name of my father. He would fill the world with justice like it was filled with injustice and oppression.” Therefore, the name of AlMehdi would be either Muhammad or Ahmad and his father’s name would be ‘Abdullah.

These are the descriptions of AlMehdi, and now we are done with the minor signs of the day of judgement.