The Hour will not come until...

It was reported from Abu Sa'id al-Khudri that the Prophet (sallallahu

alayhe wa sallam) said, "Thunderbolts will increase so much as the Hour

approaches that when a man comes to a people, he will ask, 'Who amongst

you was struck by a thunderbolt this morning?' and they will say,

'So-and-so and so-and-so was struck'." (Ahmad)

Heavy rain before the Day of Resurrection.

It was reported from Abu Hurairah that the Prophet (sallallahu alayhe wa

sallam) said, "The hour will not come until there has been rain which will

destroy all dwellings except tents."

We have already mentioned many Ahadith about the signs of the Hour. Now we

will turn our attention to some Ahadith which could indicate that the Hour

is close at hand.

It was reported from Abu Hurairah that the Prophet (sallallahu alayhe wa

sallam) said: "The Hour will not come until the following events have come

to pass: people will compete with one another in constructing high

buildings; two big groups will fight one another, and there will be many

casualties - they will both be following the same religious teaching;

earthquakes will increase; time will pass quickly; afflictions and killing

will increase; nearly thirty dajjals will appear, each of them claiming to

be a messenger from Allah; a man will pass by a grave and say, 'Would that

I were in your place'; the sun will rise from the West; when it rises and

the people see it, they will all believe, but that will be the time when

'No good will it do to a soul to believe in them then, if it believed not

before' (al-An'am 6:158); and a wealthy man will worry lest no-one accept

his Zakat." (Bukhari, Muslim).

It was reported from Anas that the Prophet (sallallahu alayhe wa sallam)

said: "Among the signs of the Hour are the following: knowledge will

decrease and ignorance will prevail; fornication and the drinking of wine

will be common; the number of men will decrease and the number of women

will increase, until one man will look after fifty women." (Bukhari.)

'A'ishah said, "I heard the Prophet (sallallahu alayhe wa sallam) say,

'Day and night will not pass away until people begin to worship Lat and

'Uzza' (two goddesses of pre-Islamic Arabic). I said, 'O Messenger of

Allah, I thought that when Allah revealed the Ayah "It is He Who has sent

His Apostle with Guidance and the Religion of Truth, to proclaim over all

religion, even though the Pagans may detest (it)" (al-Tawbah 9:33), it

implied that (this promise) would be fulfilled'. The Prophet (sallallahu

alayhe wa sallam) said, 'It will happen as Allah wishes. Then Allah will

send a pleasant breeze, which will take everyone who has as much faith as

a grain of mustard-seed in his heart. Only those with no goodness in them

will be left, and they will revert to the religion of their forefathers'."

(Muslim)

It was from Abu Hurairah that one day, while the Prophet (sallallahu

alayhe wa sallam) was sitting with the people, a Bedouin came to him and

asked him about Iman and Islam ' then he asked, "O Messenger of Allah,

when will the Hour be?" He said, "The one who is asked about it does not

know more than the one who asks, but I tell you about its signs. When a

slave gives birth to her mistress, and when the bare-footed and naked

become the chiefs of the people - these are among the signs of the Hour.

There are five things which no-one knows except Allah." Then he recited:

"Verily the knowledge of the Hour is with God (alone). It is He Who sends

down rain, and He Who knows what is in the wombs. Nor does anyone know

what it is that he will earn on the morrow: nor does anyone know in what

land he is to die. Verily God is All-Knowing, All Aware." (Luqman 31:34).

Then the man went away, and the Prophet (sallallahu alayhe wa sallam)

said, "Call him back to me," but when the people went to call him, they

could not see anything. The Prophet (sallallahu alayhe wa sallam) said,

"That was Gabriel, who came to teach the people their religion." (Bukhari,

Muslim).

"The bare-footed and naked paupers will compete with one another in

constructing high buildings" means that they will become the chiefs of

people. They will become rich, and their only concern will be to compete

in constructing high buildings. This is as in the Hadith we shall see

later: "The Hour will not come until the happiest people in the world will

be the depraved sons of the depraved."

It was reported from Abu Sa'id that the Prophet (sallallahu alayhe wa

sallam) said: "The Hour will not come until the time when a man will leave

his home, and his shoes or whip or stick will tell what is happening to

his family." (Ahmad).

It was reported from Abu Sa'id that the Prophet (sallallahu alayhe wa

sallam) said: "By Him in Whose hand is my soul, the Hour will not come

until wild animals talk to men, and a man speaks to his whip or his shoe,

and his thigh will tell him about what happened to his family after he

left."

Anas said, "We were discussing the fact that the Hour would not come until

there is no rain, the earth does not produce crops, and fifty women will

be cared for by one man; and if a woman passes by a man, he will look at

her and say, 'This woman once had a husband'." (Ahmad.)

Abu Hurairah said: "The Prophet (sallallahu alayhe wa sallam) said: 'The

Hour will not come until time passes so quickly that a year will be like a

month, a month like a week, a week like a day, a day like an hour, and an

hour like the time it takes for a palm-leaf to burn'." (Ahmad.)

Abu Hurairah said, "The Prophet (sallallahu alayhe wa sallam) said: 'The

world will not pass away until the one who enjoys it the most is the

depraved son of the depraved'." (Ahmad.)

Abu Hurairah said, "The Prophet (sallallahu alayhe wa sallam) said,

'Before the Hour comes, there will be years of deceit, in which a truthful

person will be disbelieved and a liar will be believed; and the

insignificant will have a say'." (Ahmad)

Abu Hurairah said: "I heard the Prophet (sallallahu alayhe wa sallam) say:

'The Hour will not come until the sheep with horns no longer fights the

sheep without horns'." (Ahmad.)

It was reported from Abu Hurairah that the Prophet (sallallahu alayhe wa

sallam) said, "The Hour will not come until wealth increases so much that

a wealthy man will be worried lest no-one accept his Sadaqah: tribulations

will appear; and there will be much Harj." The people asked, "What is

Harj", O Messenger of Allah?" He said, "Killing, killing" (Ahmad.)

It was reported from Abu Hurairah that the Prophet (sallallahu alayhe wa

sallam) said, "By Him Who sent me with the Truth, this earth will not pass

away until people are afflicted with landslides, are pelted with stones,

and are transformed into animals." The people asked, "When will that be, O

Messenger of Allah?" He said, "When you see women riding in the saddle,

when singers are common, when bearing false witness becomes widespread,

and when men lie with men and women with women".

Tariq ibn Shihab said, "We were sitting with 'Abd Allah ibn Mas'ud, when a

man came and told us that the time for prayer had come. So we got up and

went to the mosque. After the prayer, a man came to 'Abd Allah ibn Mas'ud

and said, 'As-salam 'alayka (Peace be upon you), O Abu 'Abd al-Rahman'.

'Abd Allah answered, 'Allah and His Messenger have spoken the truth'. When

we went back, we asked one another, 'Did you hear the answer he gave? Who

is going to ask him about it? I said, 'I will ask him'; so I asked him

when he came out. He narrated from the Prophet (sallallahu alayhe wa

sallam): 'Before the Hour comes, there will be a special greeting for the

people of distinction; trade will become so widespread that a woman will

help her husband in business; family ties will be cut; the giving of false

witness will be common, while truthful witness will be rare; and writing

will be widespread." (Ahmad.)

Description of the People Who Will Be Alive At the End of Time

It was reported from 'Abd Allah ibn 'Amr that the Prophet (sallallahu

alayhe wa sallam) said, "The Hour will not come until Allah takes away the

best people on earth; only the worst people will be left; they will not

know any good or forbid any evil." (Ahmad.)

'Abd Allah ibn Mas'ud said, "I heard the Prophet (sallallahu alayhe wa

sallam) say: Eloquence can be bewitching; the worst of the people are

those upon whom the Hour will come while they are still alive, and those

who turn graves into mosques'." (Ahmad.)

It was reported from Anas that the Prophet (sallallahu alayhe wa sallam)

said, "The Hour will not come until no-one on earth says 'La ilaha illa

Allah'." (Ahmad.)

It was also reported from Anas that the Prophet (sallallahu alayhe wa

sallam) said: "The Hour will not come until no-one on earth says, 'Allah,

Allah'." (Ahmad.)

There are two suggestions as to the meaning of the phrase, "until no-one

on earth says 'Allah, Allah'":

1. It could mean that no-one will forbid evil, or try to correct another

if he sees him doing something wrong. We have already come across this in

the Hadith of 'Abd Allah ibn 'Amr: "Only the worst people will be left;

they will not know any good or forbid any evil."

2. It could mean that Allah will no longer be mentioned, and His Name will

not be known; this will be part of the prevalent corruption and Kufr, as

in the previous Hadith, "Until no-one on earth says 'La ilaha illa

Allah'."

'A'ishah said. "The Prophet (sallallahu alayhe wa sallam) came in, saying

'O 'A'ishah, your people will be the first of my Ummah to join me. When he

sat down, I said, 'O Messenger of Allah, may I be sacrificed for you! When

you came in, you were saying something which scared me. He asked, 'What

was that?' I said, 'You said that my people would be the first of your

Ummah to join you.' He said, 'Yes' I asked, 'Why is that? He said, 'Death

will be widespread among them, and their relatives will be jealous of

them.'I said, 'How will people be after that?' He said, 'Like locusts: the

strong will devour the weak, until the Hour comes.'" (Ahmad.)

'Alba'al-Salami said, "I heard the Prophet (sallallahu alayhe wa sallam)

say: 'The Hour will only come upon the worst of the people'." (Ahmad.)