Muhammad’s Failed Prophecies About the Hour and the Day of Judgment

Introduction

Religious prophecies—especially statements about “the time of the Day of Judgment”—are essentially a kind of knowledge claim: they are presented as being connected to real-world time, events, human society, and history. Therefore, it is not logically acceptable to dismiss them as “intangible spiritual matters” like jinn, angels, Paradise, or Hell. When a statement contains specific indications—“when the Hour will occur,” “the Hour has drawn near,” “before such-and-such event”—it naturally moves into the realm of a verifiable claim.

The basic rule for testing prophecy is this: the meaning a claim carried when it was uttered cannot be changed after the outcome has failed. If a statement initially points to a specific event and timeframe, but after that event does not occur it is said that “something else was actually meant,” then this is not the success of a prophecy; rather, it is an attempt to rescue the claim after failure. In this article, therefore, we will examine what Muhammad’s statements about the Day of Judgment meant in their language and context, and how, after that expectation was not fulfilled in reality, the meanings of words, the limits of narration, and the framework of interpretation changed. A prophecy that can adopt a new meaning whenever it fails can never in practice be proven wrong; consequently, its evidentiary value also becomes zero.

In this section, we will analyze the language and narration of some well-known hadiths—the claim that “the Hour” is drawing near, the imagery of war, and time-anchored statements (such as “before the boy reaches old age”)—to see how much genuine foreknowledge they contain, and how much consists of contemporary imagination and later defensive interpretation.

The Socio-Political Function of Apocalyptic Ideas

In religious history, ideas such as “the end times,” “the end of the world,” “the great catastrophe,” or “the Day of Final Judgment” (the doctrine of last things/eschatology — eschatology) are not unusual; rather, they are a recurring structure that returns again and again. Although different religions vary in their language, symbols, deities, or moral codes regarding the “end time,” the structure is almost the same: (a) the present age is morally degenerate, (b) an sudden and terrifying intervention/destruction/judgment will soon come, (c) those who belong to the “right group/belief” will be saved, while the rest will be punished or destroyed. ^{[1] [2]}

What should be noted here is that the idea that “the end time is imminent” is not Islam’s own or unique invention. In many religious and mythological traditions, narratives of a final war, great destruction, judgment, the defeat of evil forces, and the beginning of a new world can be found. Islam’s descriptions of the Day of Judgment also fall within the same broad historical stream of humanity’s ancient apocalyptic imagination. In Zoroastrianism, there is the concept of Frashokereti, meaning the “final renewal/final restoration of the world,” in which the defeat of evil forces and the reconstruction of creation are treated as the final chapter. ^{[3] [4]} In Norse mythology, Ragnarök—the final battle of gods, demons, and giants, the destruction of the world, and then the world’s “rebirth”—is also the same kind of “end/reconstruction” structure. ^[5] And in the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), the “end time” is even more central: judgment, resurrection, the final establishment of justice, and the deliverance of the followers of the “right path” are often joined together. ^[6]

The political and social force of this kind of apocalyptic narrative lies in fear, temporal pressure, and the promise of collective salvation. Language such as “time is running out,” “judgment is near,” and “choose a side now” compresses the future and creates pressure on people to make immediate decisions. When present life is presented as fleeting and the final judgment as imminent, obedience, preparation, and group cohesion become far more important than long-term questions, doubt, and planning.

This is why, in sociology, religion is discussed not only as a personal belief but also as a possible source of power legitimation and social control. For example, the article “Religion and Political Legitimation” in the Annual Review of Sociology shows that religion can legitimate power and structures of privilege, and can also generate protest; that is, religion has a “double function.” ^[7] “End-times ideology/apocalypticism” intensifies this process further. Because here fear is not merely moral fear; it is an existential terror of the kind that says, “everything may end at any moment.” Historically, “millenarian” movements have often become forceful during times of crisis, uncertainty, poverty, and social instability; and through the language of the “end time,” they have been able to rapidly mobilize mass support, discipline, and even violence—as seen in Norman Cohn’s discussion of various movements in medieval Europe in The Pursuit of the Millennium. ^[8]

And in modern sociology, Karl Marx’s famous phrase “religion is the opium of the people” also speaks to this function: religion can serve as a kind of psychological “balm/painkiller” amid people’s real suffering, but at the same time it can also conceal structures of power. ^{[9] [10]}

All things considered, from a rational standpoint it can be seen that messages of the kind “the end is just about to arrive” have survived across ages not only because of theological truth-claims, but because they can quickly organize people’s fear, uncertainty, and group loyalty. When such narratives are examined in the light of reason and evidence, it is often seen that, in order to sustain the initial “time-proximate” claims, later reinterpretation, symbolization, or shifting of meaning becomes necessary.

Islamic Creed Regarding Hadith

A sahih narration attributed to Muhammad’s own mouth makes an extremely high claim about the truthfulness of his statements. When Abdullah ibn Amr wrote down his words, the Quraysh objected: Muhammad is, after all, a human being; he speaks in states of anger and satisfaction as well. In response, Muhammad pointed to his own mouth and said, “By the One in whose hand is my life, nothing comes out of this mouth except the truth.” In other words, according to this hadith’s own claim, his statements do not fall into the category of ordinary human error-prone speech. Therefore, if any sahih statement of his about the future or about nature comes into conflict with reality, it becomes a direct problem for the prophetic knowledge-claim. ^[11]

Sunan Abi Dawud
26/ Knowledge (Kitab Al-Ilm)
Chapter: Writing knowledge
3646. Narrated Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-‘As:
I used to write everything which I heard from the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ). I intended (by it) to memorise it. The Quraysh prohibited me saying: Do you write everything that you hear from him while the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) is a human being: he speaks in anger and pleasure? So I stopped writing, and mentioned it to the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ). He signalled with his finger to him mouth and said: Write, by Him in Whose hand my soul lies, only right comes out from it.
Grade: Sahih (Al-Albani)
Reference: Sunan Abi Dawud 3646
In-book reference: Book 26, Hadith 6
English translation: Book 25, Hadith 3639

Prophet Muhammad’s Failed Prophecy

Cavalry in the War Before the Day of Judgment?

Several eschatological reports project the military institutions and material culture of Muhammad’s own historical environment into the events immediately preceding the Hour: cavalry, horses, swords, spears, booty, and reconnaissance riders. The important point is not that horses or swords could never appear in a future conflict, but that these descriptions consistently imagine the final wars through the military vocabulary and technology of Late Antiquity. Taken together, they provide evidence of the historical and cultural horizon within which these end-time scenarios were formulated. Let us compare this imagery with the technological character of modern warfare:

Now let us read a hadith,

Sahih Muslim
54/ The Book of Tribulations and Portents of the Last Hour
Chapter: Fighting The Byzantines, And A Great Deal Of Killing When Ad-Dajjal Emerges
2899a. Yusair b. Jabir reported:
Once there blew a red storm in Kufah that there came a person who had nothing to say but (these words): `Abdullah b. Mas`ud, the Last Hour has come. He (`Abdullah b. Mas`ud) was sitting reclining against something, and he said: The Last Hour would not come until shares of inheritance are not distributed and there is no rejoicing over spoils of war.
Then he said pointing towards Syria, with the gesture of his hand like this: The enemy shall muster strength against Muslims and the Muslims will muster strength against them (Syrians). I said: You mean Rome? And he said: Yes, and there would be a terrible fight and the Muslims would prepare a detachment (for fighting unto death) which would not return but victorious. They will fight until night will intervene them; both the sides will return without being victorious and both will be wiped out.
The Muslims will again prepare a detachment for fighting unto death so that they may not return but victorious. When it would be the fourth day, a new detachment out of the remnant of the Muslims would be prepared and Allah will decree that the enemy should be routed. And they would fight such a fight the like of which would not be seen, so much so that even if a bird were to pass their flanks, it would fall down dead before reaching the end of them.
(There would be such a large scale massacre) that when counting would be done, (only) one out of a hundred men related to one another would be found alive. So what can be the joy at the spoils of such war and what inheritance would be divided! They would be in this very state that they would hear of a calamity more horrible than this. And a cry would reach them: The Dajjal has taken your place among your offspring.
They will, therefore, throw away what would be in their hands and go forward sending ten horsemen, as a scouting party. Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) said: I know their names and the names of their forefathers and the color of their horses. They will be the best horsemen on the surface of the earth on that day or amongst the best horsemen on the surface of the earth on that day.
Ibn Abi Shaybah said in his narration: أُسَيْرِ بْنِ جَابِرٍ in place of يُسَيْرِ بْنِ جَابِرٍ.
Reference: Sahih Muslim 2899a
In-book reference: Book 54, Hadith 47
USC-MSA web (English) reference: Book 41, Hadith 6927

Horses and Ghanimah Will Remain Until the Day of Resurrection

The connection between horses and the wars of the end times is not confined to a single isolated report. In another hadith in Sahih Muslim, Muhammad directly links reward and war-booty, ghanimah, to horses “until the Day of Resurrection”. In other words, here the horse is not merely the mount of warfare in his own time; in the language of the report, it is part of the framework of ongoing war and ghanimah until the Day of Resurrection. ^[12]

عَنْ جَرِيرِ بْنِ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ قَالَ: رَأَيْتُ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ يَلْوِي نَاصِيَةَ فَرَسٍ بِإِصْبَعِهِ، وَهُوَ يَقُولُ: الْخَيْلُ مَعْقُودٌ بِنَوَاصِيهَا الْخَيْرُ إِلَى يَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ: الْأَجْرُ وَالْغَنِيمَةُ.

Narrated from Jarir ibn Abdullah. He said: I saw the Messenger of Allah twisting the forelock of a horse with his finger. At that time he was saying: “Goodness is tied to the forelocks of horses until the Day of Resurrection—reward and ghanimah.”

The time-frame of this statement is noteworthy: إِلَى يَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ—“until the Day of Resurrection.” In the same article, we see descriptions of cavalry in the great war of the end times, ten horsemen gathering news of the Dajjal, the distribution of ghanimah while swords are hung on trees, and the killing of the Dajjal with a spear. When this hadith is added to those, the continuity of seventh-century war culture becomes still clearer: in Muhammad’s statement, horses, jihad, and ghanimah are presented not merely as realities of his own era, but also as part of a system continuing until the Day of Resurrection.

In this hadith, cavalry stands at the center of the final conflict before the Day of Resurrection, and Muhammad even claims to know the colors of those horses. In other similar reports, there are also scenes of swords being hung on trees while ghanimah is divided, and of the Dajjal being killed by a spear in the hand of Jesus. Taken together, these create an imagined picture of the future whose military equipment is entirely bound within ancient and medieval war culture.

Sword Warfare Before the Day of Resurrection?

Now let us read a hadith about the use of swords as weapons in the war before the Day of Resurrection. It should be noted that there are many such hadiths. ^[13]

Sahih Muslim
54/ The Book of Tribulations and Portents of the Last Hour
Chapter: The Conquest Of Constantinople, The Emergence Of The Dajjal And The Descent Of ‘Eisa bin Mariam
2897. Abu Huraira reported Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) as saying:
The Last Hour would not come until the Romans would land at al-A’maq or in Dabiq. An army consisting of the best (soldiers) of the people of the earth at that time will come from Medina (to counteract them). When they will arrange themselves in ranks, the Romans would say: Do not stand between us and those (Muslims) who took prisoners from amongst us. Let us fight with them; and the Muslims would say: Nay, by Allah, we would never get aside from you and from our brethren that you may fight them.
They will then fight and a third (part) of the army would run away, whom Allah will never forgive. A third (part of the army) which would be constituted of excellent martyrs in Allah’s eye, would be killed and the third who would never be put to trial would win and they would be conquerors of Constantinople. And as they would be busy in distributing the spoils of war (amongst themselves) after hanging their swords by the olive trees, the Satan would cry: The Dajjal has taken your place among your family.
They would then come out, but it would be of no avail. And when they would come to Syria, he would come out while they would be still preparing themselves for battle drawing up the ranks. Certainly, the time of prayer shall come and then Jesus (peace be upon him) son of Mary would descend and would lead them.
When the enemy of Allah would see him, it would (disappear) just as the salt dissolves itself in water and if he (Jesus) were not to confront them at all, even then it would dissolve completely, but Allah would kill them by his hand and he would show them their blood on his lance (the lance of Jesus Christ).
Reference: Sahih Muslim 2897
In-book reference: Book 54, Hadith 44
USC-MSA web (English) reference: Book 41, Hadith 6924

The Use of Swords and Spears Before the Day of Resurrection

From the hadiths it is also known that swords and spears will be used in the war before the Day of Resurrection. ^[14]

Mishkat al-Masabih
27/ Fitan
Chapter: Battles – Section 1
5421. Abu Huraira reported God’s messenger as saying, “The last hour will not come before the Byzantines alight in al-A`maq or in Dabiq[1], and an army consisting of the best people in the earth at that time will come forth from Medina against them.
When the lines are drawn up the Byzantines will say, `Let us get at those who took captives from us and fight them,’ but the Muslims will reply, `We swear by God that we will not let you get at our brethren.’ They will then fight and a third whom God will never forgive will be routed, a third who will be the most excellent martyrs in God’s sight will be killed, and a third who will never be subjected to trials will be victorious.
They will then conquer Constantinople, but while they are dividing the spoils, having hung their swords on olive-trees, the devil will cry among them, `The dajjal has taken your place among your families;’ so they will go out, but that will prove to be false. Then when they come to Syria he will come forth, and while they are preparing for battle and arranging the ranks the time for prayer will come and Jesus, son of Mary will descend and lead them in prayer.
When God’s enemy sees him, he will dissolve like salt in water, and if he[2] were to leave him he would dissolve completely; but God will kill him by his hand and he will show them his blood on his spear.” Mirqat, 5:159. quotes the view that al-A’maq is on the outskirts of Medina and that L’abiq (or Dabaq) is a market-place in Medina. Yaqut, iii, 513. says Dabiq is a village near Aleppo, and (1:316) al-A’maq is a district near Dabiq between Aleppo and Antioch. i.e., Jesus. Muslim transmitted it.
Reference: Mishkat al-Masabih 5421
In-book reference: Book 27, Hadith 42

The Day of Resurrection Is Very Near: As If It Has Almost Arrived

The Quran states very clearly that the Day of Resurrection is very near. ^[15]

ٱقْتَرَبَتِ ٱلسَّاعَةُ وَٱنشَقَّ ٱلْقَمَرُ ١
The Hour has drawn near and the moon was split ˹in two˺.
— Dr. Mustafa Khattab, The Clear Quran
Quran.com — Al-Qamar 54:1

In the Quran, the nearness of the Day of Resurrection and the Last Judgment is not confined only to the declaration in Surah al-Qamar, “The Hour has drawn near.” In Surah al-Ma’arij as well, the question of distance is expressed directly through two opposing positions—people consider it a distant event, but Allah declares it to be near. In Tafsir al-Qurtubi, the explanation of this verse also preserves the meaning of nearness. ^[16]

فَاصْبِرْ صَبْراً جَمِيلاً ۝ إِنَّهُمْ يَرَوْنَهُ بَعِيداً ۝ وَنَراهُ قَرِيباً

“So endure ˹this denial, O Prophet,˺ with beautiful patience. They truly see this ˹Day˺ as impossible, but We see it as inevitable.”
— Dr. Mustafa Khattab, The Clear Quran
Quran.com — Al-Ma‘arij 70:5–7

قَوْلُهُ تَعَالَى: (إِنَّهُمْ يَرَوْنَهُ بَعِيداً) يُرِيدُ أَهْلَ مَكَّةَ يَرَوْنَ الْعَذَابَ بِالنَّارِ بَعِيدًا، أَيْ غَيْرَ كَائِنٍ. (وَنَراهُ قَرِيباً) لِأَنَّ مَا هُوَ آتٍ فَهُوَ قَرِيبٌ. وَقَالَ الْأَعْمَشُ: يَرَوْنَ الْبَعْثَ بَعِيدًا لِأَنَّهُمْ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ كَأَنَّهُمْ يَسْتَبْعِدُونَهُ عَلَى جِهَةِ الْإِحَالَةِ.

The statement of Allah—“They see it as distant”—means that the people of Makkah considered the punishment of the Fire to be a distant matter; that is, they thought it would not occur. “And We see it as near”—because whatever is coming is near. Al-A’mash said: They see the resurrection as a distant matter, because they do not believe in it; as though they push it away as impossible.

This verse is especially important in the discourse on the nearness of the Day of Resurrection, because here the words “distant” and “near” stand face to face in the same cluster of statements. The human position is that the event is distant; the Quranic declaration is that the event is near. In Qurtubi’s explanation, too, this nearness has not disappeared; he writes directly, “whatever is coming is near”, and he includes the resurrection within this discussion as well. Thus the statement in Surah al-Qamar 54:1, “The Hour has drawn near”, is not an isolated choice of wording; elsewhere in the Quran, too, the same Last Judgment is declared near in contrast to the tendency to regard it as distant. Below, the translation and tafsir material supplied in the Bengali source are restored together. ^[17]

Quran.com Translation
Dr. Mustafa Khattab, The Clear Quran
ٱقْتَرَبَتِ ٱلسَّاعَةُ وَٱنشَقَّ ٱلْقَمَرُ ١
The Hour has drawn near and the moon was split ˹in two˺.

Tafsir
Tafsir Ibn Kathir
It has previously been narrated from Abu Waqid that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) used to recite Surah Qaf and Surah Al-Qamar in the prayers of Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr. Likewise, he used to recite these two surahs in large gatherings, because they contain promises of reward and punishment, the first creation and resurrection after death, and other important matters establishing tawhid and prophethood. Commentary on verses 1–5: Allah Most High informs that the Hour has drawn near and that the world is approaching its end. As He says: “The command of Allah is at hand, so do not hasten it.” (Quran.com — An-Nahl 16:1) He also says: “˹The time of˺ people’s judgment has drawn near, yet they are heedlessly turning away.” (Quran.com — Al-Anbiya 21:1) Many hadiths have also been narrated on this subject. It is narrated from Anas that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) once addressed his Companions.
At that time, very little remained before sunset. In the address he said: “By the One in Whose hand is my soul! Compared with the time that has passed, only as much of the world’s lifespan remains as remains of this day compared with what has already passed from it. We can see only a small portion of the sun.” (This hadith was narrated by Hafiz Abu Bakr al-Bazzar. Among its narrators, Ibn Hibban counted Khalaf ibn Musa among the trustworthy narrators, although he said that he sometimes made mistakes. A second report strengthens it.)
Explaining this, Ibn Umar narrated that once, after Asr, when the sun was close to setting, the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: “Compared with the lifespans of the people who came before you, your lifespan is like the remaining portion of this day compared with the portion that has already passed.” (Imam Ahmad narrated this hadith.) It is narrated from Sahl ibn Sa‘d that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: “I and the Hour have been sent like this.” Then he gestured with his index and middle fingers. Another narration adds that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: “The Hour almost overtook me.” (Imam Ahmad also narrated this hadith, and Imam al-Bukhari and Imam Muslim transmitted it from the hadith of Abu Hazim Salamah ibn Dinar.) When Anas ibn Malik came to al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik, al-Walid asked him about the hadith concerning the Hour.
He replied: I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say: “You and the Hour are like these two fingers.” This may also be supported by the hadith in which one of the blessed names of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) is al-Hashir; al-Hashir is the one at whose feet the people will be gathered. Bahz narrated that Utbah ibn Ghazwan said in his address—and sometimes would say—that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), after praising and glorifying Allah in an address to us, said: “The end of the world has been announced. It has turned its back and is departing. Just as food is eaten from a vessel and only a little remains along its rim, all of the world’s lifespan has passed except for a small remnant.
You are moving from here toward a world that will never perish. Therefore, if you can, take some righteous deeds with you. Know that we have been told that a stone will be cast from the edge of Hell and will continue falling for seventy years without reaching its bottom. By Allah! This deep pit of Hell will be filled with people, so do not be astonished. We have also been told that the distance between the two side-posts of a gate of Paradise is a journey of forty years, and a day will come when it will be so full that great crowding will be seen.”
Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami said: “I travelled with my father to al-Mada’in. We stayed three miles from the settlement. I went with my father for the Friday prayer. Hudhayfah was the preacher of the mosque. In his sermon he said: ‘O people! Know that Allah Most High has said: The Hour has drawn near and the moon was split ˹in two˺. The Hour has drawn near, and the moon has certainly split. The world has surely announced its departure. Today is the day of effort and preparation; tomorrow will be the day of racing ahead.’ I asked my father: ‘Will there be a race tomorrow in which we must get ahead?’
He replied: ‘You are an ignorant boy! What is meant here is surpassing one another in deeds.’ When we returned on the following Friday, we heard Hudhayfah deliver almost the same sermon. At the end he also said: ‘The final destination is the Fire, and the foremost is the one who reaches Paradise first.’” Allah Most High’s statement, “and the moon was split,” refers to an event in the Prophet’s time, as has been transmitted soundly in mutawatir hadiths. In a sahih hadith, Ibn Mas‘ud said: “Five things have passed.
(1) the Romans, (2) the smoke, (3) al-lizam, (4) al-batshah, and (5) the splitting of the moon.” Reports concerning this include the narration from Anas ibn Malik that the people of Makkah asked the Prophet (ﷺ) to show them a miracle, whereupon the moon was split twice, as described in these two verses. (Imam Ahmad and Imam Muslim narrated this hadith.) It is also narrated from Anas ibn Malik that when the people of Makkah asked the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) to show them a miracle, he showed them the moon split into two parts, so that they saw one part on this side of Hira and the other part on the other side. (Imam al-Bukhari narrated this hadith.) Jubayr ibn Mut‘im narrated from his father that, in the time of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), the moon split into two.
One part appeared over one mountain and the other part over another. They said: “Muhammad has bewitched us.” Their men of understanding said: “Even if it is accepted that he has bewitched us, he cannot bewitch all people.” (Imam Ahmad narrated this hadith.) Another narration says that this occurred before the Hijrah. There are many other reports. It is also narrated from Ibn Abbas that when the moon was eclipsed in the time of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), the disbelievers began saying that the moon had been bewitched; then the relevant verses were revealed.
Ibn Umar said that when the moon split into two pieces, one behind the mountain and the other in front of it, the Prophet (ﷺ) said: “O Allah! Bear witness.” (This hadith is found in Sahih Muslim, Jami‘ al-Tirmidhi, and other collections.) Ibn Mas‘ud said that the moon split into two parts in the time of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ). The people observed it clearly, and the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: “Bear witness.” (Imam Ahmad narrated this hadith.) Another narration states that Ibn Mas‘ud said: “At that time we were in Makkah.” Abdullah ibn Mas‘ud narrated: “In the time of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), the moon split.
The Quraysh then said: ‘This is the magic of Ibn Abi Kabshah’—meaning the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ). But their men of understanding said: ‘Even if it is accepted that he has bewitched us, he cannot bewitch all the people of the world. Ask those returning from journeys whether they too saw the moon split that night.’ When they returned, they acknowledged that they had indeed seen the moon split that night. It was decided in the assembly of the disbelievers that if outsiders reported the same thing, there would be no room to doubt the truthfulness of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ).
Then, as people arrived from outside, from whichever direction they came, all testified that they had seen the moon split with their own eyes. This is what is described in this verse. Abdullah said that the mountain could be seen between the two parts of the moon. Another narration states that when the moon split, the Prophet (ﷺ) said to Abu Bakr: ‘O Abu Bakr! Bear witness.’ The polytheists dismissed even this great miracle as magic and turned away. The verse describes them saying, ‘Same old magic!’ They rejected it, denied the truth, and followed their own corrupt desires in opposition to the command of the Prophet (ﷺ).
They did not desist from their ignorance and foolishness. Allah Most High says that every matter will reach its appointed end—good with the good and evil with the evil. It has also been said that this means every matter will be settled on the Day of Resurrection. Allah Most High says that reports containing deterrent warnings had already come to them; this was profound wisdom, yet the warnings did not benefit them. There is complete wisdom in Allah’s guiding whomever He wills and leaving astray whomever He wills. Their wretchedness had been written in their destiny. No one can guide those whose hearts have been sealed.
This verse is like Allah Most High’s statement: “Say, ˹O Prophet,˺ ‘Allah has the most conclusive argument. Had He willed, He would have easily guided you all.’” (Quran.com — Al-An‘am 6:149) Likewise: “Say, ˹O Prophet,˺ ‘Consider all that is in the heavens and the earth!’ Yet signs and warnings are of no benefit to those who refuse to believe.” (Quran.com — Yunus 10:101)

Tafsir Abu Bakr Zakaria
The Hour has drawn near and the moon was split ˹in two˺. [1][2]
[1] The preceding Surah al-Najm ends with the words اَزِفَتِ الْاٰذِفَةُ, which state that the imminent event has drawn near. The present surah begins with the same theme, اِقْتَرَبَتِ السَّاعَةُ. [Al-Qurtubi] Among the many signs of the Hour, the greatest is the prophethood of the Last Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) himself. [Al-Qurtubi; Fath al-Qadir] In one hadith he said that his coming and the Hour are joined like two fingers. [Al-Bukhari: 4936, 6503; Muslim: 2950; Musnad Ahmad: 5/338] Several other hadiths also describe this nearness.
[2] Here the miracle of the splitting of the moon is discussed as evidence that the Hour has drawn near. The moon’s splitting apart as a miracle of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) is a major sign of the Hour. It is also a sign in another respect: just as the moon was divided into two by Allah’s power, it is not impossible that all planets and celestial bodies will be shattered on the Day of Resurrection. When the polytheists of Makkah asked the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) for a sign supporting his prophethood, Allah manifested the miracle of the moon’s splitting as proof of his truthfulness.
The evidence for this miracle is found in this verse of the Quran and in many sahih hadiths. These hadiths have been narrated through a large group of Companions, among them Abdullah ibn Mas‘ud, Abdullah ibn Umar, Jubayr ibn Mut‘im, Ibn Abbas, and Anas ibn Malik. Abdullah ibn Mas‘ud also narrated that he was present at the event and witnessed the miracle with his own eyes. Imam al-Tahawi and Ibn Kathir called the reports concerning this miracle mutawatir. Therefore, the reality of this miracle is decisively established.
To deny it is manifest disbelief. [See Ibn Kathir; al-Qurtubi; Fath al-Qadir]
In summary, the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) was in Makkah. The polytheists asked him for a sign of prophethood. It was a moonlit night. Allah manifested the clear miracle that the moon split into two: one part moved east and the other west, with the mountain standing between them. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) told those present: ‘Look and bear witness.’ When everyone had clearly seen the miracle, the two parts of the moon came together again. No sighted person could deny this clear miracle, but the polytheists said that Muhammad could not bewitch the whole world.
Therefore, they said to wait for people arriving from different places and hear what they reported. They questioned the arriving polytheists, all of whom acknowledged that they had seen the moon split. Several reports concerning this are given below.
Abdullah ibn Mas‘ud narrated that in the time of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), the moon split into two pieces. Everyone observed the event, and the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: ‘Bear witness.’ [Al-Bukhari: 3869; Muslim: 2800; al-Tirmidhi: 3285; Musnad Ahmad: 1/377]
Another report from Abdullah ibn Mas‘ud states that, while they were in Makkah, the moon split into two. The disbelieving Quraysh said: ‘This is magic; Muhammad has bewitched you. Wait for travellers arriving from outside. If they too saw the moon split, Muhammad’s claim is true; if not, it is nothing but magic.’ When the arriving travellers were questioned, they all acknowledged that they had seen the moon split. [Musnad Abi Dawud al-Tayalisi: 1/38, hadith 295; al-Bayhaqi, Dala’il: 2/266]
Jubayr ibn Mut‘im said that in the Messenger’s time the moon split into two. One part was above one mountain and the other above another. The polytheists said: ‘Muhammad has bewitched us.’ Then they said that if he had bewitched them, he could not bewitch the whole world. [Musnad Ahmad: 4/81–82]
Anas ibn Malik narrated that when the people of Makkah asked the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) to show them a sign of prophethood, Allah showed them the moon split in two, and they saw Mount Hira between its two parts. [Al-Bukhari: 3868; Muslim: 2802]
While explaining this verse, Abdullah ibn Umar said that this occurred in the time of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ). The moon split into two, one part in front of the mountain and the other behind it. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: ‘Bear witness.’ [Muslim: 2159; al-Tirmidhi: 3288]
Abdullah ibn Umar said that the moon split in the time of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ). [Al-Bukhari: 4866]

Tafsir al-Qurtubi
[Surah Al-Qamar (54): verses 1–8] Full page
According to most scholars, Surah al-Qamar is entirely Makkan. Muqatil said that three verses are excepted, from the words “Or do they say, ‘We are a victorious group’?” to the words “But the Hour is their appointed time, and the Hour is most catastrophic and most bitter.” According to the later report, however, this is not correct. The surah has fifty-five verses. In the Name of Allah—the Most Compassionate, Most Merciful. [Surah Al-Qamar (54): verses 1–8] The Hour has drawn near and the moon was split ˹in two˺. (1) Yet, whenever they see a sign, they turn away, saying, “Same old magic!” (2) They rejected ˹the truth˺ and followed their own desires—and every matter will be settled— (3) even though the stories ˹of destroyed nations˺ that have already come to them are a sufficient deterrent. (4) ˹This Quran is˺ profound ˹in˺ wisdom, but warnings are of no benefit ˹to them˺. (5) So turn away from them ˹O Prophet˺. ˹And wait for˺ the Day ˹when˺ the caller will summon ˹them˺ for something horrifying. (6) With eyes downcast, they will come forth from the graves as if they were swarming locusts, (7) rushing towards the caller. The disbelievers will cry, “This is a difficult Day!” (8) Allah Most High’s statement: “The Hour has drawn near and the moon was split ˹in two˺.”
Iqtarabat means “has drawn near,” like اَزِفَتِ الْاٰذِفَةُ—“the imminent event has drawn near”—as previously explained. It is near in relation to what has passed, because most of the world’s time has already elapsed. Qatadah narrated from Anas that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) delivered an address when the sun was about to set and said: “Compared with the time of your world that has passed, only as much remains as remains of this day compared with what has already passed.” We could see only a small portion of the sun.
Ka‘b and Wahb said that the age of the world is six thousand years. Wahb said that five thousand six hundred years of it had passed. Al-Nahhas mentioned this. Allah Most High then says, “and the moon was split,” meaning that it had split. Hudhayfah used to recite it with qad: “The Hour has drawn near and the moon has indeed split.” Most scholars hold this view, and it is established in the sahih works. See page 122 of this volume. […..]

The Announcement of Imminence, Waiting—Yet Nothing Happened

A highly significant report about how people of that time were receiving the Quranic language of the nearness of the Day of Resurrection and divine punishment has been preserved in al-Durr al-Manthur. In this account, narrated from Ibn Jurayj, the first declaration comes: “The command of Allah is at hand.” Some people then began to stop their work and wait, to see what would happen. But when they saw that nothing happened, they said: “We do not see anything being sent down.” Then came another declaration: “˹The time of˺ people’s judgment has drawn near.” They again heard the same sort of claim and waited; again, when they saw nothing happen, they raised the same objection. After that came the statement that punishment had been deferred until a fixed time. ^[18]

وَأخرج ابْن جرير وَابْن الْمُنْذر عَن ابْن جريج قَالَ: لما نزلت هَذِه الْآيَة “أَتَى أَمر الله فَلَا تستعجلوه” قَالَ رجال من الْمُنَافِقين بَعضهم لبَعض: إِن هَذَا يزْعم أَن أَمر الله قد أَتَى فأمسكوا عَن بعض مَا كُنْتُم تَعْمَلُونَ حَتَّى تنظروا مَا هُوَ كَائِن فَلَمَّا رَأَوْا أَنه لَا ينزل شَيْء قَالُوا: مَا نرَاهُ نزل. فَنزلت “اقْترب للنَّاس حسابهم” الْآيَة، فَقَالُوا: إِن هَذَا يزْعم مثلهَا أَيْضا فَلَمَّا رَأَوْا أَنه لَا ينزل شَيْء قَالُوا: مَا نرَاهُ نزل شَيْء فَنزلت “وَلَئِن أخرنا عَنْهُم الْعَذَاب إِلَى أمة مَعْدُودَة”.

Ibn Jarir and Ibn al-Mundhir narrated from Ibn Jurayj, who said: When this verse was revealed—“The command of Allah is at hand, so do not hasten it”—some men among the hypocrites began saying to one another: “This man claims that the command of Allah has come, so hold back from some of what you have been doing until you see what happens.” Then, when they saw that nothing was being sent down, they said: “We do not see anything being sent down.” Then the verse was revealed: “˹The time of˺ people’s judgment has drawn near.” They said: “He is again making a claim like the previous one.” Then, when they saw that nothing was being sent down, they said: “We do not see anything being sent down.” Then it was revealed: “And if We delay their punishment until an appointed time…” (Quran.com — Hud 11:8, Dr. Mustafa Khattab, The Clear Quran)

The sequence of this report is especially important. First it is said that the command of Allah has already come; when nothing visible actually happens, another declaration comes—the time of people’s reckoning has drawn near; when that too does not turn into the expected event, the language of the punishment being deferred comes to the fore. In other words, the contemporary doubt confronting the declaration of “imminence” is preserved within Islamic tafsir itself—and even the language of that doubt is very clear: “We do not see anything happening.” In contrast to reading the same language of imminence many centuries later as a symbol of an infinitely long period of time, this report shows that, at least in this early memory, the claims were being received in a way that led people to wait for their real-world outcome.

“I and the Day of Resurrection have been sent like these two fingers”—in the common early explanation of this report as well, nearness is the central meaning. Nawawi wrote in his Sharh Sahih Muslim that one explanation is this: just as there is only a slight difference between the lengths of the two fingers, so too there is only a slight interval between Muhammad and the Day of Resurrection; in another explanation, it indicates that the Day of Resurrection is extremely near. ^[19] In other words, the nearness implied by the “two fingers” analogy is not an imposition by a modern critic; that meaning is already clear within early Islamic interpretation.

Sahih Muslim
54/ The Book of Tribulations and Portents of the Last Hour
Chapter: The Approach Of The Hour
2951e. Anas reported Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) as saying:
I and the Last Hour have been sent like this and (he while doing it) joined the forefinger with the middle finger.
Reference: Sahih Muslim 2951e
In-book reference: Book 54, Hadith 169
USC-MSA web (English) reference: Book 41, Hadith 7049

The Day of Resurrection Seemed to Be Overtaking Even Muhammad

The statement of nearness “like two fingers” is not an isolated analogy. In the same discussion of the same tafsir, the nearness of the Day of Resurrection is expressed in even more intense language. Qatadah says, “The Day of Resurrection has drawn very near”; Muhammad’s coming itself is called one of the signs of the Day of Resurrection; the remaining time of the world, compared with the time already elapsed, is likened to the small remaining portion of a day at sunset. Then, through Buraydah’s chain, a statement from Muhammad is preserved in which the Day of Resurrection is not merely near—it is so near that it almost seems to have been overtaking him and moving ahead. ^[20]

بعثت أَنا والساعة جَمِيعًا إِن كَادَت تسبقني

“I and the Day of Resurrection were sent together; it almost seems as though the Day of Resurrection would overtake me and go ahead.”

The language of this statement is extremely clear. Here the Day of Resurrection is not merely said to “happen one day,” nor is it pushed into some indefinite distant future. Rather, Muhammad’s own coming and the Day of Resurrection are placed side by side in the same temporal race, and it is said that the Day of Resurrection was almost about to pass him and go ahead. When this is placed together with “two fingers,” “the Day of Resurrection has drawn very near,” and the analogy of the small remaining portion of a day at sunset, the same picture returns again and again: at the time of Muhammad’s preaching, the world was being imagined as extremely close to its final stage.

Another similar analogy for expressing the nearness of the Day of Resurrection has also been preserved in Tafsir al-Qurtubi. While explaining the verse in Surah Muhammad 47:18, “Yet ˹some of˺ its signs have already come,” Qurtubi first quotes the hadith, “I and the Day of Resurrection have been sent like these two fingers.” Then he mentions another report in which the relation between Muhammad and the Day of Resurrection is compared to two horses running in a race. ^[21]

وَفِي الصَّحِيحِ عَنْ أَنَسٍ قَالَ قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم: بُعِثْتُ أَنَا وَالسَّاعَةِ كَهَاتَيْنِ، وَضَمَّ السَّبَّابَةَ وَالْوُسْطَى، لَفْظُ مُسْلِمٍ. وَخَرَّجَهُ الْبُخَارِيُّ وَالتِّرْمِذِيُّ وَابْنُ مَاجَهْ. وَيُرْوَى: بُعِثْتُ وَالسَّاعَةُ كَفَرَسَيْ رِهَانٍ.

In the Sahih work, it is narrated from Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “I and the Day of Resurrection have been sent like these two.” Then he joined his index and middle fingers together; this is the wording of Muslim. Bukhari, Tirmidhi, and Ibn Majah also narrated it. It is also narrated: “I and the Day of Resurrection have been sent like two horses engaged in a race.”

كَفَرَسَيْ رِهَانٍ means like two horses running side by side in a race. In this analogy, nearness is not merely a fixed distance; Muhammad’s coming and the Day of Resurrection are depicted as two competitors running almost parallel in the same race. Thus, within the same interpretive tradition, three images are found side by side—the slight gap between two fingers, the Day of Resurrection almost overtaking Muhammad, and two horses running side by side in competition. In all three cases, the Day of Resurrection is presented not as an event located at a vast distance from Muhammad’s appearance, but as an event of an extremely close final phase.

The nearness in the report “I and the Day of Resurrection are like these two fingers” is so direct that, in later times, even the difference in the lengths of the fingers was used to determine its temporal meaning. Stephen J. Shoemaker, analyzing al-Tabari’s discussion, has shown that by combining the idea of a seven-thousand-year history of the world with the difference in length between the index and middle fingers, attempts were made to place the time of the Day of Resurrection within a few centuries after Muhammad. That is, first, “as close as two fingers,” and then, once time had passed, an attempt to convert that same analogy into numbers and derive a new time-frame. ^[22] This sequence shows that the nearness of the Day of Resurrection was not being understood in the first period as merely an “infinite future”; as time passed, the meaning of that nearness itself had to be adjusted anew.

Al-Tabari’s Calculation—About Five Hundred Years of the World Remained

The calculation discussed by Shoemaker appears in even clearer language in al-Tabari’s own work. At the very beginning of Tarikh al-Tabari, he brings together the reports “I and the Day of Resurrection are like these two fingers,” the analogy of the remaining part of the day from after Asr until sunset, and the reports concerning a “half-day” in order to determine the total duration of the world. Then, accepting the idea attributed to Ibn Abbas that “the world is one week among the weeks of the Hereafter—seven thousand years”, he arrives at the calculation: by Muhammad’s time, about 6,500 years had passed, and what remained was half a day = 500 years. ^[23]

وَأَنَّهُ قَالَ لِأَصْحَابِهِ: «بُعِثْتُ أَنَا وَالسَّاعَةُ كَهَاتَيْنِ»، وَجَمَعَ بَيْنَ السَّبَّابَةِ وَالْوُسْطَى … وَكَانَ مَعْنَى قَوْلِ النَّبِيِّ ذَلِكَ أَنَّ «لَنْ يُعْجِزَ اللَّهُ هَذِهِ الْأُمَّةَ مِنْ نِصْفِ يَوْمٍ» الَّذِي مِقْدَارُهُ أَلْفُ سَنَةٍ … وَأَشْبَهُهُمَا بِمَا دَلَّتْ عَلَيْهِ الْأَخْبَارُ الْوَارِدَةُ عَنْ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم قَوْلُ ابْنِ عَبَّاسٍ الَّذِي رَوَيْنَا عَنْهُ أَنَّهُ قَالَ: «الدُّنْيَا جُمُعَةٌ مِنْ جُمَعِ الْآخِرَةِ سَبْعَةُ آلَافِ سَنَةٍ». وَإِذْ كَانَ ذَلِكَ كَذَلِكَ، وَكَانَ الْخَبَرُ عَنْ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم صَحِيحًا أَنَّهُ أَخْبَرَ عَنِ الْبَاقِي مِنْ ذَلِكَ فِي حَيَاتِهِ أَنَّهُ نِصْفُ يَوْمٍ، وَذَلِكَ خَمْسُمِائَةِ عَامٍ، إِذْ كَانَ ذَلِكَ نِصْفَ يَوْمٍ مِنَ الْأَيَّامِ الَّتِي قَدْرُ الْيَوْمِ الْوَاحِدِ مِنْهَا أَلْفُ عَامٍ، كَانَ مَعْلُومًا أَنَّ الْمَاضِيَ مِنَ الدُّنْيَا إِلَى وَقْتِ قَوْلِ النَّبِيِّ صلى الله عليه وسلم … كَانَ قَدْرَ سِتَّةِ آلَافِ سَنَةٍ وَخَمْسِمِائَةِ سَنَةٍ، أَوْ نَحْوًا مِنْ ذَلِكَ وَقَرِيبًا مِنْهُ. وَاللَّهُ أَعْلَمُ.

Al-Tabari quotes Muhammad’s statement: “I and the Day of Resurrection have been sent like these two”—and mentions the joining together of the index and middle fingers. He then interprets the report “Allah will not fail to delay this ummah by half a day” as referring to half of a day whose full length equals one thousand years. He accepts as the more fitting view the statement attributed to Ibn Abbas—“The world is one week among the weeks of the Hereafter, seven thousand years.” He then says that during Muhammad’s lifetime the remaining time of the world was half a day, that is, five hundred years; therefore, by that time about six thousand five hundred years of the world had already passed.

This is not merely a reconstruction by a later researcher; the numerical calculation is written explicitly in al-Tabari’s own work. In his model, the world’s total lifespan is seven thousand years; by Muhammad’s time, about six thousand five hundred years had already ended; and about five hundred years remained before the Day of Resurrection. In other words, language such as “the Day of Resurrection has drawn near” and “two fingers” was read, in an important early historical work of the Islamic tradition, as a real chronological calculation. This calculation has historically failed: more than a thousand years have passed even since al-Tabari’s age, and about fourteen centuries have passed since Muhammad’s time. Thus this document shows two things at once—first, that the language of nearness was once converted into a numerical time-frame; and second, that this time-frame too did not correspond with history.

The Half-Day Calculation—Five Hundred Years

Another important example of converting the nearness of the Hour into numbers is found in Tafsir Ibn Kathir. In Surah al-Hajj 22:47, it is said that with Allah, one day is equal to one thousand years by human reckoning. In discussing this verse, Ibn Kathir cites a report through Sa‘d ibn Abi Waqqas in which Muhammad expresses the hope that his ummah will be granted a delay of “half a day”. When asked how long that half-day was, Sa‘d replied: five hundred years. In other words, from the religious-time equation “one day = one thousand years,” half a day was directly converted into five hundred years. ^[24]

وَيَسْتَعْجِلُونَكَ بِالْعَذَابِ وَلَنْ يُخْلِفَ اللَّهُ وَعْدَهُ وَإِنَّ يَوْمًا عِنْدَ رَبِّكَ كَأَلْفِ سَنَةٍ مِمَّا تَعُدُّونَ

“They challenge you ˹O Prophet˺ to hasten the torment. And Allah will never fail in His promise. But a day with your Lord is indeed like a thousand years by your counting.”
— Dr. Mustafa Khattab, The Clear Quran
Quran.com — Al-Hajj 22:47

عَنْ سَعْدِ بْنِ أَبِي وَقَّاصٍ، أَنَّ النَّبِيَّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ قَالَ: إِنِّي لَأَرْجُو أَنْ لَا تَعْجِزَ أُمَّتِي عِنْدَ رَبِّهَا أَنْ يُؤَخِّرَهُمْ نِصْفَ يَوْمٍ. قِيلَ لِسَعْدٍ: وَكَمْ نِصْفُ ذَلِكَ الْيَوْمِ؟ قَالَ: خَمْسُ مِائَةِ سَنَةٍ.

It is narrated from Sa‘d ibn Abi Waqqas that the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said: “I hope that my ummah will not be so incapable before their Lord that He will not delay them for half a day.” Sa‘d was asked: “How long is that half-day?” He said: “Five hundred years.”

This numerical interpretation is directly related to the earlier discussion of al-Tabari. Taking “one day = one thousand years,” half a day = five hundred years—in this way, the time-related metaphor of scripture was being converted into a calculation in actual centuries. Ibn Hajar, while discussing this calculation of al-Tabari, also wrote that half a day had been taken as five hundred years on the basis of the Qur’anic equivalence of one day with one thousand years. Thus, reading the language of “the Hour is near” from the outset as a metaphor for an infinite and indeterminate period was not the only current within Islamic interpretation; rather, attempts to place that nearness within a specific reckoning of centuries are also preserved within Islamic literature.

Upon seeing a solar eclipse, Muhammad became so alarmed that he feared the Hour was beginning. This sahih report shows that, for him, the Hour was not an abstract idea in some infinitely distant future; the fear that it could begin during his own lifetime, immediately in connection with a sudden natural event, was real. In modern astronomy, a solar eclipse is the result of the predictable geometric alignment of the earth, moon, and sun; in the hadith report, the same event is viewed as the possible immediate beginning of cosmic catastrophe ^{[25] [26]}

Sahih al-Bukhari
16/ Eclipses
Chapter: To remember Allah during the eclipse
1059. Narrated Abu Musa:
The sun eclipsed and the Prophet (ﷺ) got up, being afraid that it might be the Hour (i.e. Day of Judgment). He went to the Mosque and offered the prayer with the longest Qiyam, bowing and prostration that I had ever seen him doing. Then he said, “These signs which Allah sends do not occur because of the life or death of somebody, but Allah makes His worshipers afraid by them. So when you see anything thereof, proceed to remember Allah, invoke Him and ask for His forgiveness.”
Reference: Sahih al-Bukhari 1059
In-book reference: Book 16, Hadith 18
USC-MSA web (English) reference: Vol. 2, Book 18, Hadith 167

The Astronomy of Eclipses versus Hadith-Based Authority

A modern example of this religious view of solar and lunar eclipses is found in the fatwa of the Saudi scholar ‘Abd al-‘Aziz ibn Baz. Astronomers determine solar eclipses as geometric events occurring at the time of the new moon and lunar eclipses as events occurring at the time of the full moon, and they can calculate their timing far in advance. But Ibn Baz refused to accept this astronomical rule as admissible evidence against sahih hadith. He even said that a solar eclipse could occur outside the end of the month and a lunar eclipse outside the night of the full moon.^[27]

أَمَّا قَوْلُ الْفَلَكِيِّينَ: إِنَّ كُسُوفَ الشَّمْسِ لَا يَكُونُ إِلَّا فِي آخِرِ الشَّهْرِ … فَلَيْسَ عَلَيْهِ دَلِيلٌ يُعْتَمَدُ عَلَيْهِ

“As for the astronomers’ statement that a solar eclipse occurs only at the end of the month, there is no reliable proof for it on which one may depend.”

The fatwa further states that a solar eclipse may occur at times other than the end of the month, and a lunar eclipse at times other than the night of the full moon. Here the methodological conflict over determining knowledge is clear: on the one hand, by calculating the positions of the sun, moon, and earth, the time, place, and duration of an eclipse can be determined in advance; on the other hand, when the results of observation and calculation conflict with religious reports, the religious report is being given priority. In modern astronomy, solar eclipses occur in the new-moon phase and lunar eclipses in the full-moon phase. Thus the ancient religious fear surrounding eclipses did not remain confined to a historical report; within later religious authority as well, it created a precedent for privileging scriptural authority over observable astronomical rules.

Now let us look at another hadith. At the very beginning of this hadith, an important psychological effect is noticeable: when the Prophet spoke about the Dajjal in the morning, he sometimes presented him as insignificant, and at other times as an extremely grave danger. As a result of this “rise-and-fall” mode of narration, the message became embedded in the listeners’ minds in such a way that the appearance of the Dajjal seemed not like some distant tale of fantasy, but rather a real fear that could occur in the near future. They felt the Dajjal to be so close that they eventually began to think that perhaps the Dajjal was somewhere within that very date-grove. In other words, the narration created in their minds a sense of real presence: “this is ahead, very near.”

This is a kind of rhetorical strategy: by presenting the threat sometimes as small and sometimes as great, it creates uncertainty-driven fear within the listener. As a result, the Dajjal does not remain a “distant story”; rather, he is felt as a possibly imminent reality that “could happen now/very soon.” Within the same pattern, the Prophet’s statement—“If I am among you, I myself will resist him”—also indicates that he imagined the appearance of the Dajjal not merely theoretically, but as possible even within his own lifetime; at the very least, he presented that possibility before his listeners as a realistic fear. ^[28]

Sahih Muslim
54/ The Book of Tribulations and Portents of the Last Hour
Chapter: Ad-Dajjal
2937a. An-Nawwas b. Sam`an reported that Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) made a mention of the Dajjal one day in the morning. He (ﷺ) sometimes described him to be insignificant and sometimes described (his turmoil) as very significant (and we felt) as if he were in the cluster of the date-palm trees. When we went to him (to the Holy Prophet) in the evening and he read (the signs of fear) in our faces, he (ﷺ) said:
What is the matter with you? We said: Allah’s Messenger, you made a mention of the Dajjal in the morning (sometimes describing him) to be insignificant and sometimes very important, until we began to think as if he were present in some (near) part of the cluster of the date-palm trees. Thereupon he (ﷺ) said: I harbor fear in regard to you in so many other things besides the Dajjal.
If he comes forth while I am among you, I shall contend with him on your behalf, but if he comes forth while I am not amongst you, a man must contend on his own behalf and Allah would take care of every Muslim on my behalf (and safeguard him against his evil). He (Dajjal) would be a young man with twisted, contracted hair, and a blind eye. I compare him to `Abd-ul-`Uzza b. Qatan. He who amongst you would survive to see him should recite over him the opening verses of Sura Kahf (xviii).
He would appear on the way between Syria and Iraq and would spread mischief right and left. O servant of Allah! adhere (to the path of Truth). We said: Allah’s Messenger, how long would he stay on the earth? He (ﷺ) said: For forty days, one day like a year and one day like a month and one day like a week and the rest of the days would be like your days.
We said: Allah’s Messenger, would one day’s prayer suffice for the prayers of day equal to one year? Thereupon he (ﷺ) said: No, but you must make an estimate of time (and then observe prayer). We said: Allah’s Messenger, how quickly would he walk upon the earth? Thereupon he (ﷺ) said: Like cloud driven by the wind. He would come to the people and invite them (to a wrong religion) and they would affirm their faith in him and respond to him.
He would then give command to the sky and there would be rainfall upon the earth and it would grow crops. Then in the evening, their pasturing animals would come to them with their humps very high and their udders full of milk and their flanks stretched. He would then come to another people and invite them. But they would reject him and he would go away from them and there would be drought for them and nothing would be left with them in the form of wealth.
He would then walk through the waste land and say to it: Bring forth your treasures, and the treasures would come out and collect (themselves) before him like the swarm of bees. He would then call a person brimming with youth and strike him with the sword and cut him into two pieces and (make these pieces lie at a distance which is generally) between the archer and his target.
He would then call (that young man) and he will come forward laughing with his face gleaming (with happiness) and it would be at this very time that Allah would send Jesus, son of Mary, and he will descend at the white minaret in the eastern side of Damascus wearing two garments lightly dyed with saffron and placing his hands on the wings of two Angels. When he would lower his head, there would fall beads of perspiration from his head, and when he would raise it up, beads like pearls would scatter from it.
Every non-believer who would smell the odor of his self would die and his breath would reach as far as he would be able to see. He would then search for him (Dajjal) until he would catch hold of him at the gate of Ludd and would kill him.
Then a people whom Allah had protected would come to Jesus, son of Mary, and he would wipe their faces and would inform them of their ranks in Paradise and it would be under such conditions that Allah would reveal to Jesus these words: I have brought forth from amongst My servants such people against whom none would be able to fight; you take these people safely to Tur. And then Allah would send Gog and Magog and they would swarm down from every slope.
The first of them would pass the lake of Tiberias and drink out of it. And when the last of them would pass, he would say: There was once water there.
Jesus and his companions would then be besieged here (at Tur, and they would be so much hard pressed) that the head of the ox would be dearer to them than one hundred dinars and Allah’s Apostle, Jesus, and his companions would supplicate Allah, Who would send to them insects (which would attack their necks) and in the morning they would perish like one single person.
Allah’s Apostle, Jesus, and his companions would then come down to the earth and they would not find in the earth as much space as a single span which is not filled with their putrefaction and stench. Allah’s Apostle, Jesus, and his companions would then again beseech Allah, Who would send birds whose necks would be like those of Bactrian camels and they would carry them and throw them where God would will.
Then Allah would send rain which no house of clay or (the tent of) camels’ hairs would keep out and it would wash away the earth until it could appear to be a mirror. Then the earth would be told to bring forth its fruit and restore its blessing and, as a result thereof, there would grow (such a big) pomegranate that a group of persons would be able to eat that, and seek shelter under its skin and milch cow would give so much milk that a whole party would be able to drink it.
And the milch camel would give such (a large quantity of) milk that the whole tribe would be able to drink out of that and the milch sheep would give so much milk that the whole family would be able to drink out of that and at that time Allah would send a pleasant wind which would soothe (people) even under their armpits, and would take the life of every Muslim and only the wicked would survive who would commit adultery like asses and the Last Hour would come to them.
Reference: Sahih Muslim 2937a
In-book reference: Book 54, Hadith 134
USC-MSA web (English) reference: Book 41, Hadith 7015

In another narration from Abu ‘Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrah, the timeframe is even clearer. Here Muhammad not only warned about the coming of the Dajjal; he also directly expressed the possibility that someone among those who had seen him with their own eyes or heard his words directly might witness the Dajjal. Al-Tirmidhi called the report “hasan gharib”; the same statement is also preserved in Musnad Ahmad. ^[29]

حَدَّثَنَا عَبْدُ اللَّهِ بْنُ مُعَاوِيَةَ الْجُمَحِيُّ، قَالَ: حَدَّثَنَا حَمَّادُ بْنُ سَلَمَةَ، عَنْ خَالِدٍ الْحَذَّاءِ، عَنْ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ شَقِيقٍ، عَنْ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ سُرَاقَةَ، عَنْ أَبِي عُبَيْدَةَ بْنِ الْجَرَّاحِ، قَالَ: سَمِعْتُ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم يَقُولُ: إِنَّهُ لَمْ يَكُنْ نَبِيٌّ بَعْدَ نُوحٍ إِلَّا قَدْ أَنْذَرَ الدَّجَّالَ قَوْمَهُ، وَإِنِّي أُنْذِرُكُمُوهُ. فَوَصَفَهُ لَنَا رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم فَقَالَ: لَعَلَّهُ يُدْرِكُهُ بَعْضُ مَنْ رَآنِي أَوْ سَمِعَ كَلَامِي. قَالُوا: يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ، فَكَيْفَ قُلُوبُنَا يَوْمَئِذٍ؟ قَالَ: مِثْلُهَا، يَعْنِي الْيَوْمَ، أَوْ خَيْرٌ. قَالَ التِّرْمِذِيُّ: هَذَا حَدِيثٌ حَسَنٌ غَرِيبٌ مِنْ حَدِيثِ أَبِي عُبَيْدَةَ بْنِ الْجَرَّاحِ.

Abu ‘Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrah said: I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, say: “There was no prophet after Nuh who did not warn his people about the Dajjal; and I too warn you about him.” Then the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, described the Dajjal to us and said: “Perhaps someone among those who have seen me or heard my words will encounter him.” They asked: “O Messenger of Allah, what will the state of our hearts be on that day?” He said: “As they are today—or better.” Al-Tirmidhi said: This is a hasan gharib hadith through Abu ‘Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrah.

The temporal implication in this report is extremely specific. بَعْضُ مَنْ رَآنِي أَوْ سَمِعَ كَلَامِي—“someone among those who have seen me or heard my words”—places the possible appearance of the Dajjal within the lifespan of Muhammad’s direct viewers and listeners. Since the Dajjal is a central sign in Islamic end-times discourse, this statement is another direct testimony that the cluster of events of the Hour was imagined not in some indefinite, millennia-distant future, but within the possible experience of the first generation of listeners.

When Will the Hour Occur: Specifying the Time

In this report, the time-related claim is the clearest. Muhammad was asked directly: when will the Hour occur? Pointing to a living boy, he said that the Hour would take place before that boy became old. That generation disappeared many centuries ago; the Hour did not occur. Therefore, in the ordinary meaning of the sentence, this is a failed time-specific prophecy. If later interpretation turns “the Hour” into death or the end of a generation, then new questions arise from the original question itself: if that had been the intended meaning, then why, in response to the questioner’s “When is the Hour?”, was the same word “Hour” used and a boy’s old age made into the time limit? ^{[30] [31] [32] [33]}

Sahih Muslim
54/ The Book of Tribulations and Portents of the Last Hour
Chapter: The Approach Of The Hour
2953a. Anas reported that a person asked Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) as to when the Last Hour would come. He had in his presence a young boy of the Ansar who was called Muhammad. Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) said:
If this young boy lives, he may not grow very old till (he would see) the Last Hour coming to you.
Reference: Sahih Muslim 2953a
In-book reference: Book 54, Hadith 171
USC-MSA web (English) reference: Book 41, Hadith 7051

Sahih Muslim
54/ The Book of Tribulations and Portents of the Last Hour
Chapter: The Approach Of The Hour
2953b. Anas b. Malik reported that a person asked Allah’s Apostle (may peace be upon him):
When would the Last Hour come? Thereupon Allah’s Messenger (way peace be upon him) kept quiet for a while. Then looked at a young boy in his presence belonging to the tribe of Azd Shanu’a and he said: If this boy lives he would not grow very old till the Last Hour would come to you. Anas said that this young boy was of our age during those days.
Reference: Sahih Muslim 2953b
In-book reference: Book 54, Hadith 172
USC-MSA web (English) reference: Book 41, Hadith 7052

Sahih Muslim
54/ The Book of Tribulations and Portents of the Last Hour
Chapter: The Approach Of The Hour
2953c. Anas reported:
A young boy of Mughira b. Shu’ba happened to pass by (the Holy Prophet) and he was of my age. Thereupon Allah’s Apostle (may peace be upon him) said: If he lives long he would not grow very old till the Last Hour would come (to the old people of this generation).
Reference: Sahih Muslim 2953c
In-book reference: Book 54, Hadith 173
USC-MSA web (English) reference: Book 41, Hadith 7053

Now let us read the detailed version of the hadith. Reading the complete account makes it very clear that here the Prophet was in fact speaking of the Hour of the great catastrophe ^[34]

Sahih Ibn Hibban (HadithBD)
6. The Book Concerning Good Conduct and Justice
Chapter: The hadith by which the false sects criticize the hadith scholars because they fail to understand its correct meaning
566. Narrated from Anas ibn Malik, may Allah be pleased with him, he said: A man said to the Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him: “O Prophet of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, when will the Hour occur?” At that time the iqamah for prayer had been given; when the Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, finished the prayer,he said: “Where is the one who asked about the Hour?” Then that man said: “O Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, I am here.” The Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said: “Know that the Hour will certainly occur. But what have you prepared for the Hour?” He said: “I have not prepared many deeds for the Hour, but I love Allah and His Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.” The Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said: “On the Day of the Hour, you will be with the one you love.” The narrator said: “At that time there was an Ansari Companion near him whose name was Muhammad. Then he said: “If this person remains alive, then the Hour will occur before he becomes old.”
Hudbah narrated a little more: Anas, may Allah be pleased with him, said: “We love Allah and His Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.”[1]
قَالَ أَبُو حَاتِمٍ: هَذَا الْخَبَرُ مِنَ الْأَلْفَاظِ الَّتِي أُطْلِقَتْ بِتَعْيِينِ خِطَابٍ مُرَادُهُ التَّحْذِيرُ وَذَاكَ أَنَّ الْمُصْطَفَى صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ أَرَادَ تَحْذِيرَ النَّاسِ عَنِ الرُّكُونِ إِلَى هَذِهِ الدُّنْيَا بِتَعْرِيفِهِمُ الشَّيْءَ الَّذِي يَكُونُ بِخَلَدِهِمْ تَقَبُّلُ حَقِيقَتِهِ مِنْ قُرْبِ السَّاعَةِ عَلَيْهِمْ دُونَ اعْتِمَادِهِمْ عَلَى ما يسمعون.
Abu Hatim Ibn Hibban, may Allah have mercy on him, said: “In the hadith, certain words have been used in address, the purpose of which is warning. For the Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, warned people against inclining toward this world. He introduced before them the thing that would be their everlasting abode. Therefore, it accepts this reality: that the Hour is very near to them. In this matter, they should not rely on what is commonly heard.”
[1] Musnad Ahmad: 3/159; Sahih Muslim: 2953; Sahih al-Bukhari: 6511.
Allamah Shu‘ayb al-Arna’ut, may Allah have mercy on him, declared the hadith sahih according to the conditions of Muslim. Allamah Nasir al-Din al-Albani, may Allah have mercy on him, declared the hadith sahih li-ghayrihi. (al-Sahihah: 3253.)
Hadith grade: Sahih (Sahih) Narrator: Anas ibn Malik (RA)

ذِكْرُ خَبَرٍ شنَّع بِهِ بَعْضُ الْمُعَطِّلَةِ عَلَى أَهْلِ الْحَدِيثِ حَيْثُ حُرِمُوا تَوْفِيقَ الْإِصَابَةِ لِمَعْنَاهُ أَخْبَرَنَا الْحَسَنُ بْنُ سُفْيَانَ الشَّيْبَانِيُّ حَدَّثَنَا عَبْدُ الْأَعْلَى بْنُ حَمَّادٍ وَهُدْبَةُ بْنُ خَالِدٍ قَالَا: حَدَّثَنَا حَمَّادُ بْنُ سَلَمَةَ عَنْ ثَابِتٍ عَنْ أَنَسٍ: أَنَّ رَجُلًا قَالَ: يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ مَتَى تَقُومُ السَّاعَةُ؟ – وَأُقِيمَتِ الصَّلَاةُ – فَلَمَّا قَضَى رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ صَلَاتَهُ قَالَ: (أَيْنَ السَّائِلُ عَنِ السَّاعَةِ؟ ) قَالَ: هَا أَنَا ذَا يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ قَالَ: (إِنَّهَا قَائِمَةٌ فَمَا أَعْدَدْتَ لَهَا؟ ) قَالَ: مَا أَعْدَدْتُ لَهَا كَبِيرَ عَمَلٍ غَيْرَ أَنِّي أُحِبُّ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ فَقَالَ النَّبِيُّ صَلَّى الله عليه وَسَلَّمَ: (أَنْتَ مَعَ مَنْ أَحْبَبْتَ) قَالَ: وَعِنْدَهُ رَجُلٌ مِنَ الْأَنْصَارِ يُقَالُ لَهُ مُحَمَّدٌ فقَالَ: (إِنْ يَعِشْ هَذَا فَلَا يُدْرِكُهُ الْهَرَمُ حَتَّى تَقُومَ السَّاعَةُ.) زَادَ هُدْبَةُ: قَالَ أَنَسٌ: فَنَحْنُ نحب الله ورسوله. الراوي : أَنَس | المحدث : العلامة ناصر الدين الألباني | المصدر : التعليقات الحسان على صحيح ابن حبان الصفحة أو الرقم: 566 | خلاصة حكم المحدث: صحيح

This hadith has also been used in modern research on early Islam as evidence of an imminent expectation of the Hour. In the chapter “Muhammad as Eschatological Prophet” in The Death of a Prophet, Stephen J. Shoemaker discusses this boy-related report as important testimony in support of the expectation among Muhammad and his first followers that the end of the world was extremely near. The publisher of the book has also summarized his main conclusion: Muhammad and his followers expected the end of the world in the “immediate future,” even possibly within their own lifetime; when the Hour did not occur, that expectation later had to be reinterpreted. ^[35]

Hadith Chapter: The Correct Meaning of the Hadith

If Translated as “the death of a generation/the death of an individual”

Let us change the meaning of the words in Ibn Hibban’s long narrative hadith to the death of a generation or the death of an individual and read it, to see whether it produces any meaning.

Sahih Ibn Hibban (HadithBD)
6. The Book Concerning Good Conduct and Justice
Chapter: The hadith by which the false sects criticize the hadith scholars because they fail to understand its correct meaning
566. Narrated from Anas ibn Malik, may Allah be pleased with him, he said:A man said to the Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him: “O Prophet of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, when will “the death of a generation/the death of an individual” occur?” At that time the iqamah for prayer had been given; when the Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, finished the prayer,he said: “Where is the one who asked about the Hour?” Then that man said: “O Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, I am here.”The Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said: “Know that “the death of a generation/the death of an individual” will certainly occur. But what have you prepared for “the death of a generation/the death of an individual”?” He said: “I have not prepared many deeds for “the death of a generation/the death of an individual”, but I love Allah and His Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.” The Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said: “On the day of “the death of a generation/the death of an individual” you will be with the one you love.” The narrator said: “At that time there was an Ansari Companion near him whose name was Muhammad. Then he said: “If this person remains alive, then “the death of a generation/the death of an individual” will occur before he becomes old.”
Hudbah narrated a little more: Anas, may Allah be pleased with him, said: “We love Allah and His Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.”[1]
قَالَ أَبُو حَاتِمٍ: هَذَا الْخَبَرُ مِنَ الْأَلْفَاظِ الَّتِي أُطْلِقَتْ بِتَعْيِينِ خِطَابٍ مُرَادُهُ التَّحْذِيرُ وَذَاكَ أَنَّ الْمُصْطَفَى صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ أَرَادَ تَحْذِيرَ النَّاسِ عَنِ الرُّكُونِ إِلَى هَذِهِ الدُّنْيَا بِتَعْرِيفِهِمُ الشَّيْءَ الَّذِي يَكُونُ بِخَلَدِهِمْ تَقَبُّلُ حَقِيقَتِهِ مِنْ قُرْبِ السَّاعَةِ عَلَيْهِمْ دُونَ اعْتِمَادِهِمْ عَلَى ما يسمعون.
Abu Hatim Ibn Hibban, may Allah have mercy on him, said: “In the hadith, certain words have been used in address, the purpose of which is warning. For the Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, warned people against inclining toward this world. He introduced before them the thing that would be their everlasting abode. Therefore, it accepts this reality: that “the death of a generation/the death of an individual” is very near to them. In this matter, they should not rely on what is commonly heard.”
[1] Musnad Ahmad: 3/159; Sahih Muslim: 2953; Sahih al-Bukhari: 6511.
Allamah Shu‘ayb al-Arna’ut, may Allah have mercy on him, declared the hadith sahih according to the conditions of Muslim. Allamah Nasir al-Din al-Albani, may Allah have mercy on him, declared the hadith sahih li-ghayrihi. (al-Sahihah: 3253.)
Hadith grade: Sahih (Sahih) Narrator: Anas ibn Malik (RA)

Read the narration above and see whether it can really be counted as a meaningful hadith. What one prepares for the death of a generation is hardly intelligible. At the same time, how the death of a generation or the death of an individual will occur together with the person one loves is also unintelligible.

The Specific Use of the Word ‘As-Sa’ah’ (السَّاعَةُ)

Here, the primary basis for determining the meaning of the word السَّاعَة is the full context of the sentence. The question is متى تقوم الساعة؟—“When will the Resurrection occur?” Muhammad then asks the questioner what he has prepared for it; the questioner speaks of his love for Allah and the Messenger; the reply concerns companionship in the afterlife; and then the same word السَّاعَة is used again to give a time limit before the boy reaches old age. The entire conversation is taking place within the framework of the Great Resurrection and judgment in the afterlife. There is no wording in the first part about personal death or the disappearance of a generation.

• The questioner asked: “Mata taqumus-sa’ah?” (When will the Resurrection occur?).
• In reply, when the Prophet pointed to that boy and said, “Hatta taqumus-sa’ah” (until the Resurrection occurs), he repeated the very word used by the questioner. If by this the Prophet had intended not the questioner’s intended “Great Cataclysm” but merely “death,” then according to Arabic rhetoric he would have used the words ‘mawtuka’ (your death) or ‘sa’atuka’ (your time).

The Verb ‘Taqumu’ (تَقُومُ) and ‘Qiyam’ (قِيَامُ)

The word تَقُومُ is the present/future form of the verb قام; its root is ق-و-م. قيام and قيامة are words from the same root. The important point here is the use of the phrase تقوم الساعة: in Qur’anic and hadith language concerning the Final Judgment, it is repeatedly used in the sense of “the Resurrection occurring.” Thus, in determining the meaning of this narration, the primary evidence is the context of the word, the phrase itself, and the continuity of the same conversation. In Arabic, the Great Cataclysm or the Day of Final Judgment is called ‘Qiyamah’ because on that day people will stand before Allah.

• Taqumus-Sa’ah (تَقُومُ السَّاعَةُ) is a standard eschatological expression meaning that “the Hour occurs/is established.” In an unrestricted question such as متى تقوم الساعة, the natural referent is the final Hour; a death or generation-ending reading requires additional contextual evidence rather than arising from تقوم alone.

The Limitation of the Timeframe (Al-Haram vs As-Sa’ah)

Notice the structure of the sentence: “He will not reach old age until the Hour occurs” (لَا يُدْرِكُهُ الْهَرَمُ حَتَّى تَقُومَ السَّاعَةُ). The boy’s old age functions here as a temporal boundary for الساعة. A death-based reading is possible only if الساعة is first understood in a restricted sense—such as “your Hour” or the end of the relevant generation. That restriction, however, is not expressed in this recension itself. The central interpretive question is therefore not whether Arabic can ever use “hour” figuratively for death, but whether such a restricted meaning is actually signaled by this particular wording and context.

Ibn Hibban’s Chapter Heading and the Historical Debate

Ibn Hibban introduces this report with a chapter heading that explicitly frames the interpretive controversy:

“Mention of a report by which some of the Mu‘attilah (المعطلة) criticized the Ahl al-Hadith, because they were deprived of success in grasping its correct meaning.”

Ibn Hibban’s chapter heading itself shows that this hadith had become a subject of criticism in his time. He titled the chapter—“The report by which some Mu‘attilah criticized the Ahl al-Hadith, because they did not understand its meaning.” That is, the narration had given rise to a problem for which the compiler had to provide a separate explanation. More importantly, even in his own explanation the wording قرب الساعة عليهم—“the nearness of the Hour upon them”—is retained. The narration that connects the Resurrection with the lifespan of a boy therefore created interpretive pressure from the very beginning; this is documented in Ibn Hibban’s own chapter heading.

Coherence with the Context of ‘Anta Ma’a Man Ahbabta’

In the first part of the hadith, the Prophet said, “The Resurrection will certainly occur (إِنَّهَا قَائِمَةٌ); what have you prepared for it?” Here the word ‘qa’imah’ (occurring) is used to express the inevitability of the Resurrection. Immediately afterward, the example of that boy is used to indicate its nearness. Since the questioner is asking out of concern for the afterlife and the Day of Judgment, preserving the continuity of the answer requires taking the word ‘As-Sa’ah’ as referring to the Great Cataclysm.

The Same Question, the Same Word—Yet the Ad Hoc Problem of Interpreting “Death”

Let us read two hadiths side by side. Two different narrations of the same event/the same conversation, because it is difficult to call them separate incidents: in both narrations there is the same narrator (Anas), the same question (السّاعة), the same counter-question (ماذا أعددت لها), the same answer (love), and the same concluding statement (أنت مع من أحببت). The natural explanation is that these are different reports of the same conversation.

Sahih al-Bukhari
62/ Companions of the Prophet
Chapter: The virtues of ‘Umar bin Al-Khattab
3688. Narrated Anas:
A man asked the Prophet about the Hour (i.e. Day of Judgment) saying, “When will the Hour be?” The Prophet said, “What have you prepared for it?” The man said, “Nothing, except that I love Allah and His Apostle.” The Prophet said, “You will be with those whom you love.” We had never been so glad as we were on hearing that saying of the Prophet (i.e., “You will be with those whom you love.”) Therefore, I love the Prophet, Abu Bakr and `Umar, and I hope that I will be with them because of my love for them though my deeds are not similar to theirs.
بَاب
حَدَّثَنَا سُلَيْمَانُ بْنُ حَرْبٍ حَدَّثَنَا حَمَّادُ بْنُ زَيْدٍ عَنْ ثَابِتٍ عَنْ أَنَسٍ أَنَّ رَجُلًا سَأَلَ النَّبِيَّ صلى الله عليه وسلم عَنْ السَّاعَةِ فَقَالَ مَتَى السَّاعَةُ قَالَ وَمَاذَا أَعْدَدْتَ لَهَا قَالَ لَا شَيْءَ إِلَّا أَنِّيْ أُحِبُّ اللهَ وَرَسُوْلَهُ فَقَالَ أَنْتَ مَعَ مَنْ أَحْبَبْتَ قَالَ أَنَسٌ فَمَا فَرِحْنَا بِشَيْءٍ فَرَحَنَا بِقَوْلِ النَّبِيِّ صلى الله عليه وسلم أَنْتَ مَعَ مَنْ أَحْبَبْتَ قَالَ أَنَسٌ فَأَنَا أُحِبُّ النَّبِيَّ صلى الله عليه وسلم وَأَبَا بَكْرٍ وَعُمَرَ وَأَرْجُوْ أَنْ أَكُوْنَ مَعَهُمْ بِحُبِّيْ إِيَّاهُمْ وَإِنْ لَمْ أَعْمَلْ بِمِثْلِ أَعْمَالِهِمْ
حدثنا سليمان بن حرب حدثنا حماد بن زيد عن ثابت عن انس ان رجلا سال النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم عن الساعة فقال متى الساعة قال وماذا اعددت لها قال لا شيء الا اني احب الله ورسوله فقال انت مع من احببت قال انس فما فرحنا بشيء فرحنا بقول النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم انت مع من احببت قال انس فانا احب النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم وابا بكر وعمر وارجو ان اكون معهم بحبي اياهم وان لم اعمل بمثل اعمالهم
Reference: Sahih al-Bukhari 3688
In-book reference: Book 62, Hadith 38

Let us look at its English translation,

Narrated Anas: A man asked the Prophet (ﷺ) about the Hour (i.e. Day of Judgment) saying, “When will the Hour be?” The Prophet (ﷺ) said, “What have you prepared for it?” The man said, “Nothing, except that I love Allah and His Apostle.” The Prophet (ﷺ) said, “You will be with those whom you love.” We had never been so glad as we were on hearing that saying of the Prophet (i.e., “You will be with those whom you love.”) Therefore, I love the Prophet, Abu Bakr and `Umar, and I hope that I will be with them because of my love for them though my deeds are not similar to theirs.

Sahih Ibn Hibban (HadithBD)
6. The Book Concerning Good Conduct and Uprightness
Chapter: A report by which false-doctrine proponents criticize the hadith scholars because they failed to understand its correct meaning
566. Narrated from Anas ibn Malik, may Allah be pleased with him, who said: A man said to the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him: “O Prophet of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, when will the Resurrection take place?” At that time the iqamah for prayer had been given. When the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, finished the prayer, he said: “Where is the one who asked about the Resurrection?” The man said: “O Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, I am here.” The Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “Know that the Resurrection will surely occur. But what preparation have you made for the Resurrection?” He said: “I have not prepared many deeds for the Resurrection, but I love Allah and His Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him.” The Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “You will be with the one whom you love on the Day of Resurrection.” The narrator said: “At that time there was an Ansari Companion with him whose name was Muhammad. Then he said: “If this person lives, the Resurrection will occur before he reaches old age.” Hudbah narrated a little more: Anas, may Allah be pleased with him, said: “We love Allah and His Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him.”[1]
قَالَ أَبُو حَاتِمٍ: هَذَا الْخَبَرُ مِنَ الْأَلْفَاظِ الَّتِي أُطْلِقَتْ بِتَعْيِينِ خِطَابٍ مُرَادُهُ التَّحْذِيرُ وَذَاكَ أَنَّ الْمُصْطَفَى صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ أَرَادَ تَحْذِيرَ النَّاسِ عَنِ الرُّكُونِ إِلَى هَذِهِ الدُّنْيَا بِتَعْرِيفِهِمُ الشَّيْءَ الَّذِي يَكُونُ بِخَلَدِهِمْ تَقَبُّلُ حَقِيقَتِهِ مِنْ قُرْبِ السَّاعَةِ عَلَيْهِمْ دُونَ اعْتِمَادِهِمْ عَلَى ما يسمعون.
Abu Hatim Ibn Hibban, may Allah have mercy on him, said: “In addressing the audience, the hadith employs certain expressions whose intended purpose is warning. For the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, warned people against inclining toward this world. He introduced before them the thing that would be their everlasting abode. Thus it accepts the reality that the Resurrection was extremely near to them. In this matter, they should not rely upon commonly heard statements.”
ذِكْرُ خَبَرٍ شنَّع بِهِ بَعْضُ الْمُعَطِّلَةِ عَلَى أَهْلِ الْحَدِيثِ حَيْثُ حُرِمُوا تَوْفِيقَ الْإِصَابَةِ لِمَعْنَاهُ أَخْبَرَنَا الْحَسَنُ بْنُ سُفْيَانَ الشَّيْبَانِيُّ حَدَّثَنَا عَبْدُ الْأَعْلَى بْنُ حَمَّادٍ وَهُدْبَةُ بْنُ خَالِدٍ قَالَا: حَدَّثَنَا حَمَّادُ بْنُ سَلَمَةَ عَنْ ثَابِتٍ عَنْ أَنَسٍ: أَنَّ رَجُلًا قَالَ: يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ مَتَى تَقُومُ السَّاعَةُ؟ – وَأُقِيمَتِ الصَّلَاةُ – فَلَمَّا قَضَى رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ صَلَاتَهُ قَالَ: (أَيْنَ السَّائِلُ عَنِ السَّاعَةِ؟ ) قَالَ: هَا أَنَا ذَا يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ قَالَ: (إِنَّهَا قَائِمَةٌ فَمَا أَعْدَدْتَ لَهَا? ) قَالَ: مَا أَعْدَدْتُ لَهَا كَبِيرَ عَمَلٍ غَيْرَ أَنِّي أُحِبُّ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ فَقَالَ النَّبِيُّ صَلَّى الله عليه وَسَلَّمَ: (أَنْتَ مَعَ مَنْ أَحْبَبْتَ) قَالَ: وَعِنْدَهُ رَجُلٌ مِنَ الْأَنْصَارِ يُقَالُ لَهُ مُحَمَّدٌ فقَالَ: (إِنْ يَعِشْ هَذَا فَلَا يُدْرِكُهُ الْهَرَمُ حَتَّى تَقُومَ السَّاعَةُ.) زَادَ هُدْبَةُ: قَالَ أَنَسٌ: فَنَحْنُ نحب الله ورسوله. الراوي : أَنَس | المحدث : العلامة ناصر الدين الألباني | المصدر : التعليقات الحسان على صحيح ابن حبان الصفحة أو الرقم: 566 | خلاصة حكم المحدث: صحيح. اخبرنا الحسن بن سفيان الشيباني حدثنا عبد الاعلى بن حماد وهدبة بن خالد قالا: حدثنا حماد بن سلمة عن ثابت عن انس: ان رجلا قال: يا رسول الله متى تقوم الساعة؟ – واقيمت الصلاة – فلما قضى رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم صلاته قال: (اين الساىل عن الساعة? ) قال: ها انا ذا يا رسول الله قال: (انها قاىمة فما اعددت لها? ) قال: ما اعددت لها كبير عمل غير اني احب الله ورسوله فقال النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم: (انت مع من احببت) قال: وعنده رجل من الانصار يقال له محمد فقال: (ان يعش هذا فلا يدركه الهرم حتى تقوم الساعة.) زاد هدبة: قال انس: فنحن نحب الله ورسوله. الراوي : انس | المحدث : العلامة ناصر الدين الالباني | المصدر : التعليقات الحسان على صحيح ابن حبان الصفحة او الرقم: 566 | خلاصة حكم المحدث: صحيح. [1]
Musnad Ahmad: 3/159; Sahih Muslim: 2953; Sahih al-Bukhari: 6511. ‘Allamah Shu‘ayb al-Arna’ut, may Allah have mercy on him, declared the hadith sahih according to the conditions of Muslim. ‘Allamah Nasir al-Din al-Albani, may Allah have mercy on him, declared the hadith sahih li-ghayrihi. (al-Sahihah: 3253.)
Hadith grade: Sahih (Sahih)
Narrator: Anas ibn Malik (RA)

In both hadiths cited above, the central “target” of the question is one and the same—السّاعة (al-sa‘ah), that is, the “Resurrection/Hour.” Although the wording of the question is not absolutely identical, the formula is effectively the same: in one narration it says مَتَى السَّاعَةُ (“When is the Hour?”), and in the other مَتَى تَقُومُ السَّاعَةُ (“When will the Hour be established/occur?”). In other words, both are the same question—when will the Resurrection occur—only in the second narration the sentence structure is slightly expanded by the addition of the verb تقوم (will be established/occur). Likewise, in Bukhari’s narration (from Anas), the Prophet asks in response: وَمَاذَا أَعْدَدْتَ لَهَا؟—that is, “What have you prepared for it?”—which clearly keeps the conversation within an eschatological/moral framework.

Summary:

• (1) The same word—yes: in both, the central word is السّاعة.
• (2) The same question (in meaning)—yes: both ask, “When will the Resurrection/Hour occur?”.
• (3) The same sentence (verbatim)—no: in Bukhari it is متى الساعة, while in Ibn Hibban it is متى تقوم الساعة—the verb تقوم is added in the second, but the aim and meaning of the question remain the same.

Regarding Hisham’s Statement

Let us note another version of this hadith ^[36]

Sahih al-Bukhari
81/ To make the Heart Tender (Ar-Riqaq)
Chapter: The stupors of death
6511. Narrated `Aisha:
Some rough bedouins used to visit the Prophet (ﷺ) and ask him, “When will the Hour be?” He would look at the youngest of all of them and say, “If this should live till he is very old, your Hour (the death of the people addressed) will take place.” Hisham said that he meant (by the Hour), their death.
Reference: Sahih al-Bukhari 6511
In-book reference: Book 81, Hadith 100
USC-MSA web (English) reference: Vol. 8, Book 76, Hadith 518

Another form of the same report is preserved in Ad-Durr al-Manthur. There, when the Bedouins directly ask Muhammad about Qiyamah, he looks at the youngest person among them and uses his lifespan as the measure of time. The original Arabic of this report is especially important, because Muhammad’s statement contains قامت عليكم ساعتكم—“your sa‘ah will occur upon you”; nowhere in the original sentence is there the word death. ^[37]

وَأخرج ابْن مرْدَوَيْه عَن عَائِشَة قَالَت: كَانَت الْأَعْرَاب إِذا قدمُوا على النَّبِي صلى الله عَلَيْهِ وَسلم سَأَلُوهُ عَن السَّاعَة فَينْظر إِلَى أحدث إِنْسَان فيهم فَيَقُول: إِن يَعش هَذَا قرنا قَامَت عَلَيْكُم سَاعَتكُمْ

Ibn Mardawayh narrated from Aisha, who said: When the Bedouins would come to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, they would ask him about Qiyamah. He would look at the youngest person among them and say: “If this person lives long, or lives for a century, then your Qiyamah (death) will befall you.”

Here the difference between the Arabic original and the Bengali explanation is directly visible. The Arabic sentence has سَاعَتكُمْ—“your sa‘ah”; but in the Bengali translation, “death” has been added afterward in parentheses. In other words, “death” is not a translation of any word in the original Arabic sentence; it is an interpretation of the term. This distinction is important, because the central question in the later debate is precisely this—by ساعتكم, did the speaker himself mean death, or did later narrators and commentators determine this meaning?

Here it is extremely important to separate the layers of the report. In Aisha’s narration, Muhammad’s statement is تقوم عليكم ساعتكم—“your Qiyamah will come upon you”; but the statement “it means their death” is not Muhammad’s own statement. It is an explanatory comment by Hisham ibn Urwah—يعني موتهم. Hisham was born in 61 AH, nearly half a century after Muhammad’s death. That is, the equation “Qiyamah = their death” is not the original speaker’s explanation here; it is the interpretation of a later narrator. More importantly, in Anas’s narration there is no عليكم or ساعتكم; there the wording is directly حتى تقوم الساعة. Later commentators used Aisha’s wording, which contains a limiting expression, to make the meaning of Anas’s unrestricted report also “their death.” The IslamQA discussion uses precisely this method as well. ^[38]

Changing the Meaning After a Failed Prophecy and Ad Hoc Rescue

Qiyamah or the Death of a Generation in the Prophet’s Question-and-Answer

In Islamic reports, “Qiyamah/al-Sa‘ah (ٱلسَّاعَةُ)” is often presented as something in the near future, not as an indefinite future event. In these texts, it is presented as an impending reality temporally close to the experience of the people of the Prophet’s era. The best-known example of this is the Prophet’s saying— “I and Qiyamah have been sent together like these two fingers”, and he showed his index and middle fingers side by side. There is certainly a “simile” in this statement, but the central function of the simile is to visibly compress temporal distance: the gap between two fingers is very small—this strongly signals “nearness” to the listener’s eye. Therefore, in reviewing the hadith, it can be understood not merely as a moral warning, but as a signal of temporal proximity.

This language of nearness becomes even more intense in the report where some questioners (in some narrations, Bedouins) ask—“When will Qiyamah occur?” In reply, the Prophet points to a boy and says: “If this boy lives, then before he reaches old age, Qiyamah will occur.” Note here that the question is not about personal death, someone’s final hour, or “when will our generation end”—or anything of that kind; the question is directly about the time of Qiyamah. And the answer is being given within the normal timeline of a human life—“before old age”—that is, on the scale of a few decades. Linguistically, it is very simple: “Event X will occur within timeframe Y.”

From here the central conflict begins: the questioner wants to know about Qiyamah; does the respondent really mean Qiyamah—or something else? Later hadith commentaries often say that “Qiyamah” here means the “minor qiyamah”—that is, personal death or the disappearance of that generation. There is also a line behind this interpretation in classical commentary: in Imam Nawawi’s Sharh Muslim, various narrations (“your hour/sa‘ah,” etc.) are brought together and it is said that “your sa‘ah” means their death, that is, the end of that age/that audience group—not Qiyamah in the greater sense. But if one wishes to sustain this “local qiyamah/personal death” interpretation, several difficult questions cannot be avoided:

Fear of Qiyamah Among the Companions as Well

An important report preserved in Tafsir al-Qurtubi shows how directly one of Muhammad’s Companions took the Qur’an’s declaration that “the reckoning is near” in a temporally immediate sense. Upon hearing the news that the first verse of Surah al-Anbiya—“The time of people’s reckoning has drawn near”—had been revealed, a Companion stopped his construction work and swore that, since the reckoning had drawn near, he would never build a wall again. ^[39]

وَرُوِيَ أَنَّ رَجُلًا مِنْ أَصْحَابِ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم كان يَبْنِي جِدَارًا فَمَرَّ بِهِ آخَرُ فِي يَوْمِ نُزُولِ هَذِهِ السُّورَةِ، فَقَالَ الَّذِي كَانَ يَبْنِي الْجِدَارَ: مَاذَا نَزَلَ الْيَوْمَ مِنَ الْقُرْآنِ؟ فَقَالَ الْآخَرُ: نَزَلَ “اقْتَرَبَ لِلنَّاسِ حِسابُهُمْ وَهُمْ فِي غَفْلَةٍ مُعْرِضُونَ” فَنَفَضَ يَدَهُ مِنَ الْبُنْيَانِ، وَقَالَ: وَاللَّهِ لَا بَنَيْتُ أَبَدًا وَقَدِ اقْتَرَبَ الْحِسَابُ. “اقْتَرَبَ” أي قرب الوقت.

It is narrated that a man among the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, was building a wall. On the day this surah was revealed, another man passed by him. The man building the wall asked: “What has been revealed today from the Qur’an?” The other replied: “˹The time of˺ people’s judgment has drawn near, yet they are heedlessly turning away”—this verse has been revealed. He then shook his hands free of the construction work and said: “By Allah, since the reckoning has drawn near, I will never build a wall again.” ‘Iqtaraba’ means—the time has drawn near.

This reaction is especially significant. The phrase “the reckoning has drawn near” was not taken here as a figure of speech referring to some infinitely long cosmic timescale. The Companion understood it to be so near that he considered even the construction of a permanent wall for the future meaningless and stopped working. Al-Qurtubi also directly writes in his explanation of the word “اقْتَرَبَ”—“أي قرب الوقت”, meaning “the time has drawn near.” Thus, the nearness in the early discourse about Qiyamah was not merely verbal ornamentation; at least in this report, it created a temporally immediate expectation capable of changing people’s real-life planning.

Qiyamah When One Hundred Years Were Complete—Such an Understanding Also Existed Among the Companions

That Muhammad’s contemporaries understood the nearness of Qiyamah within a real timeframe is evidenced even more directly in Tafsir al-Qurtubi. Toward the end of his life, Muhammad said that none of those alive on earth that night would remain alive after one hundred years. Quoting Ibn Umar’s statement, al-Qurtubi reports that people became confused upon hearing this. The related note clarifies the matter further—the Companions misunderstood the meaning of Muhammad’s statement, and some of them would say that when one hundred years were complete, Qiyamah would occur. Later, Ibn Umar explained that Muhammad’s intention was the disappearance of that generation. ^[40]

قَالَ ابْنُ عُمَرَ: فَوَهَلَ النَّاسُ فِي مَقَالَةِ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم تِلْكَ فِيمَا يَتَحَدَّثُونَ مِنْ هَذِهِ الأحاديث عن مائة سنة، وإنما قال رسول الله عليه الصلاة والسلام: «لَا يَبْقَى مِمَّنْ هُوَ الْيَوْمَ عَلَى ظَهْرِ الْأَرْضِ أَحَدٌ» يُرِيدُ بِذَلِكَ أَنْ يَنْخَرِمَ ذَلِكَ الْقَرْنُ.

وَهَلَ إِلَى الشَّيْءِ كَضَرَبَ أَيْ غَلِطَ وَذَهَبَ وَهْمُهُ إِلَى خِلَافِ الصَّوَابِ، وَالْمَعْنَى أَنَّ الصَّحَابَةَ رضى الله عنهم غَلِطُوا وَذَهَبَ وَهْمُهُمْ إِلَى خِلَافِ الصَّوَابِ فِي تَأْوِيلِ مَقَالَةِ النَّبِيِّ صلى الله عليه وسلم، فَكَانَ بَعْضُهُمْ يَقُولُ: تَقُومُ السَّاعَةُ عِنْدَ انْقِضَاءِ مِائَةِ سَنَةٍ، فَبَيَّنَ ابْنُ عُمَرَ مُرَادَ النَّبِيِّ صلى الله عليه وسلم بِقَوْلِهِ: يُرِيدُ بِذَلِكَ أَنْ يَنْخَرِمَ ذَلِكَ الْقَرْنُ.

Ibn Umar said: People became confused about that statement of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and about the hadiths relating to one hundred years. Yet the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, had said: “Of those who are on the earth today, no one will remain.” By this he meant the end of that generation.

Here “wahala” means to make a mistake and to go toward an understanding contrary to the correct meaning. That is, the Companions made a mistake in interpreting the Prophet’s statement, and their understanding went contrary to the correct meaning. Some of them would say: “When one hundred years are complete, Qiyamah will occur.” Ibn Umar then explained the Prophet’s intention by saying: “By this he meant the end of that generation.”

This report is an important testimony to the early Muslims’ understanding of the temporal nearness of Qiyamah. Here, no later critic is imposing a “literal reading” upon the Companions; Islamic tafsir’s own reading says that a section of the Companions understood the hundred-year timeframe directly as the timeframe for Qiyamah. That expectation is then corrected by saying that what was actually meant was not Qiyamah, but the disappearance of that generation. Thus, the “end of the generation” interpretation is not the initial understanding here; rather, it appears as an interpretation that corrects an earlier temporal understanding.

How near an event Qiyamah was imagined to be in Muhammad’s era becomes clear when several separate reports are placed together. Seeing a solar eclipse, Muhammad himself feared that Qiyamah had begun; upon hearing discussion of the Dajjal, the Companions thought he was present in a nearby grove; Muhammad said that if the Dajjal emerged while he was alive, he himself would confront him; and in Abu Ubaidah’s narration, he said that someone who had seen him or heard his words might perhaps witness the Dajjal. Another important testimony to this same temporally immediate understanding is preserved in Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani’s Fath al-Bari. He writes explicitly that a group of people of that era understood Muhammad’s statement about one hundred years to mean that the world would end after one hundred years.

^[41]

وَهَذَا نَظِيرُ قَوْلِهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم فِي الْحَدِيثِ الَّذِي تَقَدَّمَ بَيَانُهُ فِي الْعِلْمِ أَنَّهُ قَالَ لِأَصْحَابِهِ فِي آخِرِ عُمْرِهِ: «أَرَأَيْتُكُمْ لَيْلَتَكُمْ هَذِهِ، فَإِنَّ عَلَى رَأْسِ مِائَةِ سَنَةٍ مِنْهَا لَا يَبْقَى عَلَى وَجْهِ الْأَرْضِ مِمَّنْ هُوَ الْيَوْمَ عَلَيْهَا أَحَدٌ». وَكَانَ جَمَاعَةٌ مِنْ أَهْلِ ذَلِكَ الْعَصْرِ يَظُنُّونَ أَنَّ الْمُرَادَ أَنَّ الدُّنْيَا تَنْقَضِي بَعْدَ مِائَةِ سَنَةٍ، فَلِذَلِكَ قَالَ الصَّحَابِيُّ: «فَوَهِلَ النَّاسُ فِيمَا يَتَحَدَّثُونَ مِنْ مِائَةِ سَنَةٍ»، وَإِنَّمَا أَرَادَ صلى الله عليه وسلم بِذَلِكَ انْخِرَامَ قَرْنِهِ، أَشَارَ إِلَى ذَلِكَ عِيَاضٌ مُخْتَصَرًا. قُلْتُ: وَوَقَعَ فِي الْخَارِجِ كَذَلِكَ، فَلَمْ يَبْقَ مِمَّنْ كَانَ مَوْجُودًا عِنْدَ مَقَالَتِهِ تِلْكَ عِنْدَ اسْتِكْمَالِ مِائَةِ سَنَةٍ مِنْ سَنَةِ مَوْتِهِ أَحَدٌ، وَكَانَ آخِرُ مَنْ رَأَى النَّبِيَّ صلى الله عليه وسلم مَوْتًا أَبُو الطُّفَيْلِ عَامِرُ بْنُ وَاثِلَةَ كَمَا ثَبَتَ فِي صَحِيحِ مُسْلِمٍ.

Ibn Hajar wrote: This is similar to the hadith whose explanation has already appeared in the Book of Knowledge. Toward the end of his life, the Prophet said to his Companions: “What do you think of this night of yours? When one hundred years from today are complete, none of those presently on the face of the earth will remain.” A group of people of that era thought that this meant the world would end after one hundred years. For this reason the Companion said, “People fell into a mistaken understanding regarding what they were saying about one hundred years.” Yet by this the Prophet meant the end of his generation—Qadi Iyad briefly indicated this. Ibn Hajar then says that in reality too, everyone of that generation died within the completion of one hundred years; the last person to have seen the Prophet was Abu Tufayl Amir ibn Wathilah.

The historical significance of Ibn Hajar’s statement is direct. “The world will end after one hundred years”—this understanding was not created by a modern critic; in his own words, “a group of people of that era” thought exactly this. Later, that understanding was corrected, and the meaning of the statement was shifted from “the end of the world” to “the end of that generation.” Thus, both the temporally immediate reading of Qiyamah and the later narrowing of meaning are attested from within the Islamic interpretive tradition itself.

The Mental Gymnastics of Metaphor and the Ad Hoc Fallacy

The logical problem here is ad hoc rescue—when a claim does not align with reality, new meanings or conditions are later added in such a way that the original failure is made to disappear. In the first narration, the question is “When is the Hour?”, the answer also refers to “the Hour,” and the timeframe is “before this boy grows old.” After the Great Hour did not occur within that timeframe, turning “the Hour” into personal death or the death of a generation means the claim is no longer the same claim it originally was. If the meaning of the words of a prophecy is changed after the result of its test has become known, it can no longer be called foreknowledge; it is a matter of rearranging an old statement into a new meaning after seeing the outcome.

How the ad hoc fallacy works:

Additional explanation: When there is not sufficient evidence in favor of a theory or idea, “special” or “additional” conditions are added to save it, or new interpretations of the words are created, with the aim of preserving the initial claim by any means possible.

Example: Suppose I said that next year the entire world would be submerged by floods. But it turned out that there was no worldwide flood that year; only Noakhali in Bangladesh experienced flooding. Then I reinterpreted my prophecy. I said that when I had made the prophecy earlier, by “the entire world” I did not mean the entire world, but Noakhali. Because there are many people in Noakhali district who consider Noakhali district itself to be the entire world. I had spoken in relation to those people.

In other words, I changed the meaning of my prophecy in relation to later events. This would be a fallacy, called the ad hoc fallacy (Ad Hoc Fallacy). The main point is that if this kind of prophecy truly came from “divine knowledge,” such a major timeline should not be wrong, and there would be no need for mental gymnastics to correct the matter by creating new interpretations and new meanings of words. And if it is wrong, then the next question arises: why should the prophecy be presented as “divine proof”? For ease of understanding, let us look at this timeline,

From the Perspective of Science, “Qiyamah” or the Destruction of the Universe

Science does not generally use the word “Qiyamah”; however, at both levels—the Earth and the universe—it offers realistic models, observation-based constraints, and ranges of uncertainty regarding “end/destruction” or possible end scenarios. There is no declaration here of “one specific date”; rather, there is a possible sequence of what may occur on very long timescales.

1) The “end” of Earth first means the loss of habitability: In the case of Earth, the strongest long-term prediction rests on the Sun’s gradual brightening. As the Sun’s radiative power increases over time, Earth’s climate may move toward a state in which processes such as the extreme intensification of the greenhouse effect, increased evaporation of ocean water, and, over the long term, permanent loss of water (for example, water vapor breaking apart in the upper atmosphere and hydrogen escaping into space) could destroy the conditions required for life to persist. According to some modeling results, Earth may lose habitability long before the “red giant” phase; an approximate timescale of about 1–1.5 billion years is often discussed. ^[42]

2) Earth’s fate in the Sun’s evolution: In the next stage, the Sun will enter the “red giant phase” in its life cycle—at that time, the Sun’s size and energy output will change dramatically. In NASA’s explanation, the Sun’s arrival at this stage is generally placed at about 6 billion years from now. Although there is subtle dynamical uncertainty over whether Earth will be “swallowed,” it points almost certainly to the fact that Earth’s present habitable state will not survive (because of intense heat, radiation, atmospheric breakdown, and so on). ^[43]

3) The “end” of the universe: the most probable—endless expansion and ‘cosmic cooling/heat death’ (Big Freeze / heat death). In the standard framework of modern cosmology (ΛCDM), if dark energy is indeed a nearly constant “cosmological constant” (cosmological constant, Λ), then the universe may continue expanding for a very long time. In that case, matter and energy become increasingly dispersed over time, and the “free energy” needed to create and sustain structure continues to diminish—so, as the final outcome, a “cosmic cooling/heat death” (heat death) scenario is regarded in many discussions as among the most probable trajectories. The final results of the Planck mission show strong consistency with ΛCDM and are compatible with dark energy’s equation of state (w) being close to a constant Λ (w≈−1). ^[44]

4) But there is not only one “end”—if dark energy changes, the fate may change as well: Analyses of recent DESI (Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument) data releases have, in some cases, suggested that dark energy may change over time (time-evolving / dynamical)—that is, w(z) may not be fixed. DESI’s DR2 results summary also states that the indication toward “time-evolving dark energy” has become stronger. ^[45] A Nature Astronomy study along the same lines, combining DR1+DR2 BAO, supernovae, and CMB priors, also mentions a tendency toward variation in w(z) and, in some dataset combinations, a tension with ΛCDM at approximately the ~3σ level—although it clearly notes that possible systematics are still under investigation and that future data will provide “decisive tests.” ^[46]

In short: Science does not give a “specific date for Qiyamah.” Rather, it explains (a) in the case of Earth—the loss of habitability over long periods, (b) in the Sun’s evolution—the environmental destruction/transformation of the planets, and (c) in the case of the universe—several possible endings depending on the nature of dark energy/cosmology (Big Freeze/Big Crunch/Big Rip, and so on), through models + observations + uncertainty. Thus, what we have here is not a “predictive declaration of certainty,” but evidence-based probabilities and constraints. None of these scientific studies suggests that the “final destruction” of the universe will occur within the next few billion years; rather, on the human timescale (the timeline of human history/civilization), the numbers they indicate are unimaginably vast.

Conclusion

When all the reports are brought together, a coherent picture emerges. In the Quran, the Hour is “near”; Muhammad compares himself to the Hour with two fingers held side by side; upon seeing a solar eclipse, he fears that the Hour may already have begun; he places the Dajjal within the possible lifetime of himself and his direct listeners; and he gives a temporal indication that the Hour would occur before a certain boy reached old age. In history, that expected great Hour did not take place. Across the transmitted variants and later interpretive tradition, however, the wording is restricted in different ways: the unrestricted “the Hour” appears alongside “your Hour,” Hisham glosses the latter as “their death,” and later commentators extend generation-ending interpretations to reports whose wording is unrestricted. These layers need not represent a perfectly linear textual chronology, but they do document a history of semantic narrowing used to reconcile the reports with the non-occurrence of the expected great Hour. Stephen J. Shoemaker likewise identifies imminent apocalypse as a central feature of early Islam and discusses the subsequent reconfiguration of early Muslim eschatological expectations. ^[22]

The standard for testing a claim of divine foreknowledge cannot be lower than that applied to ordinary human conjecture. If, after a specific temporal indication fails in reality, one can say that “the word had another meaning,” that “it referred to the death of that generation,” or can import an additional phrase from another report in order to alter the meaning of the original statement, then no possible outcome can ever prove that prophecy wrong. A prophecy insulated from every possible falsifying outcome has little or no evidentiary value as a testable prediction. The picture that emerges here is not one of miraculous foreknowledge, but rather of a failed expectation of an imminent apocalypse and the centuries-long history of semantic revision that followed that failure.