Question:

Assamu3laikum,
Would you please explain Fitnatul Dhuhaima, and share some other Eschatological knowledge?

Answer:

wa ‘alaykum salam,

In my book “The Approach of Armageddon” in the chapter entitled “Thirty Liars” is written:

There have been many liars and false prophets, from Mūsāylima the Liar (in the time of the Prophet Muhammad r) up to the present day.

حدثنا عبد الله حدثني أبي حدثنا محمد بن جعفر قال حدثنا شعبة قال سمعت العلاء ابن عبد الرحمن يحدث عن أبيه عن أبي هريرة عن النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم أنه قالا
-لا تقوم الساعة حتى يظهر ثلاثون دجالون كلهم يزعم أنه رسول الله ويفيض المال فيكثر وتظهر الفتن ويكثر الهرج قال قيل وأيما الهرج قال القتل القتل ثلاثا. (مسلم ، البخاري و ابو داود)

Abū Hurayra (r) related that the Prophet (s) said:

The Hour will not come until thirty liars (Dajjāls) emerge each of them claiming to be a messenger of Allāh. And (the Hour will not come) until there will be a great increase in money, and tribulations will appear, and there will be much harj.

The Prophet (s) was asked, “What is harj?” He said, “Killing, killing,” three times. (Sahīh Muslim (4:2240) “Kitāb al-Fitan.” Sahīh Bukhārī, al-Manāqib #3609. Sunan Abū Dāwūd, #4333)

Among the signs of the Last Days mentioned in this hadith is that there would be liars claiming to be messengers from Allāh (swt) after Prophet Muhammad (s). Another sign of the Last Days that this hadith speaks of is the corrupt leadership of our time awash in “dirty money,” causing dissension, and taking their communities and nations down the road to bloodshed, violence, and wars, not leaving a single home without fear. The Prophet (s) then mentioned that harj would occur, which is widespread, indiscriminate killing. This is happening so much that it is not even unusual anymore, and today there is not a single country which is safe from the killing of innocent people.

يكْثر الهرْج و المرْج (مسلم و البُخارِي)

This sign of the Last Days was mentioned by the Prophet Muhammad (s) in another hadith,

“There will be much slaughter and killing.”(Sahīh Bukhārī and Sahīh Muslim.) “Yakthuru al-harju wal-marju.

People are being killed everywhere in wars, and even in countries without war people are killing each other in robberies, petty squabbles, and oftentimes senselessly. Many people involved in blood feuds have long forgotten why they began fighting in the first place. Gangs, organized to commit violence against one another, are a manifestation of this widespread killing. There are countless innocent bystanders who are killed in this plague of violence.

وحدثنا عبدالله بن عمر بن أبان وواصل بن عبدالأعلى. قالا: حدثنا محمد بن فضيل عن أبي إسماعيل الأسلمي، عن أبي حازم، عن أبي هريرة، قال:
قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم “والذي نفسي بيده! لا تذهب الدنيا حتى يأتي على الناس يوم، لا يدري القاتل فيما قتل. ولا المقتول فيم قتل” (رَواه مسْلم في كتاب الفتن)

 Abū Hurayra (r) related that the Prophet (s) said:

By Him in Whose Hand is my life, the world will not perish until a time will come when the murderer would not know why he has committed the murder, and the victim would not know why he has been killed. (Sahīh Muslim.)

This chaotic violence and carnage will make people long for their deaths.

حدثنا عبدالله بن عمر بن محمد بن أبان بن صالح ومحمد بن يزيد الرفاعي (واللفظ لابن أبان). قالا: حدثنا ابن فضيل عن أبي إسماعيل، عن أبي حازم، عن أبي هريرة، قال:
قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم “والذي نفسي بيده! لا تذهب الدنيا حتى يمر الرجل على القبر فيتمرغ عليه، ويقول: يا ليتني كنت مكان صاحب هذا القبر. وليس به الدين إلا البلاء” (رَواه المسلم في كتاب الفتن)

Abū Hurayra (r) related that the Prophet (s) said:

By Him, in Whose hand is my life, the world will not perish until a man passes by someone’s grave, would roll over it and say, “Would that I were in his place!” He does not say this for the sake of his religion, but because of the calamities around him. (Sahīh Bukhārī, “Kitāb al-Fitan.”

These tribulations will destroy people both physically and spiritually. They will be so severe that they can change someone from belief to unbelief in a single day or night.

‏حدثنا عبد الله حدثني أبي حدثنا عبد الصمد قال حدثنا أبي قال حدثنا محمد بن جحادة عن عبد الرحمن بن ثروان عن هزيل بن شرحبيل عن أبي موسى قال:
-قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم إن بين يدي الساعة فتنا كقطع الليل المظلم يصبح الرجل فيها مؤمنا ويمسي كافرا ويمسي مؤمنا ويصبح كافرا القاعد فيها خير من القائم والقائم فيها خير من الماشي والماشي فيها خير من الساعي فاكسروا قسيكم وقطعوا أوتاركم واضربوا بسيوفكم الحجارة فإن دُخِلَ على أحدكم بيته فليكن كخير ابني آدم.‏ (رَواهُ أبو داود في كِتابِ الفِتَنِ)

We were sitting with the Messenger of Allāh (s) when he mentioned the many tribulations. He spoke at length about many of them until he mentioned the “strife of the saddle-blankets” (fitnat al-Ahlās). He said the latter was all flight and war. Then he mentioned the “strife of prosperity” (fitnat al-sarra’). He said, “Its heat and smoke (dakhan) would seep in from under the feet of a man from my family―he will claim that he descends from me but he does not descend from me. My relatives are only those who fear God.” Then [the Prophet said] the people will rally around a man like a rib-bone on top of a hip-bone [ie. a temporary, impermanent arrangement]. Then will come the “pitch-dark, blind strife” (al-fitnat al-duhayma’). “It will leave alone none of this Ummah except it will smite him. When they think it is over it will linger some more. At that time, a man will rise a believer in the morning and will reach night a disbeliever. People will eventually take two sides―the rallying-place of belief which will contain no hypocrisy; and the rallying-place of hypocrisy which will contain no belief. When you see this, expect the appearance of the Anti-Christ (Dajjāl) from one day to the next.” (Abū Dāwūd in his Sunan and Āhmad in his Musnad narrated that.)

In this hadith we hear a description of the peoples’ condition during the Last Days when the one sitting is better than the one who is standing; and better yet than going outside to be entangled in problems and dissension. It is a difficult time in which those who moving about fall into afflictions, while those who stay home remain out of harm’s way.

The Prophet (s) issued a stern warning to those would live to see such tribulations: do not to involve oneself in these miseries and confusing affairs.

حدثنا محمد بن عبيد الله: حدثنا إبراهيم بن سعد، عن أبيه، عن أبي سلمة بن عبد الرحمن، عن أبي هريرة
قال إبراهيم: وحدثني صالح بن كيسان، عن ابن شهاب، عن سعيد بن المسيَّب، عن أبي هريرة قال:
قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم: (ستكون فتن، القاعد فيها خير من القائم، والقائم فيها خير من الماشي، والماشي فيها خير من الساعي، من تشرَّف لها تستشرفه، فمن وجد فيها ملجأ، أو معاذاً، فليعذ به (رواه مسلم و البخاري في كتاب الفتن)

Abū Hurayra (r) related that the Prophet (s) said:

Whoever exposes himself to these afflictions, will be destroyed by them. So whoever can find a place of protection or refuge from them, should take shelter in it. (Sahīh Muslim, Chapter “the Descent of Afflictions like Rainfall.”) (“Nuzul al-fitan ka mawāqi‘ al-qatar”).

Allāh (swt) mentioned in the Holy Qur’ān:

فَأْوُوا إِلَى الْكَهْفِ يَنشُرْ لَكُمْ رَبُّكُم مِّن رَّحمته ويُهَيِّئْ لَكُم مِّنْ أَمْرِكُم مِّرْفَقاً

Betake yourselves for refuge to the cave; your Lord will shower His mercies on you and dispose of your affair towards comfort and ease.
(al-Kahf 18:16)

In another hadith of Abū Mūsā al-Ash‘arī t, the Prophet (s) advised, “At that time be the saddle-cloths of your houses.”  (Narrated by Āhmad. Al–ahlās means saddle-cloth.)

This means Muslims should stay at home and not go about. So many Muslims are going around needlessly to coffee houses, restaurants, and malls. One should not go out without a good reason. It is advisable to go directly to and from work without unnecessary delays or stops. In these trying times, it is best to sit at home and look after one’s family. The Prophet (s) is telling the Muslims that in the Last Days, when one is powerless to overcome these enormous difficulties and unable to change anything, not to mix anywhere, not to be a part of anything, not to interfere in fighting or politics. Muslims should break the arrows of anger, cut the bowstrings with which they fling retorting barbs in response to harsh taunts, and false accusations and dull the swords of self-defense by words and pens, breaking their egoes on the stones of hardship borne with patience.

When tribulations are rife it is better to stay home and increase one’s worship: praying, reading Qur’ān and hadith, remembering Allāh (swt).

حَدَّثَنَا قُتَيبَةُ أخبرنا حمَّادُ بنُ زيدٍ عن المُعلَّى بنِ زيادٍ ردَّهُ إلى معاويةَ بنِ قُرَّةَ ردَّهُ إلى مَعقلِ بنِ يسارٍ ردَّهُ إلى النَّبيِّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلِيهِ وسَلَّم قال:
العبادةُ في الهَرجِ كهجرةٌ إليَّ (رواه مسلم في كتاب الفتن .هذا حديثٌ صحيحٌ غريبٌ إنما نعرفهُ من حديثِ المُعلَّى بن زياد)

Ma‘qil Ibn Yasār (r) related that the Prophet (s) said:

Worshipping during the period of widespread turmoil is like emigration towards me.(Sahīh Muslim. “Kitāb al-Fitan.”)

Abū Mūsā al-Ash‘arī (r) related that the Prophet (s) said:

Before the Last Hour there will be afflictions like patches of a dark night in which a man will be a believer in the morning and an unbeliever in the evening, or a believer in the evening and an unbeliever in the morning. He who sits during them will be better than he who stands, and he who walks during them is better than he who runs. So break your bows, cut your bowstrings and strike your swords on stones. If people then come in to one of you, let him be like the better of Adam’s two sons (i.e. death is better than getting involved in the fitna). (Sunan Abū Dāwūd, “Kitāb Al-Fitan Wa Al-Malāhim” #4246.)

فتنة الأحلاس هرب وحرب ثم فتنة السراء دخنها من تحت قدم رجل من أهل بيتي يزعم أنه مني وليس مني وإنما أوليائي المتقون ثم يصطلح الناس على رجل كورك على ضلع ثم فتنة الدهيماء لا تدع أحدا من هذه الأمة إلا لطمته لطمة فإذا قيل: انقضت تمادت يصبح الرجل فيها مؤمنا ويمسي كافرا حتى يصير الناس إلى فسطاطين: فسطاط إيمان لا نفاق فيه، وفسطاط نفاق لا إيمان فيه فإذا كان ذاكم فانتظروا الدجال من يومه أو غده.
(أخرجه أبو داود كتاب الفتن باب ذكر الفتن ودلائلها رقم (4224)، وقال في عون المعبود: (11/312) أخرجه الحاكم وصححه وأقره الذهبي ص).‏

‘Abd Allāh ibn ‘Umar (r) said:

To keep away from these difficulties Muslims are advised to recite special forms of tasbīh, every day.

Mawlana Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani