ʿAbd Allāh, who said: When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ saw the people turning away from him, he prayed, “O Allah, [afflict them with] seven years like the seven of Joseph.” A drought overtook them until they consumed carrion, hides, and bones. Abu Sufyān and others then came to him and said, “You claim to have been sent as a mercy, yet your people are dying—so implore Allah on their behalf.” He supplicated, and abundant rain fell.

Ibn Masʿūd said, “The sign of the smoke has already occurred—it was the famine that struck them—along with the sign of the Romans, the great blow, and the splitting of the moon.”

The two Compilers also transmitted—through the chain of al-Aʿmash, from Abū Ḍaḥḥā, from Masrūq—that ʿAbd Allāh said, “Five signs have already taken place: al-lizām (the inevitable punishment), the Romans, the smoke, the moon, and the blow.”

Ayyūb and others narrated from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: Abu Sufyān came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ seeking relief from hunger, for they could find nothing until they ate al-ʿilhiz with blood. Thereupon Allah revealed: “We had already seized them with torment, yet they did not humble themselves before their Lord, nor do they supplicate” (Q 23:76).