For these reasons, I wished to compile a study encompassing both the minor and major Signs of the Hour, together with their established evidence from the Noble Quran and the purified sunnah. Researching this subject was not easy, for it requires investigating the authenticity of the hadiths and reconciling their differing narrations.

Some scholars have authored works on the Signs of the Hour, but they did not restrict themselves to established hadiths. Rather, they cited many narrations without discussing whether the hadith was sound or weak, except on rare occasions. This leaves the reader confused and unable to distinguish what is sound from what is not. Nor did they explain passages in these hadiths that require clarification. Nevertheless, they—may Allah have mercy on them—collected many hadiths for us and spared us considerable effort.

Among these books are:

1 - al-Fitan (“Tribulations”), by the hadith master Nuʿaym ibn Hammād al-Khuzāʿī (d. 228 AH)—may Allah have mercy on him.

2 - al-Nihāya (“The End”), also known as al-Fitan wa-l-Malāhim (“Tribulations and Epic Battles”), by the hadith master Ibn Kathīr (d. 774 AH)—may Allah have mercy on him.

3 - al-Ishāʿa li-Ashrāt al-Sāʿa (“The Dissemination of the Signs of the Hour”), by al-Sharīf Muhammad ibn Rasūl al-Husaynī al-Barzanjī (d. 1103 AH)—may Allah have mercy on him.

4 - al-Idhāʿa li-mā Kāna wa-mā Yakūnu bayna Yaday al-Sāʿa (“The Disclosure of What Has Occurred and What Will Occur before the Hour”), by Shaykh Muhammad Siddīq Hasan al-Qannawjī (d. 1307 AH)—may Allah have mercy on him.