like a day, a day will be like an hour, and an hour will be like the time it takes a palm frond to burn.” (1).
Scholars have offered several interpretations of what is meant by the contraction of time, including:
1 – It refers to the diminishing of blessing in time (2).
Ibn Hajar said: “This has already occurred in our own time, for we find the days passing with a speed that we did not experience in the era preceding ours.” (3).
2 – It refers to what will occur in the time of the Mahdi and Jesus—peace be upon them both—when people will take pleasure in life, security will be abundant, and justice will prevail. This is because people perceive days of prosperity as short, however long they may be, whereas periods of hardship seem long to them, however brief they may be (4).
(1) *Musnad Ahmad* (2/537–538, with *Muntakhab al-Kanz* in the margins). Al-Tirmidhī also narrated it from Anas. See *Jāmi al-Tirmidhī*, Chapters on Asceticism, “The Contraction of Time and Shortness of Hope” (6/624–625, with *Tuhfat al-Ahwadhī*).
Ibn Kathīr stated: “Its chain of transmission meets Muslim’s criteria.” *Al-Nihāya: al-Fitan wa al-Malāhim* (1/181), edited by Dr. Tāhā Zaynī.
Al-Haythamī stated: “Its narrators are narrators of the Sahīh.” *Majma al-Zawāid* (7/231).
Al-Albānī stated: “Authentic.” See *Sahīh al-Jāmi al-Saghīr* (6/175, hadith 7299).
(2) See *Maālim al-Sunan* (6/141–142, in the margins of al-Mundhirī’s *Mukhtasar Sunan Abī Dāwūd*), Ibn al-Athīr’s *Jāmi al-Usūl* (10/409), and *Fath al-Bārī* (13/16).
(3) *Fath al-Bārī* (13/16).
(4) See *Fath al-Bārī* (13/16).