This mountain of gold does not refer to oil—black petroleum—as Abū Ubayya maintains in his commentary on Ibn Kathīr’s al-Nihāya: al-Fitan wa al-Malāhim (1). This is evident for several reasons:

1 — The text expressly says “a mountain of gold,” whereas petroleum is not literally gold; gold is the well-known mineral.

2 — The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) stated that the river’s waters would recede from a mountain of gold, exposing it for people to see. Oil, or petroleum, however, is extracted by machinery from deep beneath the earth.

3 — The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) specified the Euphrates to the exclusion of all other seas and rivers, whereas oil is extracted from the seas as it is from the land, and in many different places.

4 — The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) stated that people would fight one another over this treasure, but they did not fight when oil was brought forth from the Euphrates or elsewhere. Indeed, the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) forbade anyone present at this treasure from taking anything from it. This is stated in the other narration from Ubayy ibn Kaʿb (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: “People will continue to pursue worldly gain in disparate groups… I heard the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) say: ‘The Euphrates will soon uncover a mountain of gold. Whoever is present there must not take anything from it’” (2). Anyone who construes this as referring to