enmity between any two of them. Then Allah will send a cold wind from the direction of the Levant, and no one will remain on the face of the earth with even an atom’s weight of goodness or faith in his heart without it taking his soul” (1).

In a narration reported by Imam Ahmad and Abū Dāwūd: “He will remain on earth for forty years; then he will die, and the Muslims will offer the funeral prayer over him” (2).

Both of these narrations are authentic, which presents a difficulty—unless the narration of seven years is understood as referring to the length of his stay after his descent, with that period being added to the time he remained on earth before being raised to heaven. According to the well-known view, he was thirty-three years old at that time (3).

And Allah knows best.