It was also transmitted by the four compilers of the Sunan through several chains from Furāt al-Qaẓẓāz, and al-Tirmidhī ruled it “sound and good.” (1)

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAsākir, in his biography of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ziyād ibn Sulaymān ibn Simʿān Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Qurashī al-Madanī, related through his own route: “Al-Zuhrī narrated to me (2), who said: ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿUtbah narrated to me, from Abū Sarīḥah Ḥudhayfah ibn Asīd, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

‘Before the Hour there will be ten signs, strung together like beads on a cord; when one bead falls, the rest will follow in quick succession: the emergence of the Antichrist, the descent of Jesus son of Mary, the opening of Gog and Magog, the Beast, the sun’s rising from the West—and that is the time when faith will no longer benefit any soul…’” He then mentioned the remainder of the report, and this is his exact wording.

Abū Yaʿlā said: ʿUqbah ibn Mukram narrated to us; Yūnus narrated to us; ʿAbd al-Ghaffār ibn al-Qāsim narrated to us; Iyād ibn Laqīṭ, from Qarazah ibn Ḥassān, who said: “I heard Abū Mūsā, on a Friday, on the minbar of Basrah, saying:

‘The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was asked about the Hour while I was present. He replied:

“None knows it except Allah; He alone will manifest it at its appointed time. Yet I will inform you of its portents and what will precede it: Ahead of it lie barriers of trials and widespread killing.”

It was asked, “O Messenger of Allah, what is this widespread killing?”

He answered: “In the tongue of the Abyssinians it means slaughter: people’s hearts will dry up, mutual estrangement will be cast among them so that scarcely anyone will recognise anyone else, [those endowed with reason will be taken away and a worthless rabble will remain]—people who recognise no good and denounce no evil.” (3)

[He then mentioned the fighting of the great battle (al-Malḥamah) with the Romans, whose conclusion will be the conquest of Constantinople.] At that point the Antichrist will appear, and the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, will descend from heaven to earth at the Eastern White Minaret in Damascus at the dawn prayer, as will be clarified later with sound hadiths.

Imām Aḥmad said: Muḥammad ibn Muṣʿab—who is al-Qarqasānī—narrated to us; al-Awzāʿī narrated to us, from Ḥassān ibn ʿAṭiyyah, from Khālid ibn Maʿdān, from Jubayr ibn Nufayr, from Dhī Mikhmar, from the Prophet ﷺ, who said:

“You will conclude a secure truce with the Romans. Then you and they will fight an enemy that lies behind them; you will be kept safe and will gain spoils. Afterwards you will camp in a meadow with gentle hills. A man from among the Romans will raise the cross and say, ‘The cross has prevailed!’ A Muslim will go to him and kill him; at that the Romans will betray the treaty, the great battles will commence, and they will mass against you—coming at you under eighty banners, each banner accompanied by ten thousand men.”