his face flushed red, and he was saying:

“There is no god but Allah. Woe to the Arabs for a calamity that has drawn near! Today a breach of this size has been opened in the barrier of Gog and Magog,”

and he formed a small circle between his thumb and forefinger. In another wording he “linked together seventy or ninety.”

She (Zaynab) said, “I asked, ‘O Messenger of Allah, will we be destroyed while righteous people are still among us?’ He replied,

“Yes, when khubth (pervasive corruption) becomes rampant.” (1)

In both Ṣaḥīḥ collections as well, through the narration of Wuhayb from Ibn Ṭāwūs, from his father, from Abū Hurayrah, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

“Today a breach the size of this has been opened in the barrier of Gog and Magog,” and he joined ninety fingers together. (2)

Imām Aḥmad also related—with a chain that includes Rawḥ, Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿArūbah, and Qatādah—that Abū Rāfiʿ narrated from Abū Hurayrah that the Prophet ﷺ said:

“Gog and Magog dig at the dam every single day until, when they are almost able to glimpse the rays of the sun, the one who is set over them says, ‘Turn back; you will dig it out tomorrow.’ They return and it is stronger than ever. When their appointed time comes and Allah wills to loose them upon humanity, they will dig until, when they are just about to see the sun’s rays, the one set over them will say, ‘Set out, for you will dig it tomorrow, if Allah wills,’ adding the phrase in shāʾ Allāh. They will return to it and find it in the very state in which they left it; then they will break through, emerge upon the people, and drink up(3) all the waters. Mankind will take refuge from them in their fortresses, and the Gog and Magog will shoot their arrows into the sky. The arrows will come back with something resembling blood, whereupon they will say, ‘We have subdued the inhabitants of the earth and prevailed over the inhabitants of heaven.’ Then Allah will send against them naghaf(4) in the backs of their necks, and He will destroy them thereby.”

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ added, “By Him in whose hand is the soul of Muhammad, the beasts of the earth will grow fat and thank(5) Allah for the abundance of their flesh and blood.”

Aḥmad, al-Tirmidhī, and Ibn Mājah also transmitted this report through several other chains from Qatādah with the same wording. (6)

Ibn Jarīr and Ibn Abī Ḥātim reported something similar from Kaʿb al-Aḥbār—and Allah knows best.

Imām Aḥmad further said: Yaʿqūb related to us, my father related to us, from Ibn Isḥāq, from ʿĀṣim ibn ʿUmar ibn Qatādah(7), from Maḥmūd ibn Labīd, from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, “The barrier of Gog and Magog will be opened and they will pour forth upon the people, as Allah the Exalted has said:

‘…and they rush down from every rise.’ 21:96

They will overwhelm humankind, and the people will withdraw from them into their cities and fortresses, taking their livestock in with them,