ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd ibn Kathīr ibn Dīnār narrated to us; Ibn Lahīʿah narrated to us, from Ḥuyayy ibn ʿAbd Allāh, from Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ḥublī, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, who said:

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

“When the sun rises from the west, Iblīs will collapse in prostration, crying out in a loud voice: ‘My Lord, command me and I shall prostrate to whomever You will.’

“At that, his zabāniyah (demonic guards) will gather around him and say, ‘O our master, what is this pleading?’ He will reply, ‘I asked my Lord to grant me respite until the appointed time.’

“Then the Beast of the earth will emerge from a fissure in al-Ṣafā. Its very first step will be in Antioch, whereupon it will come to Iblīs and strike him across the face.”

This ḥadīth is exceedingly unusual, and its attribution to the Prophet is objectionable. Most likely it stems from the two scrolls that ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr acquired on the day of Yarmūk from the writings of the People of the Scripture, from which he sometimes reported curious matters. (1)

Earlier we cited the report of Ibn Masʿūd, transmitted by Nuʿaym ibn Ḥammād in al-Fitan, which states that the Beast will kill Iblīs—one of the strangest of narrations. (2) Allah knows best.

In the ḥadīth of Ṭālūt ibn ʿAbbād, from Faḍḍāl ibn Jubayr, from Abū Umāmah Ṣuday ibn ʿAjlān, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “The first of the portents will be the sun’s rising from the west.” (3)

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Bakr ibn Mardawayh said in his Tafsīr: Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Duḥaym narrated to us; Aḥmad ibn Ḥāzim ibn Abī Ghurzah narrated to us; Ḍirār ibn Ṣurd narrated to us; Ibn Fuḍayl narrated to us, from Sulaymān ibn Yazīd, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Awfā, who said:

I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: “A night will come upon the people equal to three of your present nights. Those who habitually offer voluntary prayers will recognise it: one of them will rise, recite his allotted portion, then lie down; he will rise again, recite his portion, then lie down. While they are in that state, the people will suddenly cry out to one another, saying, ‘What is this?’ They will rush to the mosques, and there they will see the sun has risen from the west. When it reaches the middle of the sky it will reverse course and rise again from its normal place.” He then said, “At that moment no soul will benefit from its faith.” (4)

Ibn Mardawayh also related, through Sufyān al-Thawrī, from Manṣūr, from Ribʿī, from Ḥudhayfah, who said: I asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, “What will be the sign of the sun’s rising from the west?” He replied:

“That night will grow so long that it will equal two nights. Those who used to pray during it will awaken and act as they normally did, yet the stars will not be visible, remaining fixed in their places. They will sleep, then rise and pray; they will sleep again and rise, until their sides grow weary from the length of the night and the people are thrown into panic, yet dawn does not break. While they are waiting for the sun to rise from the east, behold—it rises from the west. When the people see it, they will all believe, but their belief will not benefit them.”