—signs that herald its nearness—so that moment is treated as though it were the Day of Resurrection itself. Allah, the Exalted, says: “Are they waiting for anything except that the angels should come to them, or that your Lord should come, or that some of the signs of your Lord should come? On the day that some of the signs of your Lord do come, no soul will benefit from its faith if it had not believed before.” (6:158)
He, Most High, also says: “When they beheld Our might, they said, ‘We believe in Allah alone and we renounce what we used to associate with Him.’ Yet their faith, once they saw Our might, did not benefit them—such has been the way of Allah with His servants—and thus, there and then, the disbelievers were ruined.” (40:84-85)
And He says: “Are they waiting for anything but the Hour, that it should come upon them suddenly? Yet its portents have already come; so how will their reminder benefit them once it has come?” (47:18)
Al-Bayhaqī reports from al-Ḥākim—may Allah have mercy on them—that he said: “The first signs to appear will be the emergence of the Dajjāl, then the descent of Jesus son of Mary, then the release of Gog and Magog, then the Beast, and finally the sun’s rising from the west. For when the sun rises from the west everyone on earth will believe; were the descent of Jesus son of Mary to occur after that, he would meet no disbeliever.”
What he has said, however, is open to objection, for the faith of the people of the earth on that day will not avail them: “no soul will benefit from its faith if it had not believed before.” Whoever produces faith or repentance at that time will have it rejected, unless he was a believer or penitent beforehand.
The same applies to Allah’s words concerning the descent of Jesus at the end of time: “There is none among the People of the Book but that he will surely believe in him before his death.” (4:159) That is, before the death of Jesus. After his descent every member of the People of the Book will necessarily believe in him, realizing with certainty that he is a servant of Allah and His Messenger. The Christian will recognize the falsehood of claiming lordship or sonship for him, and the Jew will know that he is a prophet and messenger of Allah, not—as some of their criminals alleged—an illegitimate child; upon them be the ever-recurring curses and wrath of Allah.
Mention of the smoke that will precede the Day of Resurrection
Allah, the Exalted, says: “So watch for the Day when the sky will bring forth evident smoke (10) that will envelop the people; this is a painful punishment. (11) ‘Our Lord, remove from us the punishment; indeed, we are believers.’ (12) How will there be a reminder for them, when a clear Messenger had already come to them? (13) Then they turned away from him and said, ‘Taught and mad.’ (14) We shall surely remove the punishment for a little while—indeed you will return. (15) On the Day We seize with the greatest seizure, We shall certainly exact retribution.” (44:10-16)
We have already explained these verses in Sūrat al-Dukhān in sufficient detail and clarity.
Al-Bukhārī transmits from Ibn Masʿūd that he interpreted the verse as referring to what Quraysh experienced of extreme hunger during the drought for which the Messenger of Allah ﷺ supplicated against them, such that one of them would imagine a haze like smoke between himself and the sky because of the severity of the hunger. This interpretation is exceedingly unusual and is not transmitted from any other Companion besides him (1).
Some later scholars tried to refute this view and opposed it with the authentic ḥadith of Abū Sarīḥa, Hudhayfa ibn Asīd: “The Hour will not be established until you have seen ten signs…,” in which he mentioned the smoke. Likewise, in the ḥadith