of Abū Hurayrah who said, “Hasten to perform righteous deeds before six things…,” and he counted the Smoke among them. Both reports are found in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim and are marfūʿ (1); and a marfūʿ tradition takes precedence over every mawqūf report. Moreover, the plain wording of the Qurʾān itself affirms that a Smoke will descend from the sky and blanket mankind—an event that is certain and universal, not, as has been related from Ibn Masʿūd, a mere optical illusion that struck Quraysh because of extreme hunger.

The Exalted says, “So wait for the Day when the sky will bring a manifest smoke” (10)—that is, a smoke that is open, clear, and unmistakable, not an hallucination caused by hunger—“‘Our Lord, remove from us the punishment; indeed, we are believers’” (11). The people of that time will call upon their Lord with that supplication, asking Him to lift the hardship from them, for they will then have believed and become certain of the unseen events that were promised to come after that, on the Day of Resurrection. This proves that the event takes place before the Day of Resurrection, when the punishment can still be lifted and repentance and turning back are still accepted—Allah knows best.

Al-Bukhārī relates—through Muḥammad ibn Kathīr, Sufyān al-Thawrī, al-Aʿmash, and Manṣūr, from Abū l-Ḍaḥḥā—from Masrūq, who said:

“While a man was giving a sermon in Kindah he declared, ‘A smoke will appear on the Day of Resurrection: it will seize the hearing and sight of the hypocrites, while for the believer it will be like a mild cold.’ We were alarmed and went to Ibn Masʿūd. He had been reclining, but when we told him, he grew angry and sat upright, saying, ‘People, whoever knows something should declare it, and whoever does not know should say: Allah knows best. Part of knowledge is for a person who does not know to say: Allah knows best. Allah, Mighty and Majestic, said to His Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ: “Say: I ask of you no reward for it, nor am I one of those who contrive” (Ṣād 86).’

“Now Quraysh had been slow to accept Islam, so the Messenger of Allah ﷺ invoked against them, saying, ‘O Allah, help me against them with a seven like the seven of Joseph.’ They were struck by a year of famine in which they perished, eating carrion and bones, and a man would look toward the sky and see something like smoke between heaven and earth. Then Abū Sufyān came and said, ‘Muḥammad, you command the maintaining of kin-relations, yet your people have been destroyed. Pray to Allah for them.’ The Prophet recited: ‘So wait for the Day when the sky will bring a manifest smoke (10) that will envelop the people; this is a painful punishment. (11) “Our Lord, remove from us the punishment; indeed, we are believers.”…’ and continued until ‘Indeed We shall remove the punishment a little; yet you will revert’ (12). Will the punishment of the Hereafter be lifted once it arrives? They returned to their unbelief, and about that Allah said, ‘On the Day We seize with the greatest seizure—indeed, We will exact retribution’ (al-Dukhān 16), and that was the Day of Badr. Likewise His words, ‘Soon it will be an inevitable punishment’ (al-Furqān 77) refer to Badr. And His statement, ‘Alif Lām Mīm. (1) The Romans have been defeated (2) in the nearest land, but after their defeat they will prevail (3) within a few years’ (al-Rūm 1–3)—the affair of the Romans has already taken place; thus the four signs have passed.”

This narration is also recorded by al-Bukhārī and Muslim on the authority of al-Aʿmash and Manṣūr with similar wording. In another version it reads, “The moon, the smoke, the Romans and the inevitable punishment have already passed.” Al-Bukhārī presents the story through numerous chains and with varied wording (2).

Therefore, the claim of that storyteller that the Smoke will occur on the Day of Resurrection is unsound, and for that very assertion he was justly censured.