ʿAṣr and the setting of the sun (1).

Al-Bukhārī likewise transmitted it through Sulaymān ibn Ḥarb, from Ḥammād ibn Zayd, with the same purport, only in a more detailed wording (2). Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū al-Qāsim al-Ṭabarānī also recorded a similar report on the authority of ʿAṭiyyah al-ʿAwfī and Wahb ibn Kaysān, from Ibn ʿUmar, from the Prophet ﷺ (3).

All of these narrations show that what remains of this world, in comparison with what has already elapsed, is but a small fraction. Yet the exact amount of what has passed is known only to Allah Most High, and the precise quantity of what remains is known only to Allah as well. The end, however, has its portents; once they appear, the Hour is near—Allah knows best. No hadith with an authentic chain back to the Infallible Prophet sets a definite limit that would allow us to gauge the proportion of what is left; whatever remains is exceedingly little compared with the past. As for fixing the moment of the Resurrection, no sound ḥadith determines it. On the contrary, Qur’ānic verses and Prophetic sayings alike indicate that such knowledge is among the matters Allah has reserved for Himself, withholding it from His creation. This will be explained at the start of the next section, Allah willing; in Him we place our trust and upon Him we rely.

As for the ḥadith recorded by Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal (may Allah have mercy on him) in his Musnad, he said: “Abū al-Yamān narrated to us; Shuʿayb informed us; from al-Zuhrī; Sālim ibn ʿAbd Allah and Abū Bakr ibn Abī Ḥathmah (4) related to me that ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUmar said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ performed the ʿIshāʾ prayer toward the end of his life. When he had given the salām he stood and said, ‘Do you realise this night of yours? One hundred years from tonight, none of those who are now upon the face of the earth will remain alive.’ ʿAbd Allah said: People became confused (5) by this statement of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and began passing around various tales about ‘one hundred years.’

The Prophet ﷺ only meant by ‘None of those who are today upon the face of the earth will remain’ that that generation would disappear.

Al-Bukhārī transmitted it as well from Abū al-Yamān with exactly the same chain and wording, and Muslim recorded it from ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Dārimī—from Abū al-Yamān al-Ḥakam ibn Nāfiʿ—from Shuʿayb, with the same isnād (6).

Thus the Companion himself clarified the intent of the ḥadith as he understood it—and he is more entitled to comprehension than anyone else—namely, that the Prophet ﷺ meant the passing away of his generation: none of those who were then alive on earth would remain a century later.

The scholars have differed: is this specific to that particular generation, or does it apply generally so that no one in any generation lives beyond one hundred years? There are two opinions. The stronger view is that it was confined to that first, specific generation, for