that the group in this community which upholds the truth is the one that prevails and is granted victory. Since these people gained victory, they were therefore the people of truth.

The second is that the texts specify that they are in Syria, as in the statement of Mu‘ādh and the report recorded by Muslim in his Sahīh, from Abū Hurayrah, that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“The people of the west will continue to prevail.”

Imam Ahmad said, “The people of the west are the people of Syria.”

This is because the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, resided in Medina: whatever lies west of it was west relative to him, and whatever lies east of it was east relative to him. He used to call the inhabitants of Najd and the lands to the east “the people of the east,” as Ibn ‘Umar related:

“Two men from the people of the east came and delivered speeches. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, ‘Indeed, some eloquence is like magic.’”

Reports from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, have been widely transmitted stating that evil originates in the east, such as his saying:

“Turmoil comes from here! Turmoil comes from here!”

He was pointing towards the east. He also said, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“The fountainhead of disbelief lies towards the east.”

There are other similar reports.

He thus stated that the victorious group of his community which upholds the truth is in the west—that is, Syria and the lands west of it—whereas turmoil and the fountainhead of disbelief are in the east. The people of Medina used to call the people of Syria “the people of the west.” They would say of al-Awzā‘ī that he was the imam of the people of the west, and of Sufyān al-Thawrī and others like him that he was an easterner, an imam of the people of the east.

This is because Syria’s furthest boundary, at the Euphrates, lies in alignment with the city of the Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, both having the same longitude. Beyond that, Harrān, al-Raqqah and similar places lie in alignment with Mecca. For this reason, their direction of prayer was the most accurately aligned of