“profligates,” recorded by Abū Nuʿaym and al-Ḥākim from Anas.
• Another sign is that the crescent moon will be sighted the very moment it rises, yet people will say, “It is two nights old,” because of its bulging size. Al-Ṭabarānī transmits this meaning from Ibn Masʿūd. One wording says, “Among the portents of the Hour is the swelling of the crescents,” the word intifākh being spelled with khāʾ, meaning “their enlargement”; it is also reported with jīm.
• Among them is that mosques will be taken as thoroughfares…
He then said: “Another of the signs is what appears in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī and elsewhere in the narration of Anas (may Allah be pleased with him). He said, ‘Shall I relate to you a report I heard from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) which no one besides me will tell you? I heard the Messenger of Allah say: “Among the signs of the Hour are: knowledge will be removed, ignorance will become widespread, fornication will multiply, wine-drinking will become common, men will diminish, and women will increase until one man becomes the guardian of fifty women.”’ ”
In the Ṣaḥīḥ, Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) relates: “While the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was sitting in a gathering speaking to the people, a Bedouin came and asked, ‘When is the Hour?’ The Messenger of Allah continued his discourse. Some of the people said, ‘He heard what was asked,’ while others said, ‘No, he did not hear.’ When he had finished speaking he said, ‘Where is the one who asked about the Hour?’ The man replied, ‘Here I am, O Messenger of Allah.’ He said, ‘When trust is lost, then await the Hour.’ The man asked, ‘How will it be lost?’ He answered, ‘When authority is entrusted to those who are unfit for it, then await the Hour.’ ”
- The third category of the Hour’s portents consists of the immense, weighty signs that will be followed directly by the Hour itself. They include: the emergence of the Mahdī; the Antichrist (al-Masīḥ al-Dajjāl); the descent of Jesus son of Mary (peace be upon him); the appearance of Gog and Magog; the demolition of the Kaʿbah; the Smoke; the lifting of the Qur’an; the rising of the sun from the west; the Beast’s emergence; the fire that will burst forth from the depths of ʿAdan; then the first blast of the Trumpet—the blast of terror—followed by the swoon and death of all creatures, and finally the second blast, the blast of resurrection and rising.