this world, and two in the Hereafter. The two that occur in this world are:

1. The gathering referred to in Sūrat al-Hashr: the Jews were driven toward al-Shām. The Prophet ﷺ said to them, “Leave.” They asked, “To where?” He replied, “To the land of the final gathering.” The last among them were later expelled from the Arabian Peninsula by ʿUmar ibn al-Khattāb —may Allah be pleased with him.

2. The second is one of the portents of the Hour: a Fire that will herd people from the East to the West, as related in the reports of Anas, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām, and—in a narration traced back to the Prophet—ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with them). The wording states: “A Fire will be unleashed upon the people of the East and will drive them toward the West; it will spend the night wherever they spend the night, halt wherever they halt, collect whatever falls from them or is left behind, and urge them on as a camel is driven.”

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar said: “Its emergence from the depths of ʿAdan does not contradict its herding of people from the East to the West; its point of origin is ʿAdan, but once it erupts it will spread over the entire earth. What is intended is a universal gathering, not one limited to East and West—or, after spreading, it will begin by gathering the people of the East.”

Al-Qurṭubī said: “As for the two gatherings of the Hereafter: the first is the assembling of the dead from their graves after the Resurrection, as in the Almighty’s words, ‘We shall assemble them all together and leave none of them behind’ 1; the second is their being driven to either Paradise or Hell.”

Someone versified the matter:
“The final of the signs is the Fire’s great mustering,
As conveyed in the soundest of reports.”

He also said: “The last of the momentous signs and awesome portents is the Fire that will herd people from East to West, and from Yemen to the land to which Abraham emigrated—peace be upon him—which is the land….”