its inhabitants, and nothing will remain there except the ʿawāfī—that is, the wild beasts and birds; no human being will stay behind. This has not yet come to pass, but whatever the Truthful and Trustworthy Messenger (Allah bless him and grant him peace) foretold must occur, for the Prophet does not speak from his own desire.

Among those reports is the prediction of an extraordinary abundance of wealth: the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said that toward the end of time a caliph will arise who will scoop up money and give it away without even counting it, spending unmeasured sums because wealth will be so plentiful.

Abu Hurayrah—may Allah be pleased with him—also narrated an instructive, though not eschatological, anecdote. A man bought a piece of land from another man and found in it a jar full of gold. The buyer went to the seller and said, “Take this, for I purchased the land, not the gold.” The seller replied, “I sold you the land and everything in it.” Each of them, out of scrupulous piety, disclaimed ownership of the treasure. They therefore referred the matter to an arbitrator, who asked the first man, “Do you have a son?” He answered, “Yes.” He then asked the second, “Do you have a daughter?” He answered, “Yes.” The arbitrator said, “Marry the boy to the girl and make this gold their dowry and maintenance.” They did so, proving that some people’s religious scrupulousness reaches this remarkable level.

With regard to the legal ruling, the scholars—may Allah have mercy on them—have explained that if a person sells a tract of land and the purchaser later discovers something buried in it, such as gold or the like, ownership of the land does not confer ownership of that buried treasure; it belongs to the seller. If the seller had earlier bought the land from someone else, then the treasure belongs to the original owner, because what is buried is not considered part of the land itself. Minerals, however, are different: if someone purchases land and finds within it a natural vein of gold, silver, iron, or any other mineral, that deposit follows the land and belongs to the buyer. Such subtleties are among the juristic niceties of the tradition.