righteously. When they did so, they perished. This is the condition of many storytellers of our time, whose exhortations consist largely of Israelite lore, heart-softening tales, and Sufi material. We ask Allah for well-being.

1682 — “Before the Hour there will be harj.” They asked, “What is harj?” He said, “Killing. It will not be your killing of the polytheists, but rather some of you killing others, until a man kills his neighbour, his brother, his paternal uncle, and his cousin.” They asked, “Will we retain our minds at that time?” He said, “Indeed, the minds of the people of that time will be taken away, and in their place there will remain a rabble of people. Most of them will think they are upon something, while they are upon nothing.”

Ahmad narrated it (4/391–392 and 414) through the route of ‘Ali ibn Zayd, from Hittan ibn ‘Abd Allah al-Raqashi, from Abu Musa al-Ash‘ari, that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said this hadith.

Abu Musa said: “By Him in whose Hand is my soul, if it reaches both you and me, I can find no way out of it except that we emerge from it as we entered it, having shed no blood and taken no wealth.”

I say: This is a weak chain of transmission. ‘Ali ibn Zayd—who is Ibn Jud‘an—is not accepted as proof. However, he was not alone in narrating it. Ahmad (4/406) and Ibn Majah (3959) also narrated it through two routes from al-Hasan, who said: Usayd ibn al-Mutashammis told us: Abu Musa told us that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said this hadith. It includes the addition placed in parentheses.

I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission. Its narrators are trustworthy and are narrators relied upon by the two Shaykhs, apart from Usayd, who is trustworthy, as al-Hafiz stated in al-Taqrib.

Ibn Hibban (1870) also narrated it through the route of Huzayl ibn Shurahbil, from Abu Musa al-Ash‘ari, attributed to the Prophet, with the wording: “Before the Hour there will be trials like fragments of a dark night, in which a man will awake as a believer”