in al-Mirqāt (5/143). Qatādah is one of the transmitters of the hadith of Subayʿ in the version recorded by ʿAbd al-Razzāq and others.
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“Remainder”: that is, of evil or good. In other words, will Islam remain after we have fought them?
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“Motes”: Ibn al-Athīr said: It is the plural of qadhan, while qadhan is the plural of qadhāh: anything such as dust, straw, dirt, or the like that falls into the eye, water, or a drink. What is meant is that their coming together will be upon corruption in their hearts; thus, it is likened to motes in the eye, water, and drink.
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“Smoke”: that is, upon rancor. This was stated by Qatādah. It has been explained in a wording transmitted through another route: “The hearts of some people will not return to what they had formerly been upon,” as I mentioned in the text of the hadith.
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“Jadhl”: with a kasrah on the jīm, followed by a vowelless dhāl and then a lām. It is a piece of wood set upright for camels to rub themselves against. This is stated in al-Fatḥ (13/36).
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“Falūhā”: Ibn al-Athīr said: A falw is a young colt.
An important point: Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar quoted al-Ṭabarī as saying: “The hadith indicates that, whenever people have no leader and divide into factions, one should not follow anyone among the factions, but should withdraw from them all, if able to do so, out of fear of falling into evil. This is how the reports found in the other hadiths are to be understood, and by this their apparently conflicting meanings are reconciled.”
Note: Certain errors were made by al-Ḥāfiẓ and others, which must be pointed out.
First: He said: “Muslim added in the narration of Abū al-Aswad from Ḥudhayfah: ‘And we are in it.’” The correct reading is “al-Aswad,” for he meant the narration of Abū Salām from him, which is the second route. Abū Salām’s name was Mamṭūr, and his nickname was al-Aswad. It is correctly given in ʿUmdat al-Qārī (24/194). Strangely, this error is repeated four times on another page of al-Fatḥ, which shows that it is not a typographical error.