However, it has another route of transmission that lends it strength: Ja‘far ibn Sa‘d ibn Samurah narrated from Khubayb ibn Sulayman ibn Samurah, from his father, from Samurah, who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

“You will see, before the Hour is established, momentous things that you will find strange. You will say, ‘Were we ever told about this?’ When you see that, remember Allah Most High and know that these are the beginnings of the Hour …” until he said: “You will see mountains being moved before the Blast becomes inevitable.”

Al-Bazzar (4/143/3397) and al-Tabarani in al-Kabir (7/319/7083) recorded it through two routes from Ja‘far ibn Sa‘d.

I say: Its chain of transmission is weak. This Khubayb is unknown; his father is weak; and Ja‘far is not strong.

Al-Hafiz passed over the hadith without comment in al-Fath (13/84), but he worded it: “Momentous matters that you have never even conceived.”

It has a very brief authentic supporting report from the hadith of al-Zuhri: Anas ibn Malik told me that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, went out when the sun had passed its zenith, performed the Zuhr prayer, and then stood on the pulpit. He mentioned the Hour and stated that it would involve momentous events; then he continued with the hadith.

Al-Bukhari recorded it (540 and 7294—al-Fath), as did Ahmad (3/162). *

3062—“For one of you to keep his hand from the pebbles [during prayer] is better for him than one hundred camels, all of them black-eyed. If Satan overcomes one of you, let him smooth them only once.”

Ahmad recorded it (3/328 and 384), as did ‘Abd ibn Humayd in al-Muntakhab (no. 1143),