Trials and Fierce Battles (Kitab Al-Fitan Wa Al-Malahim)

كتاب الفتن والملاحم

Chapter 1: Mention Of Tribulations And Their Signs

Narrated Hudhaifa

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) stood among us (to give us an address) and he left out nothing that would happen up to the last hour without telling of it. Some remembered it and some forgot, and these Companions of his have known it. When something of it which I have forgotten happens, I remembered it, just as a man remembers another's face when he is a away and recognizes him when he sees him.

Narrated Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman

I swear by Allah, I do not know whether my companions have forgotten or have pretended to forgot. I swear by Allah that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) did not omit a leader of a wrong belief (fitnah)--up to the end of the world--whose followers reach the number of three hundred and upwards but he mentioned to us his name, his father's name and the name of his tribe.

Narrated Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman

Subay' ibn Khalid said: I came to Kufah at the time when Tustar was conquered. I took some mules from it. When I entered the mosque (of Kufah), I found there some people of moderate stature, and among them was a man whom you could recognize when you saw him that he was from the people of Hijaz.

I asked: Who is he? The people frowned at me and said: Do you not recognize him? This is Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman, the companion of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ).

Then Hudhayfah said: People used to ask the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) about good, and I used to ask him about evil. Then the people stared hard at him.

He said: I know the reason why you dislike it. I then asked: Messenger of Allah, will there be evil as there was before, after this good which Allah has bestowed on us?

He replied: Yes. I asked: Wherein does the protection from it lie? He replied: In the sword. I asked: Messenger of Allah, what will then happen?

He replied: If Allah has on Earth a caliph who flays your back and takes your property, obey him, otherwise die holding onto the stump of a tree.

I asked: What will come next? He replied: Then the Antichrist (Dajjal) will come forth accompanied by a river and fire. He who falls into his fire will certainly receive his reward, and have his load taken off him, but he who falls into his river will have his load retained and his reward taken off him.

I then asked: What will come next? He said: The Last Hour will come.

Narrated Abdullah b. 'Amr

The Prophet (ﷺ) as saying: If a man takes an oath of allegiance to a leader, and puts his hand on his hand and does it with the sincerity of his heart, he should obey him as much as possible. If another man comes and contests him, then behead the other one. The narrator 'Abd al-Rahman said: I asked: Have you heard this from the Messenger of Allah ? He said: My ears heard it and my heart retained it. I said: Your cousin Mu'awiyah orders us that we should do this and do that. He replied: Obey him in the acts of obedience to Allah, and disobey him in the acts of disobedience to Allah.

Narrated Abu Hurairah

The Prophet (ﷺ) as saying: Woe to Arabs because of evil which has drawn near! He will escape who restrains his hand.

Narrated Abdullah ibn Mas'ud

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: The mill of Islam will go round till the year thirty-five, or thirty-six, or thirty-seven; then if they perish, they will have followed the path of those who perished before them, but if their religion is maintained, it will be maintained for seventy years. I asked: Does it mean seventy years which remain or seventy years which are gone by? He replied: It means (seventy years) that are gone by.

Abu Dawud said: Those who recorded Khirash, the name of a narrator, are wrong. (The correct name is Hirash)

Chapter 2: The Prohibition Of Participating In The Tribulation

Narrated Sa'd ibn AbuWaqqas

I asked: Messenger of Allah! tell me if someone enters my house and extends his hands to kill me (what should I do?) The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) replied: Be like the two sons of Adam. The narrator Yazid (ibn Khalid) then recited the verse: "If thou dost stretch they hand against me to slay me." [5:28]

Narrated Abdullah ibn Umar

AbdurRahman ibn Samurah said: I was holding the hand of Ibn Umar on one of the ways of Medina. He suddenly came to a hanging head. He said: Unhappy is the one who killed him. When he proceeded, he said: I do not consider him but unfortunate. I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say: If anyone goes to a man of my community in order to kill him, he should say in this way, the one who kills will go to Hell and the one who is killed will go to Paradise.

Abu Dawud said: Al-Thawri has transmitted it from 'Awn from 'Abd al-Rahman b. Sumair or Sumairah ; and Laith b. Abu Sulaim transmitted it from 'Awn from 'Abd al-Rahman b. Sumairah.

Abu Dawud said: Al-Hasan b. 'Ali said to me: Abu al-Walid transmitted this tradition to us from Abu 'Awanah, and said: It (the name Ibn Samurah) is in my notebook Ibn Sabrah. The people also transmitted it as Samurah and Sumairah. These are wordings of Abu al-Walid.

Chapter 3: Regarding Restraining The Tongue

Narrated AbuHurayrah

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: There will be civil strife (fitnah) which will render people deaf, dumb and blind regarding what is right. Those who contemplate it will be drawn by it, and giving rein to the tongue during it will be like smiting with the sword.

'Abd Allah b. 'Abd al-Quddus mentioned in his version

Ziyad, one who has white ears.

Chapter 6: Regarding The Gravity Of Killing A Believer

The tradition mentioned above has also been transmitted by Sa'id b. Jubair from Ibn 'Abbas through a different chain of narrators. Ibn 'Abbas said

The verse: "Those who invoke not with Allah" applied to polytheists. He said: About them another verse, "Say: O my servants who have transgressed against their souls" was also revealed.

Chapter 1: Mention Of Tribulations And Their Signs

Narrated Abdullah ibn Mas'ud

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: four (majestic) trials (fitnahs) will take place among this community, and in their end there will be destruction.

Al-Zuhri said

Salah is near Khaibar.

Narrated Abu Hurairah

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) as saying: The time will become short, knowledge will be decreased, civil strife (fitan) will appear, niggardliness will be case into people's heart, and harj will be prevalent. He was asked: Messenger of Allah! what is it: He replied: Slaughter, slaughter.

Chapter 5: The Prohibition From Fighting During The Tribulation

Ahnaf b. Qais said

I came out with the intention of (participating in) fighting. Abu Bakrah met me and said: Go back, for I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say: When two Muslims face each other with their swords, the killer and the slain will go to Hell. He asked: Messenger of Allah, this is the killer (so naturally he should go to Hell), but what is the matter with the slain ? He replied: He intended to kill his companion.

Chapter 6: Regarding The Gravity Of Killing A Believer

Narrated Zayd ibn Thabit

The verse "If a man kills a believer intentionally, his recompense is Hell to abide therein for ever" was revealed six months after the verse "And those who invoke not with Allah any other god, nor slay such life as Allah has made sacred, except for just cause in Surat al-Furqan.

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Chapter 1: Mention Of Tribulations And Their Signs

The tradition mentioned above has also been transmitted by Hudhaifah through a different chain of narrators from the Prophet (ﷺ). This version says

He said: If you do not find a caliph in those days, then flee away until you die, even of you die holding on (to a stump of a tree). I asked: What will come next ? He replied: If a man wants the mare to bring forth a foal, it will not deliver in till the Last Hour comes.

Abu Dawud said

Ibn 'Umar reported the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) as saying: The Muslims will soon be besieged up to Medina, so that their most distant frontier outpost will be Salah.

Narrated AbuMalik al-Ash'ari

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: Allah has protected you from three things: that your Prophet should not invoke a curse on you and should all perish, that those who follow what is false should not prevail over those who follow the truth, and that you should not all agree in an error.