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

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 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.

Narrated Abdullah ibn Umar:

When we were sitting with the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), he talked about periods of trial (fitnahs), mentioning many of them. When he mentioned the one when people should stay in their houses, some asked him: Messenger of Allah, what is the trial (fitnah) of staying at home? He replied: I…

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 mentio…

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. …

The traditions mentioned above has also been transmitted by Khalid b. Khalid al-Yashkuri through different chain of narrators. This version has:

I (Hudhaifah) asked : Will any be spared after the use of the sword ? He replied: There will be remnant with specks in its eye and an illusory truce. He then transmitted the rest of the tradition. Qatadah applied this to the apostasy during the Caliphate of Abu Bakr. The word aqdha' (sing. qadhan)…

Narrated Hudhayfah:

The tradition mentioned above (No. 4232) has also been transmitted through a different chain of narrators by Nasr ibn Asim al-Laythi who said: We came to al-Yashkuri with a group of the people of Banu Layth. He asked: Who are these people? We replied: Banu Layth. We have come to you to ask y…

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.

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:…

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.

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.

Al-Zuhri said:

Salah is near Khaibar.

Narrated Thawban:

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) as saying: Allah, the Exalted, folded for me the earth, or he said (the narrator is doubtful): My Lord folded for me the earth, so much so that I saw its easts and wests (i.e. the extremities). The kingdom of my community will reach as far as the earth was floded for me. T…

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.

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 mea…

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.

Narrated AbuBakrah:

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: There will be a period of commotion in which the one who lies down will be better than the one who sits, and the one who sits is better than the one who stands, and the one who stands is better than the one who walks, and the one who walks is better than the one who …

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."

Narrated Abdullah ibn Mas'ud ; Khuraym ibn Fatik:

The tradition mentioned above (No. 4243) has also been transmitted by Ibn Mas'ud through a different chain of narrators. Ibn Mas'ud said: I heard the Prophet (ﷺ) say: He then mentioned a portion of the tradition narrated by AbuBakrah (No. 4243). This version adds: He (the Prophet) said…

Narrated AbuMusa al-Ash'ari:

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: Before the Last Hour there will be commotions like pieces of a dark night in which a man will be a believer in the morning and an infidel in the evening, or a believer in the evening and infidel in the morning. He who sits during them will be better than he who gets …

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 …

Narrated AbuDharr:

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said to me: O AbuDharr. I replied: At thy service and at thy pleasure, Messenger of Allah. He then mentioned the tradition in which he said: What will you do when there the death of the people (in Medina) and a house will reach the value of a slave (that is, a grave will…

Narrated AbuMusa al-Ash'ari:

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: Before you there will be commotions like pieces of a dark night in which a man will be a believer in the morning and an infidel in the evening. He who sits during them will be better than he who gets up, and he who gets up during them is better than he who walks, and he who wal…

Narrated Al-Miqdad ibn al-Aswad:

I swear by Allah, I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say: The happy man is he who avoids dissensions: happy is the man who avoids dissensions; happy is the man who avoids dissensions: but how fine is the man who is afflicted and shows endurance.

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.

Narrated Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-'As:

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: There will be civil strife which wipe out the Arabs, and their slain will go to Hell. During it the tongue will be more severe than blows of the sword. Abu Dawud said: Al-Thawri transmitted it from Laith, from Tawus on the authority of Al-A'jam.

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

Ziyad, one who has white ears.

Narrated Abu Sa’id Al Khudri :

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) as saying: A Muslim's best property will soon be sheep which he will take to the tops of the mountains and the places where the rain falls, fleeing with his religion from the civil strife (fitan).

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 …

The tradition mentioned above has also been transmitted briefly by al-Hasan through a different chain of narrators to the same effect.

Narrated AbudDarda' and Ubadah ibn as-Samit:

Khalid ibn Dihqan said: When we were engaged in the battle of Constantinople at Dhuluqiyyah, a man of the people of Palestine, who was one of their nobility and elite and whose rank was known to them, came forward. He was called Hani ibn Kulthum ibn Sharik al-Kinani. He greeted Abdullah ibn Zakariyy…

Khalid b. Dihqan said:

I asked Yahya b. Yahya al-Ghassani about the word i'tabata bi qatlihi spoken by him (as mentioned in the previous tradition). He said: It means those people who fight during the period of commotion (fitnah), and one of them kills (the other people) presuming that he is in the right, so he does not beg pardon of Allah of that (sin). Abu Dawud said: And he said: The word fa'tabata means "he shed blood profusely"

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.

Sa'id bin Jubair said:

I asked Ibn 'Abbas (about the verse relating to intentional homicide in Surat An-Nisa') He said: When the verse "Those who invoke not with Allah any other god, nor slay such life as Allah had made sacred, except for just cause" was revealed, the polytheists of Mecca said: We have killed the soul pro…

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.

Ibn 'Abbas said:

No other verse has repealed the verse "If a man kills a believer intentionally"

About the verse "If a man kills a believer intentionally" Abu Mijlaz said:

This is his recompense. If Allah wishes to disregard him, He may do do.

Narrated Sa'id ibn Zayd:

We were with the Prophet (ﷺ). He mentioned civil strife (fitnah) and expressed its gravity. We or the people said: Messenger of Allah, if this happens to us it will destroy us. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said; No. It is enough for you that you would be killed. Sa'id said: I saw that my brethren were killed.

Narrated AbuMusa:

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: This people of mine is one to which mercy is shown. It will have no punishment in the next world, but its punishment in this world will be trials, earthquakes and being killed.