Signs of the coming of Judgement Day

The trials and tribulations associated with it are detailed in both the Quran and the hadith, (sayings of Muhammad) which are "diffuse and fragmented".[9] These are elaborated on in creeds, Quranic commentaries (tafsịrs), and theological writing,[10] eschatological manuals and commentaries of the Islamic expositors and scholarly authorities such as al-Ghazali, Ibn Kathir, Ibn Majah, Muhammad al-Bukhari, and Ibn Khuzaymah who explain them in more detail. The signs and many other social aberrations are detailed in such works as Muḥammad ibn Rasūl al-Ḥusaynī al-Barzinjī's al-Ishā'a li-ishrāṭ al-sā'a,[11] and Mishkāt al-maṣābīḥ[12] Muqaddimah by Ibn Khaldiin, is said to introduce "a full and detailed discussion of the various theories regarding the mahdi and the traditions considered most authoritative in relation to it."[13]

Many verses of the Quran, especially the earlier ones, are dominated by the idea of the nearing of the Day of Resurrection.[14][15]

When the sun shall be darkened, When the stars shall be thrown down, When the mountains shall be set moving, When the pregnant camels shall be neglected, When the savage beasts shall be mustered, When the seas shall be set boiling, When the souls shall be coupled, When the buried infant shall be asked for what sin she was slain, When the scrolls shall be unrolled, When heavens shall be stripped off, When Hell shall be set blazing, When Paradise shall be brought nigh, Then shall a soul know what it has produced.

(Q.81:1-14, Arberry translation)[16]

Indication that there will be signs of its coming are found in Q.47:18:

• "Then do they await except that the hour should come upon them unexpectedly? But already there have come [some of] its indications. Then what good to them, when it has come, will be their remembrance?”[17]

Events in Islamic eschatology based on Sunan Abu Dawood, "Battles" (Kitab Al-Malahim).[18]

Eschatological timeline of "minor" and "major" signs preceding the Day of Judgment

The Minor or Lesser Signs (Ashraat al-Saa'ah al-Sughra) are “moral, cultural, political, religious, and natural events designed to warn humanity that the end is near and to bring people into a state of repentance.”[19][20] According to one Salafi source IslamQA.info, "For the most part", these signs will have occurred a long time before the Resurrection begins. Some of them have already happened – although they may be repeated; some of them are currently occurring; and some have not yet taken place but will.[21][22][23][24][25]

These signs tend to be so general that "it is possible to find indicators of them in any modern society (for example, crime, natural disaster, etc.)".[1]

The appearance of the Mahdi, (a messiah figure) is said to be a link between the minor and major signs. In the ḥadīth literature, it is mentioned that minor signs will occur first, then the Mahdi will come and then the major signs. There is debate over whether they could occur concurrently or must be at different points in time.

1. The coming of fitna (tribulations) and removal of khushoo (fearfulness of God, reverence of God, etc.)[note 1]
2. A person passing by a grave might say to another the following: "I wish it were my abode."[note 2]
3. The loss of honesty, as well as authority put in the hands of those who do not deserve it.[26]
4. The loss of knowledge and the prevalence of religious ignorance.[note 3]
5. Frequent, sudden, and unexpected deaths.[note 4]
6. The killer will not know why he has killed, and the one killed will not know why he was killed.[12]
7. Acceleration of time.[note 5]
8. Fabrication of hadiths.[note 6]
9. Rejection of hadiths.[note 7]
10. The spread of riba (usury, interest), zina (adultery, fornication, prostitution, rape, sodomy,[27] pedophilia and pederasty,[27][nb 1] homosexuality,[nb 2] incest,[nb 3] and bestiality), and the drinking of alcohol.[note 8]
11. Widespread acceptance of music.[note 9]
12. A young boy who lived in Muhammad's time won't be very old when the Hour comes.[28]
13. Pride and competition in the decoration of mosques.[note 10]
14. Women will increase in number and men will decrease in number so much so that fifty women will be looked after by one man. [note 11][29]
15. Abundance of earthquakes.[note 12]
16. Frequent occurrences of disgrace, distortion, public humiliation and defamation.[note 13]
17. When people wish to die because of the severe trials and tribulations that they are suffering.[note 14]
18. In a fight between Jews and Muslims, stones and trees would inform Muslims about Jews hiding behind them.[note 15]
19. Nobody will live after 100 years.[30]
20. When paying charity becomes a burden.[note 16]
21. Nomads will compete in the construction of tall buildings.[note 17]
22. Women will appear naked despite their being dressed.[note 18]
23. People will seek knowledge from misguided and straying scholars.[note 19]
24. Liars will be believed, honest people disbelieved, and faithful people called traitors.[note 20]
25. The death of righteous, knowledgeable people.[note 21]
26. The emergence of indecency (obscenity) and enmity among relatives and neighbours.[note 22]
27. The rise of idolatry and polytheists within the Ummah.[note 23]
28. The Euphrates will uncover a mountain of gold.[note 24]
29. There will be 30 false prophets after Muhammad.[31]
30. A man from Qahtan appears, driving people with his stick.[32]
31. A man called Jahjah will occupy the throne.[33]
32. The land of the Arabs will return to being a land of rivers and fields.[note 25]
33. People will increasingly earn money by unlawful (Haram) ways.[note 26]
34. There will be much rain but little vegetation.[note 27]
35. Evil people will be expelled from Medina.[note 28]
36. Wild animals will communicate with humans, and humans will communicate with objects.[34]
37. Predators will speak to people, the tip of a man's whip and the straps on his sandal will speak to him, and his thigh will inform him of what occurred with his family after him.[note 29]
38. Lightning and thunder will become more prevalent.[note 30]
39. Islam will wear out as embroidery on a garment wears out, until no one will know what fasting, prayer, (pilgrimage) rites and charity are.[29]
40. All Jews will accept Islam if 10 Jewish scholars convert to Islam.[35]
41. Countries conquered by Muslims (Iraq, Syria, Egypt) will stop paying money and Muslims will return where they started.[36]
42. The buttocks of the women of the tribe of Daus move while going round Dhi-al-Khalasa (an idol similar to the Kaba).[37]
43. There will be a special greeting for people of distinction.[note 31]
44. Trade will become so widespread that a woman will help her husband in business.[note 32]
45. No truly honest man will remain and no one will be trusted.[note 33]
46. Only the worst people will be left; they will not know any good nor forbid any evil (i.e. No one will say there is no god but Allah).[note 34]
47. People will worship Lat and Uzza (goddesses that were worshipped by pre-Islamic Arabs).[38]
48. Luka bin Luka (meaning "the wickedest") will be the happiest person.[39]
49. Nations will soon call each other to attack Muslims.[40]
50. There will be twelve caliphs. All of them from the Quraysh tribe.[41]
51. Islamic knowledge will be passed on, but no one will follow it correctly.[note 35]
52. Muslim rulers will come who do not follow the guidance and tradition of the Sunnah. Some of their men will have the hearts of devils in a human body.[note 36]
53. Stinginess will become more widespread and honorable people will perish.[note 37]
54. A man will obey his wife and disobey his mother, and treat his friend kindly while shunning his father.[note 38]
55. There will be no more Khosrau and Caesar.[33]
56. Pilgrimage to Mekka (hajj) will be abandoned.[42]
57. Voices will be raised in the mosques.[note 39]
58. Rain will destroy all dwellings except tents.[43]
59. The leader of a people will be the worst of them.[note 40]
60. The most honored man is the one whose evil the people are afraid of.[44]
61. Much wine will be drunk.[note 41]
62. Muslims shall fight against a nation who wear shoes made of hair and with faces like hammered shields, with red complexions and small eyes.[note 42]
63. The Quraysh tribe will get extinct.[45]
64. The emergence of the Sufyani within the Syria region.[note 43]
65. The Romans will form a majority amongst people.[46]
66. The truce and joint Roman-Muslim campaign against a common enemy, followed by Al-Malhama Al-Kubra (Armageddon), a Roman vs. Muslim war.[note 44]

Other minor signs

1. The Black Standard will come from Khorasan (see Hadith of black flags), nothing shall turn them back until it is planted in Jerusalem.[note 45]
2. Mecca will be attacked and the Kaaba will be destroyed.[note 46]
3. Dajjal nor plague will be able to enter Medina.[47]
4. Emergence of an army, from Yemen, that will make Islam dominant.[note 47][48]
5. An Abyssinian having two small shanks who would destroy the House of Allah.[49]
6. Swelling of crescents.[50]
7. An Arab king will die. There will be disagreement concerning succession. Then a man will emerge from Medina. He will hurry to Mecca, and the people of Mecca will come out to him and urge him and try to force him to accept the Bay'ah.[note 48]
8. The sun would rise from West any day except Friday (It is the day when the world has begun to be over).[51]
9. A first trumpet will sound, and all remaining humanity will die, followed by a period of forty years, at the end of which smoke will envelope the world for forty days,
10. The people of the West will continue to triumphantly follow the truth until the Hour is established.[52]
11. Markets will approach / come close.[53]
12. The Qur'an will vanish in one night.[54]
13. Islam started as something strange and it would again revert (to its old position) of being strange just as it started, like serpent crawling back into its hole.[55]

More minor signs

1. Sexual immorality appears among people to such an extent that they commit it openly, except that they will be afflicted by plagues and diseases unknown to their forefathers;
2. People cheat in weights and measures (business, trades, etc.) and are stricken with famine, calamity, and oppression as a result;
3. They withhold zakat money (charity) and hoard their wealth, and rain is withheld from the sky from them;
4. They break their covenant with God and the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and God enables their enemies to overpower them and take some of what is in their hands;
5. Men and women partake in sihr and shirk; they travel the world through attaching themselves to the jinn, causing mischief;
6. Unless their leaders rule according to the Quran and seek all good from that which Allah has revealed, Allah will cause them to fight one another.[note 49]
7. The conquest of Constantinople without weapons.[56]

However, these signs aforementioned are not all based on reliable hadiths and if one of them is based on a reliable hadith, it should not necessarily be treated as a commandment or a prohibition.[57]

Following the second period, the third will be marked by the ten major (aka greater) signs known as alamatu's-sa'ah al-kubra (the major signs of the end).[note 50][58] These signs offer "more detail" in their accounts of the final days, but there is "considerable variation" in the different versions of these stories.

A "few elements are consistent: Constantinople will be conquered by Muslims; the Antichrist will appear and travel to Jerusalem; a messianic figure (in some instances Jesus, and in some instances the Mahdi) will come to earth, kill the Antichrist, and convert the masses to Islam. The world’s non-Muslim territories will be conquered."[59] [nb 4]

The major signs are as follows without any exact order:

• A huge black cloud of smoke (dukhan) will cover the earth.[note 51]
• Three sinkings of the earth [earthquakes],[21] [or landslides] [61] one in the east.[note 52][note 53]
• One sinking of the earth [earthquake] in the west.[note 54]
• One sinking of the earth [earthquake] in Arabia.[note 55]
• The false messiah Dajjal, shall appear as an apostle of God.[note 56] He shall appear to have great powers as a one-eyed man with his right eye blind and deformed like a grape. Although believers will not be deceived, he will claim to be God, to hold the keys to heaven and hell, and will lead many astray.[62] In reality, his heaven is hell, and his hell is heaven. The Dajjal will be followed by seventy thousand Jews of Isfahan wearing Persian shawls.[note 57]
• The return of Isa (Jesus), from the fourth sky, to kill Dajjal.[63]
• Ya'jooj and Ma'jooj (Gog and Magog), a Japhetic tribe of vicious beings who had been imprisoned by Dhul-Qarnayn, will break out. They will ravage the earth, drink all the water of Lake Tiberias, and kill all believers in their way. Isa, Imam Al-Mahdi, and the believers with them will go to the top of a mountain and pray for the destruction of Gog and Magog. God eventually will send disease and worms to wipe them out.[note 58][64]
• The sun will rise from the west.[65][66]<[51]
• The Dabbat al-Ard, or Beast of the Earth, will come out of the ground to talk to people.[note 59]

Gog and Magog

Iskandar (Alexander) builds a wall to seal Yajuj and Majuj; here aided by dīvs (demons). Persian miniature from a Falnama, 16th century.[81][82]

Gog and Magog are mentioned in two chapters of the Quran – Al Kahf and Al-Anbiya – where they are referred to as Yajuj and Majuj. They are suppressed by a figure called Dhul-Qarnayn – "the two-horned one."[83] Dhul-Qarnayn, having journeyed to the ends of the world, meets "a people who scarcely understood a word" who seek his help in building a barrier that will separate them from the people of Yajuj and Majuj who "do great mischief on earth". (In Islamic literature Yajuj and Majuj are sometimes depicted "as large and sometimes as small, but they are always numerous and subhuman".[84] Dhul-Qarnayn agrees to build it for them, but warns that when the time comes (believed to mean the end times), Allah will remove the barrier.[85]

The Monster of Gog and Magog, by al-Qazwini (1203–1283).

Journalist Graeme Wood reports that in Islamic apocalyptic literature Gog and Magog are a subhuman pestulence who are released from thousands of years of imprisonment sometime after Isa's descent to earth. After much killing, pillaging and devouring of vast resources they are wiped out after "God commands an insect or worm to burrow into their necks and kill them".[84]

Interpretations of the Quran and hadith by Muslims to determine what happens and when (or how much it matters) leading up to Judgement Day vary.[1] (Some examples: will the Dajjal be killed by the Mahdi,[111] or by Jesus?[79] Will the Sufyani appear in end times? (Sunnis say no or are doubtful;[119][120] Shia say yes.)[86] Will the Mahdi work with Jesus?[121] or be Jesus?[122] How long will the Mahdi and Jesus reign? And how long after their deaths will the earth come to an end? (estimates in Islamic eschatological literature "have varied greatly").[123] Will there even be a Mahdi? (He is not mentioned in the Quran, the two most-revered Sunni hadith collections of Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, or several famous creeds (ʿAqīda by al-Ash'arī, al-Nasafī, Al-Tahawi, and Abu Ḥanīfa, etc.) that mention other famous apocalyptic characters and events.)[124]

One issue in interpretation that followers of apocalyptic literature give considerable debate to are the metaphors, or what are believed to be metaphors, in the prophesies: are the naked shepherds who build tall buildings Gulf Arabs (who are only a couple of generations away from poverty)? Are the worshippers of the pre-Islamic Arabian goddess al-Lat the Shia Hezbollah (as the Islamic State does)?[125] Who is Rûm (the term meaning "Romans" historically used by Muslims to refer to the Eastern Roman Empire ("Byzantines") and geographically Asia Minor)? the Vatican, Italy, Europe, NATO, Russia, the United States,[126] the Turkish Republic? (The Turkish Ottoman Empire conquered the remnants of the Byzantine Empire, which called itself the Roman Empire, and the Turkish Republic took over the heart of the Ottoman Empire),[127] have all been suggested.

Muslims who believe "the hour" is nigh are very interested in the details of "the signs". Journalist Graeme Wood has put together a summary of end time events as interpreted by one such group—Sunni jihadis supporters of the Islamic State—based on conversations with an Islamic State "cleric" Musa Cerantonio and other Jihadist Muslims, as well as apocalyptic literature cited by scholar of Islamic eschatology, Jean-Pierre Filiu.[128][129] (The Islamic State features predictions about the signs of the hour in its magazine Dabiq.)[126]

Lesser Signs

Supporters (like many Muslims) believe many of the Lesser Signs have already occurred[130]—such as "a slave giving birth to her master" (having occurred in the Islamic State among enslaved women who give birth to a child fathered by a jihadi who went on to be killed in combat, the child inheriting the rights of the father),[131] an embargo of Iraq, leadership of Muslim nations by unworthy miscreants, a war between Muslims and Jews, worship of the pre-Islamic Arabian goddess al-Lat, naked shepherds will build tall buildings, mass importation of non-Muslims to Muslim lands (guest workers in the Gulf States and Saudi), and lax moral standards (rampant fornication, alcohol consumption, listening to music).[132] [133] Next will occur a number of great battles and terrible events, along with weird and horrible natural disasters. The Euphrates will divert itself and reveal "mountains of gold", which Muslims should either not touch or take only a small amount.[126] The earth will open up and swallow people. Smoke will appear.[126] The caliphate will be revived, but Islam will not be united as many "false prophets and deviants" cause discord.[134]

During or around this time there will be two titanic battles between Muslims and their enemies; First the enemy -- "united behind 80 banners" and led by Rum, will fight Muslims at Dabiq, (in what is now northern Syria). One-third of the world's Muslims will be killed as martyrs, and another third will desert, fleeing the battle, and the remaining third will advance to Rum and sack it.[134]

This will be followed by "the Great Slaughter" (Al-Malhama Al-Kubra), a battle "the likes of which has never been seen", pitting the Muslim world against "everyone else",[135] with Muslim readers of eschatology disagreeing on what prophesies say about the result.[136]

Greater Signs

At this point, the first of the "Greater Signs" will commence, a terrible drought that will leave one third of the world without rain for a year, and two-thirds without the next year. Into this calamity the al masih al dajjal (the "False Messiah" or Anti-Christ),[68] will appear, providing food for the starving, rain for the thirsty, having been granted the ability (by God) to perform miracles. Presenting himself as a saviour to the world's starving masses, millions or even billions will fall at his feet in gratitude.[68][80] Blind in one disfigured eye that protrudes "like a grape", with kafir imprinted on his forehead,[68] he will not deceive true Muslims.[80]

The Anti-Christ will raise an army of his supporters, especially women and Iranian Jews. Wandering the planet, killing and conquering, its power will be so great it will send "Muslims into hiding".[80] Finally a small force of 5000 Muslim fighters will be cornered by his armies in Jerusalem", taking refuge within the gates of the city in what appears to be a doomed last stand. The Muslims' leader will be the Mahdi, last of the caliphs, Muhammad ibn Abdullah al Qahtani. Coming to their rescue will be Jesus. Having never died on the cross but ascended bodily into heaven where his aging process was arrested and he did not die, he will now descend onto earth, "wearing saffron robes" and borne by two angels. Arriving at the white minaret of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus" he will hurry to Jerusalem and without announcing himself, appear during dawn prayers.[79]

"In hushed voices" the assembling Muslims will identify Jesus and point him out to each other. As the caliph/Mahdi is about to lead prayers, he will ask Jesus to lead them instead. Exhibiting modesty, Jesus will decline the invitation and take a place in the rows behind the Mahdi, praying like any other Muslim.[79] The Anti-Christ will flee, attempting to escape, but "in his ignominious scramble, will melt away, like salt in water. But before he disappears, Jesus will ... pierce him fatally with his spear", and raise the bloody spear above his head.[79] Their leader defeated, supporters of the Anti-Christ "will surrender and submit to the rule of the Mahdi". With Jesus proving to Christians the falsity of their religion and ordering them to follow Islam, Christianity will come to an end. Any Christians and Jews "who persist in disbelief" will no longer be able to get by paying Jizya, but will be killed. Stones and trees will assist Muslim warriors seeking to uncover "any Jews cowering behind them, vainly wishing to escape death,"[79] as in the hadith related by al-Bukhari and Muslim.

The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews, when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdullah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (the Boxthorn tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews.Sahih Muslim, 41:6985, [nb 5][137]

Following this victory, there will be 40 years of "glorious" Jesus-Mahdi rule,[79] until the menace of Gog and Magog escapes from the iron wall that has confined them inside a mountain in Central Asia for thousands of years. They will kill multitudes, invading Iraq and Palestine like a pestilence, draining rivers and the Sea of Galilee with their thirst and consuming crops with their hunger. Finally God will command "an insect or worm" to burrow into their necks and kill them.[84]

Gog and Magog's bodies will rot and stink before being washed away by rain. And various other tribulations will take place before the world is finally destroyed. Humanity will be surrounded by fire. Few Arabs will survive the devastation, and most of the survivors will be 'Romans'. At the end of time, even the Muslims will die, their lives taken by a wind that will be either "horrendous",[84][138] or a "breeze bearing a pleasant scent",[139] leaving only the wicked to face the Earth's destruction. On the last day of earth, the sun will rise in the west and God will stop accepting repentance.[140]

• Islamic eschatology
• Judgement Day in Islam
• Jannah
• Jahannam
• Final Judgement
• Eschatology

• "Fath al-Bari" (from Sahih al-Bukhari by ibn Hajar al-Asqalani).
• Esposito, John, The Oxford Dictionary of Islam, Oxford University Press, 2003, ISBN 0-19-512558-4.
• Richard C. Martin, Said Amir Arjomand, Marcia Hermansen, Abdulkader Tayob, Rochelle Davis, John Obert Voll, Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World, MacMillan Reference Books, 2003, ISBN 978-0028656038.
• Lawson, Todd (1999). Duality, Opposition and Typology in the Qur'an: The Apocalyptic Substrate. Journal of Quranic Studies. 10: 23–49.