Signs of the Hour

Signs of the Hour

The signs of the Last Day as reported by the Prophet ﷺ, with what the scholars say has already come to pass and what remains yet to happen.

How the scholars read these signs

  • •The signs are divided into minor (ashrāṭ ṣughrā) — mostly already fulfilled — and the ten major signs (ashrāṭ kubrā), none of which has occurred.
  • •The ten major signs are listed together in one ḥadīth of Ḥudhayfah b. Usayd in Sahih Muslim 2901; scholars differ on their exact order, and the ḥadīth itself does not fix it.
  • •Once the major signs begin, reports indicate they follow one another closely, "like beads falling from a broken string."
  • •No one knows the timing of the Hour. The Prophet ﷺ said of it: "The one asked has no more knowledge of it than the questioner" (Sahih Muslim 8). Claims to date it are rejected by consensus.
  • •Scholars warn against forcing current events onto prophecies. Ibn Ḥajar's rule is that a sign is only declared fulfilled when the text's wording matches the event without stretching.

Most minor signs have already appeared; scholars note they are cumulative and recurring.

The sending of the Prophet ﷺ himself

Has occurred

The Prophet ﷺ joined his index and middle fingers and said: "I and the Hour are like these two," indicating that his prophethood is itself the first sign of the Hour's nearness.

Scholarly view: Ibn Ḥajar notes in Fatḥ al-Bārī that this is the earliest of the signs, and that the gesture teaches proximity of sequence — no prophet comes between him and the Hour — not proximity of years.

Sahih al-Bukhari 4936, Sahih Muslim 2951

The death of the Prophet ﷺ

Has occurred

The Prophet ﷺ listed six matters before the Hour, beginning with his own death.

Scholarly view: Scholars treat this ḥadīth of ʿAwf b. Mālik as a chronological list; the first several items were witnessed by the Companions themselves, which is why they understood the signs as gradual rather than sudden.

Sahih al-Bukhari 3176

The conquest of Jerusalem and the plague of ʿAmwās

Has occurred

Bayt al-Maqdis was opened in 16 AH under ʿUmar, and a plague followed which took many of the Companions in Syria.

Scholarly view: Al-Nawawī records this as one of the clearest fulfilled signs, since both events happened within a generation of the prophecy.

Sahih al-Bukhari 3176

Widespread wealth, to the point of being disdained

Has occurred

"Then wealth will become abundant among you, so that a man is given a hundred dinars and remains displeased."

Scholarly view: Commentators from al-Qurṭubī onwards read this as recurring rather than one-time: abundance appeared in the Umayyad and ʿAbbāsid eras and is visible again in modern prosperity.

Sahih al-Bukhari 3176

Civil strife and killing among the Muslims

Has occurred

The Prophet ﷺ foretold fitnah in which "a man will kill his brother" and the killer will not know why he killed.

Scholarly view: The Companions applied this to the first fitnah after ʿUthmān's martyrdom. Ibn Kathīr holds that the wording is general and applies to every later era of Muslim infighting.

Sahih al-Bukhari 7121, Sahih Muslim 157

The appearance of false claimants to prophethood

Has occurred

"There will be nearly thirty liars, each claiming to be a prophet of Allah."

Scholarly view: Beginning with Musaylimah al-Kadhdhāb in the Prophet's own lifetime. Ibn Ḥajar counts the number as approximate, covering claimants across the centuries.

Sahih al-Bukhari 3609, Sahih Muslim 157

Knowledge taken away, ignorance spreading

Has occurred

"Allah does not take knowledge away by removing it from hearts, but by taking away the scholars."

Scholarly view: Understood as the loss of qualified scholarship rather than the loss of books. Al-Dhahabī and later scholars saw each generation's passing of its imāms as a partial fulfilment.

Sahih al-Bukhari 80, Sahih Muslim 2673

Openly consumed intoxicants, fornication, and usury

Has occurred

Among the signs are that zinā becomes widespread, wine is drunk openly, and men become few while women become many.

Scholarly view: Al-Nawawī cautions that the sign is public normalisation of sin, not merely its existence — sin existed in every age; open acceptance of it is the marker.

Sahih al-Bukhari 81, Sahih Muslim 2671

The bedouin becoming builders of tall buildings

Has occurred

"When you see barefoot, naked, destitute shepherds competing in constructing lofty buildings."

Scholarly view: Widely read by contemporary scholars as visibly fulfilled in the Arabian Peninsula, though earlier commentators such as al-Qurṭubī understood it generally as the poor rising to power and luxury.

Sahih Muslim 8 (Hadith of Jibrīl)

The slave woman giving birth to her master

Has occurred

Part of the Prophet's ﷺ answer to Jibrīl about the signs of the Hour.

Scholarly view: Three main interpretations are recorded: the spread of concubinage into ruling houses, children disrespecting and dominating their parents, or the mother becoming servant to her own child. Ibn Ḥajar considered the second the strongest for later times.

Sahih Muslim 8 (Hadith of Jibrīl)

Time and distance contracting; false witness and severed ties

Has occurred

Reports mention that the Hour will not come until markets are near one another, time passes quickly, and false testimony becomes common.

Scholarly view: Al-Albānī authenticated several of these narrations. Scholars note that such signs are cumulative indicators, and their occurrence does not permit anyone to date the Hour.

Musnad Ahmad, graded authentic; Sunan al-Tirmidhi 2210

The fire from Yemen driving people together

Yet to come

A fire will emerge which drives people to their final gathering place in Syria.

Scholarly view: Some later scholars associated the Madinah volcanic eruption of 654 AH with this, but the majority — including Ibn Kathīr — hold that the great driving fire is still to come and belongs with the major signs.

Sahih al-Bukhari 3176 (final of the six), Sahih Muslim 2901

Only authentic (ṣaḥīḥ) narrations are cited. For rulings and detailed study, refer to qualified scholars.