Sunan Abi Dawud: Battles (Kitab Al-Malahim)

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: Allah will raise for this community at the end of every hundred years the one who will renovate its religion for it.

Abu Dawud said: 'Abd al-Rahman bin Shuriah al-Iskandarani has also transmitted this tradition, but he did not exceed Shrahil.

I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say: you will make a secure peace with the Byzantines, then you and they will fight an enemy behind you, and you will be victorious, take booty, and be safe. You will then return and alight in a meadow with mounds and one of the Christians will raise the cross and say: The cross has conquered. One of the Muslims will become angry and smash it, and the Byzantines will act treacherously and prepare for the battle.

The Muslims will then make for their weapons and will fight, and Allah will honor that body with martryrdom.

Abu Dawud said: But al-Walid has narrated this tradition from Dhu Mikhbar from the Prophet (ﷺ).

Abu Dawud said: Rawh, Yahya bin Hamzah and Bishr bin Bakr has also transmitted it from al-Awza'i as mentioned by 'Isa.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: The flourishing state of Jerusalem will be when Yathrib is in ruins, the ruined state of Yathrib will be when the great war comes, the outbreak of the great war will be at the conquest of Constantinople and the conquest of Constantinople when the Dajjal (Antichrist) comes forth. He (the Prophet) struck his thigh or his shoulder with his hand and said: This is as true as you are here or as you are sitting (meaning Mu'adh ibn Jabal).

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: The greatest war, the conquest of Constantinople and the coming forth of the Dajjal (Antichrist) will take place within a period of seven months.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: The time between the great war and the conquest of the city (Constantinople) will be six years, and the Dajjal (Antichrist) will come forth in the seventh.

Abu Dawud said: This is sounder than the tradition narrated by Isa (bin Yunus)

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: The people will soon summon one another to attack you as people when eating invite others to share their dish. Someone asked: Will that be because of our small numbers at that time? He replied: No, you will be numerous at that time: but you will be scum and rubbish like that carried down by a torrent, and Allah will take fear of you from the breasts of your enemy and last enervation into your hearts. Someone asked: What is wahn (enervation). Messenger of Allah (ﷺ): He replied: Love of the world and dislike of death.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: The place of assembly of the Muslims at the time of the war will be in al-Ghutah near a city called Damascus, one of the best cities in Syria.

Ibn ‘Umar reported the Messenger of Allah (May peace be upon him)As saying: The Muslims will soon be besieged up to Madina so that their most distant frontier outpost will be Salah.

Salah is near Khaibar.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: Allah will not gather two swords upon this community: Its own sword and the sword of its enemy.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: Let the Abyssinians alone as long as they let you alone, and let the Turks alone as long as they leave you alone.

The last hour will not come before the Muslims fight with the Turks, a people whose faces look as if they were shields covered with skin, and who will wear sandals of hair.

The last hour will not come before you fight with a people whose sandals are of hair, and the Last hour will not come before you fight with a people who have small eyes, short noses, and whose faces look as if they were shields covered with skin.

In the tradition telling that people with small eyes, i.e. the Turks, will fight against you, the prophet (ﷺ) said: You will drive them off three times till you catch up with them in Arabia. On the first occasion when you drive them off those who fly will be safe, on the second occasion some will be safe and some will perish, but on the third occasion they will be extirpated, or he said words to that effect.

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: Some of my people will alight on low-lying ground, which they will call al-Basrah, beside a river called the Tigris over which there is a bridge. Its people will be numerous and it will be one of the capital cities of immigrants (or one of the capital cities of Muslims, according to the version of Ibn Yahya who reported from Abu Ma'mar).

At the end of time the descendants of Qantura' will come with broad faces and small eyes and alight on the bank of the river. The town's inhabitants will then separate into three sections, one of which will follow cattle and (live in) the desert and perish, another of which will seek security for themselves and perish, but a third will put their children behind their backs and fight the invaders, and they will be the martyrs.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: The people will establish cities, Anas, and one of them will be called al-Basrah or al-Busayrah. If you should pass by it or enter it, avoid its salt-marshes, its Kall, its market, and the gate of its commanders, and keep to its environs, for the earth will swallow some people up, pelting rain will fall and earthquakes will take place in it, and there will be people who will spend the night in it and become apes and swine in the morning.

We went on the pilgrimage and met a man who asked us: Is there a town near you called al-Ubullah? We said: Yes. He said: Is there any of you who will undertake to pray two or four rak'ahs on my behalf in the mosque of al-Ashshar, stating "they are on behalf of AbuHurayrah"?

He (Abu Hurayrah) said: I heard my friend AbulQasim (ﷺ) say: On the Day of Resurrection Allah will raise martyrs from the mosque of al-Ashshar, who will be the only ones to rise with the martyrs of Badr.

Abu Dawud said: This mosque is near the river.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: Leave the Abyssinians alone as long as they leave you alone, for it is only the Abyssinian with short legs who will seek to take out the treasure of the Ka'bah.

A group of people came to Marwan in Medina, and they heard him say that the first of the signs to appear would be the coming forth of the Dajjal (Antichirst). He said: I then went to Abd Allah b. ‘Amr and mentioned it to him. He did not say anything(reliable). I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say: The first of the signs to appear will be the rising of the sun in its place of setting and the coming forth of the beast against mankind in the forenoon. Whichever of them comes first will soon be followed by the other. ’Abd Allah who used to read the scriptures (Torah, Gospel) said: I think the first of them will be the rising of the sun in its place of setting.

We were sitting in the shade of the chamber of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) discussing (something) and when we mentioned the last hour, our voices rose high. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: The last hour will not come or happen until there appear ten signs before it : the rising of the sun in its place of setting, the coming forth of the beast, the coming forth of Gog and Magog, the Dajjal (Antichrist), (the descent of) Jesus son of Mary, the smoke, and three collapses of the earth: one in the west, one in the east, and one in the Arabian Peninsula. The last of that will be the emergence of a fire from Yemen, from the lowest part of Aden, and drive mankind to their place of assembly.

The last hour will not come before rising of the sun in its place of setting. When it rises (there) and the people see it, those who are on it (the earth) will believe. This is the time of which the Qur’anic verse says: “. . .no good will it do to a soul to believe in them then, if it believed not before nor earned righteousness through its faith."

The Euphrates is soon to uncover a treasure of gold, but those who are present must not take any of it.

“Uncover a mountain of gold”.

I know best what the Dajjal (Antichrist) will have with him. He will have with him a sea of water and a river of fire, and what you see as fire will be water and what you sea as water will be fire. If any of you who lives up to that time and desires water, he should drink from what he sees as fire, for he will find it water. Abu Mas’ud al-Badri said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say in this way.

No prophet was sent who had not warned his people about the one-eyed. Between his eyes will be written “infidel” (kafir).

“the letters k, f, r” (are on his forehead).

Every Muslim will read it.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: Let him who hears of the Dajjal (Antichrist) go far from him for I swear by Allah that a man will come to him thinking he is a believer and follow him because of confused ideas roused in him by him.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: I have told you so much about the Dajjal (Antichrist) that I am afraid you may not understand. The Antichrist is short, hen-toed, woolly-haired, one-eyed, an eye-sightless, and neither protruding nor deep-seated. If you are confused about him, know that your Lord is not one-eyed.

Abu Dawud said: 'Amr bin Al-Aswad was appointed a judge.

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) mentioned the Dajjal (Antichrist) saying: If he comes forth while I am among you I shall be the one who will dispute with him on your behalf, but if he comes forth when I am not among you, a man must dispute on his own behalf, and Allah will take my place in looking after every Muslim. Those of you who live up to his time should recite over him the opening verses of Surat al – Kahf, for they are your protection from his trial. We asked: How long will he remain on the earth ? He replied : Forty days, one like a year, one like a month, one like a week, and rest of his days like yours. We asked : Messenger of Allah, will one day’s prayer suffice us in this day which will be like a year ? He replied : No, you must make an estimate of its extent. Then Jesus son of Marry will descend at the white minaret to the east of Damascus. He will then catch him up at the date of Ludd and kill him.

A similar tradition has been transmitted by Abu Umamah from the prophet (ﷺ) through a different chain of narrators. In this version he mentioned the prayers to the same effect.

If anyone memorizes ten verses from the beginning of surat al-Kahf, he will be protected from the trial of Dajjal (Antichrist).

Abu Dawud said: In this way Hashim al-dastawa’I transmitted it from Qatadah, but he said : “If anyone memorizes the closing verses of surat al-Kahf.” Shu’bah narrated from Qatadah the words “from the end of al-Kahf.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: There is no prophet between me and him, that is, Jesus (ﷺ). He will descent (to the earth). When you see him, recognise him: a man of medium height, reddish fair, wearing two light yellow garments, looking as if drops were falling down from his head though it will not be wet. He will fight the people for the cause of Islam. He will break the cross, kill swine, and abolish jizyah. Allah will perish all religions except Islam. He will destroy the Antichrist and will live on the earth for forty years and then he will die. The Muslims will pray over him.

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) once delayed the congregational night prayer.

He came out and said: The talk of Tamim ad-Dari detained me. He transmitted it to me from a man who was on of of the islands of the sea. All of a sudden he found a woman who was trailing her hair. He asked: Who are you?

She said: I am the Jassasah. Go to that castle. So I came to it and found a man who was trailing his hair, chained in iron collars, and leaping between Heaven and Earth.

I asked: Who are you? He replied: I am the Dajjal (Antichrist). Has the Prophet of the unlettered people come forth now? I replied: Yes. He said: Have they obeyed him or disobeyed him? I said: No, they have obeyed him. He said: That is better for them.

I heard the crier of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) calling : Assemble for the prayer. I Then came out and prayed along with the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ): When the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) finished his prayer, he sat on the pulpit laughing, and he said : Everyone should remain where he had said his prayer. He then asked : Do you know why I have assembled you? They said: Allah and His Messenger know best. He (ﷺ) said: I did not call you together fors some alarming news or for something good. Rather, I called you all because Tamim al-Dari, a Christian, who came and accepted Islam, told me something which agrees with what I was telling you about the Dajjal. He told me that he sailed with thirty men of Lakhm and Judham and that they were storm-tossed for a month. They drew near to an island when the sun was setting. They sat in a boat nearest to them and entered the island where they were met by a very hairy beast. They said: Woe to you! What can you be ? It replied : I am the Jassasah. Go to this man in the monastery, for he is anxious to get news of you. He said : When it named a man to us we were afraid of it lest it should be a she-devil. So we went off quickly and entered the monastery, where we found a man with the hugest and strongest frame we had ever seen with his hands chained to his neck. He then narrated the rest of the tradition. He asked them about the palm-trees of Baisan and the spring of Zughar and about the unlettered prophet. He said: I am the messiah (the Antichrist) and will be soon given permission to emerge. And the Prophet (ﷺ) said: He is in the Syrian sea or the Yemeni sea: No, on the contrary, it is towards the east that he is. He said it twice and pointed his hand to the east. She said: I memorized this (tradition) from the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), and she narrated the tradition.

The prophet (ﷺ) offered the noon prayer and ascended the pulpit. Before this day he did not ascend it except on Friday. He then narrated this story. Abu Dawud said: Ibn Sudran belongs to Basrah. He was drowned in the sea along with Ibn Miswar, and no one could escape except him.

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said one day from the pulpit: When some people were sailing in the sea, their food was finished. An island appeared to them. They went out seeking bread. They were met by the Jassasah (the Antichrist's spy).

I said to AbuSalamah: What is the Jassasah? He replied: A woman trailing the hair of her skin and of her head. She said: In this castle. He then narrated the rest of the (No. 4311) tradition. He asked about the palm-trees of Baysan and the spring of Zughar. He said: He is the Antichrist. Ibn Salamah said to me: There is something more in this tradition, which I could not remember. He said: Jabir testified that it was he who was Ibn Sayyad.

I said: He died. He said: Let him die. I said: He accepted Islam. He said: Let him accept Islam. I said: He entered Medina. He said: Let him enter Medina.

The prophet (ﷺ) passed by Ibn Sa’Id along with some of his companions. ‘Umar b. al-Kattab was among them. He was playing with boys near the fortress of Banu Maghalah. He was near the age of puberty (i.e. a boy). Before he was aware, the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) gave him a pat on the back and said : Do you testify that you are the Messenger of Allah Ibn Sayyad then looked at him and said: I testify that you are the Apostle of Gentiles. Ibn Sayyad then said the prophet (ﷺ) then asked him : What comes to you ? He replied: One who speaks the truth and one who lies come to me. The prophet (may peace upon him) said: You are confused. The Messenger of Allah (may peace upon him) said to him: I have concealed something (in my hand) and he concealed the verse “the day when the sky will bring forth smoke (dukhan) clearly visible Ibn Sayyad said: It is smoke (dukhan) .The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: Away with you, You cannot get farther than your rank. ‘Umar said: “Messenger of Allah, permit me to cut off his head. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: If he is the one (the Dajjal), you will not be given power over him, and if he is not, you will not do well in killing him.

Nafi' told that Ibn Umar used to say: I swear by Allah that I do not doubt that Antichrist is Ibn Sayyad.

You swear by Allah! He said: I heard Umar swearing to that in the presence of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), but the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) did not make any objection to it.

We saw the last of Ibn Sayyad at the battle of the Harrah.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: The Last Hour will not come before there come forth thirty Dajjals (fraudulents), everyone presuming himself that he is an apostle of Allah.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: The Last Hour will not come before there come forth thirty liar Dajjals (fraudulents) lying on Allah and His Apostle.

Do you think that his one of them, that is al-Mukhtar (al-Thaqaff)? He said : He is from the leaders.

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: The first defect that permeated Banu Isra'il was that a man (of them) met another man and said: O so-and-so, fear Allah, and abandon what you are doing, for it is not lawful for you. He then met him the next day and that did not prevent him from eating with him, drinking with him and sitting with him. When they did so. Allah mingled their hearts with each other.

He then recited the verse: "curses were pronounced on those among the children of Isra'il who rejected Faith, by the tongue of David and of Jesus the son of Mary"...up to "wrongdoers".

He then said: By no means, I swear by Allah, you must enjoin what is good and prohibit what is evil, prevent the wrongdoer, bend him into conformity with what is right, and restrict him to what is right.

"Or Allah will mingle your hearts together and curse you as He cursed them."

Abu Dawud said: This tradition has been transmitted by al-Muharibi, from al-'Ala bin al-Musayyab, from 'Abd Allah bin 'Amr bin Murrah, from Salim al-Aftas, from Abu Ubaidah, from 'Abd Allah; and it is been transmitted by Khalid al-Tahhan, from al-'Ala, from 'Amr bin Murrah from Abu 'Ubaidah.

You people recite this verse "You who believe, care for yourselves; he who goes astray cannot harm you when you are rightly-guided," and put it in its improper place.

Khalid's version has: We heard the Prophet (ﷺ) say: When the people see a wrongdoer and do not prevent him, Allah will soon punish them all. Amr ibn Hushaym's version has: I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say: If acts of disobedience are done among any people and do not change them though the are able to do so, Allah will soon punish them all.

Adu Dawud said: This tradition has also been transmitted by Abu Usamah and a group transmitters similar to the version narrated by Khalid. The version of Shu'bah has: "If acts of obedience are done among any people who are more numerous than those who do them...."

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: If any man is among a people in whose midst he does acts of disobedience, and, though they are able to make him change (his acts), they do not change, Allah will smite them with punishment before they die.

I head the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say: If any one you sees something objectionable, he should change it with his hand if he can change it with his hand. (The narrator Hammad broke the rest of the tradition which was completed by Ibn al-‘Ala’.) But if he cannot (do so), he should do it with his tongue, and if he cannot (do so with) his tongue he should do it in his heart, that being the weakest form of faith.

I asked AbuTha'labah al-Khushani: What is your opinion about the verse "Care for yourselves".

He said: I swear by Allah, I asked the one who was well informed about it; I asked the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) about it.

He said: No, enjoin one another to do what is good and forbid one another to do what is evil.

But when you see niggardliness being obeyed, passion being followed, worldly interests being preferred, everyone being charmed with his opinion, then care for yourself, and leave alone what people in general are doing; for ahead of you are days which will require endurance, in which showing endurance will be like grasping live coals. The one who acts rightly during that period will have the reward of fifty men who act as he does.

Another version has: He said (The hearers asked:) Messenger of Allah, the reward of fifty of them?

He replied: The reward of fifty of you.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: How will you do when that time will come? Or he said: A time will soon come when the people are sifted and only dregs of mankind survive and their covenants and guarantees have been impaired and they have disagreed among themselves and become thus, interwining his fingers. They asked: What do you order us to do, Messenger of Allah? He replied: Accept what you approve, abandon what you disapprove, attend to your own affairs and leave alone the affairs of the generality.

Abu dawud said: A similar tradition has been transmitted by 'Abd Allah bin 'Amr from the Prophet (ﷺ) through different chain.

When we were around the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), he mentioned the period of commotion (fitnah) saying: When you see the people that their covenants have been impaired, (the fulfilling of) the guarantees becomes rare, and they become thus (interwining his fingers). I then got up and said: What should I do at that time, may Allah make me ransom for you? He replied: Keep to your house, control your tongue, accept what you approve, abandon what you disapprove, attend to your own affairs, and leave alone the affairs of the generality.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: The best fighting (jihad) in the path of Allah is (to speak) a word of justice to an oppressive ruler.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: When sin is done in the earth, he who sees it and disapproves of it will be taken like one who was not present, but he who is not present and approves of it will be like him who sees.

He who sees it and disapproves of it will be like him who was not present.

The people will not perish until their sins and faults become abundant, and there remains no excuse for them.

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) led us in the night prayer one night towards the end of his life. When he uttered the salutation, he got up and said : Have you seen this night of yours ? No one of those who are on the surface of the earth will survive at the ends of one hundred years. Ibn ‘Umar said: The people fell into fallacy by this statement of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) about the traditions they used to narrate concerning one hundred years. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: No one of those who are present today on the surface of the earth will survive, meaning when that century comes to and end.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: Allah will not fail to detain this community for less than half a day.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: I hope my community will not fail to maintain their position in the sight of their Lord if He delays them half a day. Sa'd was asked: How long is half a day? He said: It is five hundred years.