Trials that will occur

Sayyiduna Kurz bin Alqamah al-Khuza'i (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: A man submitted: "O Messenger of Allah! Is there any final limit for Islam?" The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Yes! When Allah Almighty intends good for the members of any household, whether of the Arabs or the non-Arabs, He will make Islam enter upon them. Then tribulations will occur like clouds." That man submitted: "No, by Allah, if Allah wills!" He said: "Yes indeed! By the One in whose Hand is my soul, then you will return in them like black snakes, and you will strike off one another's necks." Sufyan says: The rising of the black snake means its raising itself up.

In one narration the words are: "The most excellent of people will be a believer who lives secluded in one of the mountain passes, fearing his Lord and keeping people safe from his evil."
Ahmad, al-Bazzar and al-Tabarani recorded this narration with various chains, and the narrators of one of them are the narrators of the Sahih.

Sayyiduna Abu Barzah al-Aslami (may Allah be pleased with him) reports that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "I fear for you misguiding desires connected with your bellies and your private parts, and I fear misguiding tribulations."

In one narration the words are: "Misguiding desires of the self."
Ahmad recorded this narration, and its narrators are the narrators of the Sahih.

Sayyiduna Wathilah bin al-Asqa' (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) came out to us and said: "You think that I will pass away after all of you? Beware! I will pass away before all of you, and after me you will become different factions, and you will destroy one another."
Ahmad, Abu Ya'la and al-Tabarani recorded it; the narrators of Ahmad are the narrators of the Sahih.

Sayyiduna Salamah bin Nufayl al-Sakuni (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: We were sitting with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) when someone said: O Messenger of Allah! Did food come from the sky? The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) replied: Yes! He asked: In what? He said: In a cooking pot. He asked: Was there anything left over from you? The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Yes! He asked: What happened to it? The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: It was taken up, and then it was revealed to me that I will pass away and will not remain among you, and you too will remain only a short while after me, until you will say: How long has it been? Then you will come to me in different factions, having destroyed one another; and before the Hour there will be two severe kinds of death, and after that there will be years of earthquakes."
Ahmad, al-Tabarani, al-Bazzar and Abu Ya'la recorded it, and its narrators are thiqat (trustworthy).

Sayyiduna Mu'awiyah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "You think that I will pass away after all of you, whereas I will pass away before all of you, and after me you will be divided into different factions and will strike off one another's necks."
Abu Ya'la and al-Tabarani recorded it in al-Mu'jam al-Kabir, and their wording there is: Sayyiduna Mu'awiyah bin Abi Sufyan (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: Once we were sitting in the mosque when the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) came out among us and said: You are talking about how I will pass away after all of you? Beware! I will pass away before all of you, and after me you will be divided into factions and will annihilate one another. Then he recited this verse: "Say: He is able to send upon you a punishment from above you or from beneath your feet." The verse continues up to: "For every news there is an appointed time (of occurrence), and soon you will come to know." Then he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: A group of my Ummah will always fight upon the truth and will remain dominant; whoever tries to forsake them will not be able to harm them, and whoever opposes them will not be able to harm them either, until the command of Allah (that is, the Hour) comes while they are in that state. Then he recited this verse: "O Isa! I will take you, raise you to Myself, purify you from those who disbelieved, and place those who follow you above those who disbelieved until the Day of Resurrection." The narrators of this report are thiqat (trustworthy).

Sayyiduna Wathilah bin al-Asqa' (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: I heard the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) say: "You think that I will pass away last among you, whereas I will depart before you; then after me you will be divided into different factions and will kill one another."
Al-Tabarani recorded it in al-Mu'jam al-Kabir and al-Mu'jam al-Awsat; its narrators have been declared trustworthy, and there is disagreement about some of them.

Sayyiduna Talhah bin Ubaydullah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: I heard the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) say: "Whenever there has been a prophethood, killing and crucifixion have certainly come after it."
Al-Tabarani recorded it, and its chain contains a narrator whom I do not know.

Sayyiduna al-Mustawrid bin Shaddad (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: I heard the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) say: "Every nation has a fixed term, and the fixed term of my Ummah is one hundred years; when one hundred years have passed over my Ummah, there will come to them that which Allah Almighty has promised them." The narrator Ibn Lahi'ah says: This means the abundance of trials (fitan). Al-Tabarani recorded this report; its chain contains the narrator Ibn Lahi'ah, and despite his weakness he is hasan al-hadith (fair in narration).

Sayyiduna Bilal (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates as a marfu' hadith (attributed to the Prophet): The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) raised his gaze towards the sky and then said: "Free from every imperfection is He who has sent trials upon people just as rain is sent."
Al-Tabarani recorded it; its chain contains narrators whom I do not know.

Sayyiduna Jarir (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates about the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): He (peace and blessings be upon him) raised his gaze towards the sky and then said: "Allah is free from every imperfection, who has sent upon them trials that are like rain."
Al-Tabarani recorded it; its chain contains the narrator Yahya bin Salamah bin Kuhayl, and he is da'if (weak).

Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates this saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): "Soon there will be trials in which a man will be separated from his brother and his father, and the trial will remain in the hearts of some of them until the Day of Resurrection, to the extent that a man will be reproached on account of that trial just as a woman who commits adultery is reproached on account of her adultery."

With the same chain it is reported that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Al-Quray'a' will come upon you. We said: O Messenger of Allah! What is it? The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: It is a trial in which there will be something like a helmet (that is, there will be killing and bloodshed)." Al-Tabarani recorded both these reports; the chains of both contain the narrator Muhammad bin Sufyan al-Hadrami, whom I do not know, and the narrator Ibn Lahi'ah, who is layyin (soft, weak).

Sayyiduna Khalid bin al-Walid (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: The Commander of the Believers, that is, Sayyiduna Umar bin al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him), wrote to me. This was at the time when I had found many blessings in Syria, and had found fine wheat and honey. Once the narrator Affan was in doubt about this and said: when I found such and such things in Syria. Then Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) ordered me to set out for Hind, and at that time we regarded as Hind what is today Basrah. The narrator says: I disliked this. The narrator says: A man stood up and said: O Abu Sulayman! Fear Allah Almighty, for trials have appeared. The narrator says: He asked: Is Sayyiduna Umar bin al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) not alive? The trials will only come after him, and people will be at Dhu Billiyan. The narrator says: Dhu Billiyan is a place located at such and such a spot. There a man will reflect whether he can find any place where he can halt, because he will be seeking to escape the trial and evil he has faced, but he will not find any such place. These will be the days about which the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) mentioned that they will come before the Hour, and in them there will be killing and bloodshed. So we seek refuge with Allah from that time reaching us or you.
Ahmad and al-Tabarani recorded it in al-Mu'jam al-Kabir and al-Mu'jam al-Awsat; its narrators are thiqat (trustworthy), and there is weakness in some of its narrators.

Sayyiduna Imran bin Husayn (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates this saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): "Soon after me there will be four trials: in one trial shedding blood will be declared lawful; in the second, shedding blood and wealth will be declared lawful; in the third, shedding blood, wealth and private parts will be declared lawful."
Al-Tabarani recorded it in al-Mu'jam al-Awsat and al-Mu'jam al-Kabir, and he mentioned only three. Its chain contains the narrator Hafs bin Ghaylan; Abu Zur'ah and others declared him trustworthy, while the majority declared him da'if (weak); and it contains the narrator Ibn Lahi'ah, who is layyin (soft, weak).

Sayyiduna Ali bin Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "In the last times there will be a trial in which people will be extracted just as gold and silver are extracted from a mine."
Al-Tabarani recorded it in al-Mu'jam al-Awsat; its chain contains the narrator Ibn Lahi'ah, in whom there is weakness, and the narrator Muhammad bin Sufyan al-Hadrami, whom I do not know.

Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: I heard the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) say: "Soon the diseases of the other nations will afflict my Ummah. The people asked: What are the diseases of the other nations? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Arrogance, conceit, turning away from one another, rivalry, mutual hatred and miserliness, until there will be transgression, and then killing and bloodshed."
Al-Tabarani recorded it in al-Mu'jam al-Awsat; its chain contains the narrator Abu Sa'id al-Ghifari, from whom no one other than Humayd bin Hani' narrated, and the rest of its narrators have been declared trustworthy.

Sayyiduna Ammar bin Yasir (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: Once a number of us were sitting with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): Sayyiduna Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) was there, Sayyiduna Umar (may Allah be pleased with him), Sayyiduna Uthman (may Allah be pleased with him), Sayyiduna Ali (may Allah be pleased with him), Sayyiduna Talhah (may Allah be pleased with him), Sayyiduna al-Zubayr (may Allah be pleased with him), Sayyiduna Abd al-Rahman (may Allah be pleased with him), Sayyiduna Mu'adh (may Allah be pleased with him), Sayyiduna Hudhayfah (may Allah be pleased with him) and Sayyiduna Sa'd (may Allah be pleased with him). This was in the ninth year, after eight years had passed since the Hijrah. Sayyiduna Hudhayfah (may Allah be pleased with him) said to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): O Messenger of Allah! May my father and mother be ransomed for you, tell us about the trials. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "O Hudhayfah! A time will come upon people in which the one standing will be better than the one walking, and the one sitting will be better than the one standing, and the killer and the killed will be in the Fire."
Al-Tabarani recorded it in al-Mu'jam al-Kabir and al-Mu'jam al-Awsat; its chain contains the narrator Yazid bin Marwan al-Khallal, and he is da'if (weak).

Al-Hasan al-Basri narrates: Sayyiduna al-Dahhak bin Qays (may Allah be pleased with him) wrote a letter to Qays bin al-Haytham on the death of Yazid bin Mu'awiyah: "Peace be upon you! To proceed: I heard the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) say: 'Before the Hour there will be trials like pieces of the dark night, and some trials will be like pieces of smoke; in them a man's heart will die just as a man's body dies; in them a man will be a believer in the morning and will have become a disbeliever by the evening, or he will be a believer in the evening and will have become a disbeliever by the morning; people will sell their share and their religion in exchange for worldly goods.' Yazid bin Mu'awiyah has died, and you are our brothers and our companions, so do not get ahead of us (in choosing the next caliph) until we choose (a new caliph) for ourselves."
Ahmad and al-Tabarani recorded it through different routes, which contain the narrator Ali bin Zayd, who had a poor memory, though he has been declared trustworthy; the rest of Ahmad's narrators are the narrators of the Sahih.

Sayyiduna al-Nu'man bin Bashir (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: We remained in the company of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and we heard him (peace and blessings be upon him) say: "Before the Hour there will be trials like pieces of the dark night, in which a man will be a believer in the morning and will have become a disbeliever by the evening, or he will be a believer in the evening and then will have become a disbeliever by the morning; people will sell their share of the Hereafter in exchange for paltry worldly goods" (here the narrator is in doubt about one word). Al-Hasan al-Basri says: By Allah! We have seen these people: they had faces but no intellects, bodies but no understanding; they were moths of the Fire and wolves of greed; they would go out in the morning for two dirhams and come back in the evening with two dirhams; one of them would sell his religion for the price of a goat.
Ahmad and al-Tabarani in al-Mu'jam al-Awsat recorded it; its chain contains the narrator Mubarak bin Fadalah, whom a group declared trustworthy, and there is softness (weakness) in him; the rest of its narrators are the narrators of the Sahih.

A man from the people of Syria named Ammar narrates: Once we went out on a campaign, then we returned, and among us was an old man from the tribe of Khath'am. He mentioned al-Hajjaj, criticised him and reviled him. I said to him: Why are you reviling him, when he is fighting the people of Iraq in obedience to the Commander of the Believers? He said: He is the very one who made them disbelievers. Then he said: I heard the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) say: "There will be five trials in this Ummah." (Perhaps the following words are the Companion's: of them) four have passed and one remains, and that will be al-Saylam (the uprooting one), and, O people of Syria, it will be among you. If you reach its time, then if you are able to become a stone, become one, and do not be with either of the two groups. Beware! Take for yourself a tunnel in the earth."

In one narration the wording is: We asked: Did you yourself hear this from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him)? He replied: Yes.
Ahmad recorded it; I do not know the person named Ammar, and the rest of its narrators are the narrators of the Sahih.

Sayyiduna Hudhayfah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was asked about the Hour, and he said: Its knowledge is with my Lord; He alone knows its exact time. However, I will tell you about its signs and about what will happen before it: before it there will be fitnah (trial) and harj. The people said: We know what fitnah is, but what is meant by harj? The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: In the language of Abyssinia it means killing and bloodshed. He (peace and blessings be upon him) also said: "Mutual estrangement will be cast among people, such that no one will recognise anyone else."
Ahmad recorded it, and its narrators are the narrators of the Sahih.

Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) narrates that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Indeed Islam began as something strange, and soon it will become strange again, so glad tidings to the strangers. Before the Hour there will be trials like pieces of the dark night; in them a man will be a believer in the evening and will have become a disbeliever by the morning, or he will be a believer in the morning and will have become a disbeliever by the evening; people will sell their religion in exchange for worldly goods."
Al-Tabarani recorded it in al-Mu'jam al-Awsat, and in al-Mu'jam al-Kabir with its opening part abridged; its chain contains the narrator Layth bin Abi Sulaym, and he is a mudallis (one who obscures his sources).

Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) narrates: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "After me my Ummah will certainly be afflicted with trials like pieces of the dark night; a man will be a believer in the morning and will have become a disbeliever by the evening, or he will be a believer in the evening and will have become a disbeliever by the morning; during those (trials) people will sell their religion in exchange for paltry worldly goods."
Al-Tabarani recorded it; its chain contains the narrator Afiyah bin Ayyub, and he is da'if (weak).

Sayyidah Maymunah (may Allah be pleased with her) narrates: One day the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to us: "What will your state be when religion shrinks, blood is shed, adornment becomes widespread, buildings rise high, brothers fall into disagreement, and the Ancient House (al-Bayt al-Atiq) is burned?" In one narration, instead of "brothers fall into disagreement" the words are "scholars fall into disagreement".
Al-Tabarani recorded it, and its narrators are thiqat (trustworthy).

Sayyiduna Abu Sa'id al-Khudri (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: The Hour will not be established until harj becomes abundant among you. He said this three times. The people asked: What is meant by harj? He replied: Killing and bloodshed.
Al-Tabarani recorded it in al-Mu'jam al-Awsat without attributing it to the Prophet (as a marfu' hadith); its chain contains the narrator Atiyyah, and he is da'if (weak).

Sayyiduna Fayruz al-Daylami (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "There will be a sound in Ramadan. The people said: O Messenger of Allah! Will it be in its first part, its middle part or its last part? The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Rather, in the middle of Ramadan; when the night of the middle comes and it is the night of Friday, a sound will come from the sky, by which seventy thousand people will be struck unconscious, seventy thousand will become mute, seventy thousand will become blind, and seventy thousand will become deaf. The people said: O Messenger of Allah! Who from your Ummah will be safe? He said: The one who stays in his house, seeks refuge through prostrations, and proclaims the greatness of Allah Almighty aloud. Then after it another sound will come. The first sound will be the voice of Sayyiduna Jibril (peace be upon him), and the second sound will be the voice of Satan. The sound will be in Ramadan, then the ma'ma'ah (the din of battle) will be in Shawwal; in Dhu al-Qa'dah the tribes will be separated; in Dhu al-Hijjah the pilgrims will be attacked; and Muharram, what is Muharram? Its first part will be a trial for my Ummah and its last part will be relief for my Ummah. In that time, a riding animal with its gear on it, on which a believer rides and escapes, will be better for the believer than possessions worth one hundred thousand."
Al-Tabarani recorded it; its chain contains the narrator Abd al-Wahhab bin al-Dahhak, and he is matruk (abandoned).

Sayyiduna Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrates: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "In the month of Ramadan there will be a sound, in the month of Dhu al-Qa'dah the tribes will be separated, and in the month of Dhu al-Hijjah the pilgrims will be plundered."
Al-Tabarani recorded it in al-Mu'jam al-Awsat; its chain contains the narrator Shahr bin Hawshab, in whom there is weakness, and the narrator al-Bakhtari bin Abd al-Hamid, whom I do not know.