পৃষ্ঠা 276: তৃতীয় অধ্যায়: কিয়ামতের মহা আলামতসমূহ (মাহদী, দাজ্জাল, ঈসা (আ.), ইয়াজুজ-মাজুজ, পশ্চিমাকাশে সূর্যোদয়)

The Author's Mention of What Has Been Reported Concerning the Rising of the Sun from the West and Its Explanation

Mention of the Rising of the Sun from Its Place of Setting, and That It Is Among the Major Signs

Among the major signs are: the rising of the sun from the west, and the emergence of the Beast of the Earth (Dabbat al-Ard):

Whichever of these two precedes the other, the other will follow closely in its tracks. If the sun rises first, the Beast will emerge in the mid-morning (duha) of that very day or shortly thereafter; and if the Beast emerges first, the sun will rise from the west on the following day.

Ibn Abi Shaybah, Ahmad, 'Abd ibn Humayd, Abu Dawud, Ibn Majah, Ibn al-Mundhir, Ibn Mardawayh, and al-Bayhaqi all narrated from 'Abdullah ibn 'Amr (may Allah be pleased with them both), who said: "I memorized from the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) that he said: 'Indeed, the first of the signs to appear will be the rising of the sun from the west, and the emergence of the Beast in the mid-morning. Whichever of the two comes before its companion, the other will follow immediately in its footsteps.'"

'Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) - who used to read the scriptures - said: "And I believe the first of them to appear will be the rising of the sun from the west."

Abu 'Abdullah al-Hakim said: "What appears evident is that the rising of the sun from the west occurs before the emergence of the Beast."

Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar said, endorsing what al-Hakim stated: "Perhaps the wisdom behind this is that with the rising of the sun from the west, the gate of repentance is closed. Then the Beast comes to distinguish between the believer and the disbeliever, thereby completing the objective intended by the closing of the gate of repentance." [End quote]

Let us begin, then, with the rising of the sun from the west:

We say: As for the rising of the sun from the west, Allah the Exalted has said: "On the Day when some of the signs of your Lord come, no soul will benefit from its faith if it had not believed before or had not earned some good through its faith" [al-An'am: 158]. The Quranic commentators unanimously, or the vast majority of them, agreed that this refers to the rising of the sun from the west.

And the Exalted also said: "And the sun and the moon are joined together" [al-Qiyamah: 9].

Al-Firyabi, 'Abd ibn Humayd, Ibn Abi Hatim, al-Tabarani, and Abu al-Shaykh narrated from Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) regarding the words of the Exalted: "On the Day when some of the signs of your Lord come", that he said: "It is the rising of the sun and the moon from their place of setting, joined together like two paired camels." Then he recited: "And the sun and the moon are joined together" [al-Qiyamah: 9].