পৃষ্ঠা 61: প্রথম অধ্যায়: দূরবর্তী আলামতসমূহ যা ইতিমধ্যে প্রকাশ পেয়ে অতিক্রান্ত হয়েছে

The author cites what al-Samhudi narrated concerning this fire:

Al-Hafiz al-Haythami said: "The narrators of Ahmad are the narrators of the Sahih, except for Rafi', and he is trustworthy." He said: "A fire is imminent to emerge from Habs Sayl, moving with the pace of slow camels, advancing by day and halting by night..." to the end of the hadith.

And in "Musnad al-Firdaws", on the authority of 'Umar (may Allah be pleased with him): "The Hour will not be established until a valley among the valleys of the Hijaz flows with fire, illuminating the necks of the camels in Busra."

Nur al-Din al-Sayyid 'Ali al-Samhudi said in "Tarikh al-Madina": "This fire indeed appeared in Medina, and its renown reached the level of mutawatir (continuous mass transmission). It was preceded by terrifying earthquakes, and the people of Medina feared it with the utmost dread and took refuge with the Prophet (ﷺ)."

The commencement of the earthquake in Medina was at the beginning of Jumada al-Akhirah, and the end of Jumada al-Ula, in the year six hundred and fifty-four (654 AH); that is, two years prior to the slaying of al-Musta'sim and the devastation of Baghdad.

He said: "However, it was initially mild, but intensified on Tuesday and manifested tremendously. Then, on the night of Wednesday, the third or fourth of the month, during its final third, a tremendous earthquake struck which terrified hearts by its awe. It continued through the remainder of the night until Friday, accompanied by a rumbling louder than thunder. The earth surged and the walls shook, such that eighteen tremors occurred in a single day, not counting its night. It then subsided by the forenoon of Friday. When midday arrived, that fire appeared, and thick, billowing smoke surged from its point of emergence, its blackness covering the horizon."

"When the darkness gathered and night fell, the blaze of the fire shone forth. It appeared at Qurayzah at the edge of the Harrah, resembling an immense city surrounded by an enclosing wall adorned with battlements, towers, and minarets. Men were seen driving it forward, and it did not pass over a mountain except that it crushed and melted it. From all of this flowed something like a river of red and blue, possessing a roar like that of thunder, carrying rocks before it and terminating at the staging post of the Iraqi caravan. From this accumulated debris that became like a massive mountain, and the fire reached near Medina; yet despite that, a cool breeze reached the city, and this fire was observed boiling like the boiling of the sea."

Some of our companions said: "I saw it ascending into the air from a distance of about five days' journey, and I heard that it was seen from Mecca and from the mountains of Busra."