Section: Among the Signs - Abundance of Earthquakes

Al-Suyuti mentioned in "Tarikh al-Khulafa'" that in the year 782 AH, during the caliphate of al-Mutawakkil, the sixth of the Abbasid caliphs residing in Egypt, a letter arrived from Aleppo stating that an Imam stood to pray and a person mocked him during his prayer. The Imam did not interrupt his prayer until he completed it, and when he said the taslim, the face of the mocker transformed into the face of a pig, and he fled into a nearby forest.

As for al-qadhf (pelting with stones), it refers to being showered with stones. Al-Suyuti cited in "Tarikh al-Khulafa'" that in the year 285 AH, a village in Basra was rained upon with black and white stones, and hailstones fell, the weight of a single hailstone being one hundred and fifty dirhams.

In the year 202 AH, the village of al-Suwaydi was pelted with stones, and one of the stones was weighed and found to be ten ratls. In the year 478 AH, during the caliphate of al-Muqtadi, a black wind struck Baghdad, thunder and lightning became intense, and sand and dust fell like rain. In the year sixty-odd after one thousand (c. 1060+ AH), large, wide black stones, the size of hen's eggs and larger, rained down during the summer while the sky was clear in the Kurdish regions, between Hiza and Kafra, and the sound of it could be heard from a day's journey away. This was mentioned in "al-Isha'ah".

A note of reminder: It has been narrated from the Prophet (ﷺ): "The signs will be after two hundred." This could mean after two hundred years from the Hijrah, or it could mean after twelve hundred years (two hundred after one thousand). The first possibility is supported by the fact that the majority of the signs we mentioned occurred after the two-hundredth year. However, if it is interpreted according to the second possibility, then the major portents are meant, as will be discussed. We have refrained from mentioning many things in this chapter out of fear [of prolongation]...