Page 218: Part 3: Major Signs Preceding the Hour (Mahdi, Dajjal, Jesus, Gog & Magog, Sun from West)

Alert: Mentioning the disagreement among scholars regarding the interpretation of the hadith: "Indeed, his days are forty years..." and the method of reconciling the narrations reported on this subject.

"...his days are like your days." Thus it is related in the hadith of al-Nawwas ibn Sam'an (may Allah be pleased with him) in the collections of Ahmad, Muslim, and al-Tirmidhi.

And in the hadith of Abu Umamah (may Allah be pleased with him) recorded by Ibn Majah, Ibn Khuzaymah, al-Hakim, and al-Diya': "Indeed, his days are forty years; a year will be like half a year, a year like a month, a year like a week, and the last of his days will be like a spark; one of you will wake up at one gate of the city and will not reach its other gate until evening."

Note:

The scholars differed regarding the interpretation of this hadith. Among them are those who said: It is a metaphor for people being intensely preoccupied with their own plights due to trials and tribulations, to the extent that they do not realize how the daylight passes; thus, the passing of a day will seem to them like the passing of an hour, a month like a day, and a year like a month.

Others said: Rather, it is to be understood literally upon its apparent meaning. For it has been reported from the hadith of Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) in Ahmad and al-Tirmidhi regarding the signs of the Hour: "The Hour will not be established until time contracts, such that a year will be like a month, a month like a week, a week like a day, a day like an hour, and an hour like the burning of a dry palm leaf in fire."

The answer regarding the variance between the two hadiths is either through preferential evaluation (tarjih) or through reconciliation (jam'). If we evaluate by preference, then the hadith of al-Nawwas in Muslim is stronger because it is more rigorously authentic; and even if the second hadith is also in an authentic collection, the former is given precedence. If we reconcile, the method of reconciliation can be approached from several aspects:

The first: His days are forty years, and the years were termed "days" figuratively. Then, the first day of his first year will be like a year, its second like a month, its third like a week, and the rest of its days like our days. Thereafter, the days of the second year will contract until the year becomes like half a year, and so on until the year becomes like a month, and the month like a week, until the last of his days becomes like a spark; one of them will set out at dawn from one gate of the city and will not reach its other gate until evening. Thus, the first year among his years will encompass the duration of several of our years, while his final years will equal the span of a single year of our years.

This is supported by the narration mentioned earlier from Nu'aym and al-Hakim on the authority of Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him), stating that he [the Dajjal] will say: "I am the Lord of the worlds, and this sun moves by my permission; do you want me to hold it back?" So he will hold back the sun until...