Q513

Q513 :All famous religious traditions speak of a great earthquake that follows a great war. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) gives a unique prophecy in the sense that he spoke of the earth reversing its axis and rotation (refer to Al-Bukhari 7121). Is there any other Hadith which may give us a hint on what will cause our planet to change rotation? A massive underground oil field explosion could almost certainly spin the earth out of control causing the sun to rise in the west.

A513 : The Hadith which you have referred to is related by Al-Bukhari on the authority of Abu-Hurairah who quotes the Prophet as saying: "The Day of Judgment does not take place until two great camps engage in a war which causes a great number of casualties on both sides, and both the camps advocate the same message, and until around thirty liars and impostors have appeared, everyone of whom claiming to be a messenger of Allah; and true knowledge becomes scarce and earthquakes frequent; and time becomes short and trials increase and numerous killings are witnessed; and you have plenty of money to the extent that a wealthy person worries whether he will find someone to accept his zakah and he offers it to another person and the latter says, 'I have no need for it'; and people take pride in constructing high-rise buildings; and a man would pass by the grave of another and say: 'I wish I was in this place'; and until the sun rises from the west. When it rises there and people see it, they all will become believers. At that time, no soul will benefit by believing if it had not acted on its belief. When the hour will fall, two people might have extended a garment between them but could not complete its sale or its folding; and a man would have expressed the milk of his she-camel but could not drink it; and a man would have filled his water container but could not drink it; and a man would raise food to his mouth but could not eat it." As you see, the Hadith gives a very vivid description of the suddenness with which the end of human life occurs. People are taken unawares, doing their normal daily activities, but when the time comes, everything freezes in place to the extent that if a person is raising some food to his mouth to eat, he cannot eat it. The Hadith does not mention a particular earthquake of any special magnitude. It simply speaks of earthquakes becoming frequent. There is no indication in the Hadith that all these aspects will occur at the same time. It is not necessary that the frequency of earthquakes should come hand in hand with people being wealthy to the extent that no one is in need of charity. Nor should either indication of the approach of the day of judgment be also accompanied by people wishing that they were dead, because death seems to be more comforting than living. The Hadith, however, tells us that the sun will certainly be made to rise in the west and at that particular time, it is of no use to believe in Allah, if one has not believed in Him beforehand. That indicates the moment when all actions will be of no consequence. The day of judgment has arrived and the duration of life with the test it involves is over. Whether the rising of the sun from the west is caused by an explosion that may take place underground or overground we are not told. Such an explosion, as you say, may cause the earth to spin "out of control", but Allah will still be in control of the earth and the universe. How will Allah make the sun rise from the west is not explained to us in this Hadith. We do not need to go into the details of that, because knowing the details need not affect our firm belief that Allah is able to cause the sun to rise in the west. He is also able to bring that about in numerous ways. How He chooses to accomplish that purpose of His is His business.

Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News - Jeddah )