Tuesday, May 29, 2012

45. Opening of the Constantinople


Abu Huraira reported Allah’s Apostle (may peace he upon him) saying, “You have heard about a city the one side of which is in the land and the other is in the sea (Constantinople).” They said: “Allah’s Messenger, yes.” Thereupon he said: “The Last Hour would not come unless seventy thousand persons from Bani lsra`eel [descendants of Ishaaq] would attack it. When they would land there, they will neither fight with weapons nor would shower arrows but would only say: “There is no god but Allah and Allah is the Greatest,” (La ilaaha illallah wallaahu Akbar) that one side of it would fall. Thaur (one of the narrators) said: I think that he said: “The part by the side of the ocean.” Then they would say for the second time: “There is no god but Allah and Allah is the Greatest” that the second side would also fall. And they would say: “There is no god but Allah and Allah is the Greatest” then the gates would be opened for them and they would enter therein and, they would be collecting spoils of war and distributing them amongst themselves that a noise would be heard and It would be said: “Verily, Dajjal has come.” And thus they would leave everything there and would turn to him. [Muslim, B.41, #6979]

Who are these 70,000 descendants of Ishaaq? The Jews are descendants of Ishaaq. The scholars of hadith, like Ibn Katheer and Nawawi and others, say that this is talking about Romans that are Muslims. The early Muslim historians say that the Romans are the descendants of Al ‘Ees ibn Ishaaq. They could be Romans part of the general Muslim army. They could also be Jews who became Muslim. They are going to open Constantinople with dhikr, so they are Muslim. They could also be Muslims who are living in that area. As we said, the land of Turkey (Asia Minor) used to be part of the Byzantine Empire; maybe they will open Istanbul again. Wallahu ‘Alam.

When we are talking about signs of the DOJ, we are talking about ghayb – the unknown. The scholars’ interpretation could be right or wrong. The purpose of these ahaadith are not to draw a map and show exactly what’s going to happen. The purpose of these ahaadith is:
   1. To show the miracle of Islam; the miracle of the hadeeth of the Prophet sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam.
  2. They serve as bishaaraat for the believers. They are good news for us. They give us confidence and strength. Things will get tough and difficult; therefore these ahaadith will serve as guidance for us during that time. We can never know exactly what they mean until they happen – for example, the fire that would come out of Madinah. We didn’t know what it meant, but when it happened, we found out for sure that it was talking about a volcano.

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