The Major Signs of the Day of Judgment

There are ten major signs of the Day of Judgment. The minor signs occur over a period of centuries; the first of them was the coming of RasulAllah.

The major signs are very close to the Day of Judgment itself. Whenever one of them happens, the rest are going to follow very soon.

The minor signs can be decades apart.

RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam says, “The major signs are deeds in a string. When the string is cut, all of them would fall down.” [Ahmad]

What are the ten signs? This hadith is in Muslim. These signs are not in chronological order.

Hudhaifa ibn Usaid Ghifari reported: Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) came to us all of a sudden as we were (busy in a discussion). He said: “What do you discuss about?” They (the Companions) said, “We are discussing about the Last Hour.” Thereupon he said: “It will not come until you see ten signs before and (in this connection) he made a mention of the smoke, Dajjal, the beast, the rising of the sun from the west, the descent of Jesus son of Mary (Allah be pleased with him), the Gog and Magog, and land-slidings [earthquakes or earth slidings] in three places, one in the east, one in the west and one in Arabia at the end of which fire would burn forth from Yemen, and would drive people to the place of their assembly [the land of mahshar].”

[Muslim 41, 6931]

There’s a hadith that says that the first sign is the rise of the sun from the west. The scholars still say that ad-Dajjaal is the first. How can they say this if there is a hadith? They say that there are signs of the Day of Judgment that relate to changes in the universe, and the first from these signs is the rise of the sun from the west. The rising of the sun from the west is a cosmological change. The other signs – ad-Dajjaal, the smoke, the beast – are things happening on the earth.