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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