8. The Fire

The final sign of the Day of Judgment is the fire. RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam says, “And in the end, a fire would come out from Yemen, sending the people towards almahshar.” This is a fire that will push all of the people towards the holy land. This fire will continuously follow them until they go to almahshar. People will be running from it. Whoever is left behind, it will burn them. It follows them day and night. It will come out from Yemen.

RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam pinpointed the area and said it will come from the basin of ‘Adan. ‘Adan is laying in a crater of a volcano. There are many craters of volcanoes in ‘Adan. ‘Adan is a city of Yemen on the sea. There are a lot of craters in it.

AlMahshar is in shaam. RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam pointed towards ashShaam and said, “This is where you would be assembled.” In another hadith in Abu Dawood, RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam said, “There will be hijra after hijra. The best of people of the world will be in the place of the hijra of Ibraheem.” Where is that? Jerusalem, the holy land. What is the first hijra? From Makkah to Madinah. There will be another hijra, which is of the best people of the world, to Jerusalem. The other people who live during that time will be the worse of the people, and that is when the fire will gather them in AshShaam.

AshShaam is the area of Jerusalem, Syria, Palestine, Jordan and Lebanon. The most holy of it is Jerusalem. There are many ahaadith where RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam praised that place.

In one hadith in Musnad Imam Ahmad, Abu Dardaa` reports that RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam says, “I was sleeping and I saw a dream where the pillar of the Book [Qur’an] was taken away from me. And i thought it would be taken away from me. So I followed it and saw it placed in AshShaam. In the time of trials and tribulations (fitan), that is where Imaan will be.”

In another hadith in Tabarani, RasulAllah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam says, “When I was in the trip of al Israa`, I saw a white pillar like a banner of war taken away from me and I asked the angels, ‘Where are you taking it?’ They said, ‘We are going to take it and place it in AshShaam.’”

Is this assembly of people in AshShaam the assembly of the day of judgment or is it a different assembly? Some of the scholars, like AlGhazaali, say that this is the assemble of the Day of Judgment. Most of the scholars, however, say that there are two assemblies: one that will be in this dunya and then the assembly in akhirah. They say that this assembly is in dunya. The people will be assembled in ashShaam, then that will be the end of the world. Then the people will be assembled in the akhirah. They use the ayah as proof: “When the earth will be replaced.” On the Day of Judgment, the earth and sun and everything will be replaced.