The short answer
The major signs of the Day of Judgement in this report are ten, listed in Sahih Muslim 2901a, graded sahih (authentic) through Muslim's collection, with two recorded remarks on its transmission. The report gives no calendar date, and Al-A'raf 7:187 places knowledge of the Hour's timing with Allah, who alone reveals it at its time.
What are the ten signs in the hadith?
Hudhayfah ibn Asid, may Allah be pleased with him, reports the list in Sahih Muslim 2901a, from the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. The Prophet says the Hour will not come until ten signs have been seen, and names them in this order. The table follows that wording. Its row numbers are our reading aid, not part of the report.
| Row | What this wording names |
|---|---|
| 1 | The smoke. |
| 2 | The Dajjal. |
| 3 | The beast. |
| 4 | The sun rising from the west. |
| 5 | The descent of Isa (Jesus), son of Maryam (Mary), peace be upon him. |
| 6 | Yajuj and Majuj, also rendered Gog and Magog. See Yajuj and Majuj. |
| 7 | A sinking of land in the east. |
| 8 | A sinking of land in the west. |
| 9 | A sinking of land in the Arabian peninsula. |
| 10 | A fire from Yemen that drives people to their place of assembly. |
Six items are named, then three sinkings of land, then the fire: 6 + 3 + 1 = 10. Counting the three sinkings as one would change the total in this wording.
1AuthenticSahih Muslim 2901a
The report is graded sahih (authentic) through Muslim's inclusion of it. Two recorded remarks on its transmission are kept apart from that grade. One says the raised form (the wording attributed to the Prophet) rests on a single transmitter and is also narrated as stopping at the companion (as Hudhayfah's own words). The other, from a later grader's notes on the report, says Qatada followed Furat in raising it through a chain with a munkar al-hadith narrator, and that the raised form also came through a weak chain. Both are named in the sources list.
Is the list in a fixed order?
Its last item is the fire. The list is given in that order, but the wording does not say the order is chronological, and it gives no date for any item.
Sahih Muslim 2901b is a parallel variant. It begins with the three sinkings of land and gives the rest in a different order. In this wording the tenth item is given by the transmitter, not by the Prophet: the Prophet's words name nine items, and the transmitter's note, which says a parallel report does not mention the Prophet, gives two wordings for the tenth: the descent of Isa, or a violent gale that drives people to the ocean. Muslim 2901b is graded sahih (authentic) through Muslim's inclusion too, and is kept as its own record. Both remarks are listed on dorar.net under Sahih Muslim 2901, which covers both wordings, so they are not shown here as remarks on this wording alone.
2AuthenticSahih Muslim 2901b
A printed order, a transmitter note and a stated sequence are different kinds of information. Keep each with its own reference, and do not merge two versions into one quotation.
What about other signs in the reports?
Other reports name signs beyond the ten-item list. The table gives four selected references to start from. It is not a catalogue of every minor sign, and the grouping is our reading aid.
| Reference | What the wording establishes |
|---|---|
| Sahih al-Bukhari 6504 | Anas, may Allah be pleased with him, reports the Prophet saying that he has been sent and the Hour is like these two. The wording gives no number of years. |
| Sahih al-Bukhari 3176 | 'Awf ibn Malik, may Allah be pleased with him, reports the Prophet's instruction to count six signs before the Hour, the first of which is his death. This page uses only that beginning. |
| Sahih al-Bukhari 80 | Anas reports the Prophet naming four portents of the Hour: knowledge lifted, ignorance established, wine drunk, and illicit sexual relations (zina) appearing. The wording gives no percentage or date. |
| Sahih Muslim 8a | 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, reports a question about the Hour, the answer that the one asked knows no more than the one asking, and some of its indications, including barefooted, destitute goat-herds competing in building magnificent buildings. |
Each of the four is graded sahih (authentic) through its collection. The descriptions are the wording's own. A general theme does not identify any particular event.
3AuthenticSahih al-Bukhari 6504
4AuthenticSahih al-Bukhari 3176
5AuthenticSahih al-Bukhari 80
6AuthenticSahih Muslim 8
Do the sources say any sign has already occurred?
The cited wordings give no tally of signs already fulfilled, and this page does not make one. Two references concern the Prophet's own life. Sahih al-Bukhari 3176 lists the Prophet's death as the first of six signs in that wording, and says nothing about whether any later item has occurred. Sahih al-Bukhari 4462 is a separate account of his illness, death and burial, cited for that history only, not as a sign.
7AuthenticSahih al-Bukhari 4462
The Prophet's being sent is linked to the Hour in Sahih al-Bukhari 6504. The wording gives no number of years, so it provides no timing.
Goat-herds competing in building magnificent buildings is the description in Sahih Muslim 8a. The wording names no particular building, tower or city, and it does not say that the description has been fulfilled. Matching it to a particular building or present stage is an interpretation beyond the wording.
Sahih al-Bukhari 80 lists four portents (knowledge lifted, ignorance established, wine drunk, zina appearing), with no percentage, survey threshold or date.
Can anyone calculate when the Hour will come?
The sources give no method for calculating it. The Quran places knowledge of the Hour's timing with Allah. The wider account is on its own page: The Day of Judgement in Islam.
يَسْـَٔلُونَكَ عَنِ ٱلسَّاعَةِ أَيَّانَ مُرْسَىٰهَا ۖ قُلْ إِنَّمَا عِلْمُهَا عِندَ رَبِّى ۖ لَا يُجَلِّيهَا لِوَقْتِهَآ إِلَّا هُوَ ۚ ثَقُلَتْ فِى ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ ۚ لَا تَأْتِيكُمْ إِلَّا بَغْتَةً ۗ يَسْـَٔلُونَكَ كَأَنَّكَ حَفِىٌّ عَنْهَا ۖ قُلْ إِنَّمَا عِلْمُهَا عِندَ ٱللَّهِ وَلَـٰكِنَّ أَكْثَرَ ٱلنَّاسِ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ
In Sahih Muslim 8a, when the man asked about the Hour, the Prophet said that the one asked knows no more than the one asking, and then went on to describe some of its indications. The wording does not turn those indications into a date.
6AuthenticSahih Muslim 8
The reports call these items signs or portents of the Hour; the Arabic term in Sahih al-Bukhari 80 means portents of the Hour. None of the cited wordings turns a sign into a forecast of when it will occur. Any claim that an item will happen at a given time is a separate claim, and it needs its own evidence.
How can I check an end-times claim?
Use these questions when a post or clip adds a detail to a cited report.
| Ask | What the check establishes |
|---|---|
| Which hadith number and version? | Whether the detail appears in that report, with that wording. |
| Does it give a date, a count, a place or a person? | If so, it adds something the cited wording does not give. |
| Does it say a sign has already been fulfilled? | Whether a source says so. The reports here give no tally of fulfilled signs. |
Keep the original reference beside any notes. A retelling can be clear, but each added detail still needs its own reference.
The reckoning and the mercy of Allah are set out, with their sources, on The Day of Judgement in Islam.
If reading about the signs is weighing on you, talk to a scholar you trust, and to your GP if it is affecting your sleep or daily life.
The signs of the Hour are often described in dramatic terms. Reading what the hadith say, and separating a sign from a prediction, keeps the claims to what the sources state.
Try it: three questions
Pick an answer; each one explains itself.
1How many sinkings of land does Sahih Muslim 2901a name?
Answer: Three, in the east, the west and the Arabian peninsula. The wording names three sinkings of land: in the east, in the west and in the Arabian peninsula. The table counts them as three items. Source 1
2Does Sahih Muslim 2901a give a calendar year for the Hour?
Answer: No, it gives none. The wording places the fire last and gives no date for any item, so no year can be read from it. Source 1
3Which verse places knowledge of the Hour's timing with Allah?
Answer: Al-A'raf 7:187. Al-A'raf 7:187 says its knowledge is with the Lord and that none but He reveals it at its time. Al-Kahf 18:93 is about the barrier, and Al-Anbiya 21:96 about the release of Yajuj and Majuj.
Questions people ask
Are there only ten signs?
Sahih Muslim 2901a gives a list of ten. Other cited reports, such as Sahih al-Bukhari 80 and Sahih al-Bukhari 3176, name further items. The list of ten is the count in that one wording, not a count of every sign discussed in the collections.
Is every list of ten signs worded the same?
No. Sahih Muslim 2901a and 2901b have different orders, and the transmitter note in 2901b gives two wordings for the tenth item. Use each version with its own wording and reference.
Does the wording say when the three sinkings of land will happen?
No. The wording names three places and gives no date for them. No source on this page links them to any event, past or present.
Sources
Every claim on this page comes from one of these. Gradings are reported with the scholar's name; we do not grade hadith ourselves.
- 1
Hudhayfah ibn Asid al-Ghifari reports that the Prophet said the Hour will not come until ten signs have been seen, and names them: the smoke, the Dajjal, the beast, the sun rising from the west, the descent of Isa son of Maryam, Yajuj and Majuj, three sinkings of land (east, west and the Arabian peninsula), and last of these a fire from Yemen that drives people to their place of assembly.
Sahih Muslim 2901a Book 54, Hadith 51
Authentic: in Sahih Muslim (Muslim). Remarks: لم يرفعه غير فرات عن أبي الطفيل من وجه يصح مثله [وروي] موقوفا (Al-Daraqutni); تابع فراتا على رفعه قتادة بسند فيه منكر الحديث وجاء مرفوعا بسند ضعيف (Al-Wadi'i)
- 2
Hudhayfah ibn Asid reports the Prophet saying that the Hour will not come until ten signs appear, in an order that begins with three sinkings of land (east, west and the Arabian peninsula), then the smoke, the Dajjal, the beast of the earth, Gog and Magog, the rising of the sun from the west, and a fire from the lower part of 'Adan that drives people. Those are nine items in the Prophet's words. The tenth item is given by the transmitter, not by the Prophet: a transmitter's note says a parallel report does not name the Prophet, and gives two wordings for that tenth item.
Sahih Muslim 2901b Book 54, Hadith 52
Authentic: in Sahih Muslim (Muslim). Remarks: لم يرفعه غير فرات عن أبي الطفيل من وجه يصح مثله [وروي] موقوفا (Al-Daraqutni); تابع فراتا على رفعه قتادة بسند فيه منكر الحديث وجاء مرفوعا بسند ضعيف (Al-Wadi'i)
- 3
Anas reports the Prophet saying that he has been sent and the Hour is like these two, linking his being sent with the Hour; the wording gives no number of years.
Sahih al-Bukhari 6504 Book 81, Hadith 93
Authentic: in Sahih al-Bukhari
- 4
'Awf ibn Malik reports that during the Tabuk expedition the Prophet told him to count six signs before the Hour, the first of which is his death; the list continues with the conquest of Jerusalem, a plague, increased wealth, a trial entering every Arab house, and a truce with Bani al-Asfar that they will break.
Sahih al-Bukhari 3176 Book 58, Hadith 18
Authentic: in Sahih al-Bukhari
- 5
Anas reports the Prophet saying that among the portents of the Hour is that knowledge is lifted, ignorance becomes established, wine is drunk, and illicit sexual relations (zina) appear.
Sahih al-Bukhari 80 Book 3, Hadith 22
Authentic: in Sahih al-Bukhari
- 6
Umar ibn al-Khattab reports that a man asked the Prophet about the Hour; the Prophet said the one asked knows no more than the one asking, then described some of its indications: the slave-girl giving birth to her mistress and master, and barefooted, destitute goat-herds competing in the construction of magnificent buildings.
Sahih Muslim 8 Book 1, Hadith 1
Authentic: in Sahih Muslim
- 7
Anas reports the Prophet's final illness and death: when he was unconscious his daughter said how distressed her father was, and he told her there would be no more distress for him after that day; after his death she spoke of his place in Paradise, and at his burial she asked Anas whether they were content to throw earth on the Messenger of Allah.
Sahih al-Bukhari 4462 Book 64, Hadith 478
Authentic: in Sahih al-Bukhari
- Q
Quran Arabic and English for Al-A'raf 7:187.
Tanzil Project Uthmani text, CC BY 3.0. English: adapted from Marmaduke Pickthall's translation (1930), modernised and checked against modern translations.
Next
For your own situation, ask a scholar you trust.
Join the email list
New guides by email, now and then. No spam, and you can leave at any time.
Ilmwell is free and kept going by readers. See how to support it.