Did Muhammad Predict the End of the World?

The sound collections record Muhammad pointing at a young person and tying “your Hour” to that life. Sahih Muslim 2953Sahih Muslim 2953 · Abdul Hamid SiddiquiAnas reported that a person asked Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) as to when the Last Hour would come. He had in his presence a young boy of the Ansar who was called Muhammad. Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said: If this young boy lives, he may not grow very old till (he would see) the Last Hour coming to you.Sahih Muslim 2953 · Abdul Hamid SiddiquiOpen the Source names a boy of the Ansar called Muhammad and says he may not grow very old before the Last Hour comes to the hearers. Sahih al-Bukhari 6511Sahih al-Bukhari 6511 · Muhammad Muhsin KhanSome rough bedouins used to visit the Prophet (ﷺ) and ask him, "When will the Hour be?" He would look at the youngest of all of them and say, "If this should live till he is very old, your Hour (the death of the people addressed) will take place." Hisham said that he meant (by the Hour), their death.Sahih al-Bukhari 6511 · Muhammad Muhsin KhanOpen the Source records Hisham’s reading: the Hour meant their death. The reports do not name a year, and they do not name 2030.

Key Points

• Sahih Muslim 2953Sahih Muslim 2953 · Abdul Hamid SiddiquiAnas reported that a person asked Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) as to when the Last Hour would come. He had in his presence a young boy of the Ansar who was called Muhammad. Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said: If this young boy lives, he may not grow very old till (he would see) the Last Hour coming to you.Sahih Muslim 2953 · Abdul Hamid SiddiquiOpen the Source, in Abdul Hamid Siddiqui’s English, has him say that if the boy lives, he may not grow very old till the Last Hour comes to the people he is addressing.
• Sahih Muslim 2952Sahih Muslim 2952 · Abdul Hamid Siddiqui'A'isha reported that when the desert Arabs came to Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) they asked about the Last Hour as to when that would come. And he looked towards the youngest amongst them and said: If he lives he would not grow very old that he would find your Last Hour coming to you (he would see you dying).Sahih Muslim 2952 · Abdul Hamid SiddiquiOpen the Source is Aisha’s report of desert Arabs asking when the Last Hour would come, and the same gesture toward the youngest of them.
• Sahih al-Bukhari 6511Sahih al-Bukhari 6511 · Muhammad Muhsin KhanSome rough bedouins used to visit the Prophet (ﷺ) and ask him, "When will the Hour be?" He would look at the youngest of all of them and say, "If this should live till he is very old, your Hour (the death of the people addressed) will take place." Hisham said that he meant (by the Hour), their death.Sahih al-Bukhari 6511 · Muhammad Muhsin KhanOpen the Source quotes Hisham: he meant, by the Hour, their death.
• Sahih al-Bukhari 6504 has him say he was sent with the Hour “as these two (fingers),” a saying about nearness with no date.
• Qur’an 7:187 says the knowledge of the Hour is only with God, and that it will not come upon them except unexpectedly.

What Did Muhammad Say About the End of the World?

Sahih Muslim 2953Sahih Muslim 2953 · Abdul Hamid SiddiquiAnas reported that a person asked Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) as to when the Last Hour would come. He had in his presence a young boy of the Ansar who was called Muhammad. Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said: If this young boy lives, he may not grow very old till (he would see) the Last Hour coming to you.Sahih Muslim 2953 · Abdul Hamid SiddiquiOpen the Source reads:

Anas reported that a person asked Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) as to when the Last Hour would come. He had in his presence a young boy of the Ansar who was called Muhammad. Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) said: If this young boy lives, he may not grow very old till (he would see) the Last Hour coming to you.

Sahih Muslim 2953 · Abdul Hamid Siddiqui

Sunni hadith

The question is when the Last Hour would come. The answer is a boy in the room, and a life that does not have to become very old. Sahih Muslim 2952Sahih Muslim 2952 · Abdul Hamid Siddiqui'A'isha reported that when the desert Arabs came to Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) they asked about the Last Hour as to when that would come. And he looked towards the youngest amongst them and said: If he lives he would not grow very old that he would find your Last Hour coming to you (he would see you dying).Sahih Muslim 2952 · Abdul Hamid SiddiquiOpen the Source is the same scene with desert Arabs. Aisha says he looked toward the youngest of them and said that if that one lives he would not grow very old before he finds their Last Hour coming, and the report adds that he would see them dying.

Qur’an 7:187, in Saheeh International, says, “They ask you as if you are familiar with it,” and the reply is, “Its knowledge is only with Allāh.” The hadith and the surah sit side by side. One refuses a date. The other points at a child and speaks of the hearers’ Hour inside that lifetime.

Did Muhammad Predict the Hour Within a Generation?

Sahih al-Bukhari 6511Sahih al-Bukhari 6511 · Muhammad Muhsin KhanSome rough bedouins used to visit the Prophet (ﷺ) and ask him, "When will the Hour be?" He would look at the youngest of all of them and say, "If this should live till he is very old, your Hour (the death of the people addressed) will take place." Hisham said that he meant (by the Hour), their death.Sahih al-Bukhari 6511 · Muhammad Muhsin KhanOpen the Source, in Muhammad Muhsin Khan’s English, is the report Muslims cite when they say the Hour in these lines is not the end of the world:

Some rough bedouins used to visit the Prophet (ﷺ) and ask him, “When will the Hour be?” He would look at the youngest of all of them and say, “If this should live till he is very old, your Hour (the death of the people addressed) will take place.” Hisham said that he meant (by the Hour), their death.

Sahih al-Bukhari 6511 · Muhammad Muhsin Khan

Sunni hadith

Hisham’s sentence is in the collectionSahih al-Bukhari 6511 · Muhammad Muhsin KhanSome rough bedouins used to visit the Prophet (ﷺ) and ask him, "When will the Hour be?" He would look at the youngest of all of them and say, "If this should live till he is very old, your Hour (the death of the people addressed) will take place." Hisham said that he meant (by the Hour), their death.Sahih al-Bukhari 6511 · Muhammad Muhsin KhanOpen the Source. It is a real Muslim explanation: “your Hour” is the death of the people being spoken to, not a calendar date for the resurrection of all the dead. Muslim 2952 already adds “he would see you dying.” A fair reading keeps that gloss. The prophet, on this report, was not publishing a year in which the world would end. He was telling a group that their own end would arrive before a child among them was very old.

The words he used are still “the Last Hour” in Muslim’s wordingSahih Muslim 2953 · Abdul Hamid SiddiquiAnas reported that a person asked Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) as to when the Last Hour would come. He had in his presence a young boy of the Ansar who was called Muhammad. Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said: If this young boy lives, he may not grow very old till (he would see) the Last Hour coming to you.Sahih Muslim 2953 · Abdul Hamid SiddiquiOpen the Source, and “your Hour” in Bukhari’sSahih al-Bukhari 6511 · Muhammad Muhsin KhanSome rough bedouins used to visit the Prophet (ﷺ) and ask him, "When will the Hour be?" He would look at the youngest of all of them and say, "If this should live till he is very old, your Hour (the death of the people addressed) will take place." Hisham said that he meant (by the Hour), their death.Sahih al-Bukhari 6511 · Muhammad Muhsin KhanOpen the Source, with the death gloss in parentheses and in Hisham’s comment. The reader can see both the phrase and the narrator’s explanation. The explanation is not a modern patch. It is in the hadith.

Did Any of Muhammad’s Predictions Come True?

Muslim 2952Sahih Muslim 2952 · Abdul Hamid Siddiqui'A'isha reported that when the desert Arabs came to Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) they asked about the Last Hour as to when that would come. And he looked towards the youngest amongst them and said: If he lives he would not grow very old that he would find your Last Hour coming to you (he would see you dying).Sahih Muslim 2952 · Abdul Hamid SiddiquiOpen the Source, Muslim 2953Sahih Muslim 2953 · Abdul Hamid SiddiquiAnas reported that a person asked Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) as to when the Last Hour would come. He had in his presence a young boy of the Ansar who was called Muhammad. Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said: If this young boy lives, he may not grow very old till (he would see) the Last Hour coming to you.Sahih Muslim 2953 · Abdul Hamid SiddiquiOpen the Source, and Bukhari 6511Sahih al-Bukhari 6511 · Muhammad Muhsin KhanSome rough bedouins used to visit the Prophet (ﷺ) and ask him, "When will the Hour be?" He would look at the youngest of all of them and say, "If this should live till he is very old, your Hour (the death of the people addressed) will take place." Hisham said that he meant (by the Hour), their death.Sahih al-Bukhari 6511 · Muhammad Muhsin KhanOpen the Source are one scene told more than once, not a list of dated forecasts. They do not name a city, a battle, or a year. Hisham’s reading, that the Hour meant their death, is a prediction every generation can fulfill, because the people in a room do die. That reading should be stated, and it should be distinguished from a claim that he timed the end of the world.

The general Hour is a different saying. In Sahih al-Bukhari 6504, Anas reports: “I have been sent and the Hour (is at hand) as these two (fingers).” That is a claim of nearness. The prophet and the Hour stand side by side, like Jesus’ “the kingdom of God is at hand” in Mark 1:15Mark 1:15 · King James VersionAnd saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.Mark 1:15 · King James VersionOpen the Source. It sets no year either. A critic who wants a failed date has to find it in another report. Muslims who want to show a fulfilled prophecy cite other sayings: Is Muhammad the Prophet of Deuteronomy 18? and Scientific Miracles in the Qur’an take those up.

What Will Happen in 2030 According to Islam?

Nothing in Muslim 2952, Muslim 2953, or Bukhari 6511 names 2030, or any other numbered year. Qur’an 7:187 says the Hour’s knowledge is with God. A page that invents a year from these lines is not reading them.

How the Gospels Speak of a Generation

The same care belongs on the Christian texts that use a generation. Mark 9:1Mark 9:1 · King James VersionAnd he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.Mark 9:1 · King James VersionOpen the Source says some of those standing there will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God come with power. The next verse says that after six days he took Peter, James, and John up a high mountain, and he was transfigured before them. The paragraph that follows the saying is the transfiguration, not a blank date. Mark 13:30Mark 13:30 · King James VersionVerily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done.Mark 13:30 · King James VersionOpen the Source says this generation will not pass until all these things are done, after Jesus has spoken of the temple stones thrown down. What Is Bible Prophecy? quotes Matthew 24:34 in that temple setting.

A reader who turns Mark 9:1Mark 9:1 · King James VersionAnd he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.Mark 9:1 · King James VersionOpen the Source into a failed prediction of the end of the world, and who ignores the mountain in the next verses, is doing what a reader does who turns Bukhari 6511 into a failed date and ignores Hisham. The Hour reports, read with Hisham, are about the death of the people addressed. Mark 9:1, read with the next verses, is about people who would see the kingdom come with power, and the Gospel places the transfiguration six days later. Mark 13 is the generation that hears the temple sayings. The standard is the next lines, on both sides.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Else Does Qur’an 7:187 Say About the Hour’s Timing?

Saheeh International’s Qur’an 7:187 has him answer, “None will reveal its time except Him. It lays heavily upon the heavens and the earth. It will not come upon you except unexpectedly.” The verse ends, “most of the people do not know.”

Keep Reading

• What Is Bible Prophecy?
• Qur’an 46:9: Did Muhammad Know He Was Saved?
• Who Was Muhammad?
• Is Muhammad the Prophet of Deuteronomy 18?
• What Does the Bible Say About Salvation?