Q513 :All famous religious traditions speak of a
great earthquake that follows a great war. The Prophet Muhammad (peace
be upon him) gives a unique prophecy in the sense that he spoke of the
earth reversing its axis and rotation (refer to Al-Bukhari 7121). Is
there any other Hadith which may give us a hint on what will cause our
planet to change rotation? A massive underground oil field explosion
could almost certainly spin the earth out of control causing the sun to
rise in the west.
A513 : The Hadith which you have referred to is
related by Al-Bukhari on the authority of Abu-Hurairah who quotes the
Prophet as saying: “The Day of Judgment does not take place until two
great camps engage in a war which causes a great number of casualties
on both sides, and both the camps advocate the same message, and until
around thirty liars and impostors have appeared, everyone of whom
claiming to be a messenger of Allah; and true knowledge benetes scarce
and earthquakes frequent; and time benetes short and trials increase
and numerous killings are witnessed; and you have plenty of money to
the extent that a wealthy person worries whether he will find someone
to accept his zakah and he offers it to another person and the latter
says, ‘I have no need for it’; and people take pride in constructing
high-rise buildings; and a man would pass by the grave of another and
say: ‘I wish I was in this place’; and until the sun rises from the
west. When it rises there and people see it, they all will benete
believers. At that time, no soul will benefit by believing if it had
not acted on its belief. When the hour will fall, two people might have
extended a garment between them but could not netplete its sale or its
folding; and a man would have expressed the milk of his she-camel but
could not drink it; and a man would have filled his water container but
could not drink it; and a man would raise food to his mouth but could
not eat it.” As you see, the Hadith gives a very vivid description of
the suddenness with which the end of human life occurs. People are
taken unawares, doing their normal daily activities, but when the time
netes, everything freezes in place to the extent that if a person is
raising some food to his mouth to eat, he cannot eat it. The Hadith
does not mention a particular earthquake of any special magnitude. It
simply speaks of earthquakes beneting frequent. There is no indication
in the Hadith that all these aspects will occur at the same time. It is
not necessary that the frequency of earthquakes should nete hand in
hand with people being wealthy to the extent that no one is in need of
charity. Nor should either indication of the approach of the day of
judgment be also acnetpanied by people wishing that they were dead,
because death seems to be more netforting than living. The Hadith,
however, tells us that the sun will certainly be made to rise in the
west and at that particular time, it is of no use to believe in Allah,
if one has not believed in Him beforehand. That indicates the moment
when all actions will be of no consequence. The day of judgment has
arrived and the duration of life with the test it involves is over.
Whether the rising of the sun from the west is caused by an explosion
that may take place underground or overground we are not told. Such an
explosion, as you say, may cause the earth to spin “out of control”,
but Allah will still be in control of the earth and the universe. How
will Allah make the sun rise from the west is not explained to us in
this Hadith. We do not need to go into the details of that, because
knowing the details need not affect our firm belief that Allah is able
to cause the sun to rise in the west. He is also able to bring that
about in numerous ways. How He chooses to acnetplish that purpose of
His is His business.
Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News – Jeddah )