The Smoke which will appear at the End of Time
MASRUQ said: "While a man was giving a speech among the people of Kindah, he said, 'There will be smoke on the Day of Resurrection which will deprive the hypocrites of their hearing and sight, but the believers will only suffer something like a cold' We were terrified, so we went to Ibn Masud, who was reclining. When he heard about this, he became angry and sat up, and said: 'O people, whoever knows a thing, let him say it; but whoever does not know, let him say, "Allâh knows best." It is a part of knowledge, when one does not know something, to say "Allâh knows best."
Allâh - subhânahu wa Ta’âla - said to His Prophet Mohammad - sallallâhu ’alayhi wa sallam -:
"Say: 'No reward do I ask of you for this (Qur'ân), nor am I a pretender'"(Sad 38:86.)
"Quraysh were being slow in embracing Islâm, so the Prophet - sallallâhu ’alayhi wa sallam - prayed against them, saying, 'O Allâh, help me against them by sending seven years of famine like those of Joseph.' They were afflicted by a year of famine in which they were destroyed, and ate dead animals and bones. They began to see something like smoke between the sky and the earth.
Abû Sufyan came and said, 'O Mohammad! You came to command us to keep good relations with our relatives, and your people have perished, so pray that Allâh may relieve them'" The Ibn Mas'ud recited, "Then watch thou for the Day that the sky will bring forth a kind of smoke (or mist) plainly visible, Enveloping the people: this will be a Penalty Grievous. (They will say:) "Our Lord! Remove the Penalty from us, for we do truly believe! How shall the Message be (effectual) for them, seeing that an Apostle explaining things clearly has (already) come to them? Yet they return away from him and say: 'Tutored (by others), a man possessed! We shall indeed remove the Penalty for a while, (but) truly ye will revert (to your ways)." (al-Dukhan 44:10-15)
Ibn Maud asked: "Will their punishment in the Hereafter be removed so they can go back to their Kufr?" Allâh - subhânahu wa Ta’âla - said:
"One day We shall seize you with a mighty onslaught: We will indeed (then) exact Retribution!"(al-Dukhan 44:16)
"...and soon will come the inevitable (punishment)!"(al-Furqan 25:77)
These Ayat refer to the Day (Battle) of Badr. Allâh - subhânahu wa Ta’âla - said:
"Alif-Lam-Mim. The Romans (Byzantines) have been defeated - in a land close by; but they, (even) after (this) defeat of theirs, will soon be victorious - within a few years."(al-Rum 30: 1-3) (al-Bukhârî)
This speaker's suggestion - that the idea that the smoke would be on the Day or Resurrection was not a good one - made Ibn Masud react angrily. But the smoke will appear before the Day of Resurrection; it will be one of the signs, which are: the Beast, the Dajjal, the Smoke, and Gog and Magog, as the Ahadîth narrated from Abû Sarihah, Abû Hurayrah and other Sahabah indicate. As mentioned in the Sahîh Ahadîth, the fire which will appear before the Day of Resurrection will burst forth from the direction of Aden, and drive the people to the place of their final assembly. It will move with them and halt with them, and will devour any who lag behind.
