Answer
Short Answer:
- A hadith which is popularly known as hadith Jibril says that the angel Gabriel came to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in a human form, sat there with him among the Prophet’s companions, started asking him.
- And among the questions he asked was what are the signs of the Day of Judgment. And the Prophet (peace be upon him) then said, “The servant girl will give birth to her mistress and you will see those Bedouins who were once herding sheep now competing with each other in raising tall buildings, and so on.”
- And there are other things which are referred to as major signs. For example, the descent of Jesus (on whom be peace). And the coming of one who’s referred to as the Antichrist. And that Jesus will eventually slay this Antichrist. It is also mentioned that the sun will rise from the West, suddenly.
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Asalamu Alaikum,
Thank you for contacting About Islam with your question.
Dr. Shabir Ally addresses this question in the video below:
Transcript:
Aisha Khaja: So, Dr. Shabir, what are the major signs of the Day of Judgment?
Dr. Shabir Ally: The major signs of the Day of Judgment are actually not mentioned in the Quran as much as we might expect.
The Quran describes a lot about the actual onset of the Day of Judgment like it’s right here as opposed to signs which make us think of you know we see something and we say, ok, the Day of Judgment is close.
The Quran actually speaks of it as like here and now. Here it is the sun is rent asunder and so on. It is like it’s already here. Not that it’s going to happen soon. But the Quran is an exception to this general situation.
[It] does mention that a creature will come from out of the earth and speak to people when they no longer listen to the messages of the Prophets. So, what exactly that means requires some interpretation. We don’t know actually precisely what that means.
They’ll have to see it when it actually happens. Now in the hadith literature, there are a lot of details about what will happen as signs of the Day of Judgment.
For example, is a hadith which is popularly known as hadith Jibril, it says that the angel Gabriel came to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in a human form, sat there with him among the Prophet’s companions, started asking him.
And among the questions he asked was what are the signs of the Day of Judgment. And the Prophet (peace be upon him) then said, well you know these are the signs. The servant girl will give birth to her mistress and you will see those Bedouins who were once herding sheep now competing with each other in raising tall buildings, and so on.
So, these are taken to be signs of the Day of Judgement. And of course, later on, people, Muslims see these things happening. They see the competition and raising tall buildings. For example, in some parts of the Muslim world, you will see that there’s competition really and fancier buildings, taller buildings, and massive structures.
And they say, well we see now that sometimes. It so happens that the a girl becomes like a sort of master over her, or mistress over her own mother. So, in a way this is like the slave girl giving birth to her own mistress.
And there are other things which are referred to as major signs. For example, the descent of Jesus (on whom be peace). And the coming of one who’s referred to as the Antichrist. And that Jesus will eventually slay this Antichrist. It is also mentioned that the sun will rise from the West, suddenly.
And how exactly this will happen is something, again, we’ll have to see when it happens.
I hope this helps answer your question. Please keep in touch.
Walaikum Asalam.
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http://aboutislam.net/reading-islam/understanding-islam/10-major-signs-world-ends/