Beyond the signs of the changing of leadership we have another clear sign which we can see has been fulfilled in our life time.
Jibril said in his famous hadith, ‘Tell me about the Hour.’ The Messenger of Allah said, ‘The one asked about it knows no more than the one asking.’
Jibril said, ‘Then tell me about its tokens.’ The Messenger of Allah said, ‘That the female slave should give birth to her mistress, and you see poor, naked, barefoot shepherds of sheep and goats competing in making tall buildings.’ [Muslim]
“and you see poor, naked, barefoot shepherds of sheep and goats competing in making tall buildings.”
The scholars have said the prophet was describing the Bedouin Arabs who will hail from the desert area of Najd, east of Mecca and Medina [present day Riyadh, Dharan, Dammam, Khobar and the gulf region] before the oil boom the people of Najd lived in tents. Another version of the hadith in bukhari states, “when barefoot and the naked are the heads of the people.” Another version in Muslim says “when the naked and barefoot are the top leaders of the people.” A third version in Bukhari and Muslim states “when you see that the barefoot and naked, the deaf and dumb are the kings of the earth.”
Ibn hajar said in commenting on this hadith in Fath al bari. “It was said that “barefoot and naked,” “Deaf and dumb” are their attributes by way of hyperbole, showing how coarse they are. That is, they did not use their hearing or sight in anything concerning their religion even though they are of perfectly sound senses. The prophets words: “ The heads of people” means the kings of the earth. Abu Farwa’s narration names the kings explicitly. What is meant by them is the people of the desert country, as was made explicit in Sulayman al-Tayimi’s and other narations:”who are the barefoot and naked? He answered the Bedouin Arabs.”
Imam Nawawi further explains: “The people of badia [the desert Bedouins] and their like are indigent. There will come a time in which they become rich and build structures to demonstrate their wealth.
Tabarani relates through Abu Hamza, on the authority of Ibn Abbas from the prophet, that “one of the signs of the change of the religion is the affectation [pretention or something that is not part of your natural personality] of eloquence by the rabble and their betaking to palaces in big cities.”
Qurtubi said: What is meant here is the prediction of a reversal in society whereby the people of the desert country will take over the conduct of affairs and rule every region by force. They will become extremely rich and their primary concern will be to erect tall buildings and take pride in them.
Al hafiz Ibn hajar said in the explanation of this hadith, “everyone tries to build a higher building than the other.” Imam Ahmad from Abu Amir that the people who construct tall buildings will keep building them higher and higher [musnad 4:129]. That is if one builds a structure three stories tall, the next person builds four stories, the next person builds five, etc.
We can only imagine how this must have sounded from the perspective of the Ulumah who lived hundreds of years ago, but we know better now, the Saudi Bedouins of najd did take control, they declared themselves kings became extremely rich and created the country known as Saudi Arabia.
In the 1400 years since this hadith was mentioned there have been no sky scrapers in any desert Muslim country. Then on April 24 2000 the tallest building was built in the desert. The Faisaliah building in Riyadh is 269 meters [882 feet] tall. Then in 2003 a new high rise, the kingdom centre was built also in Riyadh and is 311m [1020 feet] making it the 55th tallest building in the world, taller than any building in Najd. It may also be of interest that the once Bedouin Arabs of the United Arab Emirates have now built the world’s tallest building not just in the region, the Burj Khalifah at 828 m (2,717 ft) also fulfilling the conditions of this hadith.
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