Al-Fitan wal-Malahim: Signs of the Hour and the Hereafter

The concluding section of the Bidayah, devoted to eschatology, brings Ibn Kathir's universal history from creation to its ultimate consummation in the events of the Hour and the Hereafter. He organizes the material into minor signs and major signs of the Hour, drawing on the extensive hadith corpus preserved in the canonical collections. The minor signs include matters that were already present in Ibn Kathir's own era and that the Prophet indicated would precede the Hour: the spread of knowledge being taken away through the deaths of scholars, the prevalence of ignorance, the multiplication of tribulations (fitan), the abundance of wealth alongside increased miserliness, the construction of tall buildings in competition, and the deterioration of trust and social bonds. Ibn Kathir presents each of these signs with the relevant hadith, applies hadith criticism to establish the authenticity of narrations, and often notes which signs he observes in his own fourteenth-century Islamic world as already fulfilled or in process of fulfillment. This makes the eschatological section simultaneously a hadith compendium, a work of hadith criticism, and a commentary on his own historical moment.

The major signs of the Hour are presented in the order established by the hadith literature: the emergence of the Mahdi, the appearance of the Dajjal (the False Messiah), the descent of 'Isa ibn Maryam, the emergence of Ya'juj and Ma'juj (Gog and Magog), the rising of the sun from the west, the emergence of the Beast of the Earth, three great landslides (one in the east, one in the west, one in the Arabian Peninsula), a great fire that will drive people to their place of gathering, and finally the wind that will take the souls of the believers. Ibn Kathir treats the Dajjal with particular detail, drawing on the extensive hadith literature: his blindness in one eye, the letters 'kafir' written between his eyes that every believer can read, his initial claim to prophethood and then to divinity, the extraordinary phenomena that will accompany him, and the absolute necessity of the Dajjal hadith being a matter of belief for the Sunni Muslim. The descent of 'Isa to kill the Dajjal is described with the detail found in Sahih Muslim, and Ibn Kathir connects this account with his earlier treatment of 'Isa's biography.

The events of the resurrection and judgment receive expansive treatment as the theological climax of the work. The blowing of the trumpet by Israfil that causes all living things to die, the second blowing that resurrects all humanity, the gathering of all human beings on the plain of judgment (al-mahshar), the compression of the sun close to the earth, and the sweating of humanity according to their deeds are all narrated from the hadith literature. The intercession of the Prophet Muhammad (al-shafa'ah al-'uzma), his standing at the Praised Station (al-maqam al-mahmud) to make intercession for the gathering of humanity to be judged, is one of the most detailed subjects in Ibn Kathir's eschatological section. He presents the chain of prophets who will each decline the great intercession before the Prophet Muhammad accepts it, and discusses the various types of intercession established by the hadith literature. The Hisab (accounting), the weighing of deeds on the Mizan (scales), the presentation of the record in the right or left hand, and the passage over the Sirat (bridge over Hell) are all treated with reference to the relevant hadith.

The descriptions of Paradise (al-jannah) and Hell (al-nar) conclude the Bidayah, and Ibn Kathir allows himself in this section a measure of devotional expansion beyond pure historical narrative. He draws on the remarkable density of Quranic and hadith description of these two final abodes to present a vivid picture of what awaits those who believed and those who rejected. The eternal nature of both Paradise and Hell for their respective inhabitants, a point of Sunni theological consensus, is affirmed against minority views. The vision of Allah (ru'yat Allah) granted to the people of Paradise, described in the hadith as seeing Him as clearly as the full moon, is presented as the greatest of all the blessings of Paradise, transcending even its material delights. The Bidayah thus ends where it theologically must: with the final return of all creation to their Creator, the completion of the divine plan that began with the creation of the Throne and the Pen before the heavens and earth, and the ultimate justice of a Lord who records every atom's weight of good and every atom's weight of evil, rewarding and recompensing with perfect equity and perfect mercy.