Barefoot, Naked Shepherds in the Haramayn

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

When he was asked about the signs of the Hour, the Prophet (s.a.w.) replied, “That slave women give birth to their mistresses; and that you see barefoot, unclothed, beginning shepherds competing in the construction of tall buildings.”   This is part of a longer hadits recorded in Swahih Muslim.

Among the other signs of the Hour mentioned by the Prophet (s.a.w.), and also recorded in Swahih al-Bukhari is “when the destitute camel herders compete in building tall structures.”  Another version has, “when the barefoot and the naked are the leaders of the people.”  In Swahih Muslim, it is recorded, “you shall see the barefoot, naked, indigent shepherds compete in building tall structures.”  Another version in Swahih Muslim has, “when the naked and barefoot are the top leaders of the people.”  A third version in Swahih Muslim has, “when you see that the barefoot and naked, the deaf and dumb are the kings of the earth.”

Imam Shihab ad-Din Abu al-Fadhl Ahmad ibn ‘Ali ibn Hajr al-‘Asqalani (r.a.) said, in commenting this passage of the hadits in Fath al-Bari, “It was said that ‘barefoot and naked,’ and ‘deaf and dumb,’ are their attributes by way of hyperbole, demonstrating their low morals.  That is, they did not use their hearing or sight in anything concerning their religion even though they have perfectly sound senses.”

Imam Abu al-Qasim Sulayman ibn Ayyub ath-Thabarani (r.a.) related, through Shaykh Abu Hamzah Tsabit ibn Dinar ats-Tsumali (r.a.), on the authority of Sayyidina ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Abbas (r.a.), from the Prophet (s.a.w.) that, “one of the signs of the change of the religion is the affectation of eloquence by the rabble and their betaking to palaces in big cities.”

Imam Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Qurthubi (r.a.) wrote, “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 building and take pride in them.  We have witnessed this in our time as well as the import of the hadits: ‘The hour will not rise until the happiest man will be the depraved son of a depraved father,’ and also, ‘if the leadership is entrusted to those unfit for it, then expect the hour,’ both found in the authentic collections.”

Imam Zayn ad-Din Abu al-Faraj ‘Abd ar-Rahman ibn Ahmad ibn Rajab al-Hanbali (r.a.) commented on the prophecy of Bedouins “competing with each other in making tall buildings” thus: “There is proof that it is blameworthy to compete boastfully, particularly in making tall buildings.  Building tall structures was not known in the time of the Prophet (s.a.w.) and his companions.  On the contrary, their buildings were small according to necessity.”

Imam Abu Dawud Sulayman ibn al-Ash’ats as-Sijistani (r.a.) recorded a hadits of Sayyidina Anas ibn Malik (r.a.), that the Prophet (s.a.w.) went out and saw an elevated dome and asked, “What is this?”

They answered, “This is so and so’s,” naming one of the Answar men.  Its owner came and greeted the Prophet (s.a.w.), but he turned away from him repeatedly, and so the man demolished it.”

Imam ath-Thabarani (r.a.) narrated through another chain, also from Sayyidina Anas (r.a.), and this version has, “So the Prophet (s.a.w.) said, ‘Every building,’ and he gestured with his hand like this above his head, ‘which is more than this is unwholesome.’”

Imam Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn Yazid ibn Majah (r.a.) recorded the hadits of Anas (r.a.) that the Prophet (s.a.w.) said, “The Hour will not arise until people boastfully compete with each other in building mosques,” and a hadits of Sayyidina ibn ‘Abbas (r.a.) that the Prophet (s.a.w.) said, “I see that you will exalt your mosques after me just as the Jews exalted their synagogues and the Christians their churches.”

This is only a sampling of the many ahadits pertaining to ostentation in buildings and infrastructure, a sign of extreme materialism.  For centuries, nothing was higher than the dome of the Sacred Mosque in Makkah and the Prophet’s (s.a.w.) Mosque in Madina.  And then the Wahhabi heretics came and imported their materialism into the Sacred Precinct.  Just as they desecrate the shahadah with their false ‘aqidah, so too, have they desecrated the Haramayn with the maqamat to dunya.  The barefoot naked shepherds, the sons of the slave girls and the people of Jahiliyyah have come to rule the ummah.