101 Reasons Why We Left Islam – Chapter 5: Failed Prophecies– Reason 58
Another prediction and another Hadith graded as Sahih. If you don’t want to read the Hadith, skip it and read the breakdown and analysis.
Sunan Ibn Majah 4044 (Graded: Sahih)
It was narrated that Abu Hurairah said:
- “The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) came out one day to the people, and a man came to him and said: ‘O Messenger of Allah, when will the Hour be?’ He said: ‘The one who is asked about it does not know more than the one who is asking. But I will tell you of its portents (signs). When the slave woman gives birth to her mistress, that is one of its portents. When the barefoot and naked become leaders of the people, that is one of its portents. When shepherds compete in constructing buildings, that is one of its portents. (The Hour) is one of five (things) which no one knows except Allah.’ Then the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) recited the words: “Verily, Allah, with Him (alone) is the knowledge of the Hour, He sends down the rain, and knows that which is in the wombs. (to the end of the Verse).”[31:34]
The hadith outlines three specific signs of the “Hour” (the Day of Judgment):
- A slave woman giving birth to her mistress: Suggests a reversal of social hierarchy, where the child of a slave becomes a master or leader.
- The barefoot and naked becoming leaders: Implies that people who are poor and have nothing will rise to positions of power.
- Shepherds competing in constructing buildings: Indicates that people traditionally associated with simple, rural occupations (shepherds) will engage in ambitious architectural projects.
In summary, it suggests a mystical and chaotic future!
On social media, this prediction got famous because several Dawah suggested it refers to Arab Gulf states competing to build skyscrapers. Eventually, Burj Khalifa was declared the tallest building in the World. The same Dawah would suggest that the people who did the construction are the ‘barefoot and naked’, meaning the manual workers Arab Gulf countries import from Asia- yet this is not exactly in the Hadith. The Hadith speaks about naked and barefoot people becoming leaders, not construction workers. And even the idea of shepherds competing to construct buildings does not fit this scenario. Arabs and people of the UAE were never shepherds. They were sailors, pearl hunters, and traders – never shepherds. There is a very limited chance of making a good income from being a shepherd in the desert!
So, associating this with Arabs, UAE, or Burj Khalifa is nonsense. But as someone who lived enough to see this claim being recycled, I can tell you that in the 1980s, this Hadith was marketed under a different theme – the American. Americans have been known as cowboys (Shepherds) since the 1930s, when they competed to construct the tallest skyscraper buildings- the World Trade Centre, the Empire State Building, and the Chrysler Building. And who owns the land of America? The American Indians. The American Indians used to be naked and barefoot, but now their country is a world leader. See how this Hadith can easily be twisted the other way? But even this does not make sense because native American Indians have never led the USA. And the people who constructed the skyscrapers of New York and elsewhere were engineers and construction workers, not Shepherds.
Conclusion:
The analysis suggests that the prophecy’s vagueness allows it to be endlessly reinterpreted to fit contemporary events, whether American skyscrapers in the 1980s or the Burj Khalifa in the 2010s. This flexibility is both its strength (for propagators) and its weakness (for credibility). The hadith’s warning signs are not tied to specific locations, people, or eras, making them susceptible to manipulation. Who knows how many times it has been used throughout history? Moreover, the repeated failure of imminent apocalyptic predictions, as evidenced by other hadiths and Quranic verses, casts doubt on the prophecy’s reliability.
The Prophet claimed the end is an event when unusual things happen, and it is all a mystery and chaos. He is not the first person to use this approach. It has been around for as long as time has existed. Why a slave gives birth to a mistress? Why do naked people become leaders? Why do Shepherds who don’t know how to do construction end up doing construction? The only thing left that would have made this whole story glue better is go… hocus-pocus!! And maybe all of this will make more sense in the next part, when we see what the Prophet was indicating, the time frame of the ‘End of Time’.