The Meaning of the Hadith: (The fitnah is here, and he pointed to the east, where the horn of Shaytan will emerge)

The questioner : The last one, may Allah be pleased with them, is what came in the authentic hadith, the Sahih of Imam Muslim. I had read that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: And I think it is the direction of the east?

The Shaykh : You think it is from which direction?

The questioner : The direction of the east?

The Shaykh : You are saying Makkah.

The questioner: No.

The Shaykh : Jeddah.

The questioner : The direction of the east.

The Shaykh : Ah, the east, yes.

The questioner : That is, he is saying the fitan are here.

The Shaykh : And he pointed to the east.

The questioner : That is, these events that we are living through are like a fitnah, and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) informed us about that. Is my conclusion—let me add a little to it—is the conclusion regarding the nearness of the coming of the awaited Mahdi and the piling up of the disbelieving power with the Arab powers, I mean from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Iran, and they all gather and invade the Ka'bah because of the presence of such a man in it? Or are there other matters that may happen?

The Shaykh : No, this has no relation to what came in the hadith: and so on, and he pointed to the east. There is no doubt that what is intended by it is Iraq, and it is also what is intended by the well-known hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari: and he repeated it three times, then a man said, "And in our Najd, O Messenger of Allah?" He said: The Najd mentioned in this hadith is thought by many people to be the Saudi Najd region, and this is a grave error according to the hadith narrations that explicitly state that what is intended is Iraq. This is because there is another narration in this hadith which begins with: They said: This is a clarifying narration for the first word, which is: That is because Najd in the Arabic language is any place that is elevated relative to a lower place, so Iraq relative to Madinah is Najd, meaning an elevated place. This first narration does not allow us to interpret the questioner's statement "in our Najd" as the Najd known today, but rather the Najd here is Iraq. Another narration in Sahih Muslim is that a man asked Ibn 'Umar about a fly that falls on his garment, whether it makes it impure? He said: "O people of Iraq, why do you ask me about the small matter and burden me with the large one? I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: So it is true that these hadiths point to Iraq, but that does not apply to it forever, always and eternally, but rather if a fitnah occurs there, there is no doubt that it is included in the generality of this hadith. And in this case, we can include the fitnah of Iraq's aggression against Kuwait as one of the fitan that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) referred to in these authentic hadiths. And to conclude, this reminds me of what I mentioned in some of my answers, where I said that bringing the Saudis, and the truth is more deserving to be said, bringing the Saudis or the Saudi government, the Crusaders to their land, and by their choice, is a greater evil than the aggression of the Iraqis against Kuwait. I have said this more than once. And now I conclude this session with this word, so I say that bringing the Saudis or the Saudi government, because I will be forced to say a word, unfortunately, to clarify the truth, just as the Iraqi Ba'ath Party does not represent the Iraqi people, so the Saudi state does not represent the Saudi people, including those among them who are people of knowledge, virtue, righteousness, and piety. So the policy of the states or governments of the Arabs today does not meet the desires of the Muslim peoples. Take an example on which the Shaykhs of the Saudis today do not differ: the spread of statues and images in government offices, and this spread contradicts the call to tawhid (the oneness of Allah) and contradicts what the men of tawhid used to say and still say. All of this represents that the state, in all Muslim peoples, does not represent its people. And on that basis, I say that the Saudi government's bringing of the Crusader governments, although it did not come from the Saudi people but from the Saudi state, is an evil greater than Iraq's seizure of Kuwait. And also, this seizure was not from the people but from the state that does not represent the people. Look now how the peoples are on one side and the states are on the other side? But with this, I say that although bringing the Crusaders to the Saudi land is an evil greater than the aggression of the Ba'ath Party against Kuwait, this aggression is one of the fruits of that bringing, meaning the aggression of the Iraqi government is the cause of bringing this great calamity, which is seeking the aid of the disbelievers and bringing them to the land of Islam. I compared this truth to an old Arabic proverb: "The wall said to the nail, 'Why do you split me?' It said, 'Ask the one who hammers me.'"