Explanation of the Book of Fitans and Rulings-01b

The reciter: And Abu 'Uwanah said, from 'Asim, from Abu Wa'il, from al-As'ari, that he said: Similarly, Ibn Mas'ud said, "I heard the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) say: .

The Shaykh : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
The author said: The chapter on the appearance of fitans (trials). Fitans occur in good and in evil. Allah the Exalted said: As for the trial of good, a person is tested in it so that he may thank Allah (Mighty and Majestic) or not thank Him, as Sulayman said: As for the trial of evil, it is the trial by which a servant is tested to see whether he will be patient or not. The author means by "fitans" in his speech the second one, i.e., the trials of evil. He mentioned three matters in these hadiths: the first is the descent of ignorance, the second is the removal of knowledge, and the third is al-hiraj (chaotic killing). As for the removal of knowledge, it occurs through the death of scholars, as the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: The descent of ignorance and the removal of knowledge are concomitant, because when ignorance descends, knowledge is removed, and when knowledge descends, ignorance is removed. As for al-hiraj, it is killing. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) explained in another hadith: This is currently prevalent in the lands we hear about often. A person is attacked and raided upon and killed, not knowing the reason, until the killer himself, after carrying out the killing, reflects on what he killed for and does not know the reason that drove him to kill, because people's minds become deranged, may Allah protect us, and they become like the insane, not knowing what they are doing. This occurs on the eve of the Hour, and the meaning of "on the eve of it" is that it is near to it, so it is close to the major signs that appear. Also, the abundance of wealth, for wealth has become abundant in some places to an excessive degree, until people do not know where to put their money. You find them putting it in trivial things of no benefit.
As for the last hadith, it says: These are among the worst of people because they will be in a time when knowledge is removed and ignorance prevails. And so that it is not said, "May Allah protect us, may Allah protect us, everything is removed from the earth, and the Hour will stand upon people who do not know Allah," they are the worst of creation. If someone were to say: "But is it not established from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): And in another wording: What is the answer?" The scholars answered that this group is few in number compared to the worst of creation, so it is like non-existence. And with another answer, the meaning of his saying "until the Hour stands" is "until the standing of the Hour approaches," so he expressed the nearness by the word "standing," and this is permissible in the Arabic language. This view is better than the one before it. The view before it considered the majority, who are the wicked, and said the minority is of no account. The second one considered the reality and the actual situation, and made the figurative usage in the phrase "the standing of the Hour," meaning its nearness.