Abū Hurayra (may Allah be pleased with him) said: I heard the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) say:
“A day will come when people will abandon Medina, with all its goodness and beauty, and leave it behind. Only wild animals and birds will remain there. Finally, two shepherds from the tribe of Muzayna, calling out to their sheep, will enter Medina and find it utterly deserted, filled with wild animals. When they reach the Farewell Hill (Wadāʿ Hill), they will fall face down and die.”
Bukhārī, Faḍāʾil al-Madīna 5; Muslim, Ḥajj 498, 499.
Explanation
In this section of our book, we read about the strange events the world will witness before the Last Day. In this hadith, the heart-wrenching loneliness of that beautiful Medina, for which hearts burn with longing, is depicted during those tumultuous days when the world will have transformed into another realm. People will leave this sanctuary of hearts, departing and leaving it with all its goodness, beauty, virtue, and blessing.
The hadith scholar Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ states that Medina, which was once the capital of the Islamic world and the most flourishing city on earth, held within it the memories of the Companions (ṣaḥāba), the Followers (tābiʿūn), and many other great figures of Islam. However, after the center of the caliphate was moved first to Damascus and then to Baghdad, various strife and painful events occurred there, the esteemed scholars dispersed, the city was occupied by Bedouins, and the now-deserted palm groves of Medina became the abode of wild animals and birds. He even mentions that wolves and dogs would lie in the Blessed Mosque (Masjid al-Saʿāda). Thus, he expresses that the state indicated in the hadith had already been experienced by Medina in the past.
The events Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ refers to, unfortunately, occurred due to the caprices of some Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs. However, as the author of our book, Imām Nawawī, points out, the event described in the hadith will take place in the days when the Last Day is near. The fact that the two shepherds from Muzayna are mentioned as the last two people to die in Medina confirms this.
Lessons Learned from the Hadith
- Near the Last Day, people will abandon that beautiful Medina, which even the Dajjāl (the Antichrist) could not enter, without regard for its spiritual beauties.
- At that time, only wild animals and birds will live there.
- Finally, two shepherds from the tribe of Muzayna will come to Medina with their sheep, and before they even enter the city—while still at the Seniyyat al-Wadāʿ—the Last Day will occur.