It is the received opinion amongst Muslims of all sects that at the Resurrection the body will be raised and united to its soul, and that one part of the body, namely, the lower part of the spine, the os sacrum, in Arabic called ʿAjbu ʾẕ-Ẕanab, “the root of the tail,” will be preserved as a basis of the future edifice. (Mishkāt, book xxiii. ch. ix.)
This bone, it is said, will remain uncorrupted till the last day, as a germ from whence the whole is to be renewed. This will be effected by a forty days’ rain which God will send, and which will cover the earth to the height of twelve cubits, and cause the bodies to sprout forth like plants. For this doctrine Muḥammad is beholden to the Jews, who say the same things of the bone Lūz, excepting that what he attributes to a great rain will be effected, according to them, by a dew, impregnating the dust of the earth. (Bereshit rabbah.)
The time of the Resurrection the Muḥammadans allow to be a perfect secret to all but God alone; the Angel Gabriel himself acknowledged his ignorance on this point when Muḥammad asked him about it. (Mishkāt, book i. ch. i.) However, they say the approach of that day may be known from certain signs which are to precede it. These signs are distinguished into “the lesser” and “the greater.”
The lesser signs (Ishārātu ʾs-Sāʿah) are as follows:—
(1.) The decay of faith among men.
(2.) The advancing of the meanest persons to eminent dignity.
(3.) A maid-servant shall become the mother of her mistress (or master); by which is meant either that towards the end of the world men shall be much given to sensuality, or that the Muḥammadans shall then take many captives.
(4.) Tumults and seditions.
(5.) A war with the Greeks or Romans.
(6.) Great distress in the world, so that a man, when he passeth by another’s grave, shall say, “Would to God I were in his place!”