(8.) A smoke which shall fill the whole earth.
(9.) An eclipse of the moon. Muḥammad is reported to have said, that there would be three eclipses before the last hour, one to be seen in the east, another in the west, and the third in Arabia.
(10.) The returning of the Arabs to the worship of al-Lāt and al-ʿUzzā, and the rest of their ancient idols, after the decease of every one in whose heart there was faith equal to a grain of mustard-seed, none but the very worst of men being left alive. For God, they say, will send a cold odoriferous wind, blowing from Syria, which shall sweep away the souls of the faithful, and the Qurʾān itself, so that men will remain in the grossest ignorance for a hundred years.
(11.) The discovery of a vast heap of gold and silver by the retreating of the Euphrates, which will be the destruction of many.
(12.) The demolition of the Kaʿbah in the Makkan temple by the Ethiopians.
(13.) The speaking of beasts and inanimate things.
(14.) The breaking out of fire in the province of al-Ḥijāz, or, according to others, in al-Yaman.
(15.) The appearance of a man of the descendants of Kahtan, who shall drive men before him with his staff.
(16.) The coming of al-Mahdī, “the director,” concerning whom Muḥammad prophesied that the world should not have an end till one of his own family should govern the Arabians, whose name should be the same with his own name, and whose father’s name should also be the same with his father’s name, and who shall fill the earth with righteousness. This person the Shīʿahs believe to be now alive, and concealed in some secret place, till the time of his manifestation; for they suppose him to be no other than the last of the twelve Imāms, named Muḥammad Abū ʾl-Qāsim, as their prophet was. [[SHIʿAH], [MAHDI].]
(17.) A wind which shall sweep away the souls of all who have but a grain of faith in their hearts, as has been mentioned under the tenth sign. (Mishkāt, book xxiii. ch. iv.)