The Reasons for Differences in Transmitted Narrations & the Requisites for Confusion and Uncertainty

In an era like this, the matter of the number[1] was contested, to the point that there was outwardly brought about a matter concerning that whose inward reality admitted no disagreement, and there was disclosed a reason which there was no doubt ought to have been concealed. Nor does it constitute a well-known indication or an explicit public proclamation for one who is among Allāh’s representatives, and a trustworthy custodian of Allāh’s secrets, to say: “The Master of this Ordinance is more well-established than I am, and lighter in movement,”[2] especially in view of the famous transmissions and numerous traditions stating that the time is unknown and the era unrecognised. Furthermore, were it not for the secrecy surrounding the time and its deliberate concealment, his advent would not have been identified by means of the Cry, the signs and the emergence of the war-banners of the people of misguidance,[3] and it would instead have been said: “He is so-and-so, the son of so-and-so, and his day is a known day among other days.” However, Allāh, magnified be His name, made it an ordinance awaited at every moment and a condition hoped for by the people of every age, lest people’s hearts become hardened by the protracted term that Allāh decrees, and lest the promised punishment for resorting to a misdeed or an obscenity come to be regarded as slow in arriving; and so that every agent may remain in readiness, with hope lying beyond the performance of good deeds, and apprehension and restraint lying before the people of iniquities and misdeeds; and so that Allāh may repel some by means of others. The ancient precedent in this regard is the statement of the Apostle of Allāh صلى الله عليه وعلى آله concerning the Hour, when he warned his people: “The Hour has come upon you in the morning! The Hour has come upon you in the evening! The Hour and I have been sent forth like these two.”[4]