Before reviewing the hadiths of the Second Coming of Christ in the collection of hadiths, it is essential to understand the nature of the event of the Second Coming.
The first point in this regard is that it is a very specific, tangible, and observable event. In terms of its manifestation and impact, it is a bigger event than the staff turning into a snake, twelve springs gushing forth, a path being made in the sea, being born without a father, speaking from the cradle, waking up after sleeping for three hundred years, and the splitting of the moon. This is because incomprehensible interpretations could be presented to create confusion about the aforementioned miraculous signs and people with limited insight could be persuaded to deny them, but this event is so visible, solid, and enduring that not even a weak re-interpretation could be produced for its denial.
The second point is that the event is exceedingly supernatural and utterly bewildering. The phenomenon of a personality remaining hidden from the world for two thousand years and then descending publicly from the sky is a spectacle that has never happened before in human history, nor will it ever happen again.
The third point is that this is not the descent of an ordinary human, but the descent of a Prophet of Allah. This means that it is not related to the usual affairs of Allah’s power and will, but to the special matter of prophethood and messengership.
The fourth point is that this event is the greatest sign among the signs of the Day of Judgment. The hadiths mention several signs of the approach of the Day of Judgment. These include the appearance of smoke, the sinking of lands in the east and the west, the emergence of a beast from the earth, a fire that will herd people, the sun rising from the West, the appearance of the Dajjal, the emergence of Gog and Magog, and other such signs. A glance at this list makes it clear that the sign of the Second Coming of Christ is the most prominent among them.
The fifth point is that apparently, this event also brings into question the conclusiveness and finality of the decree of the end of prophethood mentioned in the Holy Qur’an and hadiths. This raises the question of how to interpret the idea that a prophet, who came before Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), returns again after the departure of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in light of the explicit texts of the Qur’an.
These five points establish the extraordinary importance of the event of the Second Coming of Christ and raise the question of why the definitive means of the Holy Qur’an was not chosen to communicate this news, and why it was left to people’s discretion to either transmit it or not and to adopt any style they please in its narration?
However, setting aside this question, if we look only in the context of the hadiths, the above points necessarily demand the following evidence:
Now the question is whether these requirements are duly met in the narratives of the Second Coming of Christ? The answer is a clear negation. The details are as follows in the form of several issues.