From ’Abdullah ibn ‘Amr ibn al-‘Aas, who said, I heard the Prophet of Allaah ﷺ say, “In the last [part] of my nation there will be men who ride on means that resemble saddles. They will alight at the doors of the mosques.
Shaikh al-Albaani mentioned another narration from al-Haakim which says, “They will mount their mayaathiruntil they come to the doors of their mosques,” commenting on this he said, “… the word mayaathir is the plural of meetharah and Ibn al-Athir described it as, “… smooth and soft, made out of silk or a silk brocade [heavy silk] which the rider places beneath him on the saddle on top of the camel.”
So now that you have come to know this, [you will understand that] al-Haakim’s narration explains that first one, and by combining between the two the meaning will be that the saddles which they mount will be smooth and soft, and that they will resemble saddles, i.e., in terms of how wide they are.
And if one bears in mind that [the word] ‘saddles’ [rihaal] is the plural of saddle [rahl] and that its explanation is as has been mentioned in Misbaah al-Munir and others, i.e., ‘Everything that is used to prepare for a journey, from a container for goods, to a saddle for a camel.’
When you come to know this, it will become clear to you, with the Permission of Allaah, that the Prophet ﷺ is alluding to those vehicles which have been invented in this era, i.e., cars.
For they are comfortable, soft, and tender, like saddles. And what supports this is the fact that he ﷺ called them, ‘houses,’ as occurs in another hadith which has preceded under number 93, but which, it became apparent later, contained some disconnection.
And by the everlasting existence of Allaah, it is a true prophecy which we witness every Friday when cars gather in front of the mosques such that the roads, despite their being wide, become congested, [and then] men alight from them to witness the Friday prayer, and most of them do not [even] pray the five daily prayers, or at the very least they do not pray them in the mosques.
[Silsilsah as-Sahihah, 6/1/411, 415-416]
Shaikh al-Albaani mentioned another narration from al-Haakim which says, “They will mount their mayaathiruntil they come to the doors of their mosques,” commenting on this he said, “… the word mayaathir is the plural of meetharah and Ibn al-Athir described it as, “… smooth and soft, made out of silk or a silk brocade [heavy silk] which the rider places beneath him on the saddle on top of the camel.”
So now that you have come to know this, [you will understand that] al-Haakim’s narration explains that first one, and by combining between the two the meaning will be that the saddles which they mount will be smooth and soft, and that they will resemble saddles, i.e., in terms of how wide they are.
And if one bears in mind that [the word] ‘saddles’ [rihaal] is the plural of saddle [rahl] and that its explanation is as has been mentioned in Misbaah al-Munir and others, i.e., ‘Everything that is used to prepare for a journey, from a container for goods, to a saddle for a camel.’
When you come to know this, it will become clear to you, with the Permission of Allaah, that the Prophet ﷺ is alluding to those vehicles which have been invented in this era, i.e., cars.
For they are comfortable, soft, and tender, like saddles. And what supports this is the fact that he ﷺ called them, ‘houses,’ as occurs in another hadith which has preceded under number 93, but which, it became apparent later, contained some disconnection.
And by the everlasting existence of Allaah, it is a true prophecy which we witness every Friday when cars gather in front of the mosques such that the roads, despite their being wide, become congested, [and then] men alight from them to witness the Friday prayer, and most of them do not [even] pray the five daily prayers, or at the very least they do not pray them in the mosques.
[Silsilsah as-Sahihah, 6/1/411, 415-416]
