Sighting a Flare in the East
 

A big flame will occur in the East for 3 or 7 days in a row, followed by darkness in the sky and a brand new redness unlike the usual color of red spreading over the sky. A proclamation will be heard in a language Earth can understand. (Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Rasul Barzanji, Al-Isha'ah li-ashrat al-sa'ah, p. 166)

 

 

In its section on the signs of the Mahdi's emergence, the book Ikdiddurer states: “The emergence of a big flare which is seen in the East up on the sky for three nights. Sighting of an extraordinary redness, not as red as the usual color of the dawn, and its spread over the horizon.” (Al-Muttaqi al-Hindi, Al-Burhan fi' 'Alamat al-Mahdi Akhir al-zaman, p. 32)

 

 

"This is a hadith passed by Abu Jaffer b. Muhammad b. Ali (ra). When you see a flame rise in the East for three or seven days, then wait for the emergence of Al-i Muhammad; God will proclaim from the sky uttering the name of Mahdi and everybody whether in the East or West will hear that voice.” (Al-Muttaqi al-Hindi, Al-Burhan fi' 'Alamat al-Mahdi Akhir al-zaman, p. 32)

 

 

I swear that a flame will engulf you. That flame is presently in an extinguished state at the valley called Berehut. That flame swallows up people with terrible pain inside it, burns down and destroys people and property, and spreads all over the world by flying like a cloud with the assistance of winds. Its heat at night is much higher than its daytime temperature. By going as deep as the center of Earth from the heads of people, that flame becomes a terrible noise just like the lightning between the earth and sky, he narrated.
(Mukhtasar Tazkirah Qurtubi, p. 461)

 

A brief explanation of this flame, a sign of the Mahdi's advent, is as follows:

Some people wait for this flame as a sign which comes out all of a sudden without any particular reason, which never goes out and which is of such nature coming to the sight of everybody everywhere. Because the trial would still continue during the occurrence of the signs of the end of time, the perception of them does not take place in clarity everybody can accept. Thus, people make decisions by making use of their intellect, mind, conscience and will. If the signs of the end of time had been narrated in full details (for example, how they will occur in which cities and on which dates), as we earlier discussed, everybody would have to accept them and no differences of degree would be left among people. For this reason, the hadiths about the signs of the end of time have been communicated in a semi-implicit manner.

The sign concerning the flame must be evaluated in this manner. Any flame does not break out without any reasons; it occurs as a result of an accident and neglect or an intended incident. The hadith of it as a sign of Mahdi's coming does not require that it must occur as a very strange and extraordinary sign. What really counts is the break out of such a flame in compliance with the properties of the flame described in the hadiths and the time of the break out. The first thing to do to be able to identify and detect this flame is the emergence of its properties.

In July 1991, after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, a huge fire spread through Kuwait and the Persian Gulf after the Iraqis fired Kuwait's oil wells. Some of the explanations regarding this fire that exist in the resources of the related period are as follows:

- The burning oil in Kuwait led to the deaths of people and animals. According to experts, half a million tons of oil went up into the atmosphere as smoke. Every day, more than 10,000 tons of soot, sulfur, carbon-dioxide and large quantities of hydrocarbons with their carcinogenic properties hang suspended over the Gulf. It is not just the Gulf but, on its behalf, the world is burning.

- Two wells that were set alight produced as much oil as Turkey does in one day, and the smoke from them can be seen from Saudi Arabia, 55 kilometers away.

- Hundreds of oil wells set alight in Kuwait are still burning fiercely. Experts say it will be "exceedingly difficult to put those fires out," and it is said that the fires may affect a wide area from Turkey to India for the next 10 years.

The fire and smoke coming from the wells constantly polluted the atmosphere. Daytime resembled night in Kuwait. The brown smoke that rose together with the flames reminded one of the sky as the autumn turns into winter… It has been stated that it would take at least a century for Kuwait to be completely habitable again. The smoke that rises with the flames is visible from miles away, totally blocking out the sky and making the country unfit to live in. The wealthy are abandoning Kuwait.

According to a statement by Abdullah Dabbagh, director of the research institute in Dhahran, in the New York Times, 106 species of fish, 180 species of mollusk and 450 animal species living in the region struggled to survive because of the pollution in the Persian Gulf. It has been stated that smoke rising from 600 oil wells has spread to neighboring countries, and that smoke containing such carcinogenic substances as sulfur has turned into acid rain and reduced agricultural productivity.

 

I swear that a fire will enfold you. That fire is currently lying extinguished in the valley known as Berehut*. (Mukhtasar Tazkirah Qurtubi, p.461)
* Berehut: The name of a valley or well.

 

In July 1999, Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and its igniting the Kuwaiti oil wells caused great fires in Kuwait and Basra Gulf.
Upon Saddam's command, soldiers ignited the oil wells in Kuwait.

The first part of the hadith mentioned in the previous pages says that the flame “is in an extinguished state.” Given that the flame is the result of burning an inflammable substance, what waits in an extinguished state is not the flame itself but the material to be burnt by the flame.

In this context, this may mean underground oil. Berehut is the name of a well. This can be considered as an oil well. When the time comes, oil extracted from these wells will become a fire ready to be burned.

"That flame swallows up people with horrible pain in it." That flame is such a flame, which is not merely a burning flare, but also such a flame which deprives people of their lives and possessions making them so miserable and sorrow and contaminating nature.

"That flame burns down and destructs people and property." That flame causes the death of certain people. In addition, it burns down property, causing material damage and, by polluting the whole environment and nature, it destructs living means for people.

"It spreads throughout the World by flying like a cloud with the help of wind." That element of the flame, "which flies like a cloud with the help of a wind," is not itself but its smoke. By making a metaphor, it is told that the smoke will get as high as clouds. This smoke spreads in all the directions under the impact of the wind.

"Its night heat is more severe than its day time temperature." It is understood that the flame would be burning continually day and night around the clock.

"By approaching the center of the Earth from above the heads of people, that flame makes a horrible noise just like the thunder between the earth and the sky." Attention is drawn to the points that the flame can climb up very high and that this flame causes a very strong noise and explosions resembling a thunder.

"Quite a different redness unlike the usual redness will spread all over the sky." This part of the hadith points out that the incident will occur at night. The flames of a big explosion occurring at night leads to very strong illumination. The red illumination caused by such red flames is very different from the red "dawn" redness people are usually familiar with. For such an illumination at night, which is very similar to the day light, is an extraordinary phenomenon.