Maulana Wahiduddin Khan | Book: Global Warming: The Divine Warning of Doomsday, pp. 43-48 | Nov 23, 2021
In another tradition, the Prophet of Islam mentioned ten indicators signaling the approach of Doomsday, one of the last being smoke (dukhan):
Hudhaifa bin Usaid al-Ghifari reported: “God’s Messenger said: The Last Hour will not come until you see ten signs before and (in this connection) he made a mention of the smoke. (Sahih Muslim, Hadith No. 2901)
The same is predicted in the Quran in these words: “Watch out for the day when the sky brings out plainly visible clouds of smoke (dukhan) that will envelop the people. This will be a painful punishment.” (The Quran, 44:10-11)
The above Quranic verse and various traditions of the Prophet of Islam predict visible clouds of dukhan or smoke as one of the major signs of the coming of Doomsday.
On 14 April, 2010, a volcano erupted all of a sudden from beneath the glaciers in Iceland, an island in the north Atlantic about 200 miles south east of Greenland. So much ash was emitted that it spread throughout the greater part of Europe’s atmosphere. Darkness enveloped the entire region leading to the grounding of thousands of flights in the region.
The ash that is seen from satellite images appear to be ‘a visible cloud of smoke.’ It is, therefore, entirely possible that the ash thrown up by the volcanic eruption is the smoke which was predicted in the Quran and Hadith traditions.
The 21st century is witnessing a substantial increase in volcanic activity. Scientists found that volcanic eruptions increased as the climate became hotter, “After glaciers are removed the surface pressure decreases, and the magma more easily propagate to the surface and thus erupt.” (Email of Graeme Swindles, University of Leeds to Scientific American) Therefore, scientists are also confirming that global warming is leading to increased volcanic activity in the form of lave and ash that leads to ‘a thick visible smoke in the sky.’