The Time of Tribulation and Hudhayfah's Hadith

I learned of evil, not for evil, but to guard against it.

Whoever cannot tell evil from good will fall into it.

Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman (RA) used to say.

People used to ask the Messenger of Allah ﷺ about good.

while I asked him about evil, for fear that it might reach me.

No. It is not enough to know good alone; you must know evil too.

To avoid it, because if you do not know evil, you will fall into it.

I learned of evil, not for evil, but to guard against it.

Whoever cannot tell evil from good will fall into it.

So know: this is what Hudhayfah (RA) intended.

When he asked about evil, it was not out of love for evil.

Rather, it was so it would become clear to him what he should do.

In this situation.

I used to ask him about evil. Why? For fear it might befall me.

Then the Prophet ﷺ mentioned to him what decline and division would come.

Hudhayfah (RA) asked, What should I do if that happens to me?

He said: Adhere to the Muslim community and its imam.

Adhere to the Muslim community and its imam.

If strife and division occur.

And there is talk among the people as is happening now.

Then adhere to the imam and the Muslim community.

So you may be saved from it.

Adhere to the Muslim community and its imam.

Hudhayfah (RA) said, O Messenger of Allah, what if no community or imam?

Meaning, there is division, and there is no community or imam.

He said, Then keep away from all those factions.

"Even if you bite onto the root of a tree and die that way."

This shows that a person should not enter fitan.

As much as he can, he should avoid them.

He does not enter fitan. Rather, he keeps away from them.

Under any circumstance, he does not enter them.

That is safer for him, and it is done in one of two ways.

If there is a Muslim community and an imam for the Muslims.

then let him be with them to be saved from evil and discord.

The second case is when there is no community and no imam.

There is no might nor power except with Allah ﷻ.

So the solution is to avoid fitan and its people, to save yourself.

Even if some harm touches you yourself, even then.

"Even if you must bite a tree root until death comes to you in that state."

In short, the Muslim should note this.