Bedouins Prophecy
A prophecy that came true in the past 15 years. This is the story of the Bedouins, the people who went from tents to skyscrapers in a single generation.
When the Prophet ﷺ was asked about the signs of the Final Hour, one sign he mentioned was: "when you see the barefoot, naked, destitute shepherds competing in constructing tall buildings.” Asked to elaborate further, the Prophet ﷺ said they are from the Arabs. [1]
Anyone familiar with Middle Eastern history would immediately recognize that this prophecy refers to a very specific group: the Bedouins, or Bedu. The Bedouins were the nomads of the Arabs, living simple but volatile lives. They were described as “barefoot, naked, destitute shepherds” due to their lifestyle. It is already hard enough to get by in the harsh conditions of the deserts of Arabia, let alone when you lived like the Bedouins. Amazingly, they led such lives for almost all of history, even during the Golden Ages of the Islamic empires. We have recorded accounts from as recently as the 1970s that show how volatile the Bedouin lifestyle was.
For example, around the year 1945, Sir Wilfred Thesiger writes in the Arabian Sands:
“Their way of life naturally made them fatalists; so much was beyond their control. It was impossible for them to provide for a morrow when everything depended on a chance fall of rain or when raiders, sickness, or any one of a hundred chance happenings might at any time leave them destitute, or end their lives.”
We also have a documentary from the 1970s on Abu Dhabi, UAE. The narrator comments that the Bedouins have a “biblical rhythm” to their lives, meaning they lived as people did 5000 years ago during biblical times. Baking bread in clay ovens, herding animals, and living in what would now be considered rags. Despite their lifestyle, the Bedouins made up a major portion of the Arabian population. For example, the UAE was mostly inhabited by Bedouins just 40 years ago. [2]
In the span of a mere 30 years, however, these Bedouin villages in the UAE have become the home of the wealthiest people on Earth, who today live in skyscrapers. Competing with one another wasn’t satisfying enough though, as the Bedouins have started competing with the entire world. As of 2024, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai remains the tallest building on Earth at 828 meters.
A side by side of the Bedouins of the past and the UAE today.
“Only just over 40 years ago simple Bedouin villages existed where today’s skyscrapers stand.”
To further push the point home that they were competing with one another and the world, another competition began soon after the Burj Khalifa was built. A Saudi family has announced that they would be building a skyscraper taller than the Burj Khalifa, the Jeddah Tower, and it is currently in progress.
This raises a question: Why would the Prophet ﷺ predict such an event?
If someone were fabricating prophecies to gain followers, it would make no sense to make such an improbable and specific claim. You would be assuming that the Bedouins, who barely survive every passing day, will somehow become so powerful that they can waste their time and resources competing in the building of tall buildings.
In “The Forbidden Prophecies”, Abu Zakariah explains how odd such a prediction is:
“What would motivate Muhammed to even make such a prediction? If he was going to make up such a prophecy it would make more sense to relate this prophecy to the superpowers of his time: Rome, Persia, or even China who (unlike the Arabs) already had a tendency to construct extravagant buildings and palaces… [Instead,] Muhammad could have made a prediction such as “you will see the construction of tall buildings”.”
On all accounts, such a specific and unintuitive prediction can only be made by someone very confident it will come true. What is shocking is how precise this prophecy really is. The Prophet ﷺ specified that it would be the Bedouins themselves, not their descendants, competing to build tall buildings, as their descendants would no longer be Bedouins. Yet, even with this added layer of precision, that is exactly what happened. The book summary of Rags to Riches, an eye-witness account of the transformation of the UAE states:
"Born in 1948, in Abu Dhabi, the author knew dreadful poverty for years before fabulous oil wealth transformed his country forever. He grew up in the ruler's palace, barefoot like his playmates, now senior figures in the United Arab Emirates." "This is a vivid eye-witness account of the total transformation within only 30 years of a Bedouin society into a country with the world's highest per capita income.”
References:
English Translation of Musnad Imam Ahmad bin Hambal Volume 3, published by Darussalam, 2012, Hadith #2924, p. 43.
