Regarding how material prosperity will be a sign of the endtimes, the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم said, “And if you see the barefoot, naked shepherds of camels competing in the construction of high-rise buildings, then this is from among the signs of the Hour.”320 Is it not remarkable to witness the arid desert regions of the Gulf States, as impoverished as they were a century ago, develop two of the world’s three tallest “skyscraper” buildings today?

In a similar hadith, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said, “The Hour will not commence before people boast of their mosques.” Ibn ‘Abbās , the narrator, added, “You will ornament your mosques just as the Jews and Christians did with their temples.”321 This intense competition will involve mistreatment of others, and thus we find parallel prophecies of hedonism and exploitation in the prophetic tradition as well. In the hadith of al-Miswar ibn Makhramah , he صلى الله عليه وسلم said, “By Allah, I do not fear poverty overtaking you, but I fear that you will have abundant wealth at your disposal like the nations before you, causing you to compete in it as they competed in it, and then it destroys you as it destroyed them.”322