Black Flags from Khorasan are Mahdi’s

The Messenger of Allah (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) said: “When you see that black flags have appeared from Khorasan then join them. Because Allah’s Khalifa Mahdi will be among them.” [Musnad Ahmed]

The area that was known as Khorasan in the time of the Prophet (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) corresponds primarily to the area known as Afghanistan today. Allah’s Messenger (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) ordered his Ummah to join the troops with black flags from this area. When Imam Mahdi is among this group then there is no better group on earth to join. Allah’s Messenger is telling us to trade the small good of the world for the much greater good of the Hereafter.

Imam Zuhri (rahmahulla) said that a narration reached him that “black flags will emerge from Khorasan: So when they descend from the mountain passes of Khorasan they will do so for the sake of Islam. Nothing will hinder them except for the flags of the non-Arabs which will come from the west.” [Kanzul Ammal]

Imam Zuhri’s narration states that these bearers of black flags will come for no purpose other than to implement Allah’s prescribed ideology on Allah’s land. They will have no personal interest other than this in waging war. The forces of Shaitaan will thus not be able to tolerate them and will gather all the forces of Kufr together to fight the people with the black flags. But none will be able to stand in their way.

The fact that none will be able to stop the advance of the bearers of black flags, is the hadith narrated from Abu Hurairah in Marfu form: “When black flags emerge from the east nothing will be able to stop them til they are planted in Eelia (Bait-ul-Maqdis/Jerusalem).” [Tesri Jange Azeem Aur Dajjal, by Maulana Asim Omar]