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Fatwa CenterHadith about granting Muslim community half day (five hundred years)
Question
The Prophet, sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam, said, “When my Community keeps on the right (path), it is going to enjoy an age of one day, and when it does not keep on the right, it will have an age of half a day”. [Al-Bayan, Tafseer of Surat Al-‘Asr] Is this hadith Saheeh (authentic)? And did the Prophet pray for another half a day for the muslim Ummah (community)?
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
The hadeeth that reads, “If my nation remains steadfast on the truth, it will be granted one day, and if it does not remain steadfast on the truth, it will be granted half a day,” has no origin in religious texts. As-Sakhaawi said in Al-Maqaasid Al-Hasanah, “Everything that is mentioned about determining the time of the Day of Judgment as to specifying it has either no basis for it, such as, ‘If my nation remains steadfast on the truth, it will have one day, and if it does not remain steadfast on the truth, it will have half a day,’ or its chain of narrators is not confirmed.”
With regard to ‘half a day’, there is a narration that was reported about it: Sa’d ibn Abi Waqqaas 
narrated that the Prophet said, “I do hope that my nation will not fail to be granted a delay of half a day by its Lord.” Sa'd was asked, “How long is half a day?” He said, “Five hundred years.” [Abu Dawood]
Shaykh Al-Albaani classified it as Saheeh (sound) in Mishkaat Al-Masaabeeh.
Al-Haafith Ibn Hajar said that there is an interruption in the chain of narrators, as he said, “Abu Daawood also reported the hadeeth by Sa’d ibn Abi Waqqaas with the wording, ‘I do hope that my nation will not fail to be granted a delay of half a day by its Lord.’ Sa'd was asked, ‘How long is half a day?’ He said, ‘Five hundred years.’ And its narrators are trustworthy, but there is an interruption in the chain of narrators.”
Allah knows best.
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