To what extent is the ḥadīth sound: “If you see black banners, cling to the ground, and do not move your hands or your feet. Then, a people will emerge who are weak and unheeded; their hearts are like iron filings. They are the ‘people of the state’; they fulfill neither covenant nor treaty. They call to the truth, but they are not of its people. Their names are patronymics, their lineage is from villages, and their hair is long like women’s hair, until they disagree among themselves, then…,” and is it permissible to assert that it applies to the so-called Islamic State?

The aforementioned hadith was narrated by Nu'aym ibn Hammad in Kitab al-Fitan (The Book of Tribulations), and it is a weak hadith due to three defects. Its weakness has been stated in Al-Mawsu'ah al-Hadithiyah (The Hadith Encyclopedia), and Nu'aym ibn Hammad's Kitab al-Fitan is known for the weak hadiths that he narrates uniquely. Al-Dhahabi said about Nu'aym ibn Hammad: "It is not permissible for anyone to use him as a proof. He compiled Kitab al-Fitan, and he brought forth wonders and reprehensible narrations therein."

Even if the hadith were authentic, it is not the correct methodology to apply it to a specific current reality, as Sheikh Salih Aal Al-Sheikh clarified in Al-Dawabit al-Shar'iyah li-Mawqif al-Muslim min al-Fitan (The Juristic Controls for the Muslim's Stance Regarding Tribulations). The methodology of the People of the Sunnah and the Community is to mention hadiths about tribulations to warn against them and to keep Muslims away from falling into them.