How can one respond to an atheist who raises doubts about the major signs of the Day of Judgment, such as the sun rising from the west, the war of the horsemen, and the emergence of the fire that gathers people, given their alleged contradiction with modern science and contemporary reality?

Scholars of Islamic law affirm that the truths of revelation and reason do not contradict each other. If a contradiction arises between them, the definitive (qat’i) takes precedence over the speculative (zanni), and revelation over reason. There is no evidence that the sun will rise from the West for three days and then return to the East. Rather, the hadiths indicate its rising from its setting place without specifying a duration. This describes what people will witness, regardless of the scientific mechanism. As for the war preceding the Dajjal and the use of horses, it has not yet occurred, and the state of humanity at that time cannot be definitively known; technology might disappear. The preponderant view is that the gathering of people by fire, mentioned in thehadith, will be in this world, and modern means of transport might disappear then, leading people to revert to primitive means like camels. The fire will gather people from the East to the West. Sham (Greater Syria) is the land of gathering, either meaning that the gathering will commence from there, or that it will expand to encompass all creation.