I was sitting with Abdullah and Abu Musa when they both said, "The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, 'Before the Hour there will come days in which ignorance will descend, knowledge will be taken away, and harj will increase.'"We asked, "What is harj?"He replied, "Killing."
حدثنا وكيع حدثنا الأعمش
كنت جالسا مع عبد الله وأبي موسى فقالا قال رسول الله ﷺ إن بين يدي الساعة أياما ينزل فيها الجهل ويرفع فيها العلم ويكثر فيها الهرج قال قلنا وما الهرج قال القتل
Its isnad is sahih. Abu Musa here is Abu Musa Ashari, and the hadith was narrated by Bukhari at 13:15 through Abdullah bin Musa from Amash. In the chapter on fitan, it was narrated by Muslim from the hadith of Abu Musa Ashari alone, and both are sahih.The root meaning of "harj" in the Arabic language is intermixing. It is said, "the people fell into harj," meaning they became intermixed and fell into disagreement, and "the group fell into harj in their talk," meaning they talked excessively and confusedly. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ explained harj to mean killing, following the manner of explaining a thing by what necessarily accompanies it, for he meant that in these times of fitna aggression and killing and the shedding of blood would become widespread.