Khasf al-Bayda (Arabic: خسف البیداء) (lit. “Swallowing the land of Bayda”),[1][2][3][4] in Islamic eschatology, is a future event in which the Earth will swallow up Bayda, a desert area between Mecca and Medina. According to Islamic traditions: the army of Sufyani will be swallowed up in the land of Bayda.[5][6][7][8]
Khasf al-Bayda[9][10] has been mentioned in both Shia and Sunni sources, and it was narrated that "Khasf al-Bayda" will be is going to be one of the decisive signs of the appearance of Mahdi.[11]
According to hadiths, there are five (or more) certain signs which will happen prior to the reappearance of the twelfth (last) Imam of Shia Islam, al-Mahdi.[12][13] Al-Shaykh al-Saduq has narrated --from Ja'far al-Sadiq-- that: five signs are decisive before the rising of Qa'im (قائم): Yamani, Sufyani, Heavenly cry (calling) from the sky, The murder of Nafs-e-Zakiyyah and Khasf al-Bayda.[14][15]
Sufyani and his army will go toward Iraq to attack the Mahdi. When the army enters the territory of Bayda, the Earth will consume the army of Sufyani except for 2 or 3 individuals.[16] Various hadiths discuss the numbers in the army of Sufyani.[17][18][19][20] Some sources say that the army of Sufyani will number 12,000;[21][22] while some say 170,000[23][24] and other sources say 300,000[25]
According to a tradition from Muhammad al-Baqir: at the End Time, when Sufyani's army enters the territory of Bayda, a voice will call out:
"O plain, annihilate the nation" (i.e. the army of Sufyani)
— Na'mani, Al-Ghaybah, Maktab al-Saduq, Chapter 14, P. 279