Please explain this hadith: Abu Huraira reported that Allaah's Messenger, sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam, said: Iraq will withhold its dirhams and qafiz, Syria will withhold its mudd and dinar, and Egypt will withhold its irdab and dinar, and you will recoil to that position from where you started, and you will recoil to that position from where you started, and you will recoil to that position from where you started...

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

An-Nawawi explained this hadeeth in his commentary on Saheeh Muslim. He clarified that qafeez, mudd, and irdabb are measures of weighing foodstuff then said:

"There are two famous scholarly views regarding the interpretation of this hadeeth. One is that it means that the conversion of these countries to Islam would entail relieving their people of the obligation of paying the jizyah, and this happened. The second interpretation, which is more famous, is that it refers to the non-Arabs and Romans seizing these lands at the end of time and preventing Muslims from receiving these gains. (Imaam) Muslim cited another hadeeth shortly after this one on the authority of Jaabir which reads, 'Soon, they would not receive neither qafeez nor dirham (foodstuff and money).' We said, 'What is the reason of that?' He said, 'The non-Arabs would prevent them...' He made a similar statement about the Romans preventing that in Syria... As for the meaning of the Prophet's statement, 'and you would recoil to that position from where you started,' it is similar to the hadeeth that reads, 'Islam began as something strange and it will revert to being strange as it began...'"

For more benefit, please refer to fatwa 314308.

Allaah knows best.