When did the Jews reach a degree of great haughtiness for the first time and when will they reach a degree of great haughtiness for the second time? Is it true that there are Hadeeths indicating that victory for the Muslims will come from the east?

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, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam,  is His slave and Messenger.

In the Quran, Allaah The Almighty clarified that the children of Israel will spread corruption on earth two times and will reach a great degree of haughtiness. Allaah The Almighty Says (what means): {And We conveyed to the children of Israel in the Scripture that, "You will surely cause corruption on the earth twice, and you will surely reach [a degree of] great haughtiness* So when the [time of] promise came for the first of them, We sent against you servants of Ours - those of great military might, and they probed [even] into the homes, and it was a promise fulfilled.} [Quran 17:4-5] Until the verse, where Allaah The Almighty Says (what means): {Then when the final promise came, [We sent your enemies] to sadden your faces and to enter the temple in Jerusalem, as they entered it the first time, and to destroy what they had taken over with [total] destruction.} [Quran 17:7]

Shaykh As-Sa‘di said commenting on this verse:

{And We conveyed to the Children of Israel…} means that We (Allaah The Almighty) gave a promise and told them (the children of Israel) in their Book that will definitely cause corruption on earth twice by committing sins, showing ingratitude in return for the favors of Allaah The Almighty and adopting haughtiness. If one of these corruptions takes place, then, Allaah The Almighty will send enemies against them and take revenge from them.

When the first promise comes— i.e. the first corruption of the two— Allaah The Almighty will punish them by virtue of fate and universal punishment. When the second corruption takes place when they spread mischief on earth, Allaah The Almighty will send against them enemies to sadden their faces by triumphing over and capturing them.

We have no evidence of the specific time where the first and second corruption and reaching a great degree of haughtiness take place.

Undoubtedly, victory against the Jews will come. Abu Hurayrah said that the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said: “The Hour would not be established unless the Muslims fight against the Jews and the Muslims will kill them until the Jews will hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree will say: O Muslim, O slave of Allaah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree of the Gharqad will not say that, for it is among the trees of the Jews.” [Muslim]

There are evidences that the victory of Muslims will come from the east. Thawbaan said that the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, said: “‘Three men, all of them are sons of caliphs, will fight over your treasure (of the Ka‘bah), however, none of them will take hold of it, then, people holding black banners will come from the east and fierce killings will occur in a way that has never been witnessed before.’

The Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, then mentioned something I can not recall and said: ‘If you see him pledge allegiance to him even if you crawl on snow. He is the Mahdi (Guided) vicegerent of Allaah.’” [Ibn Maajah and Al-Haakim: Saheeh according to the conditions of Al-Bukhari and Muslim; Ath-Thahabi agreed with him]

Ibn Katheer said that this is an authentic strong chain of narrators. He also said, “Al-Mahdi will be supported by people from the east who will back him, establish his kingdom and their banners will also be black. This is the cloth of gravity because the banner of the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, was black and called ‘Al-Uqaab.”

Allaah Knows best.