Muslim Apologist Hamza Yusuf claims Prophet Mo predicted satellites in a certain hadith.

The claim is that this hadith predicts the invention of satellite dishes.   The phrase in the hadith in arabic is تواصل الاطباق 

which means that " the dishes will be communicating continuously with each other ".   

Here is the video. The relevant hadith is at 1:01. Is the translation accurate ? If not how would you explain this hadith as a non muslim ? 

Are there any other meanings you could assign to it other than satellite dishes ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z68IhbI3Q3c

Is this a new thing with Hamza Yusuf?  I mean weirdness?

Back in the day I thought he was ok, though admittedly I didn't listen to him a great deal.

heck no. Hanson was weird from the get go. His weirdness mellowed as time goes by. I think that you're more familiar with his later stage in life, this appearance of a moderate guy who's working for zaytuna college, mixing with the fons vitae crowd, etc. Back then he was full blown conspiracy theorist, talking about new world order, the dajjal, the west corrupting muslims by various instruments, etc.

@abu ali.

Hamza Yusuf gave a lecture at a conference a few months back.  He started by ranting about homosexuality being one of the greatest health hazards on the planet and went on to talk about the signs of judgement.


Oh and at another talk he tried to argue that watching internet porn causes people to carry out terrorist attacks and not islamic scripture. (No joke he was completely serious)

Hamza Yusuf is a complete crackpot.

I see that now. However it's surprising how much one can miss when under the influence of faith.

He almost got it right:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHo9rm_ddjc

...It's just too easy to make stuff like that up. We are hard coded to see patterns around us. It's in the bloody brain.

Just another case of seeing what one wants to see in order to confirm beliefs.

This is the hadith in Arabic:

http://library.islamweb.net/hadith/display_hbook.php?bk_no=747&pid=373019&hid=2062

It relates various signs of the day of judgment in rhyming saj' style of mystic statements such as:

 أَنْ يَكُونَ الْوَلَدُ غَيْظًا ، وَأَنْ يَكُونَ الْمَطَرُ قَيْظًا ، وَأَنْ يَفِيضَ الْأَشْرَارُ فَيْضًا ، يَا ابْنَ مَسْعُودٍ , إِنَّ مِنْ أَعْلَامِ السَّاعَةِ وَأَشْرَاطِهَا , أَنْ يُؤْتَمَنَ الْخَائِنُ ، وَأَنْ يُخَوَّنُ الْأَمِينُ ، يَا ابْنَ مَسْعُودٍ , إِنَّ مِنْ أَعْلَامِ السَّاعَةِ وَأَشْرَاطِهَا , أَنْ تُوَاصَلَ الْأَطْبَاقُ ، وَتُقَاطَعَ الْأَرْحَامُ

"Indeed the child will be angry/bad-tempered and the rain will be hot. Evils will pour out in a flood. Oh ibn mas'ud indeed the hour has it's signs and conditions, the treacherous will be trusted while the trustworthy will be distrusted. Oh ibn mas'ud indeed the hour has it's signs and conditions the strangers, foreigners will mix/interact with each other while family relations/ties will be cut..."

 تُوَاصَلَ الْأَطْبَاقُ

I translate this as: "strangers, foreigners will associate/be in contact with each other"

You can see that the two statements are connected.

Good will be bad while the bad will be good
Old will be servants while the young will be masters
Treacherous will be trusted while the trustworthy will be distrusted
Strangers will consort while families will be estranged

Here's a link supporting the view that Atbaq is used here in the sense of different levels/sections (of society) i.e. strangers, foreigners.

Ibn Atheer in the book “Al-Nihaaya” & Ibn Manzur in Lisan Al-Arab both said

يعني : بالأطباق البعداء والأجانب ; لأن طبقات الناس أصناف مختلفة 

http://library.islamweb.net/newlibrary/display_book.php?bk_no=121&ID=324&idfrom=2297&idto=2378&bookid=121&startno=7

http://islamweb.net/newlibrary/display_book.php?bk_no=122&ID=&idfrom=4965&idto=5216&bookid=122&startno=17

Which makes more sense since it is in opposition to cutting family ties. i.e. 'one of the awful thing is that strangers will keep relationships while families won't.'

btw the signs of the last hour are bad things - but what’s wrong with communicating by satellite? Doesn’t Hamza Yusuf use the internet and watch satellite TV?