The Middle East's Source of Life Is Disappearing, as Prophet Muhammad Forewarned

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Two rivers that have served as sources of life for thousands of years and gave birth to great civilisations in the Middle East now face a serious threat. The Euphrates and Tigris rivers are predicted to dry up within the coming decades as a result of climate change and continually declining water flows.

The area between the Euphrates and Tigris is known as Mesopotamia, a region archaeologists believe to be the birthplace of the world’s first civilisation. It was from this area that ancient cities such as Uruk and Babylon flourished, located in what is now modern-day Iraq.

The threat of these two rivers drying up has also been linked to a hadith of the Prophet Muhammad that has long been known among Muslims. The hadith states that the Euphrates will dry up before the Day of Judgement.

“The Hour will not come to pass before the Euphrates dries up and uncovers a mountain of gold, for which people will fight and kill one another to obtain it” (narrated by Muslim, No. 2894).

The Euphrates flows through several countries, from Turkey and Syria to Iraq, before emptying into the Persian Gulf. It forms the largest river system in Western Asia. The Euphrates, alongside the Tigris, is part of a highly fertile region.

However, the river system is now drying up at a rapid pace. A 2021 report from Iraq’s Ministry of Water Resources even warned that the rivers could run dry by 2040.

The report explained that the drying rivers are caused by falling water levels and drought resulting from climate change.

Flows in the Euphrates-Tigris system have nearly halved in just a few decades. Satellite imagery showed that 144 cubic kilometres of fresh water disappeared in the ten years from 2003 to 2013.

Worse still, the people living around the rivers depend on this system. An estimated 60 million people rely on water from the Euphrates-Tigris system for their livelihoods, particularly in Turkey and Iraq.