The Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) taught his ummah and informed them of everything that was in their best interests, which includes telling them of some future events of which Allah (may He be exalted) had granted him knowledge. In this hadith, ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) says: The Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) led us in praying ‘Isha’ one night; this is the prayer that the people call al-‘atamah. The fact that he mentioned here that ‘Isha’ was called al-‘atamah indicates that the use of this name had become very common, even though the name for this prayer as ‘Isha’ is mentioned in the Book of Allah, in the verse in which Allah (may He be exalted) says: {and after the night prayer [salat al-‘Isha’]} [al-Nur 24:58]. There were also reports which forbid calling ‘Isha’ al-‘atamah, as in the hadith narrated by Muslim from Ibn ‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with him), according to which the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “Do not be influenced by the Bedouin with regard to the name of your prayer; indeed it is ‘Isha’, but they delay milking the camels until it is very dark [yu‘timuna].” Those who were aware of the prohibition on that needed to mention it in order to make people aware of the matter. However, it is narrated from the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) that he called it ‘atamah, as in the hadith of Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that is narrated in al-Sahihayn: “If they knew what there is in al-‘atamah (i.e., ‘Isha’ prayer) and al-subh (i.e., Fajr prayer), they would come to them, even if they had to crawl.” It was said that the mention of this prayer as al-‘atamah was addressed to those who only knew of ‘Isha’ by this name, so he mentioned it by the name with which they were familiar, or he mentioned that to explain that there is nothing wrong with mentioning it by that name, even though it is different from what is more appropriate. Ibn ‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: Then the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) finished his prayer and turned to face those present, and told them that after one hundred years, none of those on the face of the earth would remain. This does not mean that no one who was alive then would not live past the age of one hundred years; rather it meant that everyone on the face of the earth that night would not live longer than one hundred years from that night, whether he was young or old at that time. This is an example of knowledge of the unseen that Allah (may He be glorified and exalted) granted to him; it is one of the proofs of the truthfulness of his prophethood (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him)..