I say: Mālik could not have carried the burden of this report—nor, for that matter, could this Ibn Wahb.
Ibn Ḥibbān cites it in exactly the same way, but only as a suspended (muʿallaq) reference.
Ibn ʿAdī states: ʿĪsā ibn Aḥmad narrated to us; Abū ʿUbayd Allāh narrated to us; Ibn Wahb narrated to us; ʿĪsā ibn Yūnus narrated to us, from Ṣafwān ibn ʿAmr, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Jubayr, from his father, from ʿAwf ibn Mālik, traced back to the Prophet ﷺ: “Toward the end of time a people will appear who declare the unlawful to be lawful, declare the lawful to be unlawful, and judge matters according to their own opinion.” (1)
This ḥadith is known only through Nuʿaym ibn Ḥammād from ʿĪsā. It was stolen from him by Suwayd, ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-ʿArḍī (2), and al-Ḥakam ibn al-Mubārak al-Khāstī (3). The critics rejected it when transmitted by Abū ʿUbayd Allāh from his uncle.
He (Ibn ʿAdī) then added: “He also transmits from his uncle, from Makhrama ibn Bukayr, from his father, from Nāfiʿ…”
= From his father, from his grandfather, cited by Ahmad 2/206 and 208 in the Musnad and p. 84 in the section “al-Ashriba,” and by al-Darqutni 2/31.
A parallel chain through Kharija b. Hudhafa is found in Abu Dawud (1418), al-Tirmidhi (452), al-Darimi 1/370, Ibn Majah (1168), al-Tahawi 1/250, al-Darqutni 2/30, al-Hakim 1/306, and al-Bayhaqi 2/478.
See also Nasb al-Raya 2/108, 112.
(1) The isnad is weak. In Mizan al-Iʿtidal 4/268, under the entry for Nuʿaym b. Hammad, Muhammad b. ʿAli b. Hamza al-Marwazi reports: “I asked Yahya b. Maʿin about this hadith; he replied, ‘It has no basis.’ I asked, ‘And Nuʿaym?’ He said, ‘Reliable.’ I objected, ‘Would a reliable transmitter narrate falsehood?’ He answered, ‘The matter was confused for him.’”
(2) Vocalised with a damma on the ʿayn and a sukun on the raʾ, ending with the dotted dad. Al-Samʿani states that the nisba al-ʿArdi refers to ʿArd, a district near Damascus. ʿAbd al-Wahhab is ʿAbd al-Wahhab b. al-Dahhak al-ʿArdi al-Sulami, from Homs. Abu Hatim b. Hibban writes in al-Majruhin 2/140: “Our teachers transmitted from him; he was among those who steal hadith and pass them on … it is impermissible to rely on him or to quote him except for comparison.”
(3) Mizan al-Iʿtidal gives the name as al-Khāshtī (with a dotted shin); this is a scribal error—see al-Ansab 5/18.