—al-Hamdānī—who related from ʿUmārah b. Rāshid, from al-Ghāzī b. Rabīʿah, and who traced the ḥadith back to the Prophet:

“Certain people will most certainly be transformed, while reclining on their couches, into apes and swine because they drink wine and beat the al-barābit (lutes) and keep the al-qiyān (singing slave-girls).”

Ibn Abī al-Dunyā recorded it (folio 2/2), and through his route Ibn ʿAsākir cited it in Tārīkh Dimashq, 12/582, adding: “Abū al-ʿAbbās is ʿUtbah b. Abī Ḥakīm.”

I say: al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar remarked that he is trustworthy but frequently errs.

Hishām b. al-Ghāz, however, narrated a differing version. He reported—from his father, from his grandfather Rabīʿah—that he heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say:

“At the end of my community there will be swallowing by the earth, pelting, and transformation.”

They asked, “Because of what, O Messenger of Allah?” He replied, “For their adoption of the al-qiyān (songstresses) and their drinking of wines.”

Al-Dūlābī transmitted this in al-Kunā, 1/52, and Ibn ʿAsākir in the Tārīkh, 14/124-125, through the chain of Aḥmad b. Zuhayr and others, from ʿAlī b. Baḥr, from Qatādah b. al-Fuḍayl b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Rahāwī, who said, “I heard Hishām b. al-Ghāz narrate it.”

Aḥmad b. Zuhayr is Aḥmad b. Abī Khaythamah, the ḥāfiẓ, son of a ḥāfiẓ; al-Ḥāfiẓ (Ibn Ḥajar) attributed the report to him in the entry on Rabīʿah al-Jarashī in al-Iṣābah, and likewise in Fatḥ al-Bārī.