31 — Ahmad ibn Yahyā al-Hulwānī narrated to us: Ahmad ibn Abd Allāh ibn Yūnus narrated to us: Ibn Abī Dhi’b narrated to us, from Saʿīd al-Maqburī, from Abū Hurayra, who said: The Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said, “My nation will surely follow the course of the nations and generations before it, span by span and cubit by cubit.” It was asked, “O Messenger of Allah, as the Persians and Romans did?” The Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—replied, “Who else could the people be but them?”