Al-Bayhaqī also relates—through the isnād of Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah—who said: “My mother’s father, Abū Ḥabībah, told me that he entered the house while ʿUthmān was under siege. He heard Abū Hurayrah asking ʿUthmān for leave to address the people, and ʿUthmān granted it. Abū Hurayrah then rose, praised Allah and extolled Him, and said:

‘I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, “You will meet after me tribulation and division.”’

Someone asked, ‘Who will lead us then, O Messenger of Allah? What do you command us to do?’ He replied,

‘Hold fast to the Trustworthy One and to his companions,’

pointing on that occasion to ʿUthmān (1).

Imām Aḥmad (2) recorded the same report through ʿAffān, from Wuhayb, from Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah. Earlier, in the ḥadīth of ʿAbdullāh ibn Ḥawālah, two sound corroborations for this wording were cited; Allah knows best.

Imām Aḥmad (3) further narrated: ‘ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, from Sufyān, from Manṣūr, from Ribʿī, from al-Barāʾ ibn Nājah, from ʿAbdullāh—meaning Ibn Masʿūd—who reported that the Prophet ﷺ said:

“The millstone of Islam will revolve for thirty-five, or thirty-six, or thirty-seven years. If they perish, they will only follow the path of those who have perished; but if their religion is upheld for them, it will stand firm for seventy years.”

I asked, “Is that reckoned from what has passed, or from what remains?” He replied, “From what remains.”’

Abū Dāwūd (4) likewise transmitted it from Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān al-Anbārī, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī, with the same chain.

Aḥmad also recorded it—through Isḥāq (5) and Ḥajjāj (6)—from Sufyān, from Manṣūr, from Ribʿī, from al-Barāʾ ibn Nājah al-Kāhilī, from ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd, who said that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ declared:

‘The millstone of Islam will be removed for thirty-five, or thirty-six, or thirty-seven years. If it perishes, it will meet the fate of those who have perished; but if their religion is established for them, it will endure for seventy years.’

ʿUmar then asked, ‘O Messenger of Allah, is this with regard to what has elapsed or to what is yet to come?’ He answered, ‘Rather, to what is yet to come.’

Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān likewise reported it from ʿUbaydullāh ibn Mūsā, from Isrāʾīl, from Manṣūr, noting that ʿUmar posed the same question. Al-Bayhaqī (7) commented: ‘Isrāʾīl is corroborated by al-Aʿmash and Sufyān al-Thawrī in narrating it from Manṣūr.’

He added: ‘I have been informed that this ḥadīth alludes first to the turmoil in which ʿUthmān was killed, in the year thirty-five [AH], and then to the trials that followed in the days of ʿAlī. The figure of “seventy” refers to the reign of the Banū Umayyah, for from the time their rule became firmly established until the call to revolt arose in Khurāsān and Umayyad power weakened and began to crumble, roughly seventy years elapsed.’