Reports that foretell the end of the Umayyad state and the rise of the ʿAbbāsids
Al-ʿAlāʾ ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related from his father, from Abū Hurayrah, who said:
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “When the sons of [Abū] al-ʿĀṣ reach forty men, they will turn the religion of Allah into mere deception, His servants into slaves, and the property of Allah into estates divided among themselves (1).”
Al-Aʿmash narrated the same report from ʿAṭiyyah, from Abū Saʿīd, as a marfūʿ tradition with similar wording (2).
Ibn Luhayʿah transmitted from Abū Qabīl, from Ibn Wahb, that he was with Muʿāwiyah when Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam entered and asked a favor, saying, “Grant my request, for I am the father of ten, the brother of ten, and the uncle of ten.” When Marwān withdrew, Muʿāwiyah said to Ibn ʿAbbās, who was sitting with him on the couch, “Do you not know that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: ‘When the sons of al-Ḥakam reach thirty men they will treat Allah’s wealth as booty among themselves, Allah’s servants as their chattel, and Allah’s Book as a mere pretext; and when they reach 497 their ruin will be swifter than the chewing of a date’?” Ibn ʿAbbās replied, “By Allah, yes.”
When ʿAbd al-Malik likewise withdrew (3), Muʿāwiyah said, “I adjure you by Allah, Ibn ʿAbbās, do you not know that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ referred to him as ‘the father of the four tyrants’?” Ibn ʿAbbās answered, “O Allah, yes.”
Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī (4) reported: al-Qāsim ibn al-Faḍl told us; Yūsuf ibn Māzin al-Rāsibī told us: A man stood up to al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī and said, “O you who have blackened the faces of the believers!” Al-Ḥasan replied, “Do not reproach me—may Allah have mercy on you—for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ saw the sons of Umayyah preaching from his pulpit, one man after another, and that displeased him. Thereupon the verse was revealed, ‘Indeed, We have granted you al-Kawthar’—a river in Paradise—and the surah ‘Indeed, We sent it down on the Night of Decree’ up to His words, ‘It is better than a thousand months’ (Q 108:1; 97:1-3): that is, the dominion of the Umayyads.” He continued, “We counted the period and found it exactly as he said, not an hour more or less.”
Al-Tirmidhī (5) also transmitted this ḥadīth from Maḥmūd ibn Ghailān, from Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī, and then remarked, “It is gharīb; we know it only through the narration of al-Qāsim ibn al-Faḍl, and he is reliable—Yaḥyā al-Qaṭṭān and Ibn Mahdī declared him trustworthy. His shaykh is Yūsuf ibn Saʿd—some say Yūsuf ibn Māzin—an unknown narrator, and we do not know this ḥadīth with this wording except through this chain.” Al-Ḥākim likewise recorded it in his al-Mustadrak (6) through the narration of al-Qāsim ibn al-Faḍl al-Ḥuddānī. I have already commented on the oddity of this