and al-Khaṭṭābī, in his book al-ʿUzlah (Seclusion), and before him Ibn Abī al-Dunyā, devoted a large section to this very issue.

Al-Bukhārī said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yūsuf related to us; Mālik informed us, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh (1) ibn Abī Ṣaʿṣaʿah, from his father, from Abū Saʿīd, who said that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
“It is soon to happen that the best property a Muslim will own will be a flock of sheep which he drives to the crests of the mountains and to the places where the rain descends, fleeing with his religion from the tribulations.”
Muslim did not include this report, though Abū Dāwūd, al-Nasāʾī, and Ibn Mājah all transmitted it through the same line of narration via Ibn Abī Ṣaʿṣaʿah (2).

At such times it becomes permissible to ask Allah for death and to seek it when trials and oppression appear, even though in other situations that has been forbidden, as is authentically established (3).

Imām Aḥmad narrated: Ḥasan related to us; Ibn Lahīʿah related to us; Abū Yūnus related to us, from Abū Hurayrah, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
“None of you should wish for death or pray for it before it comes to him—unless he feels confident about his deeds—for when one of you dies, his deeds are cut off, and a believer’s lifespan only increases him in goodness” (4).

The evidence for the permissibility of seeking death when tribulations descend is the long dream-report that Aḥmad records in his Musnad from Muʿādh ibn Jabal, which contains the supplication:
“O Allah, I ask You to enable me to do good deeds, to shun wrong actions, and to love the poor; forgive me and have mercy on me. Should You will a trial for a people, then take me to Yourself without subjecting me to it. O Allah, I ask You for Your love, the love of those who love You, and the love of deeds that draw me near to Your love” (5).

These aḥādīth show that a severely trying era will befall people in which the Muslims will have no community standing upon the truth—whether throughout the whole earth or only in part of it.

It is established in the Ṣaḥīḥ, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
“Allah does not take away knowledge by snatching it from the servants; rather, He removes knowledge by taking away the scholars. When He leaves no scholar behind, the people will adopt ignorant leaders; they will be asked and will issue verdicts without knowledge, so they will go astray and lead others astray” (6).

Another ḥadīth states:
“A group of my ummah will continue to be manifest upon the truth; those who abandon them and those who oppose them will not harm them until the command of Allah comes while they are in that state” (7). Al-Bukhārī adds: “and they will be in Greater Syria” (8).

ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak and many other leading imams said: They are the people of ḥadīth.