Al-Aʿmash transmitted from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Sābiṭ—mursal from the Prophet ﷺ. (1)

Al-Tirmidhī said: "Mūsā ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Kindī narrated to us; Zayd ibn Ḥubbāb narrated to us; Mūsā ibn ʿUbaydah informed me; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Dīnār informed me, on the authority of Ibn ʿUmar, who said that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ declared:

‘When my ummah walks with al-muṭayṭāʾ (2)—a haughty, swaying gait—and is waited upon by the sons of kings, the descendants of Persia and Byzantium, its worst people will be given authority over its best.’

This ḥadīth is gharīb. It has also been related by Abū Muʿāwiyah from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Anṣārī, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Dīnār, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, but we know of no sound basis for it. Mālik likewise narrated it from Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd as a mursal report. (3)

He then recorded—through Ṣāliḥ al-Murrī, from Saʿīd al-Jurayrī, from Abū ʿUthmān al-Nahdī, from Abū Hurayrah—that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

‘When your governors are the best of you, your wealthy the most generous among you, and your affairs decided by mutual consultation, then the earth’s surface is better for you than its belly. But when your governors are the worst of you, your wealthy the most miserly, and your affairs in the hands of your women, then the earth’s belly is better for you than its surface.’

He remarked: ‘This report is gharīb; we know it only from Ṣāliḥ al-Murrī. He has other odd narrations that are not corroborated, though he was a righteous man.’ (4)

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Bakr al-Ismāʿīlī narrated, through Mubārak ibn Ḥassān, from ʿUmar ibn [Qays al-Makkī from] ʿĀṣim ibn ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

‘What will become of you when your women become overbearing and your young men immoral? (5)’

They asked, ‘O Messenger of Allah, will that really happen?’ He replied, ‘And far worse than that: you will no longer enjoin what is right or forbid what is wrong.’

They said, ‘Will that indeed occur?’ He said, ‘And far worse than that: you will regard what is right as wrong and what is wrong as right.’

They said, ‘Will that actually come to pass?’ He said, ‘And worse than that: you will command what is wrong and forbid what is right.’

They asked, ‘Will that truly happen?’ He said, ‘And even worse than that.’

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ then declared: ‘How wretched are such people! How wretched a people who kill those who bid others to justice; how wretched a people who render the unlawful lawful and pursue their lusts on the basis of doubtful arguments; and how wretched a people among whom the believer must walk in taqiyyah and concealment.’ (6)

Imām Aḥmad said: ‘Khalaf ibn al-Walīd narrated to us; ʿAbbād ibn ʿAbbād narrated to us, from Mujālid ibn Saʿīd, from Abūʾl-Waddāk, from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī—may Allah be pleased with him—who said that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ stated: “Mudar will surely strike the servants of Allah until Allah is no longer worshipped….”’