And it is also reported:

“The Hour will not be established until the one who is happiest in worldly life is Lukaʿ ibn Lukaʿ.” (1)

Al-Ṭabarānī said: Al-Ḥusayn ibn Isḥāq al-Tustarī narrated to us; ʿAmr ibn Hishām Abū Umayyah (2) al-Ḥarrānī narrated to us; ʿUthmān (3) ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān narrated to us, from Ṣadaqah, from Zayd ibn Wāqid, from al-ʿAlāʾ ibn al-Ḥārith, from Ḥizām ibn Ḥakīm ibn Ḥizām, from his father, that the Prophet ﷺ said:

“You have entered a period in which the jurists are many and the preachers are few, the donors are many and those who ask are few (4); in such a time, action is better than knowledge. Yet a time will come when the jurists are few and the preachers are many, the questioners are many and the donors are few; in that time, knowledge is better than action.” (5)

Imam Aḥmad said: Ḥammād ibn Usāmah narrated to us; Misʿar informed me, from ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Maysarah, from Hilāl ibn Yasāf, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ẓālim, from Saʿīd ibn Zayd, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ mentioned tribulations like the pitch-black segments of night, and I think he added:

“People will disappear in them with the swiftest disappearance.”

He was asked, “O Messenger of Allah, will they all perish or only some of them?” He replied, “It is enough for them—killing,” or, “Sufficient for them is the killing.” Aḥmad transmitted this report alone. (6)

Aḥmad also said: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān narrated to us; Ḥammād ibn Salamah narrated to us, from ʿAlī ibn Zayd, from Abū ʿUthmān, from Khālid ibn ʿUrfaṭah, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

“O Khālid, after me there will be events and tribulations. If you are able to be Allah’s (7) servant who is killed rather than the one who kills, then do so.” (8)

Al-Ṭabarānī also related—through the narration of Thābit ibn ʿAjlān: Abū Kathīr al-Muḥāribī told me; I heard Khurashah al-Muḥāribī say—that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

“There will be tribulations. During them the sleeper is better than the one who is awake, the one seated is better than the one standing, [and the one standing is better than] the one walking, and the one walking is better than the one running. Whoever is overtaken by them, let him take his sword to Ṣafā, strike it against the rock until it breaks, and then lie down until the turmoil passes, whatever it may be…” He then mentioned the remainder of the ḥadīth. (9)