a caliph at the end of my community who will heap up wealth and pour it out in handfuls, never bothering to count it.

al-Jurayrī said: I asked Abū Naḍrah and Abū al-ʿAlāʾ, “Do you think that this refers to ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz?” They answered, “No.” Muslim also transmitted it through al-Jurayrī with similar wording (1).

Imām Aḥmad said: Abū ʿĀmir narrated to us; Aflah ibn Saʿīd al-Anṣārī—an elder from the people of Qubāʾ among the Anṣār—narrated to us. ʿAbd Allāh ibn Rāfiʿ, the client of Umm Salama, also narrated to me. She said: I heard Abū Hurayrah say, “I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, ‘If you live on after me for a while, you will soon witness a people who set out in the morning under Allah’s wrath and return in the evening beneath His curse, carrying in their hands whips like the tails of cattle.’” Muslim likewise related it through Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Numayr, from Zayd ibn al-Ḥubbāb, from Aflah ibn Saʿīd (2).

He (Aḥmad) also transmitted—from Zuhayr ibn Ḥarb, from Jarīr, from Suhayl, from his father, from Abū Hurayrah—that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “There are two categories of the people of Hellfire that I have not yet seen: men who hold whips like the tails of cattle and use them to lash the people; and women who are clothed yet naked, swaying and causing others to sway, with heads like the humps of tilted bactrian camels. They will neither enter Paradise nor smell its fragrance, even though its fragrance can be perceived from such-and-such a distance.” (3)

Aḥmad further said: Zayd ibn Yaḥyā al-Dimashqī narrated to us; Abū Muʿīd narrated to us; Makḥūl narrated to us, from Anas ibn Mālik. He related that someone asked, “O Messenger of Allah! When shall we give up enjoining right and forbidding wrong?” He replied, “When what befell the Children of Israel befalls you: when indecency is found among your elders, knowledge rests with your lowliest, and authority lies with your youngsters.” Ibn Mājah likewise recorded it—from al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Walīd al-Dimashqī, from Zayd ibn Yaḥyā ibn ʿUbayd, from al-Haytham ibn Ḥumayd, from Abū Muʿīd Ḥafṣ ibn Ghaylān, from Makḥūl, from Anas—giving a similar account (4).

Imām Aḥmad said: Yaḥyā ibn Ḥammād narrated to us; Abū ʿAwānah narrated to us, from ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib, from his father, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr, that he related from the Prophet ﷺ: “A man from the Children of Israel welcomed a guest, and in his house there was a heavily pregnant she-dog (5). The dog said, ‘By Allah, I shall not bark at my master’s guest.’ Then the puppies within her belly howled.” He continued: “It was asked, ‘What is this?’” He said: “Allah—Exalted is He—revealed to a man among them: ‘This is the likeness of a community that will come after you; its fools will overpower its forbearing ones.’” (6)

Aḥmad also said: Muʿāwiyah ibn ʿAmr narrated to us; Abū Isḥāq narrated to us, from al-Awzāʿī, who said: Abū ʿAmmār narrated to me