Imam Aḥmad said:

Muʾammal narrated to us, Ḥammād narrated to us, ʿAlī ibn Zayd narrated to us, from Khālid ibn al-Ḥuwairith, from ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAmr, who said that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ declared:

“The portents are like beads threaded on a string; once the string is cut they will follow one another in rapid succession.”⦗1⦘ This wording is recorded exclusively by Aḥmad.

Chapter: Matters that must occur before the Hour is established—some of which have already taken place, while others are yet to come

Much of this has been mentioned earlier. We shall now cite additional examples of the signs of the Hour and what indicates its nearness. Allah alone is the One from whom help is sought.

Al-Bukhārī has transmitted—from Abū al-Yamān, from Shuʿayb, from Abū al-Zinād, from al-Aʿraj, from Abū Hurayrah—that the Prophet ﷺ said:

“The Hour will not be established until people compete in raising lofty buildings; nor until two great parties fight one another, and there is a terrible carnage between them even though their claim is the same. The Hour will not come until knowledge is taken away, earthquakes increase, time seems to contract, tribulations multiply, and bloodshed becomes widespread. The Hour will not arrive until nearly thirty impostors—each of them claiming to be a messenger of Allah—are sent forth. The Hour will not come until a man passes by another man’s grave and says, ‘Would that I were in your place.’ Nor will the Hour be established until the sun rises from the west; when it rises and the people behold it, they will all believe, but that will be the moment when
‘no soul’s faith will be of any benefit to it if it had not believed beforehand, nor earned any good through its faith’
(al-Anʿām 6:158). And the Hour will not come until wealth becomes so abundant among you that the owner of property worries about finding someone to accept his charity.” Muslim relates the tradition as well through another chain from Abū Hurayrah.⦗2⦘

Earlier we cited the ḥadith reported by Abū Hurayrah, Buraydah, Abū Bakrah, and others:

“The Hour will not be established until you fight the Turks—broad-faced, small-nosed people whose faces are like hammered shields and who wear their hair upon their footwear…”⦗3⦘ They are the descendants of Qanṭūrāʾ, the bond-maid of Abraham—may Allah have mercy on them.

In the two Ṣaḥīḥs, in a narration of Shuʿbah from Qatādah, from Anas, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

“Among the signs of the Hour are that knowledge will diminish, ignorance and fornication will become manifest, wine will be drunk, and men will grow scarce…"