throughout the earth; it will be erased entirely and no longer recognized at all. Those who remain will be the worst of humankind, and upon them the Hour will fall, just as the ḥadith states:

“ The Hour will not be established except upon the worst of people.” (1)

In another wording:

“ The worst of people are those upon whom the Hour dawns while they are still alive.” (2)

Likewise, in the report of ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Ṣuhayb, from Anas, from the Prophet ﷺ:

“People will become only more miserly, time only harsher, and the Hour will not be established except upon the worst of people.” (3)

Imām Aḥmad said: “Hāshim narrated to us; Isḥāq ibn Saʿīd ibn ʿAmr ibn Saʿīd ibn al-ʿĀṣ narrated to us, from his father, from ʿĀʾishah, who said:

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ entered upon me saying, ‘O ʿĀʾishah, your people will be the quickest of my community to join me.’

She continued: When he had sat down I said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, may I be your ransom, you have just come in uttering words that startled me.’

He asked, ‘And what were they?’

I replied, ‘You claim that my people will be the quickest of your community to join you.’

He said, ‘Yes.’

I asked, ‘And why is that?’

He answered, ‘Death will strike them in rapid succession, so that their own nation will begrudge them.’ (4)

I then asked, ‘What will people be like after that?’

He said, ‘Like dabā—young locusts—the strong among them devouring the weak, until the Hour rises over them.’

Ad-dabā are the locusts whose wings have not yet grown. Aḥmad alone transmitted this report. (5)

Aḥmad also said: “ʿAlī ibn Thābit narrated to us; ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn Jaʿfar related to me, from his father, from ʿIlbāʾ al-Sulamī, who said: I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say:

‘The Hour will not be established except upon the dregs of mankind.’

He alone reported it, though Abū Khaythamah likewise narrated it from ʿAlī ibn Thābit with the same chain. (6)

Abū Nuʿaym, through this same route and with his own chain, recorded the statement:

‘The Hour will not come until a man from the mawālī called Jahjāh assumes authority.’ (7)