Al-Bayhaqī and Aḥmad also transmit this narration—through several chains—from Ḥammād ibn Salamah, from Ayyūb, from Abū Qilābah, from Anas, in marfūʿ form. Its chain is sound according to Muslim’s criteria. In al-Nasā’ī’s wording it reads: “Among the signs of the Hour is that people will boast…,” and so forth.

Qatādah likewise followed Anas in reporting it. Abū Dāwūd and al-Ṭabarānī in al-Ṣaghīr record it through the route of Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Khuzaʿī, who said: “Ḥammād ibn Salamah narrated to us, from Ayyūb, from Abū Qilābah, from Anas—and Qatādah from Anas—in marfūʿ form with the first wording.” Al-Ṭabarānī comments: “Al-Khuzaʿī is the sole transmitter of it.”

I say: he is reliable, as stated in al-Taqrīb.

Al-Bukhārī remarks in his Ṣaḥīḥ: “Anas said, ‘They will vie with one another over them, yet will populate them only for a short while.’”

Al-Ḥāfiẓ adds: “We have related this suspended statement in connected form in Musnad Abī Yaʿlā and Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Khuzaymah through the route of Abū Qilābah, that Anas said: ‘I heard him say: A time will come upon my community when they will boast about their mosques, yet will not maintain them except a little.’ Abū Dāwūd, al-Nasā’ī, and Ibn Ḥibbān likewise record it through another chain from Abū Qilābah, from Anas, from the Prophet ﷺ, in the first wording; and Abū Nuʿaym, in Kitāb al-Masājid—through the chain cited by Ibn Khuzaymah—has: ‘They will boast about the abundance of mosques.’”