“Yes.”
I asked, “How?”
He replied:
“After me there will be leaders who neither follow my guidance nor adhere to my Sunnah. Among them will arise men whose hearts are the hearts of devils in human bodies.” (1)
He said: I asked, “What should I do, O Messenger of Allah, if I live to see that?”
He replied:
“Listen to and obey the ruler. Even if he strikes your back and takes your wealth, listen and obey.” (2)
This was further explained in another hadith from Hudhayfah. Speaking of the second period of good, he said:
“A reconciliation tainted by hidden rancor, a united community marred by impurities within it, and hearts that do not return to what they once were.” (3)
Thus, the first good was prophethood (4) and the Prophetic Caliphate, in which there was no civil strife. The evil was the civil strife that arose from the killing of Uthmān and the people’s division, until their condition came to resemble that of the Age of Ignorance, with some of them killing others.
For this reason, al-Zuhrī (5) said: “The civil strife broke out while the Companions of the Messenger of Allah
(1) B reads: *al-ins* (“human beings”); the reading adopted in the text is that found in the copies of *Sahīh Muslim* and al-Nawawī’s *Commentary*.
(2) *Sahīh Muslim*, 3:1476. Both it and al-Nawawī’s *Commentary*, 12:238, read: “They do not follow my guidance.”
(3) The hadith, with some differences in wording, is found in *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, 4:135–137 (Book of Tribulations, chapter: Mention of Tribulations and Their Signs); and *al-Musnad* (al-Halabī ed.), 5:386–387, 403. *Lisān al-Arab* states: “The Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said concerning a tribulation he mentioned: ‘A truce tainted by hidden rancor and a united community marred by impurities.’” *Aqdhā* is the plural of *qadhā*, which in turn is the plural of *qadhāh*: dust, straw, dirt, or other debris that falls into the eye, water, or a drink. He meant that their unity would be accompanied by corruption within their hearts, which he likened to debris in the eye, water, or a drink.
(4) N and M read: “The first good belonged to prophethood.”
(5) N and M read: “al-Azharī,” which is a corruption. He was Muhammad ibn Muslim ibn Ubayd Allāh ibn Abd Allāh ibn Shihāb al-Zuhrī, Abū Bakr al-Madanī, one of the eminent imams and the leading scholar of the Hijaz and Syria. He transmitted from Ibn Umar, Anas, Ibn al-Musayyib, and others. He died in 124 AH, though 125 AH is also reported. See *Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb*, 9:445–451; al-Khazrajī, *al-Khulāsa*, pp. 306–307.