- “Four practices of the Age of Ignorance remain among my ummah, which they will not abandon: boasting of one’s ancestry, disparaging people’s lineages, seeking rain through the stars, and wailing over the dead.”
Muslim (3/45) and Aḥmad (5/342, 343, 344) recorded it through Yaḥyā ibn Abī Kathīr, who said that Zayd narrated to him, that Abū Salām narrated to him, that Abū Mālik al-Ashʿarī narrated it to him as a prophetic report.
Al-Ḥākim included it in al-Mustadrak (1/383) and said: “It is authentic according to the criteria of the two Shaykhs, though Muslim recorded it in abridged form.” This is what he said, but it appears in his work with this wording, except that at its beginning he says: “Indeed, among my ummah are four practices of the Age of Ignorance which they will not abandon: boasting...” to the end of the hadith.
It has a corroborating report with the wording:
“Four practices of the Age of Ignorance will never be abandoned by the people: wailing over the dead, disparaging people’s lineages, contagion: ‘One camel gets mange, and then a hundred camels get mange; so who gave mange to the first camel?!’—and attributing rainfall to stellar stations: ‘We were given rain through such-and-such a stellar station.’”
- “Four practices of the Age of Ignorance will never be abandoned by the people: wailing over the dead, disparaging people’s lineages, contagion: ‘One camel gets mange, and then a hundred camels get mange; so who gave mange to the first camel?!’—and attributing rainfall to stellar stations: ‘We were given rain through such-and-such a stellar station.’”
Al-Tirmidhī (1/186, Būlāq edition), al-Ṭaḥāwī (2/378), al-Ṭayālisī (no. 2395), and Aḥmad (2/291, 414, 415, 455, 526, 531) recorded it from ʿAlqamah ibn Marthad, from Abū al-Rabīʿ al-Madanī, from Abū Hurayrah, from the Prophet. Al-Tirmidhī said: “It is a good hadith.”
This Abū al-Rabīʿ appears to be unknown. Abū Ḥātim said: “His hadith are acceptable,” while al-Taqrīb describes him as acceptable. Al-Bazzār also narrated it with the wording: