“This is a good chain of transmission, well-known from al-Muharibi.” Al-Tirmidhi said: “It is a good, singular hadith. We know it only through this route, though it has also been narrated from Abu Hurayrah by another route.” Al-Hakim said: “Authentic according to Muslim’s criteria.” Al-Dhahabi agreed with him.

I say: The correct ruling is that it is good in itself and authentic through corroboration. Abu Yaʿla recorded it (311/1 and p. 1571—photographic copy at al-Maktab) through Muhammad ibn Rabiʿah, from Kamil Abu al-ʿAla, from Abu Salih, from Abu Hurayrah, with the wording: “The lifespan of my community is between sixty and seventy years.”

I say: This chain too is good. Its narrators are deemed trustworthy and are among Muslim’s narrators, apart from Muhammad ibn Rabiʿah al-Kilabi, who is truthful, as stated in al-Taqrib.

758 — “Hasten to perform righteous deeds before tribulations come like the portions of a dark night: a man begins the morning as a believer and ends the evening as a disbeliever, or he ends the evening as a believer and begins the morning as a disbeliever, selling his religion for some worldly gain.”

Muslim recorded it (1/76), as did al-Tirmidhi (3/220–221, with the Tuhfah commentary), who declared it authentic; likewise Ibn Hibban (1868), Ahmad (2/304–523), and al-Firyabi in Sifat al-Munafiq (p. 65 of Dafaʾin al-Kunuz), through al-ʿAlaʾ ibn ʿAbd al-Rahman, from his father, from Abu Hurayrah, attributed to the Prophet. It also has a corroborating narration from Anas ibn Malik, attributed to the Prophet, with the same wording but without the exhortation to hasten.