2253 — “Before the Hour, there will be years of deception: the liar will be believed, the truthful will be called a liar, the treacherous will be entrusted, the trustworthy will be deemed treacherous, and the insignificant man will speak on public affairs.” He was asked, “Who is this insignificant man?” He replied, “The foolish, insignificant person who speaks on public affairs.”

Al-Bazzār recorded it in his Musnad (3373—al-Kashf), and al-Ṭabarānī in al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr (18/67/125), through Yūnus ibn Bukayr, from Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, from Ibrāhīm ibn Abī ʿAblah, from his father, from ʿAwf ibn Mālik, who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said it, and then cited it.

Al-Bazzār added: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Dīnār also narrated to me from Anas, from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, something similar to it. Al-Haythamī said in al-Majmaʿ (7/284): “Al-Bazzār narrated it. Ibn Isḥāq explicitly stated that he heard it from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Dīnār, and the rest of its narrators are reliable.”

That is what he said! Al-Aʿẓamī likewise endorsed it in his annotation on al-Kashf. However, we have two objections to this. First, he did not attribute the hadith of ʿAwf to al-Ṭabarānī, especially since al-Ṭabarānī narrated it through a route other than this one. Second, Abū ʿAblah—Ibrāhīm’s father—is unknown except through this report. No one declared him reliable except Ibn Ḥibbān (4/367), while Ibn Abī Ḥātim made no comment on him. Thus, the report is weak through this route, though it is strengthened by the hadith of Anas, for its chain is good, since Ibn Isḥāq explicitly stated that he narrated it directly. Aḥmad also recorded it (3/220) through another route from Ibn Isḥāq, from Muḥammad ibn al-Munkadir, from Anas, with the wording: