2821 — “Among the imminence—according to another narration, the signs—of the Hour are that the wicked will be elevated and the righteous debased; that speech will be given free rein while deeds are held back; and that the Mathnah will be recited among the people, with no one among them condemning it.” It was asked: “What is the Mathnah?” He replied: “Whatever has been written apart from the Book of Allah.”

It is narrated from ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, may Allah be pleased with him, by way of ʿAmr ibn Qays al-Kindī. A number of narrators reported it from him: some attributed it to the Prophet, while others stopped it at the Companion. It nonetheless carries the ruling of a report attributed to the Prophet, since such a matter cannot be stated on the basis of mere opinion.

First: Yaḥyā ibn Ḥamzah narrated: ʿAmr ibn Qays al-Kindī told me: “When I was a young boy, I was with Abū al-Fawāris. I saw people gathered around a man, so I asked, ‘Who is this?’ They said, ‘ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ.’ I then heard him narrate from the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, that he said”—and he mentioned it.

Al-Ḥākim recorded it (4/554), and al-Haythamī cited it in al-Majmaʿ (7/326) as a report attributed to the Prophet from ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAmr. He said: “Al-Ṭabarānī narrated it, and its narrators are those of the Ṣaḥīḥ.”

I say: Perhaps al-Ṭabarānī narrated it through another route, other than this route through al-Kindī. Otherwise, al-Haythamī was mistaken in including him among the narrators of the Ṣaḥīḥ!

Second: Al-Awzāʿī narrated from ʿAmr ibn Qays al-Sakūnī, who said: “I went out with my father in the delegation to Muʿāwiyah, and I heard a man addressing the people, saying: ‘Among the signs of the Hour...’”—the hadith.