We asked, “Where will that come from?”

He replied, “From the Romans, who will prevent it.”

He then remained silent for a little while, and said, “The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said…”—then he cited it.

Muslim (8/185) and Ibn Hibban (6647) also recorded it through several routes from Isma‘il ibn ‘Ulayyah, with the same narration.

Abu ‘Amr al-Dani also recorded it in al-Fitan (folio 115/2), but without the hadith cited in the heading.

‘Abd al-Wahhab ibn ‘Ata’ corroborated him: Sa‘id ibn Iyas al-Jurayri informed us of it.

Al-Hakim recorded it (4/454), with additions to the text of the hadith, and said:

“Authentic according to the criteria of Muslim, though neither of them recorded it with this wording. Muslim only recorded the hadith of Dawud ibn Abi Hind, from Abu Nadrah, from Abu Sa‘id, from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace: ‘At the end of time there will be a caliph who will give out wealth without counting it.’ This has a hidden defect…”

He then cited it through the route of ‘Abd al-Wahhab ibn ‘Abd al-Majid—al-Thaqafi—although the original has ‘Abd al-Hamid,’ which is a scribal error: Dawud ibn Abi Hind narrated it with the same chain, but said:

“From Jabir or Abu Sa‘id…” expressing uncertainty.

I say: I have some observations regarding these remarks:

First: he gave the impression that Muslim had not recorded al-Jurayri’s hadith at all, but this is not so, as you can see.

Second: the hidden defect to which he alluded is not damaging, for Muslim recorded the hadith through the route of ‘Abd al-Samad ibn ‘Abd al-Warith: “My father narrated to us: Dawud narrated to us with the same chain,” except that he said:

“From Abu Sa‘id and Jabir ibn ‘Abd Allah, who both said…”—thus, without any uncertainty.