I say: Malik ibn Zalim is among the narrators included in al-Mizan, where it says: “Al-Azdi said: No one corroborates him in it.” The same is found in al-Lisan. Both works mention this hadith in his entry, but they overlooked Ibn Hibban’s declaring him trustworthy. Yet they mention no one who narrated from him besides Sammak ibn Harb; he is therefore unknown.

However, Ibn Hibban narrated it (6677) through al-A‘mash, from Abu Salih, from Abu Hurayrah, attributed to the Prophet, with the wording:

“The ruin of my Ummah will be at the hands of foolish young men from Quraysh.”

He added: Marwan said, “These are those young men.” Its chain of transmission is authentic.

It also has another route, narrated by Sa‘id ibn ‘Amr ibn Sa‘id, who said: I was sitting with Abu Hurayrah in the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, with Marwan among us. Abu Hurayrah said: I heard the truthful one, whose word is affirmed, say:

“The ruin of my Ummah will be at the hands of young men from Quraysh.”

Marwan said: “May Allah curse those young men!” Abu Hurayrah replied: “If I wished, I could say: the clan of so-and-so, the clan of so-and-so.” [‘Amr ibn Yahya said:] I used to go out with my grandfather to the Banu Marwan when they came to rule in Syria. Whenever he saw their very young men, he would say to us: “Perhaps these are among them!” We would reply: “You know best.”

Al-Bukhari narrated it (6/612/3605 and 13/9)—the wording is his—and Ahmad (2/324), in abbreviated form. Ahmad also has another route (2/52 and 536) from Abu Hurayrah. *