I subsequently came across Abū al-ʿĀliyah’s report in Ibn Abī Shaybah’s al-Muṣannaf (15/182/19456), through Ḥafṣah, from Abū al-ʿĀliyah, who said:

“Between the first of the signs and the last of them are six months; they will follow one another as beads follow one another on a string.”

Its chain of transmission is authentic, and it supports al-Dāraquṭnī’s earlier statement that this was Abū al-ʿĀliyah’s own statement.

Perhaps al-Ḥāfiẓ’s describing it as mursal was only in view of the fact that, in meaning, it has the status of a report attributed to the Prophet, since such a statement cannot be made on the basis of personal opinion; or perhaps he came across another version that explicitly attributes it to the Prophet. Allah knows best.

Ibn Abī Shaybah also recorded it (19457) through Abū al-Muhazzim, from Abū Hurayrah, who said:

“Between the first of the signs and the last of them are eight months.”

But Abū al-Muhazzim is weak. *

3211—“By Him in Whose Hand is Muhammad’s soul! The Hour will not come until obscenity and miserliness become widespread, the trustworthy person is deemed treacherous, the traitor is trusted, the wūʿūl perish, and the tuḥūt appear.” They asked, “O Messenger of Allah, what are the wūʿūl and the tuḥūt?” He replied, “The wūʿūl are the leading figures and nobles of the people, while the tuḥūt are those who used to be beneath people’s feet, unknown to them.”

It was recorded by al-Bukhārī in al-Tārīkh (1/98/275), and through his route by Ibn Ḥibbān (no. 1886 in Mawārid), al-Ḥākim (4/547), and al-Ṭabarānī in al-Muʿjam al-Awsaṭ (1/220/1/3920), through several routes from Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Uways: Zufar ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ardak narrated to me from Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān ibn Wālibah, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Abū Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him,