Among the signs of his prophethood—peace and blessings be upon him
- “There will surely come upon people a time when their hearts are the hearts of non-Arabs: they love this worldly life, their way is the way of the Bedouins, whatever provision comes to them they turn into livestock, they regard jihād as a loss, and zakāh as a fine.”
Al-Ṭabarānī recorded it in al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr (13/36/82) through the route of Hishām ibn ʿAmmār, who said: Baqiyyah ibn al-Walīd narrated to us; he said: Khālid ibn Ḥumayd al-Mihrī narrated to us; he said: Ḥumayd ibn Hānīʾ al-Khawlānī narrated to us from Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr, who said: The Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—said … and he mentioned it.
I say: This is a good chain of transmission. Its narrators are trustworthy and are among the narrators of the Ṣaḥīḥ, apart from Khālid ibn Ḥumayd al-Mihrī. Abū Ḥātim said of him: “There is no harm in him.” Ibn Ḥibbān included him in al-Thiqāt (8/221).
The only concern regarding Baqiyyah is his concealment in transmission, but he explicitly stated his direct transmission, as you can see. This escaped al-Haythamī, who said in al-Majmaʿ (3/65):
“Al-Ṭabarānī narrated it in al-Kabīr. Its chain contains Baqiyyah ibn al-Walīd, who is trustworthy but practises tadlīs, while its remaining narrators have been declared trustworthy.”
Khālid ibn Ḥumayd was contradicted in its chain of transmission. Ibn Lahīʿah said: Ḥumayd ibn Hānīʾ narrated to me from Shufayy, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr, attributing it to the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him.
Thus, he placed Shufayy in the position of Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān—who was ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yazīd al-Maʿāfirī—and both are trustworthy.