It is narrated from Sayyiduna Mu'adh bin Jabal (may Allah be pleased with him) that (soon) there will be a trial in which wealth will become abundant and the Qur'an will be made (widely) accessible, until the believer and the hypocrite, the young and the old, and women will (all) read it. A man will read it in private but will not be followed; he will say: "By Allah! I will read it openly." Then he will read it openly, yet still he will not be followed. So he will build a (separate) mosque and invent sayings that are neither in the Book of Allah nor from the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). So beware of him, for every invented matter (innovation) is misguidance. The narrator said: When Sayyiduna Mu'adh bin Jabal (may Allah be pleased with him) fell ill with the illness in which he passed away, he would sometimes lose consciousness and sometimes recover, until once he fainted so deeply that we thought his soul had been taken. Then when he regained consciousness, I was sitting in front of him weeping. He asked: "What makes you weep?" I said: "By Allah! I am not weeping over worldly gain that I used to receive from you, nor because of any family tie between us; rather, I am weeping over the knowledge and forbearance that I used to hear from you, which is now departing (with you)." He said: "Do not weep, for knowledge and faith remain in their place (they exist); whoever seeks them will find them. So seek it where Ibrahim (peace be upon him) sought it: he asked Allah while he did not know (anything)." And he recited this verse: "Indeed, I am going to my Lord; He will guide me." [Surah al-Saffat: 99] "And after me, seek it with four people. If you do not find it with any one of them, then the rest of the people will be (even more) incapable of it (than you). (These four are:) Abdullah bin Mas'ud, Abdullah bin Salam, Salman and Uwaymir Abu al-Darda (may Allah be pleased with them). And beware of the slip of the wise man (hakim) and the judgement of the hypocrite." I said: "How will I know the slip of the wise man and the judgement of the hypocrite?" He said: "(It will be) a word of misguidance which Satan casts upon the tongue of that man. So do not take it on (yourself), nor hope for (such a thing) from him, for sometimes even a hypocrite speaks the truth. So take knowledge from wherever it comes to you, for upon the truth there is a light. And beware of complicated (perplexing) matters." This hadith is sahih (authentic) on the condition of Imam Muslim, but the two Shaykhs (Bukhari and Muslim) did not record it.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Umar (may Allah be pleased with them both) that he said: We were sitting with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). He (peace and blessings be upon him) mentioned the trials and spoke about them at length, until he (peace and blessings be upon him) mentioned the 'trial of al-ahlas' (a long and continuous trial). Someone asked: "O Messenger of Allah! What is the trial of al-ahlas?" He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "It is a trial of fleeing and plunder. Then (will come) the trial of prosperity (fitnat al-sarra). Then the people will agree (to give allegiance) upon a man who will be like a hip bone upon a rib (an unsuitable and weak foundation). Then (will come) the 'trial of al-dahma' (fitnat al-dahma, a dark and great trial), which will not leave a single person of this Ummah without striking him a heavy blow. Whenever it is said that it has ended, it will be prolonged further. In this trial a man will be a believer in the morning and a disbeliever by evening, until the people are divided into two camps: a camp of faith in which there is no hypocrisy, and a camp of hypocrisy in which there is no faith. So when this situation comes about, then await the Dajjal on that very day or the next day." This hadith has an authentic (sahih) chain of narration, but the two Shaykhs (Bukhari and Muslim) did not record it.