It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him); he said: "You are in a time in which the one who speaks the truth is better than the one who stays silent, and the one who stands (for good) is better than the one who sits; and after you there will come a time in which the one who stays silent will be better than the one who speaks, and the one who sits will be better than the one who stands." A man said: O Abu Abd al-Rahman! How can it be that when a person acts upon something today it is guidance, and the same thing after today (in another era) becomes misguidance? He said: "You have already done so. Understand it through the example of two men who passed by people engaged in sins. Both of them objected to it; one of them remained silent and so he remained safe, while the other spoke and said: You are doing such and such (wrong). So the people seized him and took him to their ruler, and then he - or they - kept after him until he accepted their way and began to act as they did." This hadith is sahih (authentic) on the condition of the two Shaykhs, but they did not record it.