It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Amr (may Allah be pleased with them both) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to say: "You will remain in goodness and well-being as long as your desert-dwellers remain independent of your town-dwellers." He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "And (a time will come when) years upon years of famine will drive them to settle with you in your towns, and you will not be able to keep them (from coming to you) because of their great numbers." He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "They will say: For so long we went hungry while you ate your fill, and for so long we endured hardships while you enjoyed comfort and ease, so today make us your partners too. And the earth will become burdensome for you, until your town-dwellers will start beating the desert-dwellers (in anger) because of the narrowness of the earth." He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "And the earth will tilt with you to one side in such a way that those who perish will perish and those who survive will survive, until slaves are set free. Then after that the earth will settle down for you, until those who freed (the slaves) will regret (freeing them)." He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Then the earth will tilt with you to one side once again, in which those who perish will perish, and those who survive will say: O our Lord! We set slaves free; O our Lord! We set slaves free. But Allah will belie them: You have lied, you have lied; I am the One who sets (them) free. And the last people of this Ummah will be tried with earthquakes; if they repent, Allah will accept their repentance." He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "And if they return (to sins), Allah will send upon them again earthquakes, stoning, sinking into the earth, the disfigurement of forms and thunderbolts. So when it begins to be said: The people have perished, the people have perished, the people have perished, then they will indeed have perished. And Allah Almighty does not punish a nation until it exhausts its excuse (that is, crosses the limit in sins)." The Companions said: What is meant by its exhausting its excuse? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "That is, they will confess their sins but will not repent. And hearts will become settled with the righteousness and wickedness in them, just as a tree becomes settled (on its roots), until no doer of good will be able to increase in good, and no wrongdoer will be able to seek forgiveness and repent. That will be because Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, has said: 'No! Rather, the rust has covered their hearts because of what they used to earn' [Surah al-Mutaffifin: 14] ." This hadith has a sahih (authentic) chain of narration, but the two Shaykhs did not record it.