أَخْبَرَنَا يَعْلَى ، حَدَّثَنَا الْأَعْمَشُ ، عَنْ شَقِيقٍ ، قَالَ : قَالَ عَبْدُ اللَّهِ :" كَيْفَ أَنْتُمْ إِذَا لَبِسَتْكُمْ فِتْنَةٌ يَهْرَمُ فِيهَا الْكَبِيرُ وَيَرْبُو فِيهَا الصَّغِيرُ، وَيَتَّخِذُهَا النَّاسُ سُنَّةً، فَإِذَا غُيِّرَتْ، قَالُوا : غُيِّرَتْ السُّنَّةُ "، قَالُوا : وَمَتَى ذَلِكَ يَا أَبَا عَبْدِ الرَّحْمَنِ؟، قَالَ : " إِذَا كَثُرَتْ قُرَّاؤُكُمْ، وَقَلَّتْ فُقَهَاؤُكُمْ، وَكَثُرَتْ أُمَرَاؤُكُمْ، وَقَلَّتْ أُمَنَاؤُكُمْ، وَالْتُمِسَتِ الدُّنْيَا بِعَمَلِ الْآخِرَةِ "

Ya’la told us, Al-A’mash told us, on the authority of Shaqiq, he said: Abdullah said: “How will you be when a trial engulfs you in which the elder Children are brought up in it, and people take it as a sunnah, and when it is changed, they say: The sunnah has been changed. They say: When is that, O Abu Abd al-Rahman? He said: “When your readers are many, your jurists are few, your princes are many, your trustworthy ones are few, and you seek this world by doing the work of the hereafter.”