Mu'jam Kabir Tabarani 15182 — the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: O Awf

Sayyiduna Awf bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) said that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "O Awf, how will you be when this Ummah splits into seventy-three sects, one of them in Paradise and all the rest in Hell?" I said: When will that be, O Messenger of Allah? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "When the guards become many, slave women become owners, unworthy people sit on the pulpits, the Qur'an is taken as musical instruments, the mosques are adorned, the pulpits are raised high, the fay' is made the possession of a few in turn, zakah is regarded as a penalty, a trust is regarded as booty, understanding of the religion is acquired for other than Allah, a man obeys his wife, disobeys his mother and keeps his father at a distance, the later people of this Ummah curse its earlier ones, the leadership of a tribe is in the hands of its sinner, the chief of a people is the most contemptible of them, and a man is honoured to be safe from his evil. On the day this happens, that will be the time; and on that day people will flee to Syria to protect themselves from their enemy." I said: Will Syria be conquered? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Yes, soon. Then trials will occur after its conquest; then a dark, dusty trial will come; then trials will follow one after another until a man from my household comes forth who will be called al-Mahdi. If you meet him, follow him and be among the rightly guided."