The Messenger of Allah ﷺ led the night prayer one evening near the end of his life. After he gave the closing salam, he stood and said, "Do you see this night of yours? At the end of one hundred years from this night, no one who is currently on the face of the earth will remain alive."Ibn Umar said, "People misunderstood what the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said in the various reports they circulated about the hundred years. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ only meant that none of those alive today on the face of the earth would remain. He was indicating that this generation would pass away."
حدثنا عبد الرزاق أخبرنا معمر عن الزهري أخبرني سالم بن عبد الله وأبو بكر بن سليمان أن
صلى رسول الله ﷺ ذات ليلة صلاة العشاء في آخر حياته فلما سلم قام قال أرأيتم ليلتكم هذه على رأس مائة سنة منها لا يبقى ممن هو على ظهر الأرض أحد قال ابن عمر فوهل الناس في مقالة رسول الله ﷺ تلك فيما يتحدثون من هذه الأحاديث عن مائة سنة وإنما قال رسول الله ﷺ لا يبقى اليوم ممن هو على ظهر الأرض يريد أن ينخرم ذلك القرن
Its isnad is sahih. Abu Bakr bin Sulayman bin Abu Hathma, with a fatha on the plain ha and a sakin on the tha with three dots, the Adawi, the Madani, was a trustworthy successor. Bukhari mentioned him in Kuna, number 85, and narrated with his chain from Zuhri, who said, Abu Bakr bin Sulayman bin Abu Hathma was one of the scholars of Quraysh. Ibn Hibban also mentioned him among the trustworthy narrators.Muslim narrated this hadith, 2:272, from Muhammad bin Rafi and Abd bin Humayd, both from Abdul-Razzaq with this chain, and Bukhari narrated it, 2:60-61, through Shuayb from Zuhri with this chain. He also narrated it in abridged form, 1:188-189, through Layth from Abdul-Rahman bin Khalid from Zuhri, and at 2:39 through Yunus from Zuhri. Muslim likewise mentioned the narrations of Shuayb and Abdul-Rahman bin Khalid.Regarding his statement, "no one who is on the face of the earth will remain," Hafiz said, 1:189, Ibn Battal said, the Messenger of Allah only meant that this period would cut off the generation that was then living, so he admonished them about the shortness of their lifespans and informed them that their lifespans were not like the lifespans of the nations that came before, so that they would strive earnestly in worship. Nawawi said, the meaning is that everyone who was on earth that night would not live more than a hundred years after that night, whether their life before that had been short or not, and this does not mean that no one born after that night could live a hundred years.As for his statement, "so the people were confused," and so on, Hafiz said, 2:61, this was because some of them used to say that the Hour would come at the end of a hundred years, as Tabarani and others reported from the hadith of Abu Masud Badri, but Ali bin Abu Talib refuted this claim against him. Ibn Umar clarified in this hadith what the Prophet meant, namely that at the end of a hundred years from the time of that statement, that generation would come to an end, and no one who existed at the time of that statement would remain.This is indeed what happened, as confirmed by observation, for the last person known with certainty to have still been alive from among those present at that time was Abu Tufayl Amir bin Wathila. The people of hadith are agreed that he was the last of the companions to die, and the most that has been said about him is that he lived until the year one hundred and ten, which marks the completion of a hundred years from the Prophet's statement. It is established in Sahih Muslim and elsewhere, from the hadith of Jabir bin Abdullah, that the Prophet said this a month before his death."That generation would come to an end." Ibn Athir said, the qarn refers to the people of a given era, and its inkhiram means their passing away and coming to an end.