The Messenger of Allah ﷺ looked up at the sky one day and said, "This is the time when knowledge will be taken away."A man from the Ansar named Labid bin Ziyad said, "Messenger of Allah, will knowledge be taken away when it has been firmly established and committed to memory in our hearts?"The Messenger of Allah ﷺ replied, "I used to consider you among the most learned people of Medina." He then mentioned to him how the Jews and Christians had gone astray despite having the Book of Allah in their hands.The narrator said, I met Shaddad bin Aws and related to him the hadith of Awf bin Malik. He said, "Awf has spoken the truth. Shall I tell you what is the first thing to be taken away?"I said, "Yes."He said, "Humility, until you will not see anyone with humility."
أن رسول الله ﷺ نظر إلى السماء يوما، فقال: هذا أوان يرفع العلم. فقال رجل من الأنصار يقال له: لبيد بن زياد: يا رسول الله يرفع العلم، وقد أثبت ووعته القلوب؟ فقال له رسول الله ﷺ: إن كنت لأحسبك من أفقه أهل المدينة. وذكر له ضلالة اليهود والنصارى على ما في أيديهم من كتاب الله. قال: فلقيت شداد بن أوس، فحدثته بحديث عوف بن مالك، فقال: صدق عوف، ألا أخبرك بأول ذلك يرفع؟ قلت: بلى. قال: الخشوع، حتى لا ترى خاشعا.
Nasai narrated it in Sunan al-Kubra (5878) from Rabi bin Sulayman, who said, Abdullah bin Wahb narrated to us, who said, I heard Layth bin Saad say, Ibrahim bin Abu Abla narrated to me, from Walid bin Abdul-Rahman Jurashi, from Jubayr bin Nufayr, who said, Awf bin Malik Ashjai narrated to me, and he mentioned it. Its chain of transmission is sahih. Ibn Hibban (4572) and Hakim (1/98-99) also graded it sahih, both of them narrating it through the route of Layth bin Saad, with his chain. Hakim said, after grading the hadith sahih, "Jubayr bin Nufayr heard the hadith from both of them together (that is, from Awf bin Malik and Shaddad bin Aws) and from a third companion, who was Abu Darda."