The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "The first part of this nation will be set right through asceticism and certainty, and the last part of it will be destroyed by stinginess and false hopes."
قال رسول الله ﷺ: صلاح أول هذه الأمة بالزهد واليقين، ويهلك آخرها بالبخل والأمل.
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Ahmad narrated it in Zuhd (51), Ibn Bishran in his Amali (908), and Bayhaqi in Shuab (10046), all through chains from Muhammad bin Muslim, from Ibrahim bin Maysara, from Amr bin Shuayb, from his father, from his grandfather, who said, then he mentioned the hadith. The phrase "from his father" is missing from the printed edition of Zuhd.Its chain of transmission is hasan, on account of Muhammad bin Muslim, who is Taifi, for his hadith is hasan. It is further strengthened by what Ibn Abu Dunya narrated in Yaqin (3) and in Qasr Amal (20), from Salama bin Shabib, who said, Marwan bin Muhammad narrated to us, from Ibn Lahia, from Amr bin Shuayb, from his father, from his grandfather, with the same content, as a raised hadith, in the wording, "The first of this nation was saved through certainty and asceticism, and the last of this nation will perish through miserliness and false hope."There is well known criticism concerning Ibn Lahia, but he poses no problem when corroborated, and he has indeed been corroborated, as shown in the chain of transmission preceding this one.