The Messenger of Allah ﷺ came out to us and said, "Do you suppose that I will be the last of you to die? No indeed, I will be among the first of you to die, and you will follow me in scattered groups, destroying one another."
خرج علينا رسول الله ﷺ فقال: أتزعمون أني آخركم وفاة؟ ألا إني من أولكم وفاة، وتتبعوني أفنادا، يهلك بعضكم بعضا.
Ahmad (16978) and Abu Yaala (7488, 7490) narrated it, and Ibn Hibban (6646) graded it sahih, all of them through routes from Uzai, who said, Rabia bin Yazid narrated to me, saying, I heard Wathila bin Asqa say, and he mentioned it. Its chain is sahih. Haythami said in Majma (7/306), "The narrators of Ahmad are the narrators of the Sahih."His statement, "in scattered groups," means separate groups, one after another. His statement, "I am among the first of you to die," contains a report of the nearness of his death ﷺ, and that he would die before his senior companions such as Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali, and others, and likewise before many of his companions. This came to pass just as the Prophet ﷺ said, and the last of his companions to die passed away a hundred years after his death ﷺ.