The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "You will surely follow the ways of those who came before you, hand span by hand span, cubit by cubit, and arm's length by arm's length, to the point that if one of them entered the hole of a lizard, you would enter it too, and even if one of them were to have intercourse with his mother in the middle of the road, you would do the same."
قال رسول الله ﷺ: لتركبن سنن من كان قبلكم شبرا بشبر وذراعا بذراع وباعا بباع، حتى لو أن أحدهم دخل جحر ضب لدخلتم، وحتى لو أن أحدهم جامع أمه بالطريق لفعلتم.
Muhammad bin Nasr Marwazi related it in Sunnah (31), and Bazzar in Kashf (3285), and Hakim graded it sahih (4/455), all of them via Abu Uways Madini, who said, Thawr bin Zayd Kinani and Musa bin Maysara narrated to me (Bazzar does not mention Musa), from Ikrima, from Ibn Abbas, who related it.Bazzar said, "We do not know this hadith to be narrated with this wording except through this isnad, and Thawr is a Madinan, trustworthy and well known." Its isnad is hasan because of Abu Uways, who is Abdullah bin Abdullah bin Uways Asbahi, whose hadith is hasan.Something of similar meaning has been narrated from Abdullah bin Amr, who said, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "What befell Banu Israil will surely befall my nation, step by step, to the point that if there was among them one who had intercourse with his mother openly, there would be someone in my nation who would do that. Banu Israil split into seventy-two sects, and my nation will split into seventy-three sects, all of them in the Fire except one." They asked, "And which one is that, O Messenger of Allah?" He said, "What I am upon, and my companions."Tirmidhi related it (2641), and Hakim in Mustadrak (1/129), both from the hadith of Sufyan Thawri, from Abdul-Rahman bin Ziyad Afriqi, from Abdullah bin Yazid, from Abdullah bin Amr, who related it. Abdul-Rahman bin Ziyad Afriqi is daif, and the majority of scholars have graded him daif. Its referencing was given earlier in the chapter on the virtues of the companions.