The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "You will be sifted as dates are sifted from their unripe and spoiled ones. The best of you will depart and the worst of you will remain, so die if you can."
قال رسول الله ﷺ: لتنتقون كما ينتقى التمر من أغفاله، فليذهبن خياركم، وليبقين شراركم، فموتوا إن استطتم.
Ibn Majah (4038) and Hakim (4/434) both narrated it through the route of Yunus bin Yazid, from Zuhri, from Abu Humayd (meaning the freed slave of Musafi), from Abu Hurairah, who reported it. Hakim said, "sahih in isnad." I say, it is as he said, and Abu Humayd the freed slave of Musafi is Abdul-Rahman bin Saad al-Muqaad, as Daraqutni definitively stated in al-Ilal (9/159), and he is trustworthy, having been deemed trustworthy by Nasai. As for the hesitation of Mizzi and those who followed him, suggesting that the man mentioned in the isnad might be al-Muqaad or someone else, there is no basis for it after Daraqutni's definitive statement that he is al-Muqaad.Similar in meaning is what was narrated from Ruwayfi bin Thabit al-Ansari, who said, dates and fresh dates were brought before the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and they ate from them until nothing remained except the pits. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "Do you know what this is?" They said, "Allah and His Messenger know best." He said, "You consume the good, then more good, until nothing remains among you except something like this."This was narrated by Ibn Hibban (7225) and Hakim (4/434), both through the route of Ibn Wahb, who said, Amr bin Harith informed me, from Bakr bin Sawada, that Suhaym reported to him from Ruwayfi bin Thabit al-Ansari, who related it. Hakim said, "This is a hadith sahih in isnad." I say, in its isnad is Suhaym, who is unknown, since no one deemed him trustworthy except that Ibn Hibban mentioned him among the trustworthy narrators (4/343) and said, "He narrates from Ruwayfi bin Thabit, and narrated from Bakr bin Sawada." Bukhari gave him an entry in Tarikh al-Kabir (4/193), as did Ibn Abu Hatim in al-Jarh wal-Tadil (4/303), but neither of them said anything about him.