A weak hadeeth cited by At-Tabaraani about signs of the Hour

14-5-2017 | IslamWeb

Question:

Assalaamu alaykum. I recently read a hadith which states 23 signs about the end of times. This hadith was narrated by Ibn Mas‘ood, may Allaah be pleased with him, from the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam. I read the hadith on a Facebook post, which states that this hadith was collected from Al-Mujamul Kabir At-Tabarani. The hadith number is 10410. The first six of the 23 signs stated in the hadith are:
1. Children will be ill-tempered in nature.
2. The rain will be acidic.
3. Evil people will spread everywhere.
4. People will trust the traitor and distrust the trusted ones.
5. The truthful will be blamed as liars and liars will be called truthful.
6. Plates will communicate with each other and family members will break the family ties.
Could you please inform me whether this hadith is authentic or not? May Allaah reward you.
Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.

The hadeeth that you mentioned, dear Brother, was cited by At-Tabaraani may Allaah have mercy upon him as you said, in Al-Mu‘jam Al-Awsat and Al-Mu‘jam Al-Kabeer, both reported on the authority of Ibn Mas‘ood, may Allah be pleased with him.

At-Tabaraani commented on this hadeeth and another one preceding it, saying, "No one reported these two ahaadeeth from Mubaarak ibn Fadhaalah except Sayf ibn Miskeen."

Sayf ibn Miskeen was declared a weak reporter by scholars of Hadeeth. Al-Haythami may Allaah have mercy upon him cited this hadeeth and commented on it, saying, "It was cited by At-Tabaraani in Al-Awsat and Al-Kabeer, and its chain of narration includes Sayf ibn Miskeen, who is a weak reporter." [Majma‘ Az-Zawaa'id]

Al-Haafith Ibn Hajar may Allaah have mercy upon him wrote about Sayf ibn Miskeen, "An old man from Basrah who narrates Maqloobaat (inverted ahaadeeth; in whose text or chain of narration a change has taken place by substituting one letter for another or by reversing the order of a word or sentence in the text) and fabricated reports." [Lisaan Al-Mizaan]

Ad-Daaraqutni may Allaah have mercy upon him said, "He is not a strong reporter." [Al-‘Ilal]

Ibn Hibbaan may Allaah have mercy upon him wrote, "He narrates Maqloobaat and fabricated reports, and his narrations, though few, cannot be used as evidence because they contradict the reports of trustworthy reporters." [Al-Majrooheen]

Hence, this report is weak.

Allah knows best.

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