It is reported that Al-Ḥasan Al-Baṣrī – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
People will remain upon good as long as they vary (some are more knowledgeable, righteous etc); when they become equal, that is when they are destroyed.
Al-Bayhaqī, Shuʿab Al-Īmān #8664 (Al-Rushd ed.).
It is reported that Ḥudhayfah b. Al-Yamān – Allāh be pleased with him – said:
True misguidance is that you approve now what you used to repudiate before (because it was wrong) and repudiate now what you used to approve before; and be aware of changing colours in the religion, for the religion of Allāh is one.
Ibn Baṭṭah, Al-Ibānatu Al-Kubrā ḥadīth 25, and others.
It is reported that ʿAdī b. Ḥātim – Allāh be pleased with him – said:
You will remain upon good as long as you do not start approving of what you used to repudiate and as long as you do not repudiate what you used to know (to be right), and as long as your scholar can speak amongst you without fear.
Op. cit. ḥadīth 26.
It is reported that Al-Nuʿmān b. Bashīr – Allāh be pleased with him – said during a sermon he was delivering in Homs:
Total destruction lies in doing bad deeds during a time of calamity and tribulation.
Ibn Abī Al-Dunyā, Al-ʿUqūbāt article 327.
It is reported that Muʿādh b. Jabal – Allāh be pleased with him – said:
“O people, there are four characteristics to come, whoever can avoid reaching them should do so.” [People] asked, “And what are they?” He replied, “There will come a time in which falsehood will rise, and a time will come in which a man will say, ‘By Allāh, I do not know what I am’, he will neither live nor die upon insight (knowledge of what he should be). And a time will come in which a man will start his day on one religion and end it on another. And a time will come when a man will be given wealth from the wealth Allāh provides, in return for saying what is wrong and false and for which Allāh will be angry with him.”
Ibn ʿAsākir, Tārīkh Dimishq 58:442
It is reported that Bilāl b. Saʿd – Allāh have mercy on him – said:
If you see a man being obstinate, argumentative and impressed with his own opinion, then his loss is complete.
Abū Nuʿaym, ʿHilyatu Al-Awliyāʾ 5:228