Shaqiq reported: Abdullah ibn Mas’ud, may Allah be pleased with him, said, “How will you be when you are afflicted with trials that make the old grow senile and the young grow old? And the people take the Sunnah, change it, and say it has been changed?” They said, “O Abu Abdur Rahman, when will this be?” Ibn Mas’ud said, “It will be when you have many reciters but few people of understanding, many leaders but few of them trustworthy, and the world is sought by the deeds of the Hereafter.”
Source: Sunan al-Dārimī 185
Grade: Sahih li ghayrihi (authentic due to external evidence) according to Al-Albani
عَنْ شَقِيقٍ قَالَ قَالَ عَبْدُ اللَّهِ بن مسعود رضي الله عنه كَيْفَ أَنْتُمْ إِذَا لَبِسَتْكُمْ فِتْنَةٌ يَهْرَمُ فِيهَا الْكَبِيرُ وَيَرْبُو فِيهَا الصَّغِيرُ وَيَتَّخِذُهَا النَّاسُ سُنَّةً فَإِذَا غُيِّرَتْ قَالُوا غُيِّرَتْ السُّنَّةُ قَالُوا وَمَتَى ذَلِكَ يَا أَبَا عَبْدِ الرَّحْمَنِ قَالَ إِذَا كَثُرَتْ قُرَّاؤُكُمْ وَقَلَّتْ فُقَهَاؤُكُمْ وَكَثُرَتْ أُمَرَاؤُكُمْ وَقَلَّتْ أُمَنَاؤُكُمْ وَالْتُمِسَتْ الدُّنْيَا بِعَمَلِ الْآخِرَةِ
185 سنن الدارمي المقدمة باب تغير الزمان وما يحدث فيه
111 المحدث الألباني خلاصة حكم المحدث صحيح لغيره في صحيح الترغيب