مسند امام احمد بن حنبل · Hadith 3870

It was narrated that Tariq bin Shihab said: We were sitting with 'Abdullah when a man came and said: The iqarnah (call immediately preceding the prayer) lias been given. So he got up and we got up with him, and when we entered the mosque we saw the people bowing at the front of the mosque, so he said takbecr and bowed, and we bowed, then we walked and did what he did. A man came rushing past and said, ' Alaikas-snlam (upon you be peace) O Abu 'Abdur-Rahman. He said: Allah and His Messenger spoke the truth. When we had prayed and gone back, he went in to sec his family and we sat and said to one another; Did you not hear his response to the man: Allah spoke the truth and His Messengers conveyed (the message)? Which of you will ask him? Tariq said: I will ask him. So he asked him when he came out, and he narrated from the Prophet (PBUH): "Ahead of the Hour, greetings of salam will only be given to people whom one knows; commerce will become so wide- spread that a woman will help her husband in trade; ties of kinship will be severed; there will be false testimony and concealment of testimony; and there will be widespread use of the pen (i.e., literacy)."