Thowban (May Allah be pleased with him) relates that Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) said: At the time, when the Muslim Ummah will have abundance of wealth, gold and silver, the Muslims will be extremely belittled, weak and helpless. The enemy nations will invite each other to pounce upon them as hungry people invite one another for food. The Companions asked with utter worry, “O Prophet of Allah! Would we be very few in number?” Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) replied: “No! You’d be as great in quantity as the foam of the sea is, seen wherever the eye can reach. But you’ll be overtaken by ‘wahn’.” The Companions asked, “O Prophet of Allah! What is ‘wahn’?” He replied: “Love of this world and fear of death!….”
(Ibn Majah)
This is part of a long hadīth. Here Allah’s Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) prophesies about a time when Muslims will have ‘abundance of wealth, gold and silver’; but despite this they will be ‘extremely belittled, weak and helpless’. The enemy nations will invite each other to pounce upon them. What is more surprising is that then Muslims would be great in number but they would be overtaken by wahn, viz. ‘love of this world and fear of death’. When we analyse the ground reality, we find that despite being great in number Muslims are indeed ‘weak and helpless’. If Muslims want success here and hereafter, the only way left for them is to overcome this wahn.