; Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Razquwayh narrated to us; Ismāʿīl ibn Muḥammad al-Ṣaffār informed us; Zakariyyā ibn Yaḥyā al-Marwazī narrated to us; Maʿrūf al-Karkhī narrated to us; he said:
Bakr ibn Khunays said, “In Hell (Jahannam) there is a valley from which Hell itself seeks refuge seven times each day. Within that valley there is a pit from which both the valley and Hell seek refuge seven times each day. Inside that pit there is a serpent from which the pit, the valley, and Hell seek refuge seven times each day. The punishment will begin with the wicked carriers of the Qur’an. They will say, ‘Lord, are we being started with before the idol-worshippers?!’ It will be said to them, ‘Is the one who knows like the one who does not know?’ (1)
Muʾammal ibn Muḥammad informed us; al-Kindī informed us; Abū Manṣūr al-Shaybānī informed us; Abū Bakr al-Khaṭīb informed us; Ibn Rizq narrated to us; ʿUthmān ibn Aḥmad narrated to us; Yaḥyā ibn Abī Ṭālib narrated to us; Maʿrūf al-Karkhī informed us; al-Rabīʿ ibn Ṣabīḥ narrated to me, from al-Ḥasan, from ʿĀʾishah, who said:
‘If I were to attain the Night of Decree, I would ask Allah for nothing but pardon and well-being.’ (2)
(1) Bakr ibn Khunays: Ibn Maʿin said of him, “He is nothing,” and on another occasion, “Weak.” Al-Nasaʾi and others likewise graded him weak; al-Daraqutni deemed him “abandoned.” Abu Hatim remarked, “Acceptable, though not strong.” Ibn Hibban wrote: “He transmits fabricated reports from Basran and Kufan authorities; one is led to believe he himself forged them.” Ibn ʿAdiyy added: “His narrations may be written down, yet he relates objectionable reports from certain people. There is no harm in his character, for he is personally pious, but pious men can be confused about hadith and may relate what they only imagined. His transmissions belong among the weak and are not relied on as proof.”
Furthermore, the unseen matters he mentions can only be known through the Messenger—whom Allah informs by revelation—and, to the best of my knowledge, nothing sound has been authenticated from him in this regard.
Al-Tirmidhi (no. 2383, Kitab al-Zuhd) and Ibn Majah (no. 256, Muqaddima) relate—through ʿAmmar ibn Sayf al-Dabbi from Abu Muʿadh al-Basri, both weak narrators—from Ibn Sirin, from Abu Hurayra, that the Prophet said: “Seek refuge in Allah from Jab al-Huzn (the Pit of Sorrow).” They asked, “Messenger of Allah, what is the Pit of Sorrow?” He replied, “A valley in Hell from which Hell itself seeks refuge one hundred times each day.” They asked, “Messenger of Allah, who will enter it?” He said, “The reciters who show off with their deeds.”
(2) The report appears in al-Khateeb’s Tarikh, 3/199. Al-Rabiyʿ ibn Sabih had a poor memory, and al-Hasan never heard directly from ʿAʾisha. Imam Ahmad also recorded it in his Musnad, 6/182, through the chain of transmission that begins with Burayd ibn … (chain incomplete).