he has eaten and thereby used it up, or worn and worn it out, or given in charity and thus sent it on ahead.”

Muslim (1) recorded the ḥadīth through Suwayd ibn Saʿīd, from Ḥafṣ, so the isnād reaches us by an alternate, higher route—praise be to Allah.

Through this same chain to Abū Nuʿaym: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar narrated to us; Buhlūl ibn Isḥāq al-Anbārī narrated to us; Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr narrated to us; Yaʿqūb ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān and ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz narrated from Abū Ḥāzim, from ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Miqsam, from Ibn ʿUmar:

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Allah will take His heavens and His earth in His right Hand and will say, ‘I am Allah.’ Then He will close His fingers and open them, saying, ‘I am the Most Merciful, I am the Sovereign.’”

I watched the pulpit tremble from its very base, until I thought, “Will it topple with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ upon it?”

Muslim (2) also recorded it from Saʿīd, and we have matched him with an even higher isnād.

The book al-Sunan was transmitted from Saʿīd by the ḥadīth scholar of Herat, Aḥmad ibn Najdah ibn al-ʿUryān.

Hanbal ibn Isḥāq reported that Abū ʿAbd Allāh (Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal) said, “Saʿīd was a man of virtue and truthfulness.” (3)

Abū Zurʿah al-Dimashqī said: Aḥmad ibn Ṣāliḥ and Duḥaym informed me that they both attended Yaḥyā ibn Ḥassān, who vouched for Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr, recognizing his remarkable memory. Indeed, he was a ḥāfiẓ. (4)