Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar:
that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “A townsman must not sell on behalf of a desert-dweller.” (1) The report is agreed upon, and it has reached us with a high chain.
Ibrāhīm ibn Ismāʿīl and Aḥmad ibn Salāmah both reported to us, from Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Saydalānī:
Fāṭimah al-Juzdāniyyah informed us; Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allah informed us; Abū al-Qāsim al-Ṭabarānī narrated to us; ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAlī al-Jārūdī narrated to us; Aḥmad ibn Ḥafṣ narrated to us; my father narrated to me; Ibrāhīm ibn Ṭahmān narrated to us, from Simāk, from ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUmayrah, from al-Aḥnaf ibn Qays, from al-ʿAbbās, who said:
A cloud once passed over the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). He asked, “Do you know what this is?”
We replied, “A cloud.”
He said, “And al-muzn (the rain-bearing cloud).”
They said, “And al-muzn.”
He said, “Or al-ʿanān (the overhanging cloud-mass).”
We said, “Or al-ʿanān.”
Then he asked, “Do you know how far it is between the heaven and the earth?”
We replied, “No.”
He said, “Seventy-one, or seventy-two, or seventy-three years….” The ḥadith continues. (2)
(1) It appears in Musnad al-Shafi‘i, 2/154. Al-Bukhari also transmits it (4/312) through the chain: Abd Allah ibn al-Sabah – Abu Ali al-Hanafi – Abd al-Rahman ibn Abd Allah ibn Dinar – from his father – from Ibn Umar, who said: “The Messenger of Allah forbade a townsman to sell on behalf of a desert-dweller.” Muslim does not relate the narration of Ibn Umar; rather, in his Sahih it is found (no. 1520) in the Book of Commerce, chapter “The prohibition of a townsman acting as broker for a desert-dweller,” and in the Book of Marriage, chapter “The prohibition of proposing after one’s brother has already proposed unless he permits or withdraws,” from Abu Hurayrah. He also records it under no. 1521 from Ibn Abbas, no. 1522 from Jabir, and no. 1523 from Anas.
(2) The complete wording is: “then the sky above that likewise,” until he counted seven heavens; “then above the seventh heaven is a sea whose upper and lower parts are as far apart as one heaven is from another; above that are eight mountain goats, the distance between their hooves and knees being like the distance between one heaven and another; upon their backs is the Throne, the distance between its top and bottom being like the distance between one heaven and another; and Allah is above that.” The isnad is weak because Abd Allah ibn Umayrah is unknown. Abu Dawud records it (4723) in the Book of Sunnah, chapter “Concerning the Jahmiyyah”; al-Tirmidhi (3320) in the Tafsir section, chapter on Surah al-Haqqah; Ibn Majah (193) in the Introduction, chapter “What the Jahmiyyah deny”; and Ahmad in his Musnad, 1/206—all through the route of Simak, from Abd Allah ibn Umayrah.