He said (1): Al-Hakam ibn Abān reported: ʿIkrima narrated to me, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, that when Allah decrees a matter and speaks, the heavens, the earth, and the mountains quake (2), and all the angels fall down, every one of them, in prostration.
ʿAmr ibn Zurārah narrated to us; Ziyād narrated to us; from Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq (3); Muḥammad ibn Muslim ibn Shihāb (5) al-Zuhrī narrated to us (4), from ʿAlī ibn Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, from ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbbās, from a group of the Anṣār, that the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said to them (6):
“What did you used to say about this star that is shot?” (7)
They answered (8), “O Messenger of Allah, whenever we saw it being shot (9) we would say, ‘A king has died or a child has been born.’”
The Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said (10), “It is not as you claim; rather, when Allah decrees a matter regarding His creation (11), the inhabitants of the Throne hear it …”
(1) i.e. al-Bukhārī; the text continues in the treatise Fi Khalq Af‘āl al-ʿIbād (On the Creation of the Servants’ Acts).
(2) In Fi Khalq Af‘āl al-ʿIbād: “the earth and the sky and the mountains…”.
(3) In Fi Khalq Af‘āl al-ʿIbād: “Muhammad ibn al-Ḥasan.” This is incorrect. It should read: Abu Bakr Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ibn Yasar al-Muṭṭalibī al-Madānī, al-Imām al-Hāfiẓ, one of the chief repositories of knowledge and an authority on the Maghāzī and the Sīra. Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said of him that his hadith is sound. He died in 151 AH. See: Tadhkirat al-Ḥuffāẓ by al-Dhahabī, vol. 1, pp. 172–173; Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb by Ibn Ḥajar, vol. 9, pp. 38–46.
(4) In Fi Khalq Af‘āl al-ʿIbād: “ḥadathanī” (he related to me).
(5) In Fi Khalq Af‘āl al-ʿIbād: “… Muslim ibn ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Shihāb …”. His biography has already appeared above (p. 308).
(6) The text within the brackets is an addition in S, T, and Fi Khalq Af‘āl al-ʿIbād.
(7) “Kuntum” is omitted in Fi Khalq Af‘āl al-ʿIbād.
(8) In all manuscripts: “qāla” (he said). This is also the reading adopted in Fi Khalq Af‘āl al-ʿIbād.
(9) In S: “ra’aynā hādhā” (we have seen this).
(10) In Fi Khalq Af‘āl al-ʿIbād: “qāla” (he said).
(11) In S, T: “ḥaqqahu” (its correct reading). This, however, is an error.