‘Ayyāsh, who said: My father narrated to me; Damdam ibn Zur‘ah narrated to me, from Shurayh ibn ‘Ubayd, from Abū Mālik al-Ash‘arī, who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said:
“The promised day is the Day of Resurrection, the witness is Friday, and the witnessed day is the Day of ‘Arafah. Allah has reserved Friday for us, and the middle prayer is the afternoon prayer.”
It has also been narrated from Jubayr ibn Mut‘im (1).
I say: What appears to be the case—and Allah knows best—is that this is Abū Hurayrah’s own explanation. For Imam Ahmad (2) said: Muhammad ibn Ja‘far narrated to us; Shu‘bah narrated to us, from Yūnus, who said: I heard ‘Ammār, a client of Banū Hāshim, narrating from Abū Hurayrah (3) that, concerning the verse:
“And by the witness and that which is witnessed” [al-Burūj: 3],
he said: The witness is Friday, the witnessed day is the Day of ‘Arafah, and the promised day is the Day of Resurrection.
(1) Ibn ‘Adī transmitted it in al-Kāmil, in the biography of ‘Ammār ibn Matar al-‘Anbarī (7/518–519), through this ‘Ammār, from Mālik ibn Anas, from ‘Umārah ibn ‘Abd Allāh ibn Sayyād, from Nāfi‘ ibn Jubayr, from his father, from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. This ‘Ammār is classified as matrūk (abandoned as a hadith transmitter). Al-Shāfi‘ī also transmitted it in al-Umm (2/372), from Ibrāhīm ibn Muhammad, from Safwān ibn Sulaym, from Nāfi‘ ibn Jubayr and ‘Atā’ ibn Yasār, from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, as a mursal (disconnected) report. Ibrāhīm, al-Shāfi‘ī’s teacher, is likewise classified as matrūk. See Ma‘rifat al-Sunan wa-l-Āthār, 4/308.
(2) No. 7973; its chain of transmission is sound.
(3) Al-Fiqī altered the text, followed by the al-Risālah edition, replacing “from Yūnus … from Abū Hurayrah” with: “I heard ‘Alī ibn Zayd and Yūnus ibn ‘Ubayd narrating from ‘Ammār, a client of Banū Hāshim, from Abū Hurayrah. ‘Alī ibn Zayd attributed it to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, whereas Yūnus did not trace it beyond Abū Hurayrah.” This wording comes from al-Musnad (7972). Perhaps he overlooked that the chain retained by the author occurs in al-Musnad immediately after the one he substituted. The author did well to restrict himself to the sound, separate chain rather than the version combining the two narrators. How could ‘Alī ibn Zayd ibn Jud‘ān compare with Yūnus ibn ‘Ubayd, a trustworthy and thoroughly reliable narrator!