Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū’l-Qāsim Ibn ʿAsākir of Damascus composed a treatise refuting this ḥadīth, which he entitled:
“Clarification of the Error and Confusion Found in the Ḥadīth of the Creaking.”
He exerted his utmost effort in impugning Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ibn Yasār, its transmitter, and cited the scholars’ statements about him.

Nevertheless (1) this wording has also been transmitted through another chain that does not contain Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq. It was related by ʿAbd ibn Ḥumayd (2) and Ibn Jarīr (3) in their Tafsirs, by Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim and al-Ṭabarānī in their respective books al-Sunnah, by al-Bazzār in his Musnad, and by al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Ḍiyāʾ al-Maqdisī in his Mukhtārāt, through Abū Isḥāq al-Sabīʿī (4) from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Khalīfah, from ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb—may Allah be pleased with him—who said:

“A woman came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and said, ‘Pray to Allah that He admit me into Paradise.’ He then glorified the Lord—Exalted is He—and said:

‘Indeed His Footstool encompasses the heavens and the earth, and it gives off a creaking like the creaking of a new saddle because of its weight.’”

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Khalīfah is not especially well-known, and his having heard directly from ʿUmar is subject to doubt. Some transmit the report as mawqūf or mursal, and some add a peculiar addition to it. Allah knows best.

It is firmly established in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī (5) that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

“When you ask Allah for Paradise, then ask Him for al-Firdaws, for it is the highest part of Paradise (6), and above it is the Throne of the Most Merciful.”

The phrase “wa-fawqahu” is transmitted with fatḥa, indicating spatial relation, and also with ḍamma (7). Our teacher, al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Mizzī (8), judged the latter to be preferable, meaning: “and the higher of the two is the Throne of the Most Merciful.”

Some reports further state that the inhabitants of al-Firdaws hear the creaking of the Throne, which is its glorification and exaltation; this occurs only because of their nearness to it.