As for Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim, Imām Aḥmad (1) related: “Muḥammad ibn Kathīr narrated to us; Sulaymān ibn Kathīr narrated to us; from Ḥuṣayn ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān; from Muḥammad ibn Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim; from his father, who said: ‘The moon was split in the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and became two parts—one part over this mountain and the other part over that mountain.’ The people said, ‘Muḥammad has bewitched us!’ Others replied, ‘If he has bewitched us, he cannot have bewitched all mankind.’” This wording is unique to Aḥmad (2).
Ibn Jarīr (3) likewise transmitted it, through Muḥammad ibn Fuḍayl and others, from Ḥuṣayn with the same chain.
Al-Bayhaqī (4) reported it as well, through Ibrāhīm ibn Ṭahmān and Hushaym, both from Ḥuṣayn ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from Jubayr ibn Muḥammad ibn Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim, from his father, from his grandfather, thereby adding one narrator to the chain (5).
As for Ḥudhayfah ibn al-Yamān, Abū Nuʿaym narrated in “al-Dalāʾil” (6) through a route from ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib, from Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī. He said:
“Ḥudhayfah ibn al-Yamān addressed us in al-Madāʾin (7). After praising and extolling Allah he said, ‘The Hour has drawn near, and the moon has split. Know that the Hour is indeed near; know that the moon really did split [in the time of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ (8)]; know that this world is bidding farewell; know that today is the training ground (9) and tomorrow is the race (10).’
When the second Friday came, I went with my father to the congregational prayer. Ḥudhayfah praised Allah, repeated the same words, and added, ‘Know that the frontrunner is the one who wins his place in Paradise (11).’
As we were walking home I asked my father, ‘What does he mean by: “tomorrow is the race”?’ He replied, ‘Whoever reaches Paradise first.’
(1) In al-Musnad, vol. 4, pp. 81–82.
(2) Its isnad is weak due to a discontinuity: Ḥuṣayn b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān did not hear this ḥadīth directly from Muḥammad b. Jubayr b. Muṭʿim; between them stands Jubayr b. Muḥammad b. Jubayr, who, as will be noted below, is an unknown transmitter. It has been narrated via this route by al-Tirmidhī (no. 3289), al-Ṭabarānī in al-Kabīr (no. 1559), and al-Bayhaqī in Dalāʾil (2/268). (Bishr)
(3) That is, Muḥammad b. Jarīr al-Ṭabarī in his Tafsīr (vol. 27, p. 86) on Sūrat al-Qamar.
(4) In Dalāʾil (2/268); al-Suyūṭī cites it in al-Durr al-Manthūr (vol. 7, p. 671) in his commentary on the verse, noting that it was transmitted by Aḥmad, ʿAbd b. Ḥumayd, al-Tirmidhī, Ibn Jarīr, al-Ḥākim, Abū Nuʿaym, and al-Bayhaqī from Jubayr.
(5) This is the most reliable version, as Imam al-Daraqutnī explains in his al-ʿIlal (vol. 4, p. 104). Al-Bayhaqī adds that al-Daraqutnī strengthened its isnad by inserting Ibrāhīm b. Ṭaḥmān, Hishām, Abū Kurayb, and al-Mufaḍḍal b. Yūnus as narrators from Ḥuṣayn.
(6) Al-Suyūṭī includes it in al-Durr al-Manthūr (vol. 7, p. 672), stating that it was reported by Ibn Abī Shayba; ʿAbd b. Ḥumayd; ʿAbd Allāh b. Aḥmad in Zawāʾid al-Zuhd; and by Ibn Jarīr, Ibn Mardawīh, and Abū Nuʿaym from Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī, who said, “Ḥudhayfa preached to us …” (the ḥadīth).
(7) The wording does not appear in H.
(8) The text enclosed in brackets is taken from al-Durr al-Manthūr.
(9) In H. and al-Durr al-Manthūr the term is ḍimār. In Ṭ and in Ibn al-ʿAthīr’s al-Nihāya (and its commentary) it denotes “the days of work in this world in the race for Paradise.” Al-maḍmār (the place where horses are harnessed) thus refers to the days on which they are harnessed.
(10) Up to this point in al-Durr al-Manthūr.
(11) In Ṭ it reads al-jumuʿa (Friday), a reading corroborated by H.