Mubashshir ibn ʿUbayd is a weak transmitter, and no report from ʿAmr ibn Dīnār reaches us except through Ibrāhīm ibn Yazīd, whose narrations are likewise soft. We have cited the report, flawed though it is, only because we know it through these two paths alone.

I say: Mubashshir ibn ʿUbayd al-Qurashī, Abū Ḥafṣ al-Ḥimṣī—originally from Kūfah—has been declared weak by all the scholars. Imām Aḥmad and al-Dāraqutnī both said that he fabricated ḥadīths and lied. As for this Ibrāhīm ibn Yazīd, he is al-Khūzī, and he too is unanimously considered weak. Aḥmad and al-Nasāʾī said, “Abandoned.” Ibn Maʿīn said, “Unreliable, of no worth.” Al-Bukhārī remarked, “The scholars kept silent about him,” while Abū Ḥātim and Abū Zurʿah judged him “objectionable in ḥadīth, weak.”

An isnād of this kind cannot be used as proof for anything whatsoever. At best, if we wish to be charitable, we would classify it among the reports of the Children of Israel, like the narration of Ibn ʿUmar from Kaʿb al-Aḥbār mentioned earlier—a piece of their folklore on which no reliance may be placed. Allah knows best.

A Discussion of the Milky Way and the Rainbow

Abū’l-Qāsim al-Ṭabarānī relates: ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz told us; ʿĀrim Abū’l-Nuʿmān told us; Abū ʿAwānah told us, from Abū Bishr, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās:

Heraclius wrote to Muʿāwiyah, saying, “If any remnant of prophethood still remains among them, he will inform me about the matters I intend to ask.” He then inquired about the galaxy (al-majarrah), the bow, and the patch of ground upon which the sun has shone for only one single hour.

When Muʿāwiyah received the letter and the envoy, he said, “I have never concerned myself with such questions until today. Who can handle this?” They answered, “Ibn ʿAbbās.” So Muʿāwiyah folded up Heraclius’s letter and sent it to Ibn ʿAbbās.

Ibn ʿAbbās replied in writing: “The bow is a safeguard granted to the people of the earth against drowning; the galaxy is the gate of heaven from which it will be rent apart; and the patch of ground touched by the sun for only a single hour in the day is the sea that was parted for the Children of Israel.” This chain of transmission is sound up to Ibn ʿAbbās—may Allah be pleased with him.