This chain of transmission is extremely peculiar. The reports of ʿAbd al-Razzāq and his teacher al-Thawrī are carefully preserved by the leading ḥadīth masters—hardly any weighty narration of theirs is omitted. How, then, can it be that so momentous a tradition is transmitted from ʿAbd al-Razzāq only by Khalaf ibn Sālim, together with the unfamiliar narrators before him whose precision and integrity are unknown on account of their obscurity? Moreover, the mother of Ashʿath is unidentified—Allah knows best.

The author next cites it through Muḥammad ibn Marzūq:

“Ḥusayn al-Ashqar—who, as noted, is a weak Shiʿi—reported to us; from ʿAlī ibn Hāshim ibn al-Barīd—about whom Ibn Ḥibbān said, ‘He was predominantly Shiʿi and relates aberrant reports from well-known narrators’; from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Dīnār; from ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Ḥasan; from Fāṭimah bint ʿAlī; from Asmāʾ bint ʿUmays,” and he mentioned the ḥadīth.

This isnād is not sound.

He then transmits it by way of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Shurayk, from his father, from ʿUrwah ibn ʿAbd Allāh, from Fāṭimah bint ʿAlī, from Asmāʾ bint ʿUmays, reproducing the report we earlier quoted through Ibn ʿUqda, from Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā al-Ṣūfī, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Shurayk, from ʿAbd Allāh al-Nakhʿī. Al-Bukhārī narrated from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān in his book Al-Adab, and several eminent scholars also transmitted from him. Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī said, “His ḥadīth are feeble,” while Ibn Ḥibbān listed him in al-Thiqāt but remarked, “He sometimes errs.” Ibn ʿUqda recorded his death in 227 AH.

We have already noted that Shaykh Abū al-Faraj Ibn al-Jawzī stated the one accused of fabricating the report was Abū al-ʿAbbās Ibn ʿUqda; he then cited the critics’ denunciations of him, adding that Ibn ʿUqda would prepare copies for the shaykhs and attribute them to them. Allah knows best.

I say: In this chain it is related that the sun returned until it reached the middle of the mosque, which contradicts the earlier versions claiming that the event took place at al-Ṣahbāʾ in the environs of Khaybar. Such inconsistencies warrant weakening the report, undermining its reliability, and casting doubt upon it.

He also presents it through Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar al-Qāḍī al-Jaʿābī: “ʿAlī ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Walīd told us; ʿAbbād ibn Yaʿqūb al-Rawājīnī told us; ʿAlī ibn Hāshim, from Ṣabāḥ, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥasan—Abū Jaʿfar—from al-Ḥusayn, the martyred grandson, from Fāṭimah, from Asmāʾ bint ʿUmays, who said:

‘On the day ʿAlī was occupied with apportioning the spoils, the sun set—or nearly set. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ asked him, “Have you prayed?” He replied, “No.” The Prophet then supplicated Allah, whereupon the sun rose again until it reached the zenith. ʿAlī performed the prayer, and when the sun finally set I heard it creak like a saw cutting iron.’

This version likewise differs from the earlier accounts in many respects, and its chain is exceedingly obscure: this Ṣabāḥ is unknown, and how could al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī—the martyr who was slain—narrate with only one intermediary who then reports from Asmāʾ bint ʿUmays? Such a thing