This report is not sound as transmitted by Muḥammad ibn al-Nuʿmān, for what he cites is neither a proper chain of transmission nor an acceptable text. How can the spiritual intuition granted to an imām whom the Lawgiver himself described as one who is “spoken to” with good be compared with the sun’s rising again after it had set—something that would count among the greatest portents of the Last Hour? As for what happened to Yūshaʿ ibn Nūn, the sun was not actually returned; rather, it was held back for about an hour before sunset—meaning its motion slowed until the conquest was possible. God, exalted is He, knows best.

Earlier the author mentioned the various lines through which this ḥadīth is reported—from ʿAlī, Abū Hurayrah, Abū Saʿīd, and Asmāʾ bint ʿUmays. It also appears in Abū Bishr al-Dūlābī’s work “al-Dhurriyyah al-Ṭāhirah,” on the authority of al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī, who apparently relates it from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, as stated above. God knows best.

The head of the Rāfiḍite sect, Jamāl al-Dīn Yūsuf ibn al-Ḥasan—known as Ibn al-Muṭahhar al-Ḥillī—says in his book “On the Imamate,” which our teacher, the scholar Abū al-ʿAbbās Ibn Taymiyyah, refuted:

“Ninth: the sun’s return occurred twice—once during the Prophet’s lifetime ﷺ and once afterwards. As for the first, Jābir and Abū Saʿīd relate that the Messenger of God ﷺ received Gabriel one day, conversing with him on God’s behalf. When revelation enveloped him, he rested his head on the thigh of the Commander of the Believers and did not lift it until the sun had set, so ʿAlī performed the ʿAṣr prayer by signaling. When the Messenger of God ﷺ awoke he said, ‘Ask God to return the sun so that you may pray standing.’ He supplicated, the sun was returned, and he prayed the ʿAṣr standing.

“The second occasion was when he intended to cross the Euphrates at Bābil. Many Companions were occupied with their gear, so he prayed the ʿAṣr with a group of them while the prayer time slipped past many others. They voiced their concern, whereupon he asked God to return the sun, and it was returned.”

Ibn al-Muṭahhar adds that al-Ḥimyari versified the incident:
“The sun was brought back to him when prayer time passed him by,
Its setting close at hand, already nearing the western sky;
Its light then blazed anew at the appointed hour of ʿAṣr,
Then plunged once more, descending like a swiftly falling star.
For him at Bābil it returned again a second time,
And never for another soul at sunset’s distant clime.”

Our teacher Abū al-ʿAbbās (Ibn Taymiyyah)—may God sanctify his soul—said: “ʿAlī’s virtues, his loyalty, and his lofty rank with God are all established—praise be to God—by sound, unequivocal chains that yield certain knowledge. We therefore have no need of reports whose authenticity is doubtful or that are known to be fabricated. The ḥadīth of the sun’s return has been cited by some, such as Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṭaḥāwī, Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ, and others, who reckoned it among the miracles of the Messenger of God ﷺ, but the exacting scholars who are well versed in ḥadīth know it to be an invented falsehood.” He then listed its chains one by one, as we have summarized above, and debated Abū al-Qāsim al-Ḥasakānī on the matter. We have quoted all of that, adding to and abridging it as appropriate. God is the One who grants success.