…from Yaḥyā ibn Ḥamzah al-Sulamī, conveying the same report.

Al-Bayhaqī said, “This chain of transmission is sound, and it is also reported through another route (1).” He then cited it through ʿUqbah ibn ʿAlqamah, from Saʿīd ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz of Damascus, from ʿAṭiyyah ibn Qays, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr, who said:

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “I saw the pillar of the Book taken from beneath my pillow. I looked, and it was a brilliant light that was carried off to Syria. Indeed, when turmoil breaks out, faith will be in Syria.” (2)

Al-Bayhaqī likewise recorded it through al-Walīd ibn Muslim, from Saʿīd ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, from Yūnus ibn Maysarah, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to me something similar, except that he added, “I kept following it with my gaze until I feared it would be taken away.” He went on, “I interpreted that, when tribulations arise, faith will be in Syria.” (3)

Al-Walīd added: ʿUfayr ibn Maʿdān told me that he heard Sulaymān ibn ʿĀmir relate—from Abū Umāmah—from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ—statements to the same effect. (4)

Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān said: Nāṣr ibn Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān al-Ḥimṣī narrated to me; Abū Ḍumrah—Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān al-Sulamī—told us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Qays told me: I heard ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb say: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “I saw a pillar of light emerge from beneath my head, shining until it came to rest in Syria.” (5)

ʿAbd al-Razzāq reported: Maʿmar informed us, from al-Zuhrī, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣafwān, who said: On the day of Ṣiffīn a man exclaimed, “O Allah, curse the people of Syria!” ʿAlī replied, “Do not revile the people of Syria in large numbers, for among them are the Abdal, among them are the Abdal, among them are the Abdal.” (6)

It is also transmitted from ʿAlī by another chain. Imām Aḥmad said: Abū al-Mughīrah told us; Ṣafwān narrated to us; Shurayḥ—meaning ibn ʿUbayd al-Ḥaḍramī—told me: The people of Syria were mentioned in the presence of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib while he was in Iraq, and some said, “Curse them, O Commander of the Believers.” He answered, “No. I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: ‘The Abdal will be in Syria—forty men; whenever one of them dies, Allah replaces him with another. Through them rain is sought, through them victory is gained over the enemy, and through them punishment is averted from the people of Syria.’ ” (7)

Aḥmad alone recorded this report, yet its chain is broken. Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī clearly stated that Shurayḥ ibn ʿUbayd never heard from Abū Umāmah or from Abū Mālik al-Ashʿarī, and that his narrations from them are mursal. So what, then, of his claim to narrate from ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, who died even earlier than they did?!