A Report on the Umayyad Caliphs as a Group, with an Allusion to the Length of Their Dominion

Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān said:

Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad Abū Muḥammad al-Zuraqī narrated to us; al-Zanjī—meaning Muslim ibn Khālid—narrated to us, from al-ʿAlāʾ ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from his father, from Abū Hurayrah, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

“I saw in a dream the sons of al-Ḥakam—or the sons of Abī al-ʿĀṣ—springing onto my pulpit the way monkeys leap about.”

Abū Hurayrah added: After that, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was never again seen laughing fully until he passed away. (1)

Al-Thawrī said, on the authority of ʿAlī ibn Zayd ibn Judʿān, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, who said:

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ saw the Banū Umayyah on his pulpit, and it distressed him. Then it was revealed to him: “It is only a worldly kingdom that has been granted to them,” whereupon his heart was put at ease. Concerning this the verse was sent down: “And We did not make the vision which We showed you except as a trial for mankind” (17:60)—that is, a test for the people. (2) ʿAlī ibn Zayd ibn Judʿān is weak, and the report is also mursal.

Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī said:

Al-Qāsim ibn al-Faḍl—who is al-Ḥaddāʾ—narrated to us; Yūsuf ibn Māzin al-Rāsibī narrated to us. He said:

A man rose and spoke to al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī after he had given the pledge to Muʿāwiyah, saying, “O you who have blackened the faces of the believers!”

Al-Ḥasan replied, “Do not reprimand me, may Allah have mercy on you. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ saw the Banū Umayyah delivering sermons from his pulpit, one man after another, and it displeased him. Then the verse was revealed: ‘Indeed, We have granted you al-Kawthar’ (108:1)—meaning, a river in Paradise; and likewise the verse: ‘Indeed, We sent it down during the Night of Power (1); and what will make you know what the Night of Power is? (2) The Night of Power is better than a thousand months’ (97:1–3)—a period that the Banū Umayyah would possess.”

Al-Qāsim added, “We calculated it, and it came to exactly one thousand months, not a day more and not a day less.”

Al-Tirmidhī, Ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, al-Ḥākim in his Mustadrak, and al-Bayhaqī in Dalāʾil al-Nubuwwah (3) all transmitted this narration through al-Qāsim ibn al-Faḍl al-Ḥuddānī—whom Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān and Ibn Mahdī declared reliable—from Yūsuf ibn Saʿd (he is also called Yūsuf ibn Māzin al-Rāsibī; in Ibn Jarīr’s version: ʿĪsā ibn Māzin). Al-Tirmidhī said, “He is an unknown man, and we know this ḥadīth only through this route.”

His declaring Yūsuf “unknown” is problematic. What he apparently meant is that Yūsuf’s status is unknown, for a number of scholars narrated from him—among them Ḥammād ibn Salamah, Khālid al-Ḥaddāʾ, and Yūnus ibn ʿUbayd. Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn said, “He is well-known,” and in another report he said, “He is trustworthy.”