It is also transmitted through the route of Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, from Sufyān al-Thawrī, from Abū Fazzārah, from Yazīd ibn al-Aṣamm, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās with the same wording. This isnād is sound according to Muslim’s criterion, and Ibn Ḥibbān declared it authentic, as cited in Bulūgh al-Marām. Al-Bukhārī, for his part, quotes the statement of Ibn ʿAbbās in suspended form. Al-Ḥāfiẓ explains: “Al-Bukhārī did not mention the Prophetic portion because of the discrepancy regarding Yazīd ibn al-Aṣamm—whether the report is connected or broken.”

I say: The versions that give a connected chain include an additional phrase, and any such addition must be accepted when it comes from a reliable transmitter. That applies here, for Abū Fazzārah—whose name is Rāshid ibn Kaysān—is trustworthy, as al-Ḥāfiẓ notes in al-Taqrīb, and Muslim relied upon him.

Concerning this statement of Ibn ʿAbbās, al-Qārī remarks: “Although it is mawqūf, it carries the force of a marfūʿ report.” Al-Ṣanʿānī likewise comments: “It appears that he inferred it from the Prophetic reports indicating that this ummah will follow the pattern of the Children of Israel.”

The narration is also reported in marfūʿ form, but its chain is weak. Ibn Mājah records it: Jabbārah ibn al-Mughallis narrated to us; ʿAbd al-Karīm ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Bajalī narrated to us; from Layth; from ʿIkrimah; from Ibn ʿAbbās—in marfūʿ form—with the wording: “I see that after me you will elevate your mosques just as the Jews elevated their synagogues and the Christians elevated their churches.”