Abu Sa‘id al-Shurayhi informed us; Abu Ishaq al-Tha‘labi informed us; al-Husayn ibn Muhammad informed me; Ahmad ibn Ja‘far ibn Hamdan narrated to us; Musa ibn Ishaq al-Ansari narrated to us; Muhammad ibn Mu‘awiyah narrated to us; al-Layth ibn Sa‘d narrated to us; Yazid ibn Abdullah ibn al-Had narrated to us through this chain of transmission, and said: “When the skin of a servant shudders out of fear of Allah, Allah forbids him to the Fire.” (1)

Qatadah said: “This is the description of the allies of Allah. Allah has described them as those whose skins shudder and whose hearts find rest in the remembrance of Allah. He has not described them as losing their reason and falling unconscious. That occurs only among the people of religious innovation, and it is from Satan.”

Abu Sa‘id al-Shurayhi informed us; Abu Ishaq al-Tha‘labi informed us; al-Husayn ibn Muhammad ibn Fanjawayh informed us; Ibn Shaybah narrated to us; Hamdan ibn Dawud narrated to us; Salamah ibn Shaybah narrated to us; Khalaf ibn Salamah narrated to us; Hushaym narrated to us from Husayn, from Abdullah ibn Urwah ibn al-Zubayr, who said: I said to my grandmother, Asma’ bint Abu Bakr, “What did the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, do when the Quran was recited to them?” She replied, “They were as Allah, mighty and majestic, described them: their eyes would shed tears and their skins would shudder.”

He said: I then said to her, “There are people today who, when the Quran is recited to them, fall down unconscious.” She said, “I seek refuge in Allah from Satan, the accursed.” (2)

Through the same chain, from [Sulayman ibn] Salamah: Yahya ibn Yahya narrated to us; Sa‘id ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Jumahi narrated to us from Ibn Umar, who passed by a man from Iraq lying collapsed and asked, “What is the matter with him?” They replied, “Whenever the Quran is recited to him, or he hears the remembrance of Allah, he falls down.” Ibn Umar said, “We fear Allah, yet we do not fall down!”

Ibn Umar also said: “Satan enters into the belly of one of them. This was not the practice of the Companions of Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him.” (4)

It is related from Ibn Sirin concerning those who suffer seizures when the Quran is recited to them: [He said, “The test between us and them is for one of them to sit on the roof of a house with his legs stretched out, and then for the Quran to be recited to him] from beginning to end. If he throws himself down, then he is truthful.” (5) (6)

“That” means: the Best Statement: “That is the guidance of Allah, by which He guides whom He wills. And whoever Allah leaves astray will have no guide.”