most of them—yet discerning hadith authorities regard them as having no basis; indeed, they may declare with certainty that they are fabricated. Conversely, how many things are well known among “those versed in hadith”—indeed, transmitted among them through numerous independent chains—yet most ordinary people, and even many scholars who have not devoted attention to hadith, have never heard them, or have heard them only at a distant remove. They either deny them or doubt them. Moreover, they have not mastered them as a scholar masters his discipline, as a grammarian masters grammar or a physician medicine. Even if they have retained something of them, it is merely a word here and a word there, which neither nourishes nor satisfies hunger. Such knowledge cannot be relied upon, nor can Allah’s religion be soundly maintained through it, nor does it discharge the community’s obligation to preserve the knowledge conveyed by prophethood and understand it. Imām Ahmad said: “Knowledge of hadith and understanding it are dearer to me than memorizing it.”

I shall now mention corroborating reports for what I have stated.

Al-Dāraqutnī narrated in his Book of the Vision of Allah—among the first reports he included in the section on Anas—through the following chain: Ahmad narrated to us; Sulaymān narrated to us; Muhammad ibn ʿUthmān ibn Muhammad narrated to us; Marwān ibn Jaʿfar narrated to us; Nāfiʿ Abū al-Hasan, the client of Banū Hishām, narrated to us; ʿAtāʾ ibn Abī Maymūnah narrated to us, from Anas ibn Mālik, who said:

“The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: ‘On the Day of Resurrection, the believers will see their Lord, Mighty and Majestic. Those among them who have seen Him most recently will be those who see Him every Friday. Believing women will see Him on the Day of Eid al-Fitr and the Day of Sacrifice.’”

Al-Dāraqutnī also narrated, through a group of trustworthy transmitters, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Rawh al-Madāʾinī: