and that creaking (aṭīṭ) has absolutely no place among the Divine attributes. Rather, it is like the Throne’s quivering at the death of Saʿd, or the sky’s rending on the Day of Resurrection, and the like. We seek refuge in Allah from counting it among His attributes; besides, the word aṭīṭ itself is not cited in any authentic text.

75 – I say: its chain, though mauqūf, is sound. ʿAbd Allāh recorded it in al-Sunnah (p. 71); Abū Shaykh in al-ʿAẓama (42/2); and Abū Jaʿfar Ibn Abī Shaybah likewise in al-ʿArsh (fol. 114/1-2). All of its transmitters are well-known and trustworthy. Al-Kawtharī—renowned for his bias against Ahl al-Sunnah—objected in his marginalia on al-Asmāʾ wa-l-Ṣifāt (p. 404), claiming that its chain contains ʿImāra b. ʿUmayr and that “al-Bukhārī listed him among the weak narrators.”

I reply: such was his claim, but it is sheer error. I do not know whether it slipped from him unintentionally or deliberately, for we have seen from him distortions bordering on falsehood—indeed, falsehood itself—as the Yemeni scholar demonstrated in his major rebuttal entitled al-Tankīl bimā fī Taʾnīb al-Kawtharī min al-Abāṭīl. I mention this because ʿImāra b. ʿUmayr is, by unanimous agreement, a trustworthy Successor; both Shaykhs included his narrations in their Ṣaḥīḥs, and Ibn Ḥajar described him as “trustworthy and firmly grounded.” Someone of al-Kawtharī’s learning could not be unaware of that. The individual listed in al-Bukhārī’s Kitāb al-Ḍuʿafāʾ is ʿImāra b. Juwain, who is discarded. So, O Allah, forgive us.

86 – Ḥadīth of Abū Dharr al-Ghifārī: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “The two verses at the end of Sūrah al-Baqarah were given to me from beneath the Throne; no prophet before me was given them.” Its narrators are trustworthy.

87 – Ḥadīth of ʿUqbah b. ʿĀmir: the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Whoever recites the two verses at the end of Sūrah al-Baqarah… for Allah granted them to me from beneath the Throne.” Its chain is acceptable.

76 & 77 – Aḥmad and others narrated both reports with two good chains, as I clarified in al-Ṣaḥīḥah, no. 1482.

88 – Marfūʿ ḥadīth of Abū Hurayrah: “Whoever grants respite to a debtor in hardship, or waives the debt for him, Allah will shade him beneath His Throne on the Day when there is no shade but His.” Its chain is acceptable.

78 – Aḥmad and al-Tirmidhī also recorded it with a ṣaḥīḥ chain, as in Takhrīj al-Targhīb, 2/37.