91 – Ḥadith of ʿAmr al-Bukālī, transmitted from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr: “What is unlawful remains unlawful all the way up to the Throne.”

81 – The nisbah al-Bukālī is pronounced with a kasrah under the bāʾ and a single (non-geminated) kāf; it refers to Banū Bukāl, a branch of Ḥimyar. According to the stronger opinion this ʿAmr was a Companion, his kunya being Abū ʿUthmān. Al-ʿAjlī and Abū Zurʿah al-Dimashqī nevertheless list him among the reliable Successors. Allah knows best. Aḥmad (1/399) also recorded another report traced back to the Prophet from him on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd.

92 – Ḥadith of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr: “The Throne is encircled by a serpent, and revelation descends in chains.”

82 – I say: its chain is good. Al-Ḥāfiẓ, in the entry on “al-Bukālī” in al-Iṣābah, referred to this report, saying: “We narrated it in the Nashrāniyyāt.”

83 – I say: its chain is sound. Abū Shaykh included it in al-ʿAẓamah (33/1–2): Muḥammad ibn al-ʿAbbās told us—Muḥammad ibn al-Mathnā told us—Muʿādh ibn Hishām said: My father related to me, from Qatādah, from Kathīr ibn Abī Kathīr, from Abū ʿIyāḍ, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ. Abū ʿIyāḍ’s name is ʿAmr ibn al-Aswad. I later found the same chain in al-Sunnah (p. 150): my father told me—my father told me—Muʿādh ibn Hishām related it with the same wording.

93 – From Ibn ʿAbbās: “When revelation descends, the angels hear a sound like the clanging of iron,” after which he completed the report.

84 – I say: its narrators are trustworthy. Al-Dārimī (p. 14) and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad (p. 63) transmitted it by another route whose narrators are likewise deemed reliable, so the report is firmly established from him. Abū Shaykh also related a similar version traced back to the Prophet in al-ʿAẓamah (28/1) through al-Mubārak.

94 – From Ibn ʿAbbās: “A herald will call out before the Hour: ‘The Hour has come!’—the living and the dead will all hear it—then Allah will descend to the lowest heaven,” and so forth. Ibn al-Mubārak narrated this report, and its transmitters are trustworthy.

85 – I say: the compiler cited it through the chain of Ibn al-Mubārak, from Sulaymān al-Taymī, from Abū Naḍrah, from Ibn ʿAbbās. This chain is sound according to Muslim’s criteria.