⦗7⦘, ⦗24⦘, and in another place ⦗31⦘ he reports: I heard Suwār ibn ʿAbd Allah, the judge, say: I heard my brother ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Suwār say,
“I was with Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah when the people sprang at Bishr al-Marīsī and beat him, shouting, ‘Jahmī!’ Sufyān said to him, ‘You little creature, you tiny creature! Have you not heard Allah’s words, ‘Unquestionably, to Him belong the creation and the command’ (al-Aʿrāf 7:54)? Allah has thus informed us that the creation is other than the command.’” They asked Suwār, “What did Bishr reply?” He said, “He fell silent; he had no proof.”

I say: Suwār is trustworthy and is listed among the narrators of Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb. As for his brother ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, I have not yet located a biographical entry for him in the sources presently at my disposal.

174- Abū Bakr al-Ṣughānī said: Luwayn narrated to us: It was said to Ibn ʿUyaynah, “What about the hadiths that speak of the Beatific Vision?” He replied, “They are true, in the form in which we heard them from those we trust and deem reliable.”

155- I say: Its chain of transmission is sound.

175- Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Dawraqī said: Aḥmad ibn Naṣr narrated to me: I questioned Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah while I was in his house after the night prayer. I kept pressing him about the matter, and he said, “Let me catch my breath.” I asked, “How do you regard the hadith in which ʿAbd Allah reports from the Prophet ﷺ that ‘Allah carries the heavens on a finger and the earths on a finger,’¹ the hadith that ‘Allah is amazed—or He laughs—at the one who remembers Him in the marketplaces,’² and the hadith that ‘The hearts of the servants are between two fingers of the Most Merciful’?”³ Sufyān said, “They are exactly as they have come to us; we affirm them and relate them without asking how.”