scratching their faces and chests. I asked, “Who are these, O Gabriel?” He answered, “These are the ones who consume people’s flesh and violate their honor.”

It was recorded by Aḥmad and others with an authentic chain, and it is cited in al-Ṣaḥīḥa, no. 533, which refutes those who claimed it is mursal (incompletely linked).

Ninth: On the authority of ʿAlī ibn Zayd ibn Judʿān, from Anas, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “On the night I was taken on the Night Journey I saw men whose lips were being cut with shears of fire. I asked, ‘O Gabriel, who are these?’ He replied, ‘They are the preachers of your community who command the people to do good yet forget themselves, while they recite the Book—will they not reason?!’ ”

Aḥmad recorded it (3/120, 180, 231, 239), and al-Baghawī included it in Sharḥ al-Sunna, 4159, through the transmission of Ḥammād ibn Salama. Al-Baghawī remarked, “A ḥasan (fair) ḥadith.”

I say: His judgment is warranted, or even understated, for the report has additional routes—some of them sound, as will be shown. Although Ibn Judʿān is weak, he has been corroborated, and al-Suyūṭī cited the ḥadith in al-Khaṣāʾiṣ 1/389.