579 — “Allegiance will be pledged to a man between the Corner and the Station. None but its own people will violate the sanctity of the House; and when they do violate it, ask not about the destruction of the Arabs. Then the Abyssinians will come and demolish it so completely that it will never be rebuilt thereafter. They are the ones who will extract its treasure.”

Aḥmad recorded it (2/291, 312, 328, 351) through several routes from Ibn Abī Dhiʾb, from Saʿīd ibn Simʿān, who said: I heard Abū Hurayrah relating to Abū Qatādah that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said this.

I say: This is an authentic chain of transmission. Its narrators are trustworthy and are among the narrators of al-Bukhārī and Muslim, except for Saʿīd ibn Simʿān, who was trustworthy. For this reason, al-Ḥāfiẓ made no comment on it in al-Fatḥ (3/362), after attributing it to Aḥmad.

580 — “He would not refrain from fasting on the white days, whether at home or travelling.”

Al-Nasāʾī recorded it in his Sunan (1/321): al-Qāsim ibn Zakariyyā informed us; he said: ʿUbayd Allah narrated to us; he said: Yaʿqūb narrated to us, from Jaʿfar, from Saʿīd, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who related it as attributed to the Prophet.

I say: This is a good chain of transmission. All its narrators are trustworthy and among Muslim’s narrators, except Yaʿqūb and Jaʿfar, who narrated from Saʿīd—namely, Ibn Jubayr. The former is Yaʿqūb ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Saʿd al-Qummī, and the latter is Jaʿfar ibn Abī al-Mughīrah al-Qummī. Al-Ḥāfiẓ said of each of them: “Truthful, but prone to error.” Al-Dhahabī said of the latter: “Truthful.” Regarding the former, he said: “The scholar of the people of Qumm. Al-Nasāʾī and others said: ‘There is no problem with him.’ Al-Dāraquṭnī said: ‘He is not strong.’” I say: Al-Bukhārī cited him in a suspended narration. Al-Ḍiyāʾ al-Maqdisī also recorded it in al-Mukhtārah (59/212/1) through another route from him.