And this Ishaq was one of al-Tabarani’s shaykhs, and his hadith were rejected, as Ibn ‘Adi—may Allah Most High have mercy on him—said.

2—528— “Do not curse the wind, for it is commanded…”

Some students found it problematic that the hadith masters mentioned there authenticated this hadith, given Shu‘bah’s statement: “Qatadah heard only three hadiths from Abu al-‘Aliyah…” He mentioned them, and this was not one of them.

In response, I say: This limitation is not accepted by the scholars, because it contradicts the facts. For Qatadah heard two other hadiths from him:

One is the Prophet’s—peace and blessings be upon him—seeing Moses—peace be upon him—on the Night of the Ascension, recorded by al-Bukhari (3396) and Muslim (1/105).

The other is the supplication in distress, which is also found in the two Sahihs. In one version recorded by Muslim (8/85) and Ahmad (1/339), he explicitly stated that he heard it directly. See Tahdhib al-Tahdhib and Fath al-Bari (11/145–146).

3—548— “May Allah curse the scorpion: it spares not one who prays…”

I then found the hadith in the India-printed Musannaf of Ibn Abi Shaybah (vol. 10, p. 418, no. 9850), as a mursal report, just as I had quoted it from the al-Zahiriyyah manuscript. However, the editor of the printed edition added to the chain, in square brackets: [from ‘Ali]. He referred there to a comment of his on the same hadith that had appeared earlier (vol. 7, p. 40, no. 3604), where he stated that this addition occurs in Kanz al-‘Ummal, in the Book of Medicine, under the symbol (Sh) and others, from ‘Ali.

I therefore returned to Kanz al-‘Ummal and found it in volume 10, page 107, hadith 28544, attributed to (Sh), (Hb), al-Mustaghfiri in Supplications, and Abu Nu‘aym in The Book of Medicine, from ‘Ali. In another nearby place (109/28548), it was attributed to (Ts), Ibn Mardawayh, and Abu Nu‘aym