there, without offering so much as a single word in response to me, while ignoring all of it. This is not the way of one who seeks the truth. In all of this, he has merely imitated his shaykh in his annotations to Sahih Ibn Hibban (14/30–32). He certainly saw my aforementioned rebuttal in my books, for he makes extensive use of them, as noted above (p. 724). Yet, in it, he contented himself with recounting the assertions that had already been refuted, without answering my rebuttal—as though subscribing to the maxim, “It is a goat, even if it flies.” Whoever wishes to ascertain the truth should refer to the cited passages in my books.

Professor Rida Allah al-Mubarakfuri, therefore, was fair in his annotations to Abu al-Shaykh’s al-Azamah (4/1358–1360). He cited the statements of those who had declared the hadith defective on grounds of contradiction, along with my rebuttal of them. He then repeated some of this elsewhere (p. 1377), and ultimately concurred with me that the hadith is authentic and that those who declared it defective because of contradiction have no proof. May Allah reward him well.

There is thus no need to repeat the rebuttal mentioned above. However, I must present another chain for the hadith that is an explicit text in support of our position. Al-Nasa'i recorded in al-Sunan al-Kubra (6/427/11392), through al-Akhdar ibn Ajlan, from Ibn Jurayj al-Makki, from Ata, from Abu Hurayrah, in a report attributed to the Prophet:

“O Abu Hurayrah! Allah created the heavens, the earths, and all that lies between them in six days. Then He rose over the Throne on the seventh day, and He created the soil on Saturday...”

Its narrators are trustworthy. This explicit text brings together the days mentioned in the Quran and the seven days mentioned in the hadith, which explains the stages of creation that occurred on the earth. This is precisely the meaning we had understood from the authentic hadith in refuting the basis on which they declared it defective. All praise is due to Allah for His enabling grace, and we ask Him for more of it through His bounty and generosity.

Note: Shu'ayb was joined in declaring this authentic hadith weak by another of his students, called Hassan Abd al-Mannan, in his Da'ifah (“Weak Collection”), which was previously mentioned in some