In such a case, one says, “Its chain of transmission is authentic,” without adding, “according to their criteria,” unless the final narrator in the chain is one of their teachers. From the foregoing, you have perhaps realized that the student of this discipline must also ascertain that al-Hakim’s chain to a teacher of the two shaykhs is itself authentic. We have often found this condition to be lacking, yet the beginner in this discipline does not think, in such a case, to investigate the biographical standing of al-Hakim’s teacher, for example, or of the narrator above him. Were he to do so, he would find that such a narrator is not one whose reports may be used as evidence.

Thus, there is no benefit in al-Hakim’s saying that a hadith’s chain of transmission is authentic according to the criteria of the two shaykhs. That description can only be valid if one confines one’s examination to a teacher of the two authors of the Sahihs and those above him, without extending it to the narrators below them—beginning with al-Hakim’s teacher and continuing upward. This is an important issue which, to my knowledge, you will not find set out in detail in any of the well-known books on hadith terminology. So grasp it firmly and retain it, that you may have a clear understanding of it and comprehend some of the subtleties of this discipline, whose people are few. Allah is the Giver of success.

The hadith also has a supporting report from Anas, attributed to the Prophet, with the wording: “How can I be at ease when the bearer of the Trumpet has placed the horn to his mouth and bent his back, looking toward the Throne, his eyes like two shining stars? He has never blinked, fearing that he may be commanded before he does so.” Al-Diya al-Maqdisi recorded it in The Selected Hadiths, as did others.

It was also narrated from a number of other Companions with an additional wording similar to it, as in the report that follows.

(See the addendum, no. 66/19.)

1079 — “How can I be at ease when the bearer of the Trumpet has placed the horn to his mouth, lowered his forehead, and inclined his ear, waiting to be commanded to blow, whereupon he will blow?” The Muslims said, “What should we say, O Messenger of Allah?” He said: “Say: ‘Allah is sufficient for us, and He is the best Disposer of affairs. In Allah, our Lord, we place our trust.’” Sufyan would sometimes say: “In Allah we place our trust.”

It was narrated from Abu Saʿid al-Khudri, Ibn ʿAbbas, Zayd ibn Arqam, Anas ibn Malik, Jabir ibn ʿAbd Allah, and al-Baraʾ ibn ʿAzib.