“I certainly hope that my community will not fail to obtain from their Lord a delay of half a day.” Sa‘d was asked, “And how long is half of that day?” He replied, “Five hundred years.” It was narrated by Abu Dawud (4350). Its narrators are trustworthy, but Shurayh ibn ‘Ubayd did not live to meet Sa‘d.

The second: through Abu Bakr ibn Abi Maryam, from Rashid ibn Sa‘d, from him. It was narrated by Ahmad (1/170), Abu Nu‘aym in al-Hilyah (6/117), and al-Hakim, who said, “Authentic according to the criteria of al-Bukhari and Muslim.” Al-Dhahabi refuted him, saying, “No, by Allah! Ibn Abi Maryam is weak, and neither of them narrated anything from him.”

I say: The versions of Abu Nu‘aym and al-Hakim contain the addition: “It was asked, ‘And how long is half a day?’ He replied, ‘Five hundred years.’” In Ahmad’s version, it is a statement of Sa‘d, as in the first route. In one version of Abu Nu‘aym, it is a statement of Rashid. And Allah knows best.

1644 — “Place your nose down, so that it prostrates with you.”

Abu Nu‘aym narrated it in Akhbar Isfahan (1/192–193), from Humayd ibn Mas‘adah: Harb ibn Maymun narrated to us, from Khalid, from ‘Ikrimah, from Ibn ‘Abbas, that the Prophet came upon a man prostrating on his face without placing his nose down, and said this.

I say: This is a very weak chain of transmission. Harb ibn Maymun—the younger—is abandoned, as al-Hafiz stated. Al-Bayhaqi also narrated it through him in suspended form and said: