of Ishmael began gathering the earth around it. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, then said: “May Allah have mercy on Hagar, the mother of Ishmael. Had she left it alone, it would have become a flowing spring.”

It was narrated by Abd Allah ibn Ahmad in Zawa’id al-Musnad (5/121), Ibn Hibban (1028), Abu Bakr al-Muqri’ in al-Fawa’id (1/109/1), and Ibn Asakir (19/279/2), from al-Hajjaj al-Sha‘ir, who said: Wahb ibn Jarir narrated to us; my father narrated to us, saying: I heard Ayyub narrate from Sa‘id ibn Jubayr, from Ibn Abbas, from Ubayy ibn Ka‘b, from the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, with this wording. Ibn Shahin also narrated it by this route in al-Afrad (5/32–33), then said: “This is a singular hadith. Al-Hajjaj ibn al-Sha‘ir alone narrated it. I know of no one besides al-Hajjaj and Muhammad ibn Ali ibn al-Waddah al-Basri, narrating from Wahb ibn Jarir, who said in it, ‘from Ibn Abbas, from Ubayy ibn Ka‘b.’ Hammad ibn Zayd and Ibn Ulayyah narrated it from Ayyub, from Abd Allah ibn Sa‘id ibn Jubayr, from his father, from Ibn Abbas, without mentioning Ubayy ibn Ka‘b.”

I say: This discrepancy causes no harm, since the most that can be inferred from it is that the correct version has Ibn Abbas, rather than Ubayy, as the Companion narrator. Ibn Abbas was a well-known Companion, though he was young and had nearly reached puberty when the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, died. Even if he did not hear it from him, he heard it from one of the Companions who had heard it from him. Thus, it is a Companion mursal report, and the mursal reports of the Companions are authoritative. All the narrators in the chain are trustworthy and are among Muslim’s narrators; therefore, the chain is authentic.

“Struck” means: he hit. In al-Nihayah, it says: “The basic meaning of rakd is to strike with the foot and make contact with it, as when an animal is kicked with the foot.”

Al-Bukhari (no. 3362, Fath) and Ahmad (1/360) also narrated the hadith, with similar wording, through Ayyub, from Abd Allah ibn Sa‘id ibn Jubayr, from his father, from Ibn Abbas, as a prophetic report. Al-Bukhari then narrated it (2368 and 3364), as did Ahmad (1/347), through Ayyub