—al-Danāj said: “I was present when Abū Salamah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān was sitting in a mosque in the time of Khālid ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Khālid ibn Asīd. Then al-Ḥasan came, sat down beside him, and we began to talk. Abū Salamah said, ‘Abū Hurayrah narrated to us from the Prophet ﷺ who said…’ (and he mentioned the ḥadīth). Al-Ḥasan exclaimed, ‘What sin have they committed?!’ Abū Salamah replied, ‘I am only reporting to you from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ,’ whereupon al-Ḥasan fell silent.

Al-Bayhaqī also recorded it in his book al-Baʿth wa’n-Nushūr, and so did al-Bazzār, al-Ismāʿīlī, and al-Khaṭṭābī, all through the route of Yūnus ibn Muḥammad: ‘ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn al-Mukhtār narrated it to us’—with the same wording.

I say: This chain is sound according to the criteria of al-Bukhārī, and al-Bukhārī actually cited it in abridged form in his Ṣaḥīḥ (2/304–305), where he wrote: ‘Musaddad narrated to us; ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn al-Mukhtār narrated to us,’ with the phrasing, ‘The sun and the moon will be rolled up on the Day of Resurrection.’

Al-Bukhārī, however, did not include the incident between Abū Salamah and al-Ḥasan, even though it is authentic. Al-Khaṭīb al-Tabrīzī slipped in the chain of transmission for this ḥadīth and its story, presenting it as though al-Ḥasan were reporting from Abū Hurayrah and that the discussion had taken place between those two. I have pointed this out in my notes on his Mishkāt al-Maṣābīḥ, no. 5692.

The ḥadīth has a corroborating report. Al-Ṭayālisī said in his Musnad (2103): Darast narrated to us, from Yazīd ibn Abān al-Raqāshī, from Anas, who attributed it to the Prophet ﷺ with the wording: ‘Indeed, the sun and the moon are two bulls whose hamstrings have been severed in the Fire.’

This chain is weak because al-Raqāshī is weak, and Darast likewise; however, he has been followed up by others.