I say: This chain of transmission is unknown to me. There are many narrators named Isma‘il ibn Abd Allah; so which one of them is this? Nor do I find anyone called Isa ibn al-Harith other than the one mentioned in Narrator Criticism and Accreditation (3/1/274): “Isa ibn al-Harith. He narrated from … Abu Shaybah, the grandfather of the family of Abu Shaybah, narrated from him. I asked Abu Zur‘ah about him, and he said: ‘There is no objection to him.’”

The Abu Shaybah who narrated from him was named Ibrahim ibn Uthman. He was among the Followers of the Followers and narrated from Abu Ishaq al-Sabi‘i and others. It is therefore highly possible that this Isa ibn al-Harith al-Madhhiji is the same Isa ibn al-Harith concerning whom there is no objection. This is supported by al-Haythami’s statement in his documentation of the hadith (1/139): “Al-Tabarani narrated it in al-Kabir, and its narrators have been deemed reliable.”

I say: This hadith is supported by the hadiths: “May Allah brighten the countenance of a man who hears something from us and conveys it …” They were recorded by the compilers of the Sunan and others, on the authority of Ibn Mas‘ud, Zayd ibn Thabit, and Jubayr ibn Mut‘im; see al-Targhib (1/63–64). It is also supported by the hadiths, “Let the one present convey it to the one absent,” recorded in the two Sahihs on the authority of Abu Bakrah.

1722 — “I see what you do not see, and I hear what you do not hear. The sky has groaned, and it has every right to groan: there is not within it a space the width of four fingers except that an angel is placing his forehead in prostration to Allah. By Allah, if you knew what I know, you would laugh little and weep much; you would not take pleasure in women in your beds, but would go out to the open places, raising your voices in supplication.”

Al-Hakim narrated it in al-Mustadrak (2/510) from Ibrahim ibn Muhajir, from Mujahid, from Muriq al-‘Ijli, from Abu Dharr, may Allah be pleased with him, who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, recited:

“Has there come upon man a period of time when he was not a thing worthy of mention?”

He recited it to its end, then said this, and added: