Regarding the hadith, al-Haythamī said (3/78): “Abū Yaʿlā narrated it, and its narrators are trustworthy.” It also has another corroborating report from the hadith of Ibn ʿUmar, through a chain whose narrators are trustworthy; it is documented in al-Rawḍ al-Naḍīr (506). In sum, the hadith is authentic in light of its two aforementioned corroborating reports.

Mines are places from which the earth’s treasures are extracted, such as gold, silver, copper, and the like. The singular is maʿdin (mine). This is stated in al-Nihāyah.

I say: There is no doubt that the worst of people are the disbelievers. Thus, it points to the affliction with which the Muslims are today beset: their bringing Europeans and Americans into their Arab lands to extract their minerals and resources. Allah is the One whose help is sought.

1886 — “There will emerge from my community people who drink the Quran as they drink water.”

Al-Firyābī narrated it in The Virtues of the Quran (187/2): Maymūn ibn al-Aṣbagh narrated to me: Ibn Abī Maryam narrated to us; Nāfiʿ ibn Yazīd informed us; Bakr ibn ʿAmr informed me that he heard Mishraḥ ibn Hāʿān say: “I heard ʿUqbah say”—then he cited the hadith as attributed to the Prophet.

I say: This is a good chain of transmission. All its narrators are trustworthy narrators of al-Bukhārī and Muslim, apart from Mishraḥ ibn Hāʿān. Ibn Maʿīn said: “Trustworthy.” Ibn ʿAdī said: “I hope there is no harm in him.” Ibn Ḥibbān contradicted himself concerning him: he included him among the trustworthy narrators, then included him among the weak narrators. Thus, his reports are good.