“Do you suppose that the rivers of Paradise are channels cut into the earth? No, by Allah; they flow upon the surface of the earth. One of their banks is of pearl, and the other of ruby, and their clay is pure, intensely fragrant musk.” He said: I asked, “What does ‘intensely fragrant’ mean?” He replied, “That which is unmixed.”

Ibn Mardawayh also narrated it in his Tafsir through Muhammad ibn Ahmad: Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Yahya narrated to us; Mahdi ibn Hakim narrated to us; Yazid ibn Harun narrated to us; al-Jurayri informed us, from Mu‘awiyah ibn Qurrah, from Anas ibn Malik, who said: The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said it. He thus cited it as a report attributed to the Prophet.

I say: Ibn Abi al-Dunya’s chain of transmission is authentic. All its narrators are trustworthy and are among the narrators of al-Bukhari and Muslim, apart from Ya‘qub ibn ‘Ubayd—al-Nahartiri. Ibn Abi Hatim said (4/2/210): “I heard from him together with my father, and he is truthful.” He also has a biographical notice in Tarikh Baghdad (14/280). Mahdi ibn Hakim differed from him, narrating it from Yazid ibn Harun with this chain as a report attributed to the Prophet, in Ibn Mardawayh’s work. I have not found a biographical notice for this Mahdi; however, the report attributed to the Companion is authentic, as you have seen, and it carries the ruling of a report attributed to the Prophet, since such a matter cannot be stated merely on the basis of personal opinion—especially since it has authentically been reported as attributed to the Prophet through the first chain.

Similar to this is what Sufyan al-Thawri narrated from ‘Amr ibn Murrah, from Abu ‘Ubaydah, from Masruq, concerning Allah’s saying, “and water poured forth”: “It flows without a channel.” Ibn al-Qayyim mentioned it. Its chain is authentic, and it is attributed to a Successor.

I say: What has preceded demonstrates the invalidity of the report that al-Durr al-Manthur (6/402) cites from Ibn Mardawayh, from Ibn ‘Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, concerning the saying, “Indeed, We have granted you al-Kawthar”: “It is a river in Paradise, seventy thousand leagues deep [in the earth].” Al-Mundhiri (4/254–255) attributed it to Ibn Abi al-Dunya, in whose version the additional wording occurs, and indicated that it was weak. Rather, in my view it is rejected, because it contradicts this hadith of Anas. And Allah knows best.