Points of benefit derived from the ḥadīth

1 – Al-Muḥallab said: The trials of this world lure the soul into panic and a love of staying alive. When a man has already become the lawful husband of a woman yet has not consummated the marriage—or has just done so—his heart remains attached to going back to her, and Satan finds a way to preoccupy him with that longing instead of the duty before him. The same applies to any other worldly attachment besides women.

2 – Ibn al-Munīr said: The report rebuts those common folk who insist on performing Ḥajj before getting married, imagining that the obligation of chastity is only truly binding after the pilgrimage. In fact, the better course is to marry first, attain chastity, and then perform Ḥajj. I (al-Albānī) add: Two ḥadīths have been circulated on whether Ḥajj should precede or follow marriage, both ascribed to Abū Hurayrah in a marfūʿ form, but they are fabricated, as I clarified in Silsilat al-Aḥādīth al-Ḍaʿīfah, nos. 221–222.

3 – The narration also shows that the sun was halted for no one except Joshua (peace be upon him), which implicitly weakens every report claiming that it happened for anyone else. For the sake of completeness I will cite what I have come across:

1. Ibn Isḥāq reports in al-Mubtadaʾ, through Yaḥyā ibn ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr from his father, that the sun was stopped for Moses (peace be upon him) when he was carrying the coffin of Joseph (peace be upon him). I say: This is a mawqūf report and appears to be drawn from Israelite lore. The story of Moses transferring Joseph’s bones from his grave in Egypt is recorded by al-Ḥākim in al-Mustadrak (2/571–572) with an authentic chain from the Prophet, yet it contains no mention of the sun being halted.

2. Another report claims that the sun was held back for David (peace be upon him). Al-Khaṭīb narrated it in his book Dhamm al-Nujūm through the route of Abū Ḥudhayfah, and Ibn Isḥāq included it in al-Mubtadaʾ with his chain from ʿAlī, as a lengthy mawqūf report.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ said: