“The hadith is authentic, and the chain of transmission is established.” The wording yutarjimu (“interpret”) occurs in one narration of Ahmad, while the other narration is likewise found in Ahmad (4/446–447 and 5/3), al-Hakim (4/565), al-Tabarani’s al-Kabir (19/424 and 426–428), and al-Awaʾil (p. 47, nos. 20 and 21), through other routes from Hakim ibn Muʿawiyah with the same chain. The additional wording is found in one narration of Ahmad, and likewise in al-Tabarani. One of the two versions in al-Awaʾil reads: “The first part of a human being to speak on the Day of Resurrection and testify against him concerning his deeds will be his thigh and his palm.”

However, al-Tabarani’s shaykh in this chain is Idris ibn Jaʿfar al-ʿAttar, concerning whom al-Daraqutni said: “Abandoned.”

The hadith also has a supporting report from ʿUqbah ibn ʿAmir, who heard the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, say: “Indeed, the first bone of a human being to speak on the day when mouths are sealed will be a man’s left thigh.” Ahmad recorded it (4/151): al-Hakam ibn Nafiʿ narrated to us; Ismaʿil ibn ʿAyyash narrated to us, from Damdam ibn Zurʿah, from Shurayh ibn ʿUbayd al-Hadrami, from one who narrated it to him from ʿUqbah.

I say: All the narrators in this chain are trustworthy, so it would be authentic were it not for al-Hadrami’s shaykh, who was not named. Hisham ibn ʿAmmar omitted him, narrating: Ismaʿil ibn ʿAyyash narrated to us with the same chain, from Shurayh, from ʿUqbah. It was recorded by al-Tabarani (17/333/no. 921), al-Thaʿlabi in his Tafsir (3/170/1), and Ibn ʿAsakir (8/32/1), as well as by Ibn Abi Hatim, as cited in Tafsir Ibn Kathir (3/577). Yet although al-Bukhari relied on Hisham ibn ʿAmmar, he has a weakness in that he