and it is likewise the opinion of ʿĀʾishah, Ibn al-Zubayr, Ṭāwūs, ʿAlqamah, and Khārijah ibn Zayd ibn Thābit.

240 — “Whoever wrongfully takes even a handspan of land, Allah will oblige him to dig it out until he reaches the last of the seven earths, then He will fasten it around his neck on the Day of Resurrection until judgment among the people is concluded.”

Ibn Ḥibbān recorded it in his Ṣaḥīḥ (1167), Aḥmad (4/173) likewise, as did his son, through the chain of Zāʾidah → al-Rabīʿ ibn ʿAbdillāh → Ayman ibn Nābil — Ibn Ḥibbān said: “Ibn Thābit” — → Yaʿlā ibn Murrah, who said: “I heard the Prophet ﷺ say,” and he mentioned the report.

I say: This isnād is good; its transmitters are well-known and reliable except for Ayman. If he is Ibn Nābil, as in the Musnad, he is famous; a number of scholars considered him trustworthy and al-Bukhārī cited his narration for corroboration. If, however, he is Ibn Thābit, as in Ibn Ḥibbān, Abū Dāwūd said, “There is nothing objectionable about him,” and Ibn Ḥibbān listed him among the trustworthy. Two points incline me toward the latter identification:

1. Ibn Abī Ḥātim, in his biographical dictionary (1/1/319), wrote:
   “He narrated from Ibn ʿAbbās and Yaʿlā ibn Murrah, and from him narrated Abū Yaʿfūr ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿUbayd ibn Nustās and al-Rabīʿ ibn ʿAbdillāh.”
   He then opened a separate entry for Ayman ibn Nābil, noting that he narrated from Qudāmah ibn ʿAbdillāh al-Kilābī, Ṭāwūs, and other Successors. Neither he nor anyone else reported that he transmitted from Yaʿlā ibn Murrah, nor that al-Rabīʿ ibn ʿAbdillāh narrated from him.

2. The narration of Abū Yaʿfūr from him appears in the Musnad (4/172–173), yet there he is called “Abū Yaʿqūb,” which is a scribal error. The same mistake occurs in two manuscripts of al-Jarḥ wa-l-Taʿdīl, as the erudite editor ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Muʿallimī pointed out in the biography of Ibn Thābit.