other occupation besides hearing hadith; or it was a repudiation of the possibility that the matter was otherwise than he had stated. It has also been said that it expresses astonishment, as though he had said: “Otherwise, what value is there in my retention and precision of what I heard?”

This is how it appears in Ibn al-Athīr’s al-Nihāyah, where the wording is recorded as: “illā mā ṭahwī.” The annotator said: “In al-Harawī: idhan.”

Al-Suyūṭī also cited the hadith in al-Jāmiʿ al-Kabīr with the wording given in the heading, attributing it as well to Ibn Mardawayh and al-Daylamī—that is, in Musnad al-Firdaws. It appears in al-Firdaws (3/396/5207). Its annotator mentioned al-Khaṭīb’s chain of transmission for it, but made no comment on it—thus accomplishing nothing.

It has dispersed corroborating reports; see Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmiʿ (3169, 3170, 4005, and 4006) and Ḍaʿīf al-Jāmiʿ (2766–2769 and 6463).

Note: I had previously documented this hadith in the other book under no. 1600, for reasons I mentioned there, and because I did not possess Isḥāq’s Musnad, in which it is transmitted by a route other than that of al-Khaṭīb. When I came upon it, I hastened to document it here, while reconsidering al-Khaṭīb’s route and discussing its narrators in greater detail. I hope that I have been guided to the correct conclusion in documenting it here; it should therefore be transferred from there.

It further appears that there is a contradiction between this hadith and the forthcoming hadith no. 3355, which reads:

“…and nothing on earth is from Paradise except it.”

How may they be reconciled?

I say: I mentioned there that perhaps the intended meaning of “except it” is: except among stones; thus, the word “thing” is restricted to stones. And Allah knows best. *