the narrators of the Six Books, as is the case here. They could simply have remained silent rather than spoken without knowledge, especially when declaring authentic hadiths of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, to be weak.
Had they possessed even some knowledge of the discipline of grading hadiths sound or weak, they could have graded it authentic on the strength of its corroborating reports—particularly since they themselves had deemed some of them strong. They graded its first part good (2/146/1720/1), merely following al-Mundhirī! It contains the term al-mahā (“oryx”), which I consider objectionable; moreover, its chain of transmission, as narrated by al-Ṭabarānī from Ibn ʿAbbās, is weak. For this reason, I included it in al-Targhīb al-Ḍaʿīf. Nevertheless, it is an acceptable supporting report for this part.
It also has another supporting report, through a different route from Ibn ʿAmr, likewise recorded by al-Bayhaqī shortly before the hadith under discussion. Its chain is good, at the very least; yet the three annotators likewise did it an injustice (2/147/1722/1) by declaring it weak—for the reason I mentioned above.
As for the other part, namely that the Black Stone is from Paradise, it is supported by the hadith of Ibn ʿAbbās, which they too graded good (2/146/1720), and by the hadith of Ibn ʿAmr, which they graded good on the basis of its corroborating reports (1722). It has a third supporting report from Anas, documented in the sixth volume of al-Ṣaḥīḥah, no. (2618), which is currently being printed and will soon be available to readers, if Allah Most High wills. (1)
We had previously documented the hadith under discussion at no. (2619), but we considered it beneficial to add further verification, and so I documented it anew. This therefore called for clarification.
It remains to consider that the apparent meaning of his statement, “There is nothing on earth from Paradise other than it,” appears to conflict with what is established in some hadiths: that, alongside the Stone, he mentioned the ʿajwah date palm and the awāq that descend into the Euphrates each day from the blessing of Paradise—as mentioned previously at no. (3111). How, then, can the two be reconciled?