- “When we reached Jerusalem, Gabriel pointed with his finger and pierced the stone with it; then he tethered al-Buraq to it.”
Al-Tirmidhi (3132), Ibn Hibban (34 in Mawarid), and al-Hakim (2/360) narrated it through Abu Tumaylah, from al-Zubayr ibn Junadah, from Ibn Buraydah, from his father, who said: The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: ... and he mentioned it. Al-Hakim said:
“Its chain of transmission is authentic, though neither of them narrated it. Abu Tumaylah and al-Zubayr are both trustworthy narrators from Marw.”
Al-Dhahabi concurred with him.
As for al-Tirmidhi, he said:
“Good and singular.”
The word “good” does not occur in some copies of it, nor did al-Mizzi mention it in al-Tuhfah.
Note: I had deemed this hadith weak in some of my earlier annotations. When I divided the four Sunan—including Sunan al-Tirmidhi—into two sections, “Authentic” and “Weak,” this prompted me to re-examine some of its hadiths, including this one. I then became convinced of its authenticity, and that al-Dhahabi’s statement concerning al-Zubayr ibn Junadah in al-Mughni,
“He is of unknown status,”
as well as his indication of doubt concerning Ibn Hibban’s declaring him trustworthy, when he said in his biographical entry in al-Kashif,
“Declared trustworthy,”
and likewise al-Hafiz’s statement in al-Taqrib,
“Acceptable,”
are all, in my view, outweighed by Ibn Ma‘in’s declaring this al-Zubayr trustworthy—especially when I saw that al-Dhahabi himself had declared mistaken the one who said, “He is of unknown status,” namely Ibn al-Jawzi. It seems that he had followed him in making this statement, but when its error became clear to him, he retracted it. It is as though what happened to him was the very same thing that happened to me!