only from his son, ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUmar. Perhaps the word “ibn” dropped from al-Suyuti’s pen—or from that of one of the copyists. Allah knows best.

Thereafter I located a supporting report in mursal form which ʿAbd al-Razzaq recorded in his Al-Amālī (2/39/1):

“ʿAbd al-Razzaq told us; Maʿmar, from Ibn Ṭawus, from his father, who traced it back to the Prophet.”

I say: This chain would be sound were it not for the disconnection, yet it still constitutes a strong witness for the previously cited corroborations and routes—especially the first—so the ḥadith is strengthened thereby. Allah knows best.

35 – “Allah turned me to face Syria and placed Yemen behind my back; then He said to me: ‘O Muhammad, I have made what lies before you booty and provision, and what is behind you reinforcement. Allah will continue to increase—or he said: to honour—Islam and its people, and to diminish idolatry and its people, until a rider travels between such-and-such’—meaning the two seas—‘fearing nothing but oppression; and this matter will extend as far as the night reaches.’ ”

It was narrated by Abū Nuʿaym (6/107–108) and by Ibn ʿAsākir in Tārīkh Dimashq (1/377–378, print) through Ḍumrah, from al-Sībānī, from ʿAmr ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Ḥaḍramī, from Abū Umāmah, with a complete chain. They said:

“It is singular in the narration of al-Sībānī; only Ḍumrah ibn Rabīʿah reports it.”

I say: Ḍumrah is reliable, and so is al-Sībānī—spelled with an undotted sīn. In Al-Ḥilyah and the Tārīkh it repeatedly appears as ‘al-Shībānī’ with a dotted shīn; this is a scribal slip. His name is Yaḥyā ibn Abī ʿAmr.

As for this al-Ḥaḍramī, al-ʿAjlī and Ibn Ḥibbān declared him trustworthy, though al-Dhahabī said, “I know of no one who narrates from him other than Yaḥyā.”

I add: The second half of the report has corroboration; one such witness appeared earlier in the first discussion (no. 3). ʿAbd Allah ibn Hāniʾ also corroborated it in Ibn ʿAsākir, but I have been unable to identify him.

Al-Suyuti attributed the ḥadith in Al-Jāmiʿ al-kabīr (1/141/1) to al-Ṭabarānī in Al-Kabīr and likewise to Ibn ʿAsākir.