Azami 364

Ibn Khuzayma narrated it in Tawhid (137) from Muhammad bin Aban, who said, Yunus bin Bukayr told us, who said, Muhammad bin Ishaq informed me, who said, Yaqub bin Utba bin Mughira bin Akhnas told me, from Ikrima, from Ibn Abbas, and he related it. Its isnad is hasan because of Muhammad bin Ishaq, for he is known to conceal gaps in his chain of transmission, though here he has stated it explicitly.What is strange about the matter is that Ibn Khuzayma narrated it (135) with this very same isnad, but there Muhammad bin Ishaq did not state explicitly that he heard it directly. In that version he mentioned three lines of verse, which areA man, with a bull beneath his right foot, and the eagle for the other, and a lurking lion, And the sun grows red at the end of every night, its color turning to a ruddy glow, It refuses, and rises for us in its gentle course only tormented, and only after being flogged.The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "He has spoken truly."It thus appears that the default for such a narrator is the explicit statement of direct hearing, because the transmitter pays close attention to the wording of transmission when his teacher is known for concealing gaps in his chain. So if he says at one time "he told us" and at another "from", it means that he was not precise the second time, and what he was precise about is not overturned by what he was not precise about. However, this hadith is also known through the narration of Abdah bin Sulayman, from Muhammad bin Ishaq, from Yaqub bin Utba, using the indirect wording "from". Through this route it was narrated by Imam Ahmad (2314), Ibn Abu Asim in Sunnah (579), Tabarani in Kabir (11591), Ibn Manda in Radd Ali Jahmiya (12), and Ibn Khuzayma in Tawhid (136).Ahmad bin Abdul-Jabbar corroborated him in using the explicit wording, saying, Yunus bin Bukayr told us, from Ibn Ishaq, who said, Yaqub bin Utba told me. Through this route it was narrated by Bayhaqi in Asma wa Sifat (771). Ahmad bin Abdul-Jabbar, who is Attaridi, Daraqutni said of him, "There is no harm in him," while others declared him daif, except that he narrated from Yunus bin Bukayr the Maghazi of Muhammad bin Ishaq. Hafiz said in Taqrib, "Daif, but his hearing of the Sira is sahih."As for Bayhaqi's statement that "this hadith is uniquely narrated by Muhammad bin Ishaq bin Yasar with this isnad of his," this is not correct, for indeed he has been corroborated. Ibn Khuzayma narrated it in Tawhid (138) from Abu Hashim Ziyad bin Ayub, who said, Ismail, that is, Ibn Ulaya, told us, who said, Umara bin Abu Hafsa told us, from Ikrima, from Ibn Abbas, and he related the story. Ikrima said, "I said to Ibn Abbas, 'Is the sun flogged?' He said, 'May you gnaw on your father's molars! It was only the rhyme that forced him to say "flogged".'"It is also related from Hisham bin Urwa that he said, "The bearers of the Throne, one of them is in the form of a man, the second in the form of a bull, the third in the form of an eagle, and the fourth in the form of a lion."Bayhaqi said, "What is meant by this is what is mentioned in another hadith from Ibn Abbas, that the Footstool is carried by four angels, an angel in the form of a man, an angel in the form of a lion, an angel in the form of a bull, and an angel in the form of an eagle. It is as though, if it is sahih, this clarifies that the angel in the form of a man and the angel in the form of a bull carry the Footstool from the position of the right foot, while the angel in the form of the eagle and the one in the form of the lion carry it from the position of the other foot, that is, if the one being carried has two feet."There is no contradiction between this and the words of Allah Almighty, "And the Throne of your Lord will be borne that Day by eight [angels]" [Haqqah 69:17], for this is specific to the Day of Judgment, whereas before the Day of Judgment it is four, if this hadith is sahih, as Bayhaqi said. This is why Ibn Khuzayma did not see any contradiction between the hadith and the verse, though he postponed the reconciliation between the hadith and the verse to another place in his book.