Sunan Abi Dawud 4723

Translation

I was sitting in al-Batha with a company among whom the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was sitting, when a cloud passed above them. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ looked at it and said: What do you call this? They said: Sahab. He said: And muzn? They said: And muzn. He said: And anan? They said: And anan. AbuDawud said: I am not quite confident about the word anan. He asked: Do you know the distance between Heaven and Earth? They replied: We do not know. He then said: The distance between them is seventy-one, seventy-two, or seventy-three years. The heaven which is above it is at a similar distance (going on till he counted seven heavens). Above the seventh heaven there is a sea, the distance between whose surface and bottom is like that between one heaven and the next. Above that there are eight mountain goats the distance between whose hoofs and haunches is like the distance between one heaven and the next. Then Allah, the Blessed and the Exalted, is above that.

Notes

• قَالَ أَبُو دَاوُدَ لَمْ أُتْقِنِ الْعَنَانَ جَيِّدًا قَالَ هَلْ تَدْرُونَ مَا بُعْدُ مَا بَيْنَ السَّمَاءِ وَالأَرْضِ قَالُوا لاَ نَدْرِي قَالَ إِنَّ بُعْدَ مَا بَيْنَهُمَا إِمَّا وَاحِدَةٌ أَوِ اثْنَتَانِ أَوْ ثَلاَثٌ وَسَبْعُونَ سَنَةً ثُمَّ السَّمَاءُ فَوْقَهَا كَذَلِكَ حَتَّى عَدَّ سَبْعَ سَمَوَاتٍ ثُمَّ فَوْقَ السَّابِعَةِ بَحْرٌ بَيْنَ أَسْفَلِهِ وَأَعْلاَهُ مِثْلُ مَا بَيْنَ سَمَاءٍ إِلَى سَمَاءٍ ثُمَّ فَوْقَ ذَلِكَ ثَمَانِيَةُ أَوْعَالٍ بَيْنَ أَظْلاَفِهِمْ وَرُكَبِهِمْ مِثْلُ مَا بَيْنَ سَمَاءٍ إِلَى سَمَاءٍ ثُمَّ عَلَى ظُهُورِهِمُ الْعَرْشُ بَيْنَ أَسْفَلِهِ وَأَعْلاَهُ مِثْلُ مَا بَيْنَ سَمَاءٍ إِلَى سَمَاءٍ ثُمَّ اللَّهُ تَبَارَكَ وَتَعَالَى فَوْقَ ذَلِكَ

  machine translationAbū Dāwūd said: I did not memorize al-ʿanān well. He said: "Do you know how far it is between the heaven and the earth?" They said: "We do not know." He said: "The distance between them is either seventy-one, seventy-two, or seventy-three years. Then the heaven above it is the same, until he counted seven heavens. Then above the seventh is a sea, the distance between its bottom and its top being like the distance from one heaven to another. Then above that are eight mountain goats, the distance between their hooves and their knees being like the distance from one heaven to another. Then on their backs is the Throne, the distance between its bottom and its top being like the distance from one heaven to another. Then Allah, Blessed and Exalted, is above that." Report a problem

Grades by grader

What scholars said about it

In their own words, as Hadith Unlocked records them. They are shown, not summarised into a grade.

• Ibn Khuzaymah

  صححه

  machine translationHe declared it sound (ṣaḥḥaḥahu). Report a problem

  in سنن أبي داود, p. 4708
• Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr

  لا أعلم في هذا الباب حديثا مرفوعا إلا حديث عبد الله بن عميرة وهو حديث مشهور بهذا الإسناد رواه عن سماك جماعة منهم أبو خالد الدالاني وعمر وابن أبي عمرو بن أبي قيس وشعيب بن أبي خالد وابن أبي المقدام وإبراهيم بن طهمان والوليد بن أبي ثور

  machine translationI do not know of any raised (marfūʿ) ḥadīth on this topic except the ḥadīth of ʿAbdullāh b. ʿUmayrah, and it is a well-known (mashhūr) ḥadīth with this chain. A group narrated it from Simāk, among them Abū Khālid al-Dālānī, ʿUmar and Ibn Abī ʿAmr b. Abī Qays, Shuʿayb b. Abī Khālid, Ibn Abī al-Miqdām, Ibrāhīm b. Ṭahmān and al-Walīd b. Abī Thawr. Report a problem

  in سنن أبي داود, p. 4708
• Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī

  فيه عن سماك اختلاف قال البخاري لا يعلم له سماع من الأحنف

  machine translationThere is disagreement about it from Simāk. al-Bukhārī said: It is not known that he heard from al-Aḥnaf. Report a problem

  in سنن أبي داود, p. 4708
• al-Tirmidhi

  حسن غريب

  machine translationGood and gharīb (ḥasan gharīb). Report a problem

  in سنن أبي داود, p. 4708

Same hadith, other wordings

• Misykatul Mashabih 5726وَعَن العبَّاس بن عبد الْمطلب زعم أَنَّهُ كَانَ جَالِسًا فِي الْبَطْحَاءِ فِي عِصَابَةٍ وَرَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ جَالِسٌ فِيهِمْ فَمَرَّتْ سَحَابَةٌ فَنَظَرُوا إِلَيْهَا فَقَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَ

Other narrations of this report

Jami' at-Tirmidhi 3298Musnad Ahmad 1771Musnad al-Bazzar 9564al-Mustadrak (al-Hakim) 3137al-Mustadrak (al-Hakim) 3428al-Mustadrak (al-Hakim) 3547

Narrators

1. 1
   al-ʿAbbās b. ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib ʿamm Rasūl Allāh

   Companion (ṣaḥābī)d. 32 AH, or: 33 AH, or: 34 AH
   العَبَّاس بن عَبْد المُطَّلِب عَمّ رَسُول اللهصحابي
   عن
2. 2
   al-Aḥnaf b. Qays

   a mukhaḍram, trustworthy (thiqah)d. it is said: 67 AH, or: 68 AH, also said: 71 AH, also said: 72 AH
   الْأَحْنَفِ بْنِ قَيْسٍمخضرم ثقة
   عن
3. 3
   ʿAbdullāh b. ʿAmīrah

   acceptable (maqbūl)
   عَبْدِ اللهِ بْنِ عَمِيرَةَمقبول
   عن
4. 4
   Simāk b. Ḥarb al-Bakrī

   Truthful (ṣadūq); his narrations from ʿIkrimah in particular are inconsistent (muḍṭarib); he changed (taghayyara) towards the end of his life, and at times he would accept prompting (yulaqqan).d. 123 AH
   سِمَاكٍصدوق , وروايته عن عكرمة خاصة مضطربة , وقد تغير بأخرة ، فكان ربما يلقن
   عن
5. 5
   Al-Walīd b. ʿAbdullāh b. Abī Thawr

   weak (ḍaʿīf)d. 172 AH
   الْوَلِيدُ بْنُ أَبِي ثَوْرٍضعيف
   نا
6. 6
   Muḥammad b. al-Ṣabbāḥ

   trustworthy, a memorizer (thiqah ḥāfiẓ)d. 227 AH
   مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ الصَّبَّاحِ الْبَزَّازُثقة حافظ
   حدثنا
7. 7
   Abū Dāwūd al-Sijistānī

   Trustworthy (thiqah), a memorizer (ḥāfiẓ), the compiler of the Sunan and other works, one of the senior scholars.d. 275 AH
   أَبُو دَاوُدَ السِّجِسْتَانِيُّثقة ، حافظ , مصنف السنن وغيرها ، من كبار العلماء

Who each narrator was and how reliable, from hdith.com

Latin names and English verdicts with a dotted underline are machine translations, not reviewed.

Also in

Mishkat al-Masabih 5726