Musnad Ahmad 3613

Translation

✧ A man came to Abdullah and said: “I left in the mosque a man interpreting the Quran by his own opinion. He said about this verse: ‘On the day when the sky will bring a clear smoke, covering the people; this is a painful punishment,’ that a smoke will envelop them on the Day of Resurrection, seizing their breaths until they are affected by it like a cold.” Abdullah said: “Whoever knows some knowledge should state it, and whoever does not know should say: ‘God knows best.’ For it is part of a man's understanding to say about what he does not know: ‘God knows best.’ This was only because when Quraysh stubbornly opposed the Prophet ﷺ, he supplicated against them with years like the years of Joseph, and famine and hardship struck them until they ate bones. A man would look at the sky and see between him and the sky something like smoke because of the hardship. Then God, Mighty and Majestic, sent down: ‘So await the day when the sky will bring a clear smoke, covering the people; this is a painful punishment.’ Then the Messenger of God ﷺ was approached and it was said: ‘O Messenger of God, ask God for rain for Mudar, for they have been destroyed.’ So he supplicated for them, and God, Mighty and Majestic, sent down: ‘Indeed, We will remove the punishment; indeed, you will return [to disbelief].’ When the second time came, they reverted, so it was sent down: ‘On the day We seize with the greatest seizure; indeed, We will take retribution’—the day of Badr.”

Grades by grader