commanded me to bring you near and not to push you away, and to teach you so that you may retain it. And it is fitting for you that you should retain it.' Thus, this verse was revealed: '...and an attentive ear might grasp it' (wa taʿiyahā udhunun wāʿiyah).

His saying: 'And the heaven will split asunder, for that day it is frail.'

18963 - Simāk said, from an elder from Banī Asad, from ʿAlī, who said: 'The heaven will split from the galaxy (al-majarrah).'

His saying: 'Frail.'

18964 - From Ibn ʿAbbās regarding His saying: '...for that day it is frail' (wāhiyah), he said: 'Torn/breached.'

His saying: 'And the angels will be at its borders.'

18965 - From Ibn ʿAbbās regarding His saying: 'And the throne of your Lord will be carried above them that day by eight,' he said: 'Eight rows of angels, the number of whom none knows except Allah.'

18966 - Abū Saʿīd Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd narrated to us, [saying]: Zayd ibn al-Ḥubāb narrated to us, [saying]: Abū al-Samḥ al-Baṣrī narrated to us, [saying]: Qubayl ibn Ḥuyayy ibn Hānīʾ narrated to us that he heard ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr saying: 'The bearers of the Throne are eight; the distance between the earlobe of one of them and the back of his eye is a journey of a hundred years.'

18967 - My father narrated to us, [saying]: Aḥmad ibn Ḥafṣ ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Naysābūrī wrote to me, [saying]: My father narrated to me, [saying]: Ibrāhīm ibn Ṭahmān narrated to us, from Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah, from Muḥammad ibn al-Munkadir, from Jābir, who said: The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: 'And it has been permitted for me to tell you about one of the angels who are the bearers of the Throne: the distance between his earlobe and his neck is [the distance of] a bird's flight for seven hundred years.'

18968 - Abū Zurʿah narrated to us, [saying]: Yaḥyā ibn al-Mughīrah narrated to us, [saying]: Jarīr narrated to us, from Ashʿath, from Jaʿfar, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr regarding His saying: 'And the throne of your Lord will be carried above them that day by eight,' he said: 'Eight of the angels.'

18969 - From Ibn Zayd, who said: 'None of the bearers of the Throne have been named except Isrāfīl.' He said: 'And Mīkāʾīl is not one of the bearers of the Throne.'