and upon it was a saddlecloth and a velvet blanket. He said: And that was at sunset. He said: "O Abu Dharr, do you know where this sets?" I said: "Allah and His Messenger know best." He said: "It falls down prostrate to its Lord beneath the Throne, and when it is time for its emergence, it is given permission, so it rises; but when He desires to make it rise from where it sets, He will restrain it, and it will say: 'O my Lord, my journey is far.' He will say to it: 'Rise from where you set.'"

That is when no soul will benefit from its faith that had not believed before.

8144 - Abu Khallad Sulayman ibn Khallad told us, Yahya ibn Abi Kathir told us, Nafi‘ ibn ‘Umar told us, from Ibn Abi Mulaykah, he said: We sat with ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Amr ibn al-‘As and he said: "The day that no soul will benefit from its faith that had not believed before or earned in its faith good, is when the sun rises from its west."

His saying: "That had not believed before."

8145 - Muhammad ibn Sa‘d al-‘Awfi informed us in what he wrote to me, my father told us, my paternal uncle told us, from his father, from ‘Atiyyah, from Ibn ‘Abbas, regarding His saying: "The day that some of the signs of your Lord will come, no soul will benefit from its faith that had not believed before," he said: It is a sign. Faith will not benefit a polytheist at the time of the signs, and it will benefit the people of faith at the time of the signs if they had earned good before that.

Ibn ‘Abbas said: The Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) went out one evening and said to them: "O servants of Allah, repent to Allah while you can, for you are close to seeing the sun from the direction of the west. If it does that, repentance will be barred, deeds will be folded up, and faith will be sealed." The people asked: "Is there a sign for that, O Messenger of Allah?" He replied: "The sign of that night is that it will lengthen to the measure of three nights. Those who fear their Lord will wake up and pray to Him, then they will finish their prayer while the night is as if it had not diminished, so they will lie down. When they wake up and the night is still in its place, and they see that, they will fear that this might be in the face of a great matter. When morning comes, the sunrise will seem long to them, and while they are waiting for it, it will rise upon them from the direction of the west. When it does that, no soul will benefit from its faith that had not believed before."

His saying, the Almighty: "Or earned in its faith good."

8146 - Ahmad ibn ‘Uthman ibn Hakim informed us in what he wrote to me, Ahmad ibn Mufaddal told us, he told us...