Mishkat al-Masabih 5735

He told that while God's prophet and his companions were sitting clouds came over them and God's prophet asked, "Do you know what these are?" On their replying that God and His messenger knew best, he said, "These are the clouds (`anan), these are the water-carriers of the earth which God drives to people who do not thank Him or call upon Him." He then asked, "Do you know what is above you?" On their replying that God and His messenger knew best, he said, "It is the firmament, a ceiling which is guarded and waves which are kept back." He then asked, "Do you know what is between you and it?" On their replying that God and His messenger knew best, he said, "Between you and it are five hundred years." He then asked, "Do you knew what is above that?" On their replying that God and His messenger knew best, he said, "Two heavens with a distance of five hundred years between them." He went on speaking like that till he counted seven heavens, the distance between each pair being like that between the heaven and the earth. He then asked, "Do you know what is above that?" On their replying that God and His messenger knew best, he said, "Above that is the Throne, and the distance between it and the [seventh] heaven is the same as that between each pair of heavens." He then asked, "Do you know what is below you?" On their replying that God and His messenger knew best, he said, "It is the earth." He then asked, "Do you know what is under that?" On their replying that God and His messenger knew best, he said, "Under it there is another earth with a journey of five hundred years between them," and so on till he had counted seven earths with a journey of five hundred years between each pair. He then said, "By Him in whose hand Muhammad's soul is, if you were to drop a rope[1] to the lowest earth it would not pass out of God's knowledge[2]." He then recited, "He is the First and the Last, the Outward and the Inward, and He is omniscient[3]." Ahmad and Tirmidhi transmitted it, Tirmidhi saying[4] that God's messenger's recitation of the verse indicates that it would go down within God's knowledge, power and authority, for God's knowledge, power and authority are everywhere, while He is on the Throne, as He described Himself in His Book[5]. This is the reading in the text on the margin of Mirqat. In Tirmidhi, in his book on Tafsir al Quran, the tradition occurs in his section on sura 57 (al-hadid), the reading being "if you were to drop a man with a rope..." Literally, "it would fall upon God." Quran, 57:3. Tirmidhi says in the passage cited above, "some of the learned have expounded this tradition..." Cf. Quran; 7:54; 10:3, etc.