Khalid ibn Maʿdan relates—on the authority of a group of the Messenger of Allah’s Companions—that they said, “Messenger of Allah, tell us about yourself.” He replied, “I am the answer to my forefather Abraham’s supplication, the glad tidings given by Jesus, and when my mother conceived me she saw a light issue from her that lit up the palaces of Bosra in the land of Syria.”
We have also transmitted—with a sound chain of transmission, Allah willing—from al-ʿIrbāḍ ibn Sāriyah that he heard the Prophet ﷺ say, “I am the servant of Allah and the seal of the prophets while Adam was still munjadil—lying moulded in his clay. I shall explain that to you: I am the answer to my father Abraham’s supplication, the proclamation of Jesus on my behalf, and the vision my mother saw.” Indeed, when the mother of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ gave birth to him she saw a light by which the palaces of Syria were illuminated.
Al-Layth and Ibn Wahb also narrated this report from Muʿāwiyah ibn Ṣāliḥ, who heard Saʿīd ibn Suwayd relate it from ʿAbd al-Aʿlā ibn Hilāl al-Sulamī, from al-ʿIrbāḍ, with the same wording.
Abū Bakr ibn Abī Maryam al-Ghassānī likewise transmitted it from Saʿīd ibn Suwayd, from al-ʿIrbāḍ himself.
Faraj ibn Faḍālah said: Luqmān ibn ʿĀmir told us, “I heard Abū Umāmah say: ‘I asked, Messenger of Allah, how did your affair begin?’ He replied, ‘With the supplication of Abraham, the glad tidings of Jesus, and my mother saw a light emerge from her that illuminated the palaces of Syria.’” Imām Aḥmad recorded this in his Musnad from Abū al-Naḍr, from Faraj.
The phrase munjadil means “lying prone.” Abraham’s supplication is Allah’s saying: “Our Lord, raise up among them a messenger from themselves” (Quran 2:129). The glad tidings of Jesus are in His words: “and giving good news of a messenger who will come after me whose name is Ahmad” (Quran 61:6).
Abū Ḍumrah reported: Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad related to us—from his father—that the Prophet ﷺ said: “Allah divided the earth into two halves, placed me in the better of the two, then He divided that half…”