from ʿAṭāʾ ibn Yasār, who said, “I met ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ and asked him, ‘Tell me about the description of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in the Torah.’ He replied, ‘Indeed—by Allah—he is described in the Torah exactly as he is described in the Quran: “O Prophet, We have surely sent you as a witness, a bearer of glad tidings, and a warner” (al-Aḥzāb 33:45); and as a refuge for the unlettered. It also says: ‘You are My servant and My messenger; I have named you al-Mutawakkil (the Reliant). You are neither harsh nor hard-hearted, nor do you shout in the marketplaces. You do not repay evil with evil, but you pardon and forgive. Allah will not take you (in death) until through you He straightens the crooked religion so that people will say, “There is no god but Allah.” By means of you He will open blind eyes, deaf ears, and sealed hearts.’”

ʿAṭāʾ continued, “I then met Kaʿb al-Aḥbār and questioned him; the two accounts did not differ by a single letter, save that Kaʿb, in his own dialect, rendered it: ʿuyūnan ʿumumā, ādhānan ṣumumā, and qulūban ghulufā—blind eyes, deaf ears, and veiled hearts.”

Al-Bukhārī recorded this report through al-ʿAwqī, from Fulayḥ.

It was also transmitted by Saʿīd ibn Abī Hilāl, from Hilāl ibn Usāmah, from ʿAṭāʾ ibn Yasār, from ʿAbdullāh ibn Salām, in similar wording. ʿAṭāʾ added, “Abū Wāqid al-Laythī told me that he heard Kaʿb al-Aḥbār say the same as Ibn Salām.”

I say: This version is more reliable, for ʿAṭāʾ did not meet Kaʿb.

A comparable narration was related by Abū Ghassān Muḥammad ibn Muṭarrif, from Zayd ibn Aslam, that ʿAbdullāh ibn Salām said: “The description of the Prophet ﷺ is in the Torah,” and he cited the ḥadīth.

ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib likewise reported, from Abū ʿUbaydah ibn ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd, from his father, who said: “Allah dispatched His Prophet ﷺ to admit a man into Paradise. He entered a church where Jews were present, and a Jew was reading the Torah. When they came to the passage describing the Prophet ﷺ they stopped. In one corner of the church lay a sick man. The Prophet ﷺ asked, ‘Why have you stopped?’ The sick man replied, ‘They reached the description of a prophet and so they paused.’ Then the sick man…"