= Ibn Abi Uthman, from his father, from Abu Hurayra… It is recorded by Ahmad, 2/251 and 2/434, and by Ibn Khuzayma, p. 36, through the chain of Yahya – Ibn ‛Ajlan – Sa‛id – Abu Hurayra. Al-Bukhari also reports it in al-Adab al-Mufrad, no. 173, and Ibn Khuzayma p. 36, from Ibn ‛Ajlan – Sa‛id – Abu Hurayra, that the Prophet ﷺ said: “When one of you strikes someone, let him avoid the face, and let him not say: ‘May Allah disfigure your face and the face of whoever resembles you,’ for Allah created Adam according to his image.” After citing these hadiths, Ibn Khuzayma remarks: “Some people who have not pursued knowledge carefully imagined that the phrase ‘according to his image’ refers to the image of the All-Merciful. Exalted is our Lord far above such an interpretation. Rather, the pronoun refers to the person who is being struck or insulted. The Prophet ﷺ meant that Allah created Adam in the likeness of the very person whose face the striker was told to avoid and whose face the insulter reviled. He therefore forbade adding, ‘and the face of whoever resembles you,’ because Adam’s face resembles that of his descendants. If the abuser says to a descendant of Adam, ‘May Allah disfigure your face and the face of whoever resembles you,’ he is in fact reviling the face of Adam, peace be upon him.” Ibn Khuzayma then cites the hadith of Ibn ‛Umar, transmitted through al-A‛mash – Habib ibn Abi Thabit – ‛Ata ibn Abi Rabah – ‛Umar in a marfu‛ form: “Do not revile the face, for the son of Adam was created according to the image of the All-Merciful.” He also narrates it via Sufyan al-Thawri – Habib ibn Abi Thabit – ‛Ata in a mursal form, and comments: “This report has three defects: first, al-Thawri diverges from al-A‛mash by omitting Ibn ‛Umar and making it mursal; second, al-A‛mash is a mudallis and does not state that he heard it directly from Habib ibn Abi Thabit; third, Habib ibn Abi Thabit is likewise a mudallis, and we do not know that he heard it from ‛Ata.” (See the rest of his discussion.) Ibn Hajar observes in Fath al-Bari, 11/3-4 (Book of Asking Permission): “Scholars differ over the antecedent of the pronoun. Some say it returns to Adam, meaning that Allah created him in the form he retained until he was cast down to earth and until he died; this rejects the notion that he had a different form in Paradise or that his creation passed through stages as do his descendants. Others say it is a rebuttal of the Dahriyyah, who claim that every human originates from a drop of semen and that this has no beginning; the hadith clarifies that the first creation was already in this form. A third view sees it as a refutation of the naturalists who allege that man is produced by mere natural causes. Another opinion holds that the pronoun refers to Allah, relying on the version that reads ‘according to the image of the All-Merciful.’ Here ‘image’ means ‘attribute,’ i.e., Allah created Adam endowed with such attributes as knowledge, life, hearing, and sight—while affirming that the divine attributes are incomparable.” See also Ibn Hajar’s further discussion of the pronoun in “his image” in Fath al-Bari, 5/133 and 6/260.