He also cited verses composed on the occasion by ʿAmr ibn Murrah—set out in full in the Musnad al-Kabīr (1)—and in God alone is our trust and upon Him is our reliance.

God the Exalted says:
“Remember when We took from the prophets their covenant, and from you, and from Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus son of Mary; We took from them a solemn covenant.” (al-Ahzāb 33:7)

Many of the early scholars said: When God took the covenant from the children of Adam—“Am I not your Lord?” (al-Aʿrāf 7:172)—He also took a special covenant from the prophets, emphasizing it with these five Messengers of firm resolve, the bearers of the great revealed laws, the first of whom was Noah and the last of whom was Muhammad ﷺ. May blessings be upon them all.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Nuʿaym relates in Dalāʾil al-Nubuwwah (2), through several chains, from al-Walīd ibn Muslim: al-Awzāʿī narrated to us, Yaḥyā ibn Abī Kathīr narrated to us, from Abū Salamah, from Abū Hurayrah, that the Messenger of God ﷺ was asked, “When was prophethood ordained for you?” He replied, “Between the creation of Adam and the breathing of the spirit into him.”

Al-Tirmidhī also transmitted it through the chain of al-Walīd ibn Muslim, and said: “A ḥasan gharīb ḥadīth from Abū Hurayrah; we know it only through this route.” (3)

Abū Nuʿaym further said (4): Sulaymān ibn Aḥmad narrated to us, Yaʿqūb ibn Isḥāq ibn al-Zubayr al-Ḥalabī narrated to us (5), Abū Jaʿfar al-Nufaylī narrated to us, ʿAmr ibn Wāqid narrated to us, from ʿUrwah ibn Ruwaym, from al-Ṣunābiḥī, who said: ʿUmar asked, “O Messenger of God, when were you made a prophet?” He answered, “While Adam was lying—unshaped—in clay.”

He then transmitted it (6) through the chain of Naṣr ibn Muzāḥim, from Qays ibn al-Rabīʿ, from Jābir al-Juʿfī, from al-Shaʿbī, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: It was asked, “O Messenger of God, when did you become a prophet?” He replied, “When Adam was between the soul and the body.”

In the ḥadīth we cited in the story of Adam—when God drew forth his descendants from his loins—He distinguished the prophets with a light set between their eyes. It appears, and God knows best, that this light varied according to their ranks and stations with Him. If so, the light of Muhammad ﷺ was the clearest, brightest, and greatest of them all—a mighty affirmation and manifest proof of his honor and exalted status.