In this connection Imām Aḥmad relates (1): ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī narrated to us; Muʿāwiyah ibn Ṣāliḥ narrated to us, from Saʿīd ibn Suwayd al-Kalbī, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Hilāl al-Sulamī, from al-ʿIrbāḍ ibn Sāriyah, who said:
The Messenger of God ﷺ declared: “In the sight of God I was already the Seal of the Prophets while Adam was still lying lifeless in his clay. Let me tell you how it began: it was the supplication of my forefather Abraham, the glad tidings given by Jesus about me, and the vision my mother saw—and so too do the mothers of the prophets behold such visions.”
Al-Layth (3) and Ibn Wahb also transmitted it from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī, and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ from Muʿāwiyah ibn Ṣāliḥ, adding: “My mother, when she delivered me, saw a light by which the palaces of Syria were illumined.”
Imām Aḥmad further said (4): ʿAbd al-Raḥmān narrated to us; Manṣūr ibn Saʿd narrated to us, from Budayl, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Shaqīq, from Maysarah al-Fajr, who said: I asked, “O Messenger of God, when were you made a prophet?” He replied, “While Adam was between the soul and the body.” [Its chain is also sound (7). It was likewise reported by Ibrāhīm ibn Ṭahmān, Ḥammād ibn Zayd, and Khālid al-Ḥadhdhāʾ from Budayl ibn Maysarah.]
Abū Nuʿaym likewise narrated it (9) from Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar ibn Sālim (10), from Muḥammad ibn Bakr ibn ʿAmr al-Bāhilī, from Shaybān, from al-Ḥasan ibn Dīnār (11), from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Shaqīq (12), from Maysarah al-Fajr, who said: I asked, “O Messenger of God—"
(1) Musnad al-Imam Ahmad (vol. 4, p. 127). The author had previously quoted it on p. 108 of this volume; it is a hadith classified as ḥasan (good), except for the phrase “and likewise the mothers of the prophets see.” The phrase “mothers of the believers” (ummahat al-muʾminīn) and the authentication are drawn directly from the Musnad.
(2) In the printed edition it appears as “ʿAbd al-Aʿlā ibn Hilāl al-Sulamī,” a corruption: although this narrator is authentic, the Musnad actually records from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Maḥdī “ʿAbdallāh,” which was a slip by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Maḥdī. Correcting it to “ʿAbd al-Aʿlā” would spoil the text and contradict the original. We have just commented on this (Bashār).
(3) See p. 108 of this volume, note (6).
(4) Musnad al-Imam Ahmad (vol. 5, p. 59), hadith no. 20474.
(5) In some transmissions and editions it reads “Manṣūr ibn Saʿīd.” However, the correct name is confirmed by the Musnad and by the biographical works Al-Jarḥ wa-al-Taʿdīl (vol. 8, p. 172), Tahdhīb al-Mizzī (28/527), and Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb (10/307).
(6) In the Musnad the text reads “kutibta” (you were written).
(7) He said this, and I do not know why, for the isnād of the hadith is sound and its narrators are reliable men found in the Ṣaḥīḥ collections, not the female Companion Maysarah al-Fajr. It has been cited among the Companions by al-Bukhārī, al-Baghawī, Ibn al-Sakan, Ibn Qāniʿ, and others.
(8) It is transmitted by Ibn Saʿd (7/60), al-Ṭaḥāwī in Sharḥ al-Mushkil (no. 5977), Ibn Qāniʿ (3/129), al-Ḥākim (2/608), al-Bayhaqī in Dalāʾil al-Nubuwwah (2/129), and others.
(9) It does not appear in Dalāʾil al-Nubuwwah, though the editor of that work cited it in his introduction (pp. 24–25).
(10) In the printed edition it appears as “Aslam,” a corruption. The narrator is actually Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad ibn Sālim, known as Ibn al-Juʿābi, who died in 355 AH; his biography is in Tārīkh al-Khaṭīb (vol. 4, p. 42, Dr. Bashār’s edition).
(11) In the introduction to Dalāʾil it reads “al-Ḥasan ibn Ziyād,” which is erroneous. The correct identity is al-Ḥasan ibn Dīnār ibn Wāṣil, whose transmission via Shaybān ibn Furūkh is recorded in Tahdhīb al-Kamāl (12/599). He is a well-known fabricator, listed in Al-Jarḥ wa-al-Taʿdīl (vol. 3, entry 37), al-Kāmil of Ibn ʿAdī (2/710), Daʿīf al-ʿAqīlī (1/22), al-Mīzān of al-Dhahabī (1/487), and others (Bashār).
(12) In the printed edition it appears as “ʿAbdallāh ibn Sufyān.” The correct reading, as confirmed by the introduction to Dalāʾil and by the chains of transmission, is via ʿAbdallāh ibn Shaqīq =