From Abū Hilāl — [from Hilāl] (1) ibn Usāmah — through ʿAṭāʾ ibn Yasār, from Ibn Salām, who used to say:
“We indeed find the description of the Messenger of God ﷺ:
‘Indeed, We have sent you as a witness, a bearer of glad tidings, and a warner’ (al-Aḥzāb 45),
and as a protection for the unlettered. You are My servant and My Messenger; I have named you al-Mutawakkil. You are neither harsh nor hard-hearted, nor do you raise your voice in the marketplaces. You do not repay evil with its like; rather, you pardon and overlook. God will not take your soul until He has, through you, straightened the crooked religion, so that they declare that there is no god but God. Through you He will open blind eyes, deaf ears, and sealed hearts.”
ʿAṭāʾ ibn Yasār added: “The Laythī informed me that he heard Kaʿb al-Aḥbār say exactly what Ibn Salām said.”
I say: This wording is more fitting as a report from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām, although the narrations traced to ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr are more numerous. On the Day of Yarmūk he found two saddle-bags filled with the writings of the People of the Book, and he would cite them frequently. Let it be known that many of the early scholars used the term “Torah” for the scriptures of the People of the Book in general; to them it was broader than the specific revelation God sent down to Moses, and this is substantiated by ḥadīth evidence.
Yūnus narrated from Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq (3): He said, “Muḥammad ibn Thābit ibn Shuraḥbīl told me, on the authority of Umm al-Dardāʾ (4), who said: ‘I asked Kaʿb al-Aḥbār, “How do you find the description of the Messenger of God ﷺ in the Torah?”’
He replied, ‘We find him—Muḥammad, the Messenger of God; his name is al-Mutawakkil. He is neither harsh nor hard-hearted, nor does he shout in the marketplaces. The keys have been granted to him; through him God causes blind eyes to see, deaf ears to hear, and crooked tongues to straighten, until they testify that there is no god but God alone, without partner. He aids the oppressed through him and shields him.’”
This has also been reported from Kaʿb through other chains (6).
Al-Bayhaqī (7) narrated—from al-Ḥākim, from Abū al-Walīd al-Faqīh, from al-Ḥasan ibn Sufyān: ʿUqbah (8) ibn Mukram related to us, Abū Qaṭan ʿAmr ibn al-Haytham related to us, Ḥamzah al-Zayyāt related to us, from Sulaymān al-Aʿmash, from ʿAlī ibn—