while a gnawed bone (1) was in his hand. Allah revealed to him while the bone was still in his hand; then he raised his head and said:
“It has now been permitted for you women to go out for your needs.”
This shows that the descent of revelation did not completely suspend his sense-awareness: he was still seated, he did not collapse, and the bone likewise did not fall from his hand—may Allah’s blessings and unceasing peace be upon him.
Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī (2) related: ʿAbbād ibn Manṣūr narrated to us, ʿIkrimah narrated to us, from Ibn ʿAbbās who said: When revelation came down upon the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, his body and face would turn ashen; he would refrain from (speaking with) his Companions, and none of them would address him.
In the Musnad of Aḥmad (4) and elsewhere, through the chain of Ibn Lahīʿah—who said: Yazīd ibn Abī Ḥabīb narrated to me, from ʿAmr ibn al-Walīd, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr—I said: “O Messenger of Allah, do you sense the revelation?” He replied:
“Yes. I hear a ringing sound, whereupon I become still, and on no occasion is revelation sent to me without my thinking that my soul is about to depart.” (5)(6)
Abū Yaʿlā al-Mawṣilī (7) said: Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ḥajjāj narrated to us; ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Ziyād narrated to us; ʿĀṣim ibn Kulayb narrated to us, from my father, from his maternal uncle al-Falatān (8) ibn ʿĀṣim, who said: We were with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ when revelation descended upon him. Whenever it came to him, his gaze would remain fixed, his eyes open, and he would devote his hearing and his heart to that which came to him from Allah (10).
Abū Nuʿaym (11) likewise transmitted—through the chain of Qutaybah: ʿAlī ibn Ghurāb narrated to us, from al-Aḥwaṣ ibn Ḥakīm, from Abū
(1) “al-ʿirq” (with fatḥ on the ʿayn and sukun on the rāʾ): the bone to which the rest of the flesh adheres. Sharḥ al-Nawawī ʿalā Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, vol. 14, p. 151.
(2) Musnad al-Ṭayālisī, no. 2667.
(3) In Ḥ it reads nazala (it descended).
(4) Musnad Aḥmad, vol. 2, p. 222; its isnād is weak because of the weakness of Ibn Lahīʿa.
(5) In Ḥ and in the printed edition: athbat; in Musnad Aḥmad: askata. The verb asbata derives from sabat, meaning rest and stillness, or from qatʿ (abandonment) and cessation of deeds. al-Nihāya, s.v. sabat, vol. 2, p. 331.
(6) “faḍa al-rajul”: he died; “faḍat nafsuhu”: his soul departed. al-Lisān (s.v. fayḍ). In the edition ṭ it appears as taghazzaṭ, with the same meaning.
(7) Musnad Abī Yaʿlā, vol. 1, p. 1583, from the Hadith of al-Faltan. al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar records it in his entry on al-Faltan in al-Iṣāba: “It was narrated by Ibn Abī Shayba and Abū Yaʿlā in their Musnads, and by Ibn Ḥibbān in his Ṣaḥīḥ.” al-Haythamī also mentions it in Majmaʿ al-Zawāʾid (vol. 7, p. 9), stating that it was narrated similarly by Abū Yaʿlā and al-Bazzār, and by al-Ṭabarānī; the narrators in Abī Yaʿlā’s Musnad are reliable.
(8) In Ḥ: bimuhmalāt; in the edition ṭ: al-ʿuliyān; in Majmaʿ al-Zawāʾid: al-ghalbān (a scribal error). The correct reading is in Musnad Abī Yaʿlā, as confirmed by al-Iṣāba in the entry on al-Faltan.
(9) As in Ḥ, and in Musnad Abī Yaʿlā, Majmaʿ al-Zawāʾid, and al-Iṣāba without the wāw; in the edition ṭ: wa ʿaynāhu maftūḥatān.
(10) It does not appear in the printed editions of Dalāʾil; al-Suyūṭī records it in al-Khaṣāʾiṣ, vol. 1, p. 120.
(11) Its continuation in Musnad Abī Yaʿlā: “He said, ‘So we recognized that from Him,’ then he said to the scribe, ‘Write: lā yastawī al-qāʿidūn min al-muʾminīn…’”