ʿAwānah (1) relates—through Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib—from Abū Hurayrah, who said: “Whenever revelation descended upon the Messenger of Allah ﷺ he would be seized by a splitting headache and would coat his head with henna.” This report is exceedingly rare.

Imām Aḥmad (2) said: “Abū al-Naḍr narrated to us; Abū Muʿāwiyah Shaybān narrated to us, from Layth, from Shahr ibn Ḥawshab, from Asmāʾ bint Yazīd, who said: ‘I was holding the halter of al-ʿAḍbāʾ, the she-camel of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, when the whole of Sūrat al-Māʾidah (3) was revealed to him, and its weight nearly caused the camel’s foreleg to give way.’”

Abū Nuʿaym (4) likewise transmitted it through the isnād of al-Thawrī from Layth ibn Abī Sulaym.

Imām Aḥmad also (5) said: “Ḥasan related to us; Ibn Lahīʿah related to us; Ḥuyayy (6) ibn ʿAbd Allāh narrated to me, from Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ḥubulī, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr, who said: ‘Sūrat al-Māʾidah was revealed to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ while he was mounted on his riding-beast; it could not bear him, so he dismounted.’”

Ibn Mardawayh transmitted—through Ṣabāḥ ibn Sahl, from ʿĀṣim al-Aḥwal—“Umm ʿAmr told me, on the authority of her uncle, that he was travelling with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ when Sūrat al-Māʾidah was revealed to him, and the neck of the mount snapped under its weight.” This chain is also peculiar (7).

Yet it is authentically established in the two Ṣaḥīḥs (8) that Sūrat al-Fatḥ was revealed to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on his return from Ḥudaybiyah while he was riding his camel. It therefore appears (9) that sometimes the mount is affected and at other times not, according to the circumstances. Allah knows best.

We have already detailed the various modes of revelation granted to him ﷺ at the beginning of our commentary on al-Bukhārī, together with what al-Ḥalīmī and other leading scholars—may Allah have mercy on them—have recorded.