He said, “And will you truly do so?”
They replied, “Yes.”
He then supplicated, and Gabriel came to him and said, “Your Lord conveys to you greetings of peace and says: If you wish, I shall turn al-Ṣafā into gold for them; but whoever among them then disbelieves I shall punish with a punishment the like of which I have inflicted on no one among all peoples. Or, if you wish, I shall open for them the gate of mercy and repentance.”
He said, “Rather, the gate of repentance and mercy.”
Both chains of transmission are sound. The narration has also come down mursal through a number of the Successors, among them Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, Qatādah, Ibn Jurayj, and others.
Imām Aḥmad and al-Tirmidhī likewise related—from the report of ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak: Yahyā ibn Ayyūb told us, from ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Zahr, from ʿAlī ibn Yazīd, from al-Qāsim, from Abū Umāmah—that the Prophet ﷺ said:
“My Lord offered to turn the stony plain of Mecca into gold for me, but I said, ‘No, my Lord—let me be satisfied one day and hungry another (or words to that effect). When I am hungry I will humble myself before You and remember You, and when I am satisfied I will praise You and thank You.’ ”
This is Aḥmad’s wording. Al-Tirmidhī remarked, “This ḥadīth is ḥasan, though ʿAlī ibn Yazīd is considered weak in transmission.”
Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq said: A shaykh from Egypt—who came to us some forty-odd years ago—related to me, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said:
Quraysh dispatched al-Naḍr ibn al-Ḥārith and ʿUqbah ibn Abī Muʿayṭ to the Jewish rabbis in Yathrib. They said to them, “Ask them about Muḥammad, describe his qualities to them, and inform them of his statements, for they are the people of the former Scripture and possess knowledge of the Prophets that we do not.”
The two men travelled until they reached Madinah, questioned the Jewish scholars about the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and described to them his affair and some of his words. They said, “You are the people of the Torah; we have come so that you may tell us about this companion of ours.”
The rabbis replied, “Ask him about three matters we instruct you to raise. If he tells you about them, he is indeed a Prophet sent by Allah; if he does not, then the man is merely fabricating, so deal with him as you see fit.
“Ask him about a group of youths who disappeared in ancient times—what was their story? For theirs is a wondrous tale. Ask him about a traveler who reached the easternmost and westernmost parts of the earth—what was his account? And ask him about the Spirit—what is it? If he informs you of these, then he is a Prophet, so follow him; but if he does not, he is fabricating—act concerning him as you please.”