Yazīd ibn Numrān said:

“I saw at Tabūk a man who was crippled. He told me, ‘I once passed in front of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ while riding a donkey and he was praying. He supplicated,

“O Allah, cut off his footsteps.”

From that day until now I have never walked on them again.’

In another wording:

‘He has cut off our prayer; may Allah cut off his steps.’ (1)

The Funeral Prayer for Muʿāwiyah ibn Muʿāwiyah (2) — if the report is sound

Al-Bayhaqī (3) transmitted, on the authority of Yazīd ibn Hārūn, who said: al-ʿAlāʾ Abū Muḥammad al-Thaqafī informed us, saying: I heard Anas ibn Mālik say:

“We were with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ at Tabūk when the sun rose with a brilliance, radiance, and light such as I had never seen before. Gabriel came to the Messenger of Allah, and he asked:

‘O Gabriel, why has the sun risen today with a brightness, radiance, and light such as I have never witnessed?’

He replied, ‘That is because Muʿāwiyah ibn Muʿāwiyah al-Laythī died in Madinah today, and Allah has sent seventy thousand angels to offer the funeral prayer over him.’

He asked, ‘And how did he attain that?’

He answered, ‘By his constant recitation of “Say: He is Allah, One” (Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ, 112:1) by night and by day, while walking, standing, and sitting. Would you like me, O Messenger of Allah, to fold the earth for you so that you may pray over him?’

He said, ‘Yes.’ So he prayed over him and then returned.”

This ḥadīth is exceptionally strange and objectionable. Scholars trace its responsibility to this al-ʿAlāʾ ibn Zayd, and the critics have spoken against him.

Al-Bayhaqī (4) also said: ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbdān informed us; Aḥmad ibn ʿUbayd al-Ṣaffār narrated to us; Hishām ibn ʿAlī told us; ʿUthmān ibn al-Haytham narrated to us, from Maḥbūb ibn Hilāl, from ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Maymūnah, from Anas, who said:

“Gabriel came and said, ‘O Muḥammad, Muʿāwiyah ibn Muʿāwiyah al-Muzanī has died. Would you like to pray over him?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ Gabriel struck the earth with his wing, and no tree or hillock remained but that it shook. The Prophet prayed, with two rows of angels behind him, each row containing seventy thousand angels.

I asked, ‘O Gabriel, how did he merit this rank with Allah?’ He replied, ‘Through his love of “Say: He is Allah, One,” which he recited while standing and sitting, coming and going—in every state.’ ”

ʿUthmān said: