He said:
ʿAlī ibn al-Jaʿd narrated to us; Ibn Abī Dhʾīb narrated to us, from ʿAjlān, from Abū Hurayrah, that the Prophet ﷺ said:
"I look to what is behind me just as I look to what is before me, so straighten your rows and perfect your bowing and your prostration."
Saʿīd ibn Sulaymān also narrated to us; Abū Usāmah narrated to us; al-Walīd ibn Kathīr narrated to us, from Saʿīd al-Maqburī, from Abū Hurayrah, conveying a ḥadīth in which the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
"By Allah, I can see what is behind me just as I see what is before me."
It was likewise transmitted through the route of Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, from Saʿīd, from Abū Hurayrah with the same wording. Both Ṣaḥīḥs also record it through the chain of Mālik, from Abū ’l-Zinād, from al-Aʿraj, from Abū Hurayrah, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
"Do you see my qiblah here? By Allah, your humility, your bowing, and your prostration are not hidden from me; I see you from behind my back."(1)
Al-Humaydī further reported—from Sufyān, from Dāwūd ibn Sābūr, Ḥumayd al-Aʿraj, and Ibn Abī Najīḥ—from Mujāhid regarding the verse, "And your turning among those who prostrate" (al-Shuʿarāʾ 219), that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ could see those who were behind him just as he saw those who were before him.
He also transmitted—from ʿAmr ibn ʿUthmān al-Ḥimṣī and others, from Baqiyyah, who said: Ḥabīb ibn Abī Mūsā—who is Ibn Ṣāliḥ—told me:
"The Messenger of Allah ﷺ had two eyes at the back of his head with which he saw whoever was behind him." This report is extremely unusual.
Imām Aḥmad (2) said: Muḥammad (3) ibn Jaʿfar narrated to us; ʿAwf ibn Abī Jamīlah narrated to us, from Yazīd al-Fārisī, who said:
"I saw the Messenger of Allah in a dream during the time of Ibn ʿAbbās." (Yazīd used to copy out muṣḥafs.) "I told Ibn ʿAbbās, 'I have seen the Messenger of Allah in my sleep.' Ibn ʿAbbās replied, 'The Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to say: "Satan cannot take my likeness; whoever sees me in a dream (4) has truly seen me." Can you describe for us the man you saw?'
"I said, 'Yes. I saw a man of medium stature and build, light-brown tending toward fairness, pleasant in his smile, with kohl-dark eyes, handsome facial contours (5); his beard filled the space from here to here until it nearly covered his upper chest.'
ʿAwf added: 'I am not sure what further description accompanied this.'
Ibn ʿAbbās then said, 'Had you seen him while awake, you could not have described him more completely than that.'(6)