Al-Tirmidhī.
He then added, “He is another shaykh, older than al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn ʿUthmān; Ibn Abī Ḥātim, quoting his father, lists him among those named ʿUthmān.”

This description, therefore, has been transmitted from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Salām—one of the leading scholars of the People of the Scripture who embraced Islam—and from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, who had access to such material by means of two saddlebags (1) he acquired on the Day of Yarmūk, from which he would relate reports taken from the People of the Book. It has also come by way of Kaʿb al-Aḥbār, who was well-versed in the statements of the earlier communities, despite the mixture, error, distortion, and alteration they contain; he would reproduce them as they were, without critique. Some of the early generations thought well of him and transmitted what he reported unexamined, and within that material lies a large body that contradicts much of the truth we possess—something many people fail to notice.

Know, too, that many of the early scholars used the word “Torah” for the writings of the People of the Scripture—whether referring to the text currently recited among them (2) or to a broader collection—just as the term “Qurʾān” is applied specifically to our Book, though it may also be used (3) with another referent, as in the authentic report:

“It was made easy for David to recite the Qurʾān: he would order his mounts to be saddled, and he would finish the Qurʾān in the time it took for them to be saddled.” (4)

This matter has been discussed elsewhere; Allah knows best.

Al-Bayhaqī said: Through al-Ḥākim, from al-Aṣamm, from Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār, from Yūnus ibn Bukayr, from Ibn Isḥāq, who said: “Muḥammad ibn Thābit ibn Shuraḥbīl related to me, from Umm al-Dardāʾ, who said:

‘I asked Kaʿb the Rabbi, “How do you find the description of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in the Torah?”

He replied, “We find it thus: Muḥammad is the Messenger of Allah; his name is al-Mutawakkil. He is neither harsh nor hard-hearted, nor loud-voiced in the marketplaces. Keys have been given to him so that, through him, Allah opens blind eyes, makes deaf ears hear, (5) and straightens crooked tongues until they bear witness that there is no god but Allah alone, without partner. He aids the oppressed and defends him. (6)”’

And with this same chain, from Yūnus ibn Bukayr, from Yūnus ibn ʿAmr, from al-ʿAyzār ibn Ḥurayth, from ʿĀʾishah: that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ is written in the Gospel as: “gentle, not harsh, not loud in the marketplaces; he does not repay an evil with its like, but rather pardons and forgives.” (7)

Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān said: “Fayḍ al-Bajalī narrated to us: Salām ibn Miskīn narrated to us, from Muqātil ibn Ḥayyān, who said:”