He said, “My Lord, I find in the Torah mention of a community who both answer the call and have their prayers answered; so make them my community.”
He replied, “That is the community of Aḥmad.” (1)
Wahb ibn Munabbih also narrates—within the story of David, peace be upon him, and in what Allah revealed to him in the Zabūr:
“O David! After you there shall come a Prophet whose name is Aḥmad, Muhammad—truthful and eminent. I shall never be angry with him, nor shall he anger Me. I have forgiven him, before he ever disobeys Me, whatever came before and whatever may come after. His nation is a nation shown mercy. I shall grant them, in voluntary acts, what I granted the Prophets, and I have prescribed for them the obligations I prescribed for the Prophets and Messengers, so that they will come to Me on the Day of Resurrection with a light like the light of the Prophets.
“I have enjoined upon them purification for every prayer just as I enjoined upon the Prophets before them; I commanded them to bathe after major impurity just as I commanded the Prophets before them; I commanded them to perform the ḥajj just as I commanded the Prophets before them; and I commanded them to strive in jihad just as I commanded the Messengers before them.
“O David! I have preferred Muhammad and his community over all peoples, and I have granted them six qualities I gave to no other nation:
- I do not take them to task for mistakes and forgetfulness.
- Any sin they commit unintentionally—if they seek My forgiveness—I forgive it.
- Whatever they advance for their Hereafter, offering it willingly, I hasten to repay them many times over, while what I store for them with Me is multiplied even further, and better than all of that.
- When trials and calamities befall them and they are patient and say, ‘Indeed we belong to Allah and to Him we return,’ I grant them prayer, mercy, and guidance to the Gardens of Bliss.
- When they supplicate Me, I answer them: either they see the answer swiftly, or I avert from them some harm, or I store it up for them in the Hereafter.
- Whoever meets Me from Muhammad’s community bearing truthful witness that there is no god but Allah alone, without partner, shall be with Me in My Garden and My honour. But whoever meets Me having rejected Muhammad, or denied what he brought, or mocked My Book, I shall pour torment upon him in his grave, unremitting; the angels will strike his face and his back when he rises from his grave, and then I shall cast him into the lowest depth of Hell.” (2)
Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Bayhaqī said:
Al-Sharīf Abū’l-Fath al-ʿUmari informed us; ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Shurayḥ al-Harawī narrated to us; Yaḥyā ibn Muḥammad ibn Ṣāʿid narrated to us; ʿAbd Allāh ibn Shabīb Abū Saʿīd al-Rabʿī narrated to me; Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar ibn Saʿīd—meaning the son of Muḥammad ibn Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim—told me, saying:
Umm ʿUthmān bint Saʿīd ibn Muḥammad ibn Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim related to me, from her father, from his father, who said:
“I heard my father, Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim, say: When Allah sent His Prophet ﷺ and his cause became manifest in Mecca, I set out for Syria. When I reached Buṣrā a group of Christians came to me and asked, ‘Are you from the Sacred Precinct?’ I replied, ‘Yes.’ They said, ‘Do you know the man who has claimed prophethood among you?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ They then took me by the hand and led me into a monastery …”