Imām Aḥmad said:

Suraij ibn al-Nuʿmān narrated to us; Hushaym narrated to us; Mujālid informed us, from al-Shaʿbī, from Jābir:

ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb brought to the Prophet ﷺ a scroll he had obtained from some of the People of the Book and began reading it aloud. The Prophet ﷺ became angry and said,

“Are you plunging into confusion over this, O son of al-Khaṭṭāb? By Him in whose hand is my soul, I have brought you a message that is pure and radiant. Do not ask them about anything: they may tell you something true and you will deny it, or something false and you will believe it. By Him in whose hand is my soul, if Moses were alive he would have no choice but to follow me.”

Its chain of transmission is sound.

Aḥmad also recorded it through another route, from ʿUmar, in which the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

“By Him in whose hand is my soul, if Moses were to appear among you this morning and you followed him while leaving me, you would surely go astray. You are the final portion of the nations, and I am your share among the prophets.”

I have cited the various chains and wordings of this ḥadīth at the beginning of Sūrat Yūsuf. In one of those narrations the Messenger of Allah ﷺ addressed the people, saying in his sermon:

“O people! I have been granted concise, comprehensive speech and its conclusions, and matters have been made concise for me. I have brought you something pure and radiant—so do not throw yourselves into confusion, and let not those who are confused beguile you.”

He then ordered that the parchment be erased, letter by letter.

When Joseph said to his father, “My dear father, I saw eleven stars, and the sun, and the moon; I saw them prostrating before me.” (4)

He said, “My dear son, do not relate your vision to your brothers lest they plot against you; surely Satan is a manifest enemy to man. (5)

Thus will your Lord choose you, teach you the interpretation of events, and perfect His favour upon you and upon the family of Jacob, just as He perfected it formerly upon your forefathers Abraham and Isaac. Indeed, your Lord is All-Knowing, All-Wise.” (6) [Yūsuf 4–6]

We have already mentioned that Jacob had twelve sons—whose names we listed—and that all the tribes of the Children of Israel trace their lineage back to them. The most noble, eminent, and distinguished of them was Joseph, peace be upon him. A group of scholars maintains that no prophet arose among them except him and that revelation did not descend upon his brothers; the apparent sense of their words and deeds in this story supports that view.

Those who seek to establish their prophethood by quoting the verse, “Say: We believe in Allah and in what has been sent down to us, and in what was sent down to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes…” (Āl ʿImrān 84), and claim that these “Tribes” are the brothers themselves, do not possess a strong proof, for what is meant—