Ibn Masʿūd said, “They went in with their heads cocked upward, the very opposite of what they had been commanded.” This does not contradict Ibn ʿAbbās’s statement that they entered crawling on their buttocks, for in the ḥadīth we shall shortly cite they are described as crawling while their heads were nevertheless raised.
As for His words, “and say: ḥiṭṭah,” the conjunction wāw here is circumstantial, not conjunctive—meaning: “Enter in prostration while saying ḥiṭṭah.” Ibn ʿAbbās, ʿAṭāʾ, al-Ḥasan, Qatādah, and al-Rabīʿ said that they were ordered to seek forgiveness. (1)
Al-Bukhārī said (2): Muḥammad related to us—ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī related to us—from Ibn al-Mubārak, from Maʿmar, from Hammām ibn Munabbih, from Abū Hurayrah, from the Prophet ﷺ who said:
“It was said to the Children of Israel: ‘Enter the gate in prostration and say: ḥiṭṭah.’ They entered, however, crawling on their buttocks and altered it, saying: ‘ḥiṭṭah—a grain in a hair.’”
Al-Nasāʾī likewise transmitted part of it through Ibn al-Mubārak (3), and he also narrated it through Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Ibrāhīm from Ibn Mahdī, as a mawqūf report. (4)
ʿAbd al-Razzāq said: Maʿmar narrated to us from Hammām ibn Munabbih, who heard Abū Hurayrah say that the Messenger of God ﷺ said:
“God said to the Children of Israel: ‘Enter the gate in prostration and say: ḥiṭṭah; We shall forgive you your sins.’ But they changed it, so they entered the gate crawling on their buttocks and said, ‘A grain in a hair.’”
Al-Bukhārī (5), Muslim (6), and al-Tirmidhī also recorded it through ʿAbd al-Razzāq; al-Tirmidhī (7) graded it ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ.
Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq said: Their alteration took the form that Ṣāliḥ ibn Kaysān related to me, from Ṣāliḥ, the client of al-Tawʾamah (8), from Abū Hurayrah—and from someone whom I do not suspect—from Ibn ʿAbbās, that the Messenger of God ﷺ said:
“They entered the gate they had been ordered to enter in prostration, crawling on their buttocks while saying: ‘Ḥinṭah in shaʿirah.’” (9)
Asbāṭ narrated from al-Suddi, from Murrah, from Ibn Masʿūd regarding His saying, “But those who were unjust among them substituted …”