a mounted man, splendid in appearance, passed by. The woman prayed, “O Allah, make my son like him.” The child left her breast, turned toward the rider and said, “O Allah, do not make me like him,” then returned to her breast and began suckling again.

Abū Hurayrah said, “It is as though I can see the Messenger of Allah ﷺ sucking his own finger.”

“Next they passed by a slave-girl, and the woman prayed, ‘O Allah, do not make my son like her.’ The child left the breast and said, ‘O Allah, make me like her.’

“She asked, ‘Why is that?’

“He replied, ‘The rider is a tyrant among tyrants, whereas this slave-girl—people accuse her of theft and fornication, yet she has done neither.’” (1)

Al-Bukhārī (2) also said: Abū al-Yamān related to us; Shuʿayb related to us, from al-Zuhrī, who said: Abū Salamah informed me that Abū Hurayrah said: I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say:

“I am the closest of all people to the son of Mary. The prophets are paternal half-brothers, and there is no prophet between him and me.”

Al-Bukhārī alone recorded it through this chain.

Ibn Ḥibbān included it in his Ṣaḥīḥ, from the narration of Abū Dāwūd al-Ḥafarī (3), from al-Thawrī, from Abū al-Zinād, from Abū Salamah, from Abū Hurayrah.

Aḥmad (4) said: Wakiʿ related to us; Sufyān—meaning al-Thawrī—related to us, from Abū al-Zinād, from al-Aʿraj, from Abū Hurayrah, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

“I am the nearest of people to Jesus son of Mary. The prophets are brothers by the same father but different mothers, and there is no prophet between me and Jesus.”

This chain is sound according to the criteria of both Imams, though they did not include it through this route.

Aḥmad (5) also recorded it from ʿAbd al-Razzāq, from Maʿmar, from Hammām, from Abū Hurayrah, from the Prophet ﷺ in similar words, and Ibn Ḥibbān likewise transmitted it through ʿAbd al-Razzāq (6).

Aḥmad (7) said: Yaḥyā related to us; Ibn Abī ʿArūbah related to us; Qatādah related to us, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ādam, from Abū Hurayrah, from the Prophet ﷺ, who said:

“The prophets are paternal brothers; their religion is one, though their mothers differ. I am the closest of people to Jesus son of Mary, because there is no prophet between me and him. He will certainly descend. When you see him, recognize him: he is a man of medium stature, with a complexion inclined to reddish-white, straight-haired, as though his head were dripping though it has not been wet, wearing two light saffron-dyed garments. He will break the cross and kill—"