As for the praiseworthy station (al-maqām al-maḥmūd) granted to Muḥammad on the Day of Resurrection, no one will equal it, nor even approach it, and he will be singled out for honors that all creatures will envy.

The reports concerning this station have already been mentioned: he—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—will be the first to prostrate before Allah on the Day of Resurrection; the first to intercede, and the first whose intercession is accepted; and the first to be clothed—after the Friend, Abraham—in two green garments. The Friend will sit in front of the Throne while Muḥammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, will be on the right of the Throne. He will then say, ‘My Lord, this one’—pointing to Gabriel, upon him be peace—‘informed me that You had sent him to me.’ Allah, Exalted be He, will reply, ‘Gabriel has spoken the truth.’

Layth ibn Abī Sulaym, Abū Yaḥyā al-Qattāt, ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib, and Jābir al-Juʿfī narrated from Mujāhid that, in explaining the maqām al-maḥmūd, he said: ‘He will seat him with Him upon the Throne.’ A similar statement is reported from ʿAbd-Allāh ibn Salām. Abū Bakr al-Marwazī compiled a lengthy treatise on the subject, and he—along with others—transmitted it from a number of the early scholars and hadith specialists such as Aḥmad, Isḥāq ibn Rāhwayh, and many others. Ibn Jarīr said, ‘No one—whether an affirmer or a denier—rejects this.’ Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū al-Ḥasan al-Dāraqutnī even wove it into a poem.

I say: Such a claim should be accepted only on the authority of one who is infallible, yet no sound hadith on this point exists that can be relied upon, nor may any conclusion be drawn from it. Mujāhid’s statement—and that of others—that this is the maqām al-maḥmūd carries no weight on its own, and the report attributed to ʿAbd-Allāh ibn Salām is not authentic. Nevertheless, several hadith scholars have accepted it, even though its chain to Ibn Salām is unsound. Allah, the Most High, knows best.

Abū Bakr ibn Abī al-Dunyā said: Suraij ibn Yūnus (1) narrated to us, Abū Sufyān al-Maʿmarī narrated to us, from Maʿmar, from al-Zuhrī, from ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn, that the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said: ‘When the Day of Resurrection comes, the earth will be stretched out like tanned leather until no one will possess more than the space for his own two feet.’ The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, continued: ‘I will be the first to be summoned, while Gabriel will be standing to the right of the All-Merciful—by Allah, he has never seen Him before that. I will say, “My Lord, this one informed me that You had sent him to me.” Allah will say, “He has spoken the truth.” I will then intercede, saying, “My Lord, Your servants worshipped You in the furthest corners of the earth.” That is the praiseworthy station.’

I say: It has been reported that the maqām al-maḥmūd is the Great Intercession on behalf of all creation, enabling judgment to be passed among them when they go to Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus; and when they reach the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—he will say, ‘I am the one for it, I am the one for it.’ This, then, is the praiseworthy station for which the first and the last will praise him, as is related in the authentic hadiths.