16- I read before Abū al-Muẓaffar ibn Ḥamdī (1), who said: “Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn (2) informed you; Aḥmad ibn Thābit (3) informed; al-Qāsim ibn Jaʿfar (4) informed; Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAmr (5) narrated; Sulaymān ibn al-Ashʿath (6) narrated; Muḥammad ibn Bashshār also narrated (7) — as did Wahb ibn Jarīr — my father narrated, saying: I heard Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq relate from Yaʿqūb ibn ʿUtbah, from Jubayr ibn Muḥammad ibn Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim, from his father, from his grandfather, who said:
A Bedouin came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and said, “O Messenger of Allah, lives are exhausted, our families are lost (8), our wealth has been depleted, and our livestock have perished. So ask Allah to send rain for us, for we seek your intercession with Allah and we seek Allah’s intercession with you.”
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ replied, “Woe to you! Do you realize what you are saying?” He then glorified Allah, and he kept on glorifying Him until this could be seen on the faces of his Companions. Then he said, “Woe to you! (9) It is not permissible that Allah be asked to intercede on behalf of anyone. Woe to you! Do you know Who Allah is? Indeed, Allah is above His Throne, and His Throne is above His heavens (10).”
(1) “Ibn Hamdi” is absent from the other manuscripts.
(2) In the other manuscripts he is referred to by his kunya “Abu al-Husayn.”
(3) In the other manuscripts only his laqab “al-Khatib” appears; he is the Baghdadi author of al-Tārīkh.
(4) In the other manuscripts it reads “anba’a Abu ‘Umar,” which is his kunya. See his biography in Tadhkirat al-Huffāẓ 3:1057.
(5) In manuscripts (h) and (r) it reads “anba’a Abu ‘Ali,” and in (m) “al-Lu’lu’i Abu ‘Ali,” which are his laqab and nisba. See his biography in Siyar A‘lam al-Nubalā’ 15:307.
(6) In the other manuscripts only his kunya “Abu Dawud” is mentioned.
(7) In manuscript (h) it reads “qala: hadathanā” (he said, “he narrated to us”).
(8) In the other manuscripts it reads “waḍa‘a” (it was lost).
(9) The text within parentheses does not appear in the other manuscripts.
(10) It was transmitted by Abu Dawud in his Kitāb al-Sunnah, chapter on the Jahmīyah, hadith no. 4726; by Ibn Khuzaymah in al-Tawḥīd, p. 103; by al-Ājūrī in al-Sharī‘ah, p. 293; and by Ibn Abī ‘Āṣim in his al-Sunnah 1:252. Al-Albānī commented that its isnād is weak despite its narrators being trustworthy, for Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq is a mudallis not accepted unless he explicitly claims direct transmission—something absent in the chains I reviewed. See his annotation in Ibn Abī ‘Āṣim’s al-Sunnah 1:252. Al-Dhahabī included it in al-‘Uluww, p. 39, stating: “This is a very strange solitary report. Ibn Isḥāq is authoritative in the Maghāzī when he attributes it, yet it contains anomalies and oddities. Only God knows whether the Prophet ﷺ truly said this. As for God, there is nothing comparable to Him, exalted be He; holy are His names, and there is no deity besides Him…
Our stance on these reports is to affirm what is authentic among them and what the early generations concurred on in terms of its apparent meaning and acceptance. As for what is weak in its chain and subject to scholarly dispute, we neither affirm nor reject it outright but transmit it generally and clarify its status. We have included this report because it pertains to the transmitted accounts of God’s exaltation above His Throne, in harmony with the Quranic verses.” End.