And the evidence is on their side, for it is established by the Quran, the Sunnah, and scholarly consensus that Allah Most High created the heavens and the earth in six days, that the last of His creation was Adam, and that Adam was created on Friday. This disputed hadith, however, implies that He created all this in seven days. It has also been narrated through a sounder chain of transmission that creation began on Sunday.

Likewise, Muslim narrated that, when Abū Sufyān embraced Islam, he asked the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, to marry Umm Habībah and appoint Mu‘āwiyah as a scribe. A number of hadith masters judged him mistaken in this. Nevertheless, the great majority of the hadith texts in the two Sahīh collections are agreed upon by the leading hadith scholars. They have accepted them and reached consensus concerning them, and they know with absolute certainty that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, uttered them. A fuller discussion of this belongs elsewhere.

A number of compilers cite this aforementioned hadith concerning Adam without a chain of transmission, along with similar reports containing further additions. Qādī ‘Iyād, for example, wrote:

Abū Muhammad al-Makkī, Abū al-Layth al-Samarqandī, and others related:

“When Adam disobeyed, he said, ‘O Allah, by the right of Muhammad, forgive my sin’—he said: another version reads, ‘Accept my repentance.’ Allah then said to him, ‘How did you come to know of Muhammad?’ He replied, ‘I saw written everywhere in Paradise: “There is no deity worthy of worship except Allah; Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah”’—he said: another version reads, ‘Muhammad is My servant and My Messenger’—‘so I knew that he was the most honored of Your creation in Your sight.’ Then He accepted his repentance and forgave him.”

By the consensus of the Muslims, reports such as this may not serve as a foundation for the Sharia or be cited as evidence in religion. This belongs to the category of Isrā’īliyyāt and similar reports, whose authenticity can only be established through transmission