ʿAbdullāh ibn Shaqīq said: “I said to Abū Dharr, ‘If I could meet the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, I would ask him something.’ He asked, ‘About what would you question him?’ I replied, ‘I would ask him: Did you see your Lord?’ Abū Dharr said, ‘I have already asked him, and he said, “I saw light.”’

Ibn Khuzaymah remarked: “On this basis, the meaning of his words, ‘How could I see Him?’ is: ‘Where could I see Him, and in what manner could I see Him, when all I beheld was light.’”

I (the author) say: This, precisely, negates the vision, for he affirms, “I only saw light.”

Ibn Khuzaymah said: “ʿĀʾishah denied it, whereas the one who affirms it possesses additional knowledge.”

Al-Marwazī transmitted that Abū ʿAbdillāh was asked, “How do you answer ʿĀʾishah’s statement?” He replied, “With the statement of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ: ‘I saw my Lord.’”

62- I say: Muslim also recorded this from the combined narration of Abū Hurayrah and Abū Saʿīd. It is listed together with a group of nuzūl ḥadiths to which the author alluded in my book Irwāʾ al-Ghalīl, 450. Ibn al-Qayyim cited it in al-Juyūsh, p. 35, through the chain of ʿAbd al-Razzāq – Maʿmar – Ibn al-Musayyib – Abū Hurayrah, with the added wording: “He sat upon His Throne.” This addition is, in my view, irregular; I have not found it in any other route, and the chain is broken between Maʿmar and Ibn al-Musayyib. I have seen the ḥadith in the Musnad, 2/267 and 283, via ʿAbd al-Razzāq from Maʿmar with two other isnāds from Abū Hurayrah, without the addition. Others have related it from Saʿīd on the authority of Abū Hurayrah without it. Aḥmad recorded it as well (2/433).

63- I say: He is alluding to what Sulaymān ibn Bilāl narrated from Sharīk ibn ʿAbdullāh ibn Abī Namr, who said: I heard Anas ibn Mālik relate what took place on the night the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was taken on the Night Journey… He then mentioned the long ḥadith of the Isrāʾ, in which occurs: “The All-Compelling One drew near and descended until He was two bow-lengths away, or even closer, and He revealed to him whatever He willed ….”

Yet this sentence is among the points criticised in Sharīk’s narration: he is alone in reporting it, contrary to the consensus of the reliable transmitters of the Miʿrāj ḥadith, and they did not attribute the drawing near and descending to Allah Himself. Rather, ʿĀʾishah and Ibn Masʿūd, may Allah be pleased with them both, transmitted what indicates that the words of the Exalted, “Then he drew near and came down, until he was two bow-lengths away, or even closer” (Q 53:8-9), refer to Gabriel. Muslim narrated (1/111) from Masrūq, who said: “I said to ʿĀʾishah: How do you understand His statement ‘Then he drew near…’? She said: ‘It only …’”