both the chain of transmission and the wording, for he related it thus: from Qatādah, from Abū Qilābah, from Khālid al-Lajlāj, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās, traced back to the Prophet with the wording, “I saw my Lord, and He said, ‘Muḥammad, about what are the Highest Assembly disputing…,’” while another version states, “I saw my Lord in the most beautiful form….” Yet this was a dream-vision, as is shown by several other reports, a point I have detailed in my edition of Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim’s al-Sunnah ⦗388, 433, 469⦘—consult it. Al-Dastuwāʾī is more reliable than Ḥammād in the narrations he relates from Qatādah, so it appears that Ḥammād did not preserve the isnād precisely and retained only an abridged wording: in reality the Prophet saw his Lord in a dream. The hadith of Muʿādh ibn Jabal is explicit on this, for its wording is:
“I rose during the night, performed ablution, and prayed what had been apportioned for me. Sleep overcame me at my place of prayer until I grew heavy, and there I was with my Lord in the most beautiful form….”
Ibn Khuzaymah recorded it ⦗143⦘ and others besides him, and its chain is sound, as I verified in the source just cited ⦗388⦘.
What further confirms that the text is abbreviated is that Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim transmitted it in al-Sunnah ⦗440⦘ through his shaykh Aḥmad—in its isnād is al-Aswad ibn ʿĀmir—who reported it from Ḥammād ibn Salamah and added at the end, “Then he mentioned some words.” This addition makes it plain that the ḥadith has a continuation that one of the transmitters omitted, and most likely that transmitter was Ḥammād; perhaps he could not recall it, so, in scholarly honesty, he merely hinted at it. That missing portion appears in the other narrations, particularly the report of Muʿādh ibn Jabal. Al-Bayhaqī has explicitly stated that what is narrated from Ibn ʿAbbās recounts a dream the Prophet ﷺ saw while asleep; see his remarks in al-Asmāʾ ⦗447⦘, which I have reproduced in Takhrīj al-Sunnah at the place indicated. Allah knows best.
80- He said, “Muḥammad ﷺ saw his Lord twice.”
68- I say: This is soundly established from Ibn ʿAbbās, but it is his own statement—mawqūf—and not raised to the Prophet. Ibn Khuzaymah recorded it in al-Tawḥīd ⦗131⦘ with an authentic chain from him, and Muslim also transmitted it by this route but with the wording, “He saw Him with his heart.” Ibn Khuzaymah likewise has this wording through another route from Ibn ʿAbbās. Muslim then brought it through a third route from him with the wording that he said regarding the verse, “The heart did not lie about what it saw; indeed he saw Him yet another time” (53:11–13): “He saw Him with his heart twice.” Ibn Khuzaymah also recorded it in abridged form.
I say: One cannot claim that, although this report is mawqūf, it nonetheless carries the force of being marfūʿ on the grounds that such a statement could not rest on personal opinion. I reply that his uttering it as an interpretation of the cited verse is the strongest proof that it stems from his own ijtihād and therefore does not enjoy the standing of a marfūʿ report, for an authentically transmitted alternative interpretation exists—in the words of Lady ʿĀʾishah, may Allah be pleased with her.