5 – The ḥadith of Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Anṣārī

It is transmitted by Ibn Shihāb, who said: “Abū Salamah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān told me: I heard Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh—may Allah be pleased with him—say that he heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ declare:

‘When Quraysh rejected my word [after I was taken by night to Bayt al-Maqdis (Jerusalem)], I stood in the Ḥijr, and Allah brought Bayt al-Maqdis before my very eyes. I then began describing its signs to them while looking at it.’

It was recorded by Aḥmad 3/377; al-Bukhārī 3886 and 4710; Muslim 276; al-Tirmidhī 3133, who graded it sound; and al-Baghawī 3762.

The extra wording is Aḥmad’s; al-Bukhārī cites it in a suspended form in one of his narrations. Al-Ḥāfiẓ 8/392 said: ‘Al-Duhli supplied its uninterrupted chain in al-Zuhriyyāt.’ Qāsim ibn Thābit also included it in al-Dalāʾil through the same route, with the wording:

‘Some people from Quraysh came to Abū Bakr and said, “Look at your companion—he claims he reached Bayt al-Maqdis and returned to Mecca in a single night!” Abū Bakr asked, “Did he really say that?” They answered, “Yes.” He replied, “He has spoken the truth.”’