who welcomed him and greeted him, and everyone present was likewise greeting him. He asked, “Who is this, O Gabriel?” He answered, “This is your father Abraham.”
He then looked into the Fire and saw a group of people eating putrid carcasses. He asked, “Who are these, O Gabriel?” He replied, “These are those who consume people’s flesh”—that is, the back-biters.
He also saw a man who was ruddy, blue-eyed, curly-haired and dishevelled. Each time the Prophet’s gaze fell upon him he asked, “Who is this, O Gabriel?” Gabriel said, “This is the one who hamstrung the she-camel.”
When the Prophet ﷺ entered al-Masjid al-Aqsa he stood and prayed. He glanced to his right and left, and there were all the prophets praying with him.
When he finished, two cups were brought: one on his right and the other on his left. One contained milk and the other honey. He chose the milk and drank from it, whereupon the one who had brought the cup said, “You have chosen the innate disposition (fitrah).”
This report was recorded by Ahmad (1/257) and others with a chain that Ibn Kathir declared “sound”; al-Suyuti followed him in al-Khaṣāʾiṣ (1/397). This verdict, however, is clearly lenient, for Qabūs—ibn Abī Ḍabyān—is “soft” (i.e., has some weakness) as stated in al-Taqrīb.
- The second route: from Thābit Abū Zayd who said: Hilāl narrated to us from ʿIkrimah from