I lifted my head and saw written upon the pillars of the Throne: “There is no god but Allah; Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.” Then I realized that You would not link to Your Name anyone but the most beloved of creation to You. He said, “I have forgiven you, and were it not for Muhammad I would not have created you.”

Al-Ḥākim recorded it in al-Mustadrak (2/615) through Abū al-Ḥārith ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muslim al-Fihri, who said: “Ismāʿīl ibn Maslama narrated to us; ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Zayd ibn Aslam narrated to us from his father, from his grandfather, from ʿUmar.” Al-Ḥākim commented, “Its chain is sound, and this is the first ḥadīth of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Zayd ibn Aslam that I have mentioned in this book.”

Al-Dhahabī rebutted: “Rather, it is fabricated. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān is weak, and as for ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aslam al-Fihri, I have no idea who he is.”

I add: One of al-Ḥākim’s own inconsistencies in al-Mustadrak is that he cites elsewhere (3/332) another report from this same ʿAbd al-Raḥmān yet refrains from authenticating it, merely noting, “The Two Shaykhs did not rely on ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Zayd!”

Furthermore, this al-Fihri is listed by al-Dhahabī in al-Mīzān, where he quotes the present narration and concludes, “A baseless report.” Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar reaches the same verdict in al-Lisān (3/360), adding with regard to this al-Fihri: “I would not be surprised if he were the very person mentioned immediately before him, for they belong to the same generation.” I say: The one mentioned before him is ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muslim ibn Rashīd, about whom Ibn Ḥajar remarks: “Ibn Ḥibbān counted him among the fabricators. He forged reports in the names of Layth, Mālik, and Ibn Luhayʿah; it is unlawful to record his ḥadīths. He is the one who transmitted from Ibn Hadiyyah a booklet that appears to have been manufactured.”