“May Allah make radiant a man who hears a hadith from us (1) and conveys it to someone who has not heard it. Many a bearer of understanding is not himself a person of understanding (2), and many a bearer of understanding conveys it to someone who understands it better than he does.” (3)
And he said:
“Is there no man who will take me to his people so that I may convey the words of my Lord? Quraysh have prevented me from conveying the words of my Lord.” (4)
As for the statement:
“He caused a glimmer of it to dawn upon the innermost hearts of a group of His elect, rendering them mute from describing it and incapable of spreading it.”
The response is: The foremost of His elect are the prophets; the foremost among them are the messengers; the foremost messengers are those of firm resolve; and the foremost of those of firm resolve is Muhammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Whatever Allah caused to dawn upon the innermost hearts of these men is the most perfect tawhīd ever known by His servants. Yet they spoke of tawhīd, described it, and spread it. No one has ever been able to transmit from any prophet whatsoever, nor
(1) (H) and (B) read: “from me.”
(2) (H) and (B) read: “a bearer of understanding to one who lacks understanding.”
(3) This hadith is narrated, with variations in wording, from Zayd ibn Thābit—may Allah be pleased with him. Similar wordings are also narrated from Anas ibn Mālik, Jubayr ibn Mutim, Abd Allah ibn Masūd, Muādh ibn Jabal, and Abū al-Dardā—may Allah be pleased with them—in *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 4:141–42 (Book of Knowledge, chapter “The Encouragement to Convey What One Has Heard”). Al-Tirmidhī said: “The hadith of Zayd ibn Thābit is *hasan*.” It is also found in *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, 3:438 (Book of Knowledge, chapter “The Merit of Disseminating Knowledge”); *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, 1:84–86 (Introduction, chapter “One Who Conveys Knowledge”); and *al-Musnad* (al-Halabī ed.), 3:225.
(4) The hadith is narrated from Jābir ibn Abd Allah—may Allah be pleased with him—in *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, 4:324 (Book of the Sunnah, chapter “The Quran”); and *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 4:255 (Book of the Virtues of the Quran, chapter “What Has Been Related concerning How the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—Recited”). Al-Tirmidhī said: “This is a *hasan sahīh gharīb* hadith.”