The shaykh, imām, erudite scholar, ascetic, and Chief Judge Shams al-Dīn Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī ʿUmar Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Qudāmah al-Maqdisī the Ḥanbalī narrated to us; it was read before him while I was listening in Shaʿbān 667 AH at Mount Qāsyūn, with Ibn Shaybān, Ibn al-ʿAsqalānī, and Ibn al-Ḥamawī present. They said:
Abū Ḥafṣ ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad ibn Ṭabarzad informed us; Hibat Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn al-Ḥuṣayn informed us; Abū Ṭālib Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Ghaylān the cloth-merchant informed us; Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ibrāhīm al-Shāfiʿī narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn Maslamah al-Wāsiṭī narrated to us; Yazīd ibn Hārūn narrated to us; Sulaymān al-Taymī narrated to us, from Abū ʿUthmān al-Nahdī, from Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī—may Allah be pleased with him—who said:
“We were with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) while the people were climbing a mountain pass or slope. Whenever one of them reached a height he would say, ‘There is no god but Allah; Allah is greater,’ and—I think he spoke in a loud voice—while the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was riding his mule, guiding it along the mountain.
The Prophet then said, ‘O Abū Mūsā, you are not calling upon One who is deaf or absent.’ He added, ‘O ʿAbd Allāh ibn Qays—or O Abū Mūsā—shall I not teach you a phrase that is among the treasures of Paradise?’ I replied, ‘Yes indeed, O Messenger of Allah.’ He said, ‘Say: Lā ḥawla …’”