1856 — “I was decreed to be a Prophet while Adam was between the spirit and the body.”

Aḥmad narrated it in al-Musnad (5/59) and in al-Sunnah (p. 111): “ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī narrated to us: Manṣūr ibn Saʿd narrated to us, from Budayl, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Shaqīq, from Maysarah al-Fajr, who said: ‘I said, “O Messenger of Allah, when were you decreed to be a Prophet?” He replied, “While Adam …”’”

Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim also narrated it in al-Sunnah (no. 410, edited by me), as did Abū Nuʿaym in al-Ḥilyah (9/53), through another route from Ibn Mahdī with the same wording, except that al-Ḥilyah has: “I was.” The version of Aḥmad and Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim is more likely to be correct.

Ibrāhīm ibn Ṭahmān corroborated him, narrating from Budayl, from Maysarah, with the wording of al-Ḥilyah. Al-Bukhārī narrated it in al-Tārīkh (4/1/374), and Ibn Saʿd (7/60).

Khālid al-Ḥadhdhāʾ also corroborated him, narrating from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Shaqīq, from a man who said, “I said …” and then mentioned the hadith. Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim narrated it (411): “Hudbah ibn Khālid narrated to us: Ḥammād ibn Salamah narrated to us, from Khālid,” with this report. Ibn Saʿd also narrated it (1/148 and 7/59): “ʿAffān ibn Muslim and ʿAmr ibn ʿĀṣim al-Kilābī informed us; they said: Ḥammād ibn Salamah informed us,” with this report. However, they named the man Ibn Abī al-Jadʿāʾ.

The first version is closer to what is correct, for Ibn Saʿd also said: “Ismāʿīl ibn Ibrāhīm ibn ʿUlayyah informed us, from Khālid al-Ḥadhdhāʾ,” with the same wording as Hudbah’s narration. Thus, Ibn ʿUlayyah and Ḥammād ibn Salamah, in Hudbah’s narration from him, agreed in leaving the man unnamed. This is the preserved version from Khālid al-Ḥadhdhāʾ. The unidentified man is clarified by Budayl’s narration to be Maysarah al-Fajr, and its chain of transmission is authentic.