as al-Ḥāfiẓ explained in Fatḥ al-Bārī (12/386). In sum, it is a mass-transmitted hadith. I have traced it in al-Rawḍ al-Naḍīr to ten Companions under hadith 995. There are also reports on this subject from another group of Companions, whose hadiths al-Haythamī documented in al-Majmaʿ (7/181–182).
It is also reported from al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib, and his hadith contains a point similar to that mentioned above from Ibn ʿAbbās. It is therefore useful to cite it, particularly since it occurs in a rare source among the books of the Sunnah: Musnad al-Rūyānī. He recorded it (2/21) through Yaḥyā ibn Abī Bukayr, who said: ʿAlī—whose kunyah was Abū Isḥāq—informed us, from ʿĀmir ibn Saʿd al-Bajalī, who said:
“When al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī was killed, I saw the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, in a dream. He said, ‘If you see al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib, convey greetings to him and tell him that the killers of al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī are in Hell, and that Allah was nearly to crush the people of the earth on account of it with a painful punishment.’”
He said: “So I went to al-Barāʾ and told him, and he said, ‘The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, spoke the truth. The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “Whoever sees me in a dream has indeed seen me, for Satan cannot assume my form.”’”
Al-Dūlābī likewise recorded it in al-Kunā (1/101), in the biographical entry for this ʿAlī Abū Isḥāq. He mentioned neither criticism nor accreditation of him, and I have not found a biographical entry for him in any of the well-known biographical works. Allah knows best.
Note: These hadiths establish that a dreamer may see the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, after his death, even if he was not a contemporary of his, but on condition that he sees him in the form in which he was during a period of his life, peace and blessings be upon him. This was the view of a group of scholars, as stated in Fatḥ al-Bārī (12/384). It was also the view of Ibn ʿAbbās in the report of Yazīd al-Fārisī and Kulayb, the father of ʿĀṣim, as well as of al-Barāʾ, as mentioned above. Al-Bukhārī cited it in suspended form from Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn, the leading interpreter of dreams; and al-Qāḍī connected it with an authentic chain from Ayyūb, who said: